The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Saying Goodbye to the Chicagoland Area

Having lived in the Chicagoland area my entire life, there are so many things I will miss. Of course there are the obvious reasons like friends and family, but there are some not so obvious things as well. Go ahead and judge all you want because a few of these will NOT be the popular opinion and you know, I am okay with that. I'll explain my reasoning and then you will understand too. On the flipside, there are things I will most definietly not mind saying goodbye to. So without further ado, here we go:

THE GOOD:

THE DRIVERS:

Did you just think WTF to yourself and say "SHE'S NUTS!"? That's fine, because maybe I am. I do a ton of driving for my job and frankly, I appreciate the drivers here. They are fast, they are defensive and by golly most even know how to merge! I have driven many other places and I have opinions...

• Florida - They are either going 30 under or 40 over, no in between and red lights are apparently just a suggestion.

• Wisconsin - Slow as hell and way too polite.

• Boston - If you don't know the road system, good luck. Especially in the tunnels.

• California - Bat shit crazy and watch out for the immense amount matresses that seem to litter the freeways.

• Seattle - A merge there becomes a game of "who's going to slow down the most to make the merge happen; the merger or the mergee".

• North Carolina - My soon to be home state... All I can say is my road rage is going to intensify because they live a slower paced life there and that will take some getting used to. It's fine, everything is going to be fine as long as I don't get arrested, right?
  

THE FOOD:

Pretty self explanatory since most people know Chicago is known for its food. I will specifically miss deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's and Portillos but truly, all food here is amazing.

THE MUSEUMS:

There are countless museums here that range in size from massive to tiny and I love them all!

THE MUSIC:

So. Many. Venues. Definitely a benefit of a large city.

DOWNTOWN:

I love going downtown and again, this may not be the popular opinion, but I love the sights, sounds and feeling of being in the city. Could I live downtown? No, but I sure do love me a city day.

THE BAD:

THE TRAFFIC:

Although I love the drivers here, I do not love the traffic. It's always funny traveling elsewhere and having the locals warn us to not going anywhere during traffic hour. Turns out their traffic hour means 15 minutes instead of 10 to get to your destination. Yeah, I can handle that over the 1.5 to 2.5 hours it takes to get downtown sometimes.

THE UGLY:

WINTER:

I have friends that LOVE winter ALL winter long. Yeah, that's a big NO for me. I do, however, like the first snow of the season but then I'm done.

FEBRUARY:

I don't think much more needs to be said about this. I once had someone tell me they hated Chicago so I asked when they visited... February she said. Well, I said, there you go. Try again in June.

Well, there you have it. Of course there are so many more good things, but no one has time to read all of that. I do really look forward to coming "home" to visit and be a tourist in the area where I grew up. Let's face it, when you live somewhere you don't always get to see and do all the things because life gets in the way. So, I'll come back and I'll see and do some of the old things and hopefully some new as well. Count me out for the entire month of February though but I'll see you in June!