mb and i both grew up in small midwestern towns. i know that there are many redeeming qualities about country life, but we were teenagers, and wanted nothing more but to leave.
several years later, here we are in chicago. we live 2 miles from downtown; mb rides his bike or takes the train to work and evening mba classes; i drive a few miles down the interstate to work primarily with poor underserved children. it's everything we've been working toward, and we're lucky enough to have an amazing circle of friends both in the city and around the midwest.
we're the urban dinks that we've always aspired to be.
so why, you might ask, was mb driving out to see the monster truck rally at the allstate arena in rosemont, armed with a personally-mixed 2-volume set of "redneck country" music?
(robosaurus wasn't there, but for the uninitiated:)
naturally, we can't just embrace chicago for having been good to us. we have to turn our noses up at the million upscale italian restaurants, the martini lists available at every sports bar, the $20/plate breakfasts. in their place, we are substituting country music (which we NEVER listened to when living in actual country) and monster truck rallies (which we never attended when everyone we knew drove trucks... although i did attend a well-timed tractor pull or three.)
mb sums it up best: he calls us "rednecks with benefits." it's a perfect analogy: "friends with benefits" don't really exist either. they're just two people who can't admit they're in a relationship. we can't be actual rednecks if we're listening to our country playlist and discussing our desired redneck status while sipping on fancy venezuelan rum that we brought back from our honeymoon. and thank you to my good blogmate and nb for accommodating mb's desire to see monster jam last weekend - he has appointed you both "honorary rednecks" - but since, upon learning that the rally was in fact SOLD OUT, i don't know what it means that your plan b was to spend the evening with tropical drinks at a nearby tiki bar.
well, if we're going to have big trucks and a musical genre stand in for actual rebellion, this is better than the early '90s reveling-in-my-own-personal-and-unique-pain-grunge-rock phase. it's much easier to get through the day bouncing along to "redneck yacht club."
(hee hee. if you clicked on that link, now you're stuck with that song too. come on down to our level.)
several years later, here we are in chicago. we live 2 miles from downtown; mb rides his bike or takes the train to work and evening mba classes; i drive a few miles down the interstate to work primarily with poor underserved children. it's everything we've been working toward, and we're lucky enough to have an amazing circle of friends both in the city and around the midwest.
we're the urban dinks that we've always aspired to be.
so why, you might ask, was mb driving out to see the monster truck rally at the allstate arena in rosemont, armed with a personally-mixed 2-volume set of "redneck country" music?
(robosaurus wasn't there, but for the uninitiated:)
naturally, we can't just embrace chicago for having been good to us. we have to turn our noses up at the million upscale italian restaurants, the martini lists available at every sports bar, the $20/plate breakfasts. in their place, we are substituting country music (which we NEVER listened to when living in actual country) and monster truck rallies (which we never attended when everyone we knew drove trucks... although i did attend a well-timed tractor pull or three.)
mb sums it up best: he calls us "rednecks with benefits." it's a perfect analogy: "friends with benefits" don't really exist either. they're just two people who can't admit they're in a relationship. we can't be actual rednecks if we're listening to our country playlist and discussing our desired redneck status while sipping on fancy venezuelan rum that we brought back from our honeymoon. and thank you to my good blogmate and nb for accommodating mb's desire to see monster jam last weekend - he has appointed you both "honorary rednecks" - but since, upon learning that the rally was in fact SOLD OUT, i don't know what it means that your plan b was to spend the evening with tropical drinks at a nearby tiki bar.
well, if we're going to have big trucks and a musical genre stand in for actual rebellion, this is better than the early '90s reveling-in-my-own-personal-and-unique-pain-grunge-rock phase. it's much easier to get through the day bouncing along to "redneck yacht club."
(hee hee. if you clicked on that link, now you're stuck with that song too. come on down to our level.)
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