FRESH AIR

Somerset, Pennsylvania is not where I grew up; However, it's where my parents live. I've been visiting them here for a week now and I'll be here one more week before diving back into the thick of Philadelphia. In Somerset, the stars are out at night, the air is fresh, and there's a breeze at this time of the year that paints your entire body with that fresh air, and it's just as wonderful as it sounds.

I come here to relax and at the same time, in small increments, I provide some relief for my family from their daily burdens of work, work related phone calls, household tasks, darting here and there for groceries or other errands, and frequent stress due to miscommunication between my parents and my sister (whom lives here with my parents.) It's interesting that I find it relaxing out here when my family and their neighbors and the denizens of Somerset, PA still manage to not find enough hours in a day to fulfill all their obligations. I suppose it allows me to realize the false sense of importance most people in this country place on their own actions. You have an appointment here, you have to go there, and you have to look good doing it, or at least gain some pride along the way while sacrificing a little integrity. I'm getting ahead of myself and I apologize for the shade of bitterness I'm beginning to cast * Deep breath * Exhale * ah. That's the stuff.

My mother, of course, misses me and always hints that I could move into town, to be closer to her, sometime in the future. I never could. I'm a fish out of water when I'm here, and over the past 11 years I've evolved to live in the swamp of the city. I would suffocate out here amongst pick-up trucks, trashy festivals, fat Christian children and other such wildlife comprising the landscape. The oxygen is nearly pure, though, and I'll be sure to come up for air every now and then.

Somerset County Dairy Princess.