My parents moved out into the boonies right before I was born. After they split, my dad stuck around in the country, and I've spend most of my life living with him. We live on a lake in between a golf course and corn fields. From a nature standpoint, it is beautiful and I feel very lucky to live in such a nice place. But it can be very boring, particularly in the winter when there is a foot of snow and you can't drive anywhere because the county won't plow your road. My mom has moved around a lot and lived in both big and small towns. I prefer bigger towns. I like to go places and have some sense of anonymity. In my hometown, everyone knows who I am. I went to the Dollar Store a couple of days ago and ran into my dad as he was coming home from work. He walked in as I was walking out and didn't recognize me. I said, "Fine then, don't notice me!" He finally looked and said that he didn't see me there. Then this lady behind me said, "Jeez, Mark, you don't even recognize your own kid!" I have no idea who this woman was, but she knew us. (Apparently it was a girl my oldest sister had gone to school with.) I hate when stuff like this happens, and it happens a lot in the country.
