Thoughts Upon Returning "Home"

-Toronto is awfully clean, and yet much dirtier than I remember
-It has many, many, many excellent parks. Raising kids here would be a treat.
-Public transit that works and is accessible and used by everyone has a vastly different feel than that which is gritty and faintly scary and impossible to get to. Imagine.
-I have to think about where I'm going sometimes. This is weird.
-I love watching my daughter be excited about the TTC. Because I remember moving here and being excited about the TTC, and the first time I got to ride the subway by myself.
-To that end, the freedom and independence I enjoyed at such a very early age by virtue of living in a city like Toronto.
-Squirrels on steroids. Seriously. Chunkiest squirrels ever.
-Queen St West is no longer where you're not allowed to go.
-Torontonians can be a little rude - or conveniently myopic - on sidewalks.
-Streetcars are still fun to ride, even as an adult.
-I miss my friends.
-Coffee is now taken very seriously.
-Why would anyone eat brand name fast food here?
-Braying Bay Street assholes remain the same.
-Am inordinately excited about returning to my college tomorrow night, but this time...High Table. And port in the Senior Common Room apres. Being an alumna with connections is pretty sweet.
-Did I mention the public transit?
-Jamaican beef patties.
-How comforting and familiar labeling still is - even after all these years. Nielsen's dairy products = still more 'right' to me than Berkeley Farms or Clover Stornetta. Weird.
-Milk in bags.
-I hear myself talk and dear god. Do I sound Canadian again. It's a little disconcerting.
-The heat indoors needs to be ratcheted down just a tad, folks.
-Grid cities are so handy.
-The brick patterns peculiar to 19th and early 20th century Ontario houses, particularly in Toronto.
-You can come home again. It's just no longer home.