Knowing "Downtowns"

One thing that I really love - that makes me feel really good - is knowing Downtowns. An explanation is deserved before you dub me nuts.

It's the feeling I get when I've lived in a city or town, or frequented one often, and begin to learn my way around the Downtown area. I can't stand "downtowns," so I feel like it's a major accomplishment to know a downtown well enough to get around with minimal directions, or better yet, none at all. All the narrow lanes, cars parked along the street, odd traffic patterns, one-way streets (which I hate the most, as I'm sure you can agree), low speed limits, limited or complete lack of free parking, etc. They just don't sit right in my loin. So, when I've driven them enough and feel like I can navigate my way into, out of, and around the downtown area of a city, I'm on cloud 9. Fayetteville was the first downtown I mastered, then Chapel Hill. Of course, downtown Chapel Hill is about 2 major streets, Franklin and Rosemary, so there wasn't much to that. But now, I'm beginning to learn downtown Greensboro. And it feels awesome. It dawned on me a couple of days ago when I was attempting to cut through downtown to hit the Interstate faster than if I were to bypass it. I got turned around for a minute, but realized I knew the street names and patterns well enough to get back to my original path and "keep on truckin'." Kudos to me.

You can still call me crazy; tis' commonplace.