Upstate of Mind

I consider Podkowa Lesna, Poland home. I consider South Glens Falls, NY home. I even consider Bangkok, Thailand home. Even after six months, Connecticut isn’t home to me. I realized this after I went back to upstate NY this weekend.

I think some people around New York City think of Upstate NY as some unknown, savage land, similar to the way Africa was portrayed in The Heart of Darkness. Sure, compared to the greater NY area, Upstate isn’t particularly exciting. The horror! The horror!

There are fair share of rednecks and townies (god bless ‘em anyways). My idols at the NY Times even made my town look like a bunch of gun-toting gay-bashing rednecks in a recent article. There are ignorant people everywhere, but there’s just something inviting about the quiet area where I grew up.

I was out at a bar at home and was trying to bum drinks off of my friends. Some random person overheard and bought me one. He didn’t know me and didn’t have any weird ulterior motives. He was just cool.

Granted, it was 2 dollar drink night, but I doubt I’d ever see someone do that here in CT. My most memorable bar experience was being charged $4.50 for a Bud Light, and then the bar tender THREW BACK the change I left as a tip. I’d say more than 10 percent is a decent tip for handing someone a bottle, but some people around here tend to be snooty about money.

Another thing I loved about being home, not including friends and family, were the drivers. I trusted them. I didn’t flip any of them off since I had no reason to do so. The drivers in this area of CT are notoriously awful. So awful, in fact, that I’ve developed road rage. Some people drive with a certain sense of entitlement, as if they’re above signaling because they’re in a large SUV. I’ve even seen some people in Prius’ that shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Ever.

I also liked that I didn’t see any “Be Green” stickers on gas guzzlers when I was back home. I’ve decided to start a tally of how many of these amusing hypocrites I see while driving around here. In just a few miles today, I’ve spotted. The results are somewhat skewed since maybe I just never noticed them Upstate. After all, pick-up trucks are probably more popular common than SUVs when heading to the unexplored depths of that strange land.

Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh about CT since I’m just a little above the poverty line, and if I was back home I’d be living comfortably. Perhaps I just really love seeing my family, friends and cat (her name is Mronia, pronounced Mroon-ya. It’s sort-of Polish.) There are plenty of good things about getting by around here. The number one reason is that I’m living my dream of being a reporter. Everything else will come with time.