We're meeting for the first time again

The scenery during the drive from O'Hare airport to new parents' house in New Lenox left everything to be desired. The cheap furniture stores, the car dealerships, the family-style restuarants, I was home again. Language blows into my ears and immediately clicks. Signs make sense. I remember all of the roads' names. I'd rather not drive here; it looks incredibly dangerous.

In the basement there's my boxes, the ones I packed up but couldn't take with me. I opened one up and saw a tambourine, drum machine and my Tascam 4-track. I opened another and it was Levi jeans, a shirt that says "Nashville" and GoldToe socks. My record collection sits unplayed but ready to be. I eat 5 Ego waffles for breakfast and drink hot coffee with creamer, the kind I like from the orange and white plastic bottle. At Jewel we buy Breyers ice cream 2 for 1, haircare products and Carmex all for what seems to be just pennies. I look at the 4 dollars in my wallet and the bills are so skinny, all of the same color and crisp. I'll spend them (have to get some more between now and then) on a train ticket to my favorite city in the world, Chicago, tomorrow. I hope I see a lot of you there.

In the States (That I Go Through) - Robert Pollard - mp3