Blah.
So my brother and his wife were in town overnight. I felt like the biggest douche because there is nothing to do in this town. I am not even sure they had a good time, which makes me feel really bad. I mean, I tried to tell them that it sucks here, but I am not sure they got the message. I had an idea to go to the Quad Cities and take them to the John Deere Pavilion, as they are both into that kind of thing, but they decided not to because it closed at five and it was already after noon when they got here, and it would have been another further hour and a half drive just to get there. So instead we had lunch and went to Farm King (a large farm/ranch supply store), then to the candy store in Monmouth, followed by one of the briefest trips through the snooty section of Galesburg ever (where I found a Micro Machines set of the Enterprise 1701-D from Star Trek:TNG with both Klingon and Romulan ships, yesssss). We came back to town and went to the dollar store, and followed that excitement up with a round of mini golf, which was probably the most fun part of the whole experience, sadly. Especially if you saw the mini golf course.
The whole thing made me feel like this town doesn't even try. Like it struggles with its identity--that it rages against being a college town and feeling like it has to cater to that audience, but at the same time, without the college it would be just another small town out here in the middle of nowhere. I don't understand how it can be content to remain this way. I remember when I used to visit here before I moved, and I loved it. Everything was so different from what I was used to. Then I moved here and the shine wore off. The only things worth staying for are my friends and that I love the school. Otherwise... I really don't know if I could stay here for the long run. Maybe I'm just disconcerted by recent events, I'm not sure. But I have that stasis feeling again, and I hate it.
The whole thing made me feel like this town doesn't even try. Like it struggles with its identity--that it rages against being a college town and feeling like it has to cater to that audience, but at the same time, without the college it would be just another small town out here in the middle of nowhere. I don't understand how it can be content to remain this way. I remember when I used to visit here before I moved, and I loved it. Everything was so different from what I was used to. Then I moved here and the shine wore off. The only things worth staying for are my friends and that I love the school. Otherwise... I really don't know if I could stay here for the long run. Maybe I'm just disconcerted by recent events, I'm not sure. But I have that stasis feeling again, and I hate it.