Ratitos
We have little rats in the alley. Tiny, scurrying little rats the size of the ones you see in pet stores or labs. It makes Colliculus and me think of the rats in Baltimore, which were the size of dachshunds but less sprightly. Those rats were so big, you never saw them full-on. You only saw their asses in retreat, and those asses were slow-moving and rocked side-to-side, jiggling, like miniature hippo-asses.
Except for the rapist in our vestibule, every urban ill in Chicago is just like the rats. It can't hold a candle to anything I saw in Baltimore. The rats are cute and harmless. I don't think I've seen any roaches, and I
certainly haven't seen them seething all over the sidewalks like I used to in Fells Point in the summertime. Even our friends from Philly were horrified by that. Philly!
The beggars start in on their stories of needing 22 cents to catch a bus, no doubt thinking I look like a soft-hearted girl from Wisconsin or someplace. They don't know I once joined a pair of security guards to chase a drug addict all over the Rotunda shopping center after she successfully impersonated a teacher at a local school (she even had the cardigan and canvas tote bag), a Johns Hopkins nursing assistant complete with ID badge, and a suburban mother of three with a flat tire.
The beggars here just ask for change. Nobody shouts about the monkeys or throws their keys at me after asking what time it is. Also, shit that happens on the train or bus is annoying and gross, but never really frightening. You've seen my CTA stories (and there are some even better ones at
CTA Tattler) but I haven't heard my seatmates talk about how many times they've been shot and featured on TV for it.
So there's not a lot about urban life here that can really get on my nerves. Other than the traffic, since for obvious reasons, that wasn't really an issue in Baltimore.
PS As Ianqui has no doubt noted, "Ratitos" does not mean little rats in Spanish. But what the hell. It's kinda cute.
