A little less Chicago
I've been living in Phoenix for the last 5 years now. As most of you already know, I'm from the Chicago area. I'm a huge Cubs fan, and a huge Bears fan. If I see someone in my section at work wearing a Cubs/Sox/Bears/Bulls/Blackhawks hat or shirt or whatever, I normally have no problem starting up a conversation with them about where they're from in Illinois. Talking with people comes very easy to me. Breaking the ice is a necessity in my job. I have no choice. Someone sits in my section, I have to go over and greet them. I remember when I first moved here and I was working at Friday's and I saw someone with Chicago stuff on, I couldn't wait to talk to them. A lot of the time it would lead to long conversations about Illinois, or Arizona, or the Cubs/Bears, whatever. I was just so excited to see someone that knew of Wheaton, IL. I thought it was crazy that I was 1800 miles from home, and still managed to find people from the same area. It was such a great part of my day. It was my way of connecting with people at my job. Even when I worked at P.F. Chang's, if we were on a wait, and I saw someone in a group that was wearing a Cubs hat, as soon as I had a table open in my section, I sat the group. I would totally ignore the waiting list. I didn't care. These were my people and I wouldn't let them wait. I was able to make a better connection with them, by one, sneaking them into my section, and two, chatting them up about being from the same area. I still chat up people that are from Illinois, but lately, it doesn't seem the same.
After being here for 5 years, I hear about the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals, the Suns, ASU, and God forbid...the Coyotes. I'm not really a huge fan of any of them, but somehow being around them and hearing about them all the time, some of them seeped into me. By no means have I lost my loyalty to the Cubs or the Bears. But sometimes I feel that because I don't have them around me all the time, I lose a little bit of my fanaticism. Again, I'll be glued to the MLB package for as many Cubs games as possible, and probably sitting at CK's for every Bears game. Lately I find that I'm behind on all of the talk that happens about MY teams. Maybe it's because I don't live in Chicago area anymore, and I don't have ESPN 1000 dialed in all the time, or maybe it's that WGN doesn't seem relevant to my world any longer. I don't see commercials with Chicago sports stars. I see commercials like Dan Majerle doing Emergency Chiropractic. And now these Phoenix commercials are the norm. I call Phoenix my home. Heather and I have bought our first house here, and we're not going anywhere for a long time. Lately, if I see someone wearing a Cubs hat, I'm less likely to say something to them. I don't know why this is. I'll still talk to them if that conversation comes up, but now I'm less likely to initiate that talk. I'm starting to feel a little less....Chicago.
