Living ‘in the city’, or at least as much as the Shorewood-Joliet area can be considered as such, I take certain things for granted.

Indoor plumbing. All my teeth. Literacy.

I’ve realized a lot of differences between even my pseudo-city life and that of my new home, Urbana.

First off, I always — always — have a deep inner desire to yell out ‘yee haw’.

Second off, I take highway exits for granted.

“Highway exits?” you may ask. Yes.

See, on the way down to Urbana exits are not as plentiful as they are, say, on the way up to Chicago. The later has exits every, say, 3 miles average. The former has exits approximately every 30 miles.

So if one is driving a 1999 Ruby Perl Nissan Sentra and has about one gallon of gasoline left (which I should add is when the gas light illuminates), they probably could crank it to the next exit.

But then comes in the third thing I take for granted — gas stations. Apparently gasoline is a delicacy they can only afford at about every other exit.

So that 1999 Ruby Perl Nissan Sentra can make it to the next exit, yes. But sadly I found out when in the situation the only thing besides corn at that exit was a big store proudly titled, or maybe proclaiming, or maybe just describing itself — “ADULT”.

Thankfully there was another exit in 18 miles. Thanfully I did not have to push my car for any of those miles as I pulled into a service station just as my car was running out of gasoline.

Don’t take things for granted. Except, apparently, pornography. That really is everywhere.