Sometimes this seems like the worst sort of reality to me; that so many places would be so much the same. Cities should have character, they should have features , they should be different.

Most often, though, I find this reassuring. It is nice to have a constant.

There will be the quiet residential streets, the dog barking somewhere, a streetlight buzzing and failing. There will be strip malls and McDonald's, there will be a gas station, there will be a movie theater, there will be a 24 hour supermarket.

These things will be there.

When you are lonely, you want something for reference, you need a frame of reference. Unchanging cities form such a frame.

And home? A home can be made anywhere. Home is a person, not a place. Any city will do, it will have the basics, a few extra features here and there, whatever. The people will color the city, and that's where the differences lie.