Okay so after living in West Virginia for the past five years I went to Finland for six months but was recalled back to the states to help out with a family situation and now I'm stuck in Virginia and it's probably the worst state I've ever lived in. In the US I mostly grew up in Maryland and Pennsylvania so I assumed that Virginia would be like living there, or that a lot of it would be similar to NOVA minus the super isolated parts of the Appalachians but it's genuinely awful living here. The traffic is unbearable despite the relatively small city population and it's full of side eyeing beggars and crackheads. Well WV also was full of crackheads (basically lived next to them when I had a downtown alleyway apartment) but they seemed to not bother you as much as they do here. This city barely has a homeless shelter system setup and it shows at every intersection, not like I'm in some hillbilly town anyways. Local government here is actually handicapped, it's like a Republican stereotype of a blue city where they literally can't put their money where their mouth is with their social programs but can't help but plaster hijabis on every public signage.
Anyways back with the traffic the civil engineers are also handicapped as they decided running a state highway right thru the center of downtown with no bypass was a fine idea. Rumor was that businesses didn't want anything redirecting traffic around the city so now everyone has to deal 20 minute commutes to drive five miles to Sheetz because some dime a dozen boutique or grill would miss out on a few hypothetical customers. Small business owners are TYRANTS and TERRORISTS. Also the airport has no maintenance jobs here and there's nothing but property management jobs because the mayor is some illiterate property investment bro so I'm basically out of available mechanic jobs. Well I did work for a production factory for a little bit but decided to quit because I didn't really feel like learning 3-phase 480V without any PPE or training minus just "watch this guy and remember". Also literally everywhere was a spill and tripping hazard, I thought there were labor laws in this state. Also there are latern flies everywhere, actual swarms of them, county has no plans on cutting down the invasive trees that they breed in though, for whatever reason. Chinese bastards.
Richmond also isn't as nice as I thought it would be, just more of the same but worse traffic. Nature sucks compared to where I was in WV, actually makes me depressed thinking about where I used to hike and the view I had outside my front window every single day. Just hoping to run into Chrischan while I'm here, though that might happen in Finland as well at this point. Will probably stop by where he lived in Ruckersville at some point though just to check out the neighborhood. Actually now that I think about it I think I actually did move to CWCville.
