What it's like to go back to a fat city after having lived in a normal one for so long. I have some things that brought me back into my old city, which has completely given in to obesity, this weekend. After having lived in a normal, healthy city for four months, I was rather shocked at what conditions in the place I used to call home were actually like. I knew they were bad, but I'd gotten used to them and didn't realize just how bad they really were. First, everyone is obese. Literally every person I've seen other than the friends I'm visiting here has been obese, some extremely so. Going along with that, the doors and hallways are exceptionally wide, and there's a lot of disabled parking spaces everywhere, way more than normal. Finally, the sidewalks and bike paths are basically unmaintained, so there's huge bumps that will send you over your bars on the main bike path and sections of the sidewalk that are just giant holes, that the city hasn't done anything about in the four months since I've left. We also decided to go out to Subway for lunch, because it's the only fast food I can actually tolerate anymore. The person behind the counter is quite obviously very fat, and, halfway through making the sandwich, drowns it in mayo even after I say no mayo. After glaring at me for wanting a sandwich that is actually edible, she remakes it. When it gets time to put veggies on the sandwich, she barely puts anything one, and gives me the most hostile look for asking for more, like I was somehow ruining this sandwich by wanting veggies on it.  The final thing would be what happened in the evening. We were out, and some very fat guy comes straight up to me and says that no man would ever want me because I'm anorexic. He launched into this long, unprompted tirade about how I'm hurting his daughters won't finish their (no doubt enormous) meals, and are starting to look deathly thin (most likely meaning overweight rather than obese). The real kicker to this is that I'm now just half a pound underweight because I've been able to actually get food rather than garbage, and I also have a girlfriend that I like very much. I can't believe I used to live here. It just shows how badly pervasive obesity can warp a person's perception of normal. I'm just glad I'm free of this horror, but the fact that this is become the norm in the US absolutely terrifying.