Home Sweet Home

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Home Sweet Home
19
Thu, 07-29-2004 - 7:25pm
Ladies,

Tell me about where you live. Why do you live there? Do you have family roots there or did you choose this place on your own? What keeps you there? What do you like about it? Dislike about it? If you had a friend visit what are the places you would want her/him to see? What would it take to get you to leave? (i.e. Wild horses? A great job offer? A relative? Boyfriend/husband potential? A miracle?)

Thanks for sharing!

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Avatar for cl_beckty
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Fri, 07-30-2004 - 1:01pm

EXCELLENT questions. I look forward to reading everyone elses. Mine might be a book. LOL


I live in Colorado Springs, CO. Generally the very best weather in the United States. Not too cold in the winter, not too hot in the summer, not too humid but definitely not arid. In any weather it's incredibly beautiful here at the foot of Pikes Peak (one of the many "14'ers" in Colorado)


I live here for several reasons (in no particular order):


A) Needed to remove myself from a potentially bad relationship situation
B) Tylers health was suffering at the time from the Michigan greenhouse effect. His asthma and allergies were out of control and we were in the Emergency room about every other month. Got old. We were told it would be better here. It has been an INCREDIBLE difference.
C) One of our best family friends (I mentioned her in the "girlfriends thread" My "Funtime"Friend) moved here about 2 years before and we'd visited and LOVED it.
D) My folks (Who I lived with at the time) decided to pack up and move and I was faced with "stay in my hometown where it's comfortable and scramble to find somewhere to live even though I am a very poor single mom with NO child support...OR spread my wings and try something terrifying and different


So, those are the main reasons. It took me a long time to get used to it. I even moved back once, and another time went back for a whole summer before I finally settled down some.


Right now Jason and my great job and my parents and good friends (and the great weather) keeps me here.


I LOVE the surroundings. I love the beauty. I love that there's always something to do for someone like me. I don't love high energy all the time. But if I want that, Denver is always a cool place to go and it's an hour up the road. I love the local shops and parks for walking/jazz concerts and such. I love easy access to incredible mountain camping. And I love that I met Jason here! And I also love my job. It's been a great opportunity for me and I'll be very sad if and when I ever leave it.


I do NOT LOVE the traffic!!! (Colorado Springs is rated dead last in the country for traffic flow for a city of this size. About 600,000. And you can TELL when you try to go anwhere) I don't love that it's far from all of my sentimental haunts. In all honesty, I miss the "greenhouse'ness" of Michigan, even though it's not great for Tyler. I miss the huge flat country fields of corn and wheat. I miss the great lakes (I lived right on one of them) I miss MY SISTERS and FRIENDS!!!! I don't love the sports fans here (ie. Bronco's and Avalanche fans! LOL)


When people come to visit we take them to:


Garden of the Gods: http://personal.udri.udayton.edu/klosterm/Agarden.htm

Becky

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2003
Sat, 07-31-2004 - 12:30pm
Tell me about where you live. I live in Tyler, Texas (the Rose Capital)

Why do you live there? Mostly because Shane's job is here. But he lived here before and it's a nice town.

Do you have family roots there or did you choose this place on your own? Neither of us have roots here, but our families are close by. Mine in Marshal, an hour away and his in Ft. Worth, about 1.5 hours away. He got a job offer to come back so we chose to move here to be close to work. His cousin lives here and his aunt and a bunch of friends.

What keeps you there? Work and the friends we have here. Plus it's so close to family.

What do you like about it? I like the variety. There are tons of places to eat and things to do. Lots of movie theatres and the downtown has history.

Dislike about it? Smith County is a dry county. Shane and I do like to have a beer of something sometimes and we have to drive 20 miles to get it. Also the clubs close earlier here than in surrounding towns because of the law.

If you had a friend visit what are the places you would want her/him to see? Probably Down Under Pub and Grub. Nice restaurant and dance club. Really fun place. Alos the Rose Gardens. This is where Shane and I got married. Gorgeous!

What would it take to get you to leave? (i.e. Wild horses? A great job offer? A relative? Boyfriend/husbanpotential? A miracle?) A job offer, college. Shane says if I figured out that I needed to go to school somewhere else to get what I needed, he'd move. He can go far with his job anywhere. He's got the stuff it takes to get a job anywhere in his business and do phenominal!!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 11:43am
I don't know if I could stand the HEAT! Do you live in a perpetual artificial environment or do you enjoy the heat?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 11:48am
What IS the sales tax?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 11:53am
You're right. I used to think of NJ as Manhattan's burbs, but no more. My friend got a place in Spring Lake and I went to some little town for a wedding and it was just gorgeous. No wonder you're the Garden State, it's really beautiful.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 12:10pm
the best steak I ever had in my life was somewhere near Flowermound. My cousin had just moved there and we didn't know where to go so we asked the babysitter and she directed us to this place in the middle of nowhere with a huge parking lot. It was like stepping into a movie set...people wearing big silver buckles and cowboy boots and hats. I think I saw line dancing...it was so cool to see this large group of people moving together and following some secret pattern. And this particular estbalishment had some rule that didn't permit ties. They asked you to take it off or they cut off your tie. The restaurant was decorated with many ties tacked onto the wall with an accompanying business card.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 1:02pm
I was born and raised in San Francisco and my parents are still here. I went to school in Long Beach once and in France once, but I came right back. I had to live in the suburbs once and that enabled me to buy a home in SF itself. I'm staying and wild horses won't be draggin me nowhere. When I'm dead, they can bury me in Colma. My kids are fourth generation SF on their dad's side.

What keeps you there?

Tolerance and acceptance of things other keep me in San Francisco. Even comedians remark on how you can do and say things here that you can't in other parts of the country. So our politics, the weather (yes I've been complaining about the drizzling fog for two weeks, but at least we don't have below zero and 90+ temps), the beauty. On any given day, I can drive ten minutes and walk on the beach, watch the gulls, maybe some pelicans migrate, see a crab, find a whole sand dollar, find a beachful of jellyfish washed ashore. In 20 minutes, I can access the Marina and take a walk on the Green and take in Alcatraz, the GG Bridge, the Marin Headlands and maybe a sea lion. I like that people can be creative with their homes here...there's a house with trompe d'oeil castle like bricks in lilac, there are three homes in the neighborhood done in orange: sherbert orange, deep orange and orange with some green and blue combinations like you find in crate and barrel. I love our restaurants. We are in the Pacific Rim, we have organic farms and cheese and Alice Watters in Berkeley. I love that on any given weekend, I can head to the Marin Headlands for a walk, Point Reyes to see some nature, climb Mount Diablo and see the entire BA, drive to Monterey and see even more sea lions or drive on 17 miles drive, go to the wine country and enjoy the sunshine, go to a forest and walk through huge redwoods, go to one of many museums and see some beautiful art, take the bus to another part of town and explore that neighborhood's shops and restaurants and bookshops, I like that I can take a walk in one of the lakes in GGPark and hear Chinese, Mandarin, French, Spanish, English.

Dislike about it? There's a lot. There are a lot of outsiders who don't fit in well. People will come and gawk and be unkind. Or even worse, move here and put on pretentious airs. The cost of living is outrageous. Hardly anyone I grew up with is still around, most people were driven out. It's not unusual to meet someone who's lived here for years who has never met a native. The public schools are questionable at best. Parking is a nightmare. I hate the touristy parts of town, but they serve their purpose. I don't know why people voted in Willie Brown twice, he cost us so much money, but maybe Newsome will turn things around. He seems to have his heart in the right place. THE PRICE OF GASOLINE!!! We're paying even more than Hawaii. I don't like that I can't let my kids play out on the street or wonder about the neighborhood. I don't like not being able to walk at night, alone, or even during the day I feel that a walk can be dangerous in some areas.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 3:38pm
8.75% and about to go up by another 1% if the governor gets his way!
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2003
Thu, 08-05-2004 - 12:02pm
Yeah, you'll find places like that locally. And yeah, we wear our buckles and hats around here. I'm not so much of a cowgirl, I'm more of a club kid or metal head, but I married a cowboy. It's so cute!

Mel

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