Where do you live/where would you like to live?

[aernath]

*laughs and then huddles with Shampoo in the "I hate being stuck in Kansas" corner*



I swear, growing up all over the tropics, when Dad retired from the Navy, and we moved one last time together as a family... OMG it was like consigning me to the deepest pit of Hell, going back to Kansas.
Oy.

Hey, upstate New York was great! We lived in Ballston Spa and Saratoga for a few years (most notably the blizzard of '93), and if it just weren't so stinking COLD all year round... It was a great place!

But... Shampoo and I... yeah. Casting our eyes back at the sun-kissed and sun-drenched islands of warm ocean breezes, tropical greenery, beaches, and the exotic flavor of being in an exotic place!

*shuddering sigh*

[duotrouble]

Well, I grew up all over the place. I prefer the suburbs because you have the best of both worlds. I hate being in the city because there's so much activity going on ALL the time. I'm talking ambulances at 4am and such. In the suburbs, you won't hear the sirens wailing because by law they must have them silenced in a residental zone. Not true in the city.

In the country, I go stir crazy. There's not enough going on for me and I feel so isolated. I did grow up before the internet so maybe it isn't so bad now. The same was true when I lived on an island but I don't mind visiting one. I did turn down a job in Hawaii because it's just too expensive to live there. Everything has to be shipped or flown in and let's not even get into getting flights to visit relatives.

I'm currently 20 minutes from downtown and love it! I live in the suburbs of a city with a few million people.

[Caroline]

i voted for the city. i need to be moving and always have things to do. i want to get a place where i can walk everywhere like nyc or tokyo, but for now LA is where the work is.

[blueheaven]

Born in Huntington Beach, CA, now living in Vegas. I like the city, no question. I've been to the "heart" of this country and was not too impressed. Been back east hundreds of times and am not a fan of the weather. If I could, I would live in Huntington Beach right near the ocean. The funny thing about living in the city is watching these small town folks come here and get nearly swallowed. They were big fish in a small pond, but things changed.

[Penguinton]

I'm a 'burb. And I'm happy in a 'burb.

[zerospace]

I grew up in the suburbs of Boston .. then in the 'burbs of Philly. I live in the 'burbs of Sacramento now. I think it's a trend!

I like the suburbs ... though I have to say, there are things about the country that attract me, too. I've lived in a small city for college (if you could call the miniature city that surrounds Penn State main campus a small city), and that's just too cramped for me. I've spent enough time in NYC and Boston and Philly to say that city life is just too cramped for my liking. I do enjoy "unplugging" every so often, so the hubby and I go camping or visit nearby places like Yosemite or the mountains when we're in need of some non-electronic recreation ... which is why I say, there are things about the country that attract me. Only problem... slow internet in many places *laughs*.

There are many days that I miss the east coast ... I miss being a short drive from New York and Philadelphia. I miss Tastykakes =P... among other things. And good lord I miss the fact that everything back east is CHEAP! At least when you're not in the city. =P I suppose I've grown more accustomed to the west coast (despite the fact that I loathe driving here).

I do love where I live right now -- in the 'burbs of Sacramento, CA. My neighborhood is nice and quiet, but I'm within walking distance of a huge mall and tons of shopping. It's only a short drive to the nearest freeway, too.

[sensei]

I don't know where I belong. The towns where I grew up were big enough to have respectable stores but small enough to have neighborhood groceries within easy walking distance. One had a little butcher's shop in the back corner, and the owner, whose name was Gemperlein and had a thick Dutch accent, would give us free flies for the chameleons all us kids got as pets from Woolworths. Amazingly, he could follow them in the air and with a couple of deft plucks nab enough to fill a small brown paper bag, still alive and buzzing angrily, and we'd race home to open them inside the cage and give the ravenous lizards a treat.

I spent my mid-life in Columbus, Ohio, with a research sojourn in Los Angeles. I didn't much like that: buildings as far as you could see.

It's hard to place where I've been lately. Campus was in an old industrial area on the downslide. Even the "big cities" had brown, decaying downtowns. Cephiro, where I'm permanently based now, is a planned development with a lot of green, next door to a major tourist attraction that no one here goes to more often than they can avoid. I guess "country/small town" is the best way to describe it. Farmer's markets, bluegrass festivals, "blessing of the combines," tractor pulls, chicken barbecue fundraisers. But with enough people who have lived fully that it's easy to strike up an intellectual discussion about books, good movies, and classical music.