ITR: TELL ME WHERETO I SHOULD MOVE

also i have thought about chicago.

i want to do this too.

things i want in a city:

good performing arts ====> employment opportunities

affordable living (i.e. cheaper than NYC, pos where i could afford my own apt or one day buy something)

ideally, good public transportation so i don't have to buy a car, but that may be up for negotiation

i will add to this as i think of things.

i am just mad that school doesnt end til mid july so i will have to spend another summer in this disgusting cesspool

ew gross.

i am done with grad school by the end of may 09, so moving would be june 09 or beyond. mostly contingent on getting a job.

i don't know if i could deal with the pacific northwest and all the rain :/

my friend who is doing a residency in anacortes said there has not been 1 day of sunshine the whole time

i am sort of ok w/ that bc i lived in rochester for 6 years. but i think seattle would be nicer.

LA?

i am really scared of l.a.
also: expensive, no?
also: performing arts there i haven't heard anything too great about.
also: car required, right?

MPLS is probably cheaper than those other places, and we do get sunshine... in the summer. I won't lie to you, though: winter is COLD.

i want to live in portland maine. it would be so boring, but i think i want boringness? i don't know. after 15 minutes back in new york from vacation i had burst a huge capillary in my eye.

la is way less expensive than NYC ime, especially if u live on the east side where most of the good stuff is anyway

LA has a bad, maybe undeserved rep for performing arts but i think its getting better

car not 'required' no (ask jbr or ned) but it makes life way easier

Minneapolis has everything you want, but our public transportation is not up to par. You can live without a vehicle, but not easily. Anyway, I love it here.

lol washington dc

btw everything except san francisco is cheaper than nyc

LA is about 1/2 as expensive as SF Bay area, fo sho. And that's possibly cheaper than NYC.

The last time I looked at prices, SF was a bit cheaper than NYC.

I lived in Wisconsin for 5 years and the cold winters drove me MAD. Do not move to any place as cold as that unless you have a serious brain insanity.

We've had almost 2 solid weeks of sunshine in Seattle with more on the way. I've never seen a more beautiful place in the summer than here (and I do have quite a few places to compare it to). There are many gloomy days, to be sure, but the thing I love is how temperate the weather is - rarely too hot or too cold.

Another Seattle plus: excellent local fish, meat, and produce. So much stuff grows within 100 miles of the city. Portland OR might have a better food scene going right now, but Seattle's awesome for ingredient availability.

seattle sounds so lovely.

what are rents like?

car not 'required' no (ask jbr or ned) but it makes life way easier

Too true. Of the two main choices I would pick Seattle in a heartbeat but that is because I really, really can't imagine myself living somewhere without an ocean a few miles away at the most.

also what is transport like in seattle?

they has a monorail http://www.seattlemonorail.com/

Metro buses are excellent in Seattle, and there's a light rail going in that will begin ops in 2009. Rents can vary widely, depending on the neighborhood. Check Craigslist for stuff on Capitol Hill, Queen Anne, and Fremont. Right now, Belltown and downtown are really pricey. There's a 1 bedroom (~750 sq ft) loft in my neighborhood (Pioneer Square - art gallery central, but also all the bars are full of obnoxious frat boys) going for <$1200 right now.

hmm... this is sounding intersting.

First Hill is also a fun, close-in neighborhood with a nice mix of vintage buildings and new stuff.

well judging by that rent is cheaper in MPLS. my last apartment (2 bedroom in an old well maintained building) was $850

oooh!

what kind of extracurricular activities does mpls have? like, what's fun weekend stuff?

the transport situation here is kind of retarded but if you live close-in enough you can make it work. rents are higher than mpls but still ok compared to what you're used to. the arts orgs are pretty tops. (lol maybe we'll work at the same place)

what kind of extracurricular activities does mpls have? like, what's fun weekend stuff?

DRINKING

(someone who lives there will have to fill in the rest)

also i am learning how to cook so that's a reason to move here. also, jaq

seattle sounds awesome but so far from my family i cant even comprehend the massive guilt trips

chicago has pretty much all these things. seems like getting jobs can be hard but i don't think it's any harder than anywhere else. obviously it gets fucking cold though

portland maine was a wonderful place to live, bell labs. i know you're from there (near there?). i really look back on my time there with fondness.

what kind of extracurricular activities does mpls have? like, what's fun weekend stuff?

DRINKING

When I lived in Maple Grove, that was about the extent of it. Well, and some outdoor stuff in the winter when the mosquitoes were still asleep.

im trying to hold back on the urge to wax poetic abt MPLS/STPL. i really love everything about it. cold weather is counterbalanced by stunning beauty of snow on trees, icicles, birds and rabbits and deer wandering around trying to figure out whats up and where the food is at. public transportation is not great, but survivable, esp since we are already in the works on expanding our light rail. tons of small galleries, tons of small theaters (plus some huge ones), live music everywhere, great bars, endless supply of breakfast joints. trees everywhere, water everywhere, blah blah blah. i love it here.

see now Maple Grove is a different story. One thing you definitely don't want to do is end up in the outer ring. that way lies madness.

You do have the Walker too, which is A++++ and that cherry on a spoon. I loved the habitrails between malls and buildings in downtown mpls.

yeah the skyway is pretty awes and also essential in JAN/FEB

Jaq, have you been back since they redid the walker?

No, last time I was there, they had just gotten that entire Art Deco collection and were doing the special opening exhibit for it - so like 1999?

Also, I went to some very fun minor league games at a stadium over in St. Paul.

yeah walker and potentially working there is what makes mpls so appealing to me.

lol is hueg :http://expansion.walkerart.org/

the little brown building on the right is the old walker, which they still use.

oh yes that would be the Saint Paul Saints, which are part owned by Bill Murray

like bl, i think i would get guilt trips about seattle, too. but on the other hand, my father always talks about wanting to live in the pacific nw, but ohhh it is too far away... so if i move there, then it won't be! the other 2 sisters will have to just get used to me being the one getting all the attention (which could be good or bad...).

...expanding our light rail. tons of small galleries, tons of small theaters (plus some huge ones), live music everywhere, great bars, endless supply of breakfast joints. trees everywhere, water everywhere, blah blah blah. i love it here.

it's funny and great that i would cite a lot of the same things about here. move to either place, tza!

yeah jergins, i'm from right outside portland maine and was just there on vacation for a week. it was 15-20 degrees cooler than ny the whole time and i'm really angry that i had to come back to stinky humid 90 degrees.

i think what we have determined is that MPLS/STPL and SEAWA are both the greatest cities in the world and we are all awesome.

mpls is getting a new baseball park which maybe no one cares about but me

One possible plus for WA - no state income tax, and you can take the train down to OR to shop where there's no sales tax.

Now you're talking!

BB is totally right - if I had spent my time in MPLS/STPL proper rather than the exile of Maple Grove, Eden Prairie, and Apple Valley, I know I'd have come away with a happier impression of the place. The extremes of weather really get to me though - cold, heat, humidity, dryness - and Seattle skips out of all those.

I lived outside of Rochester (NY) for awhile too - Fairport and Chili and that - another really pretty place with so many lakes, the canal, great older buildings, etc, that suffered from the blows of extreme weather.

cold weather is counterbalanced by stunning beauty of snow on trees, icicles, birds and rabbits and deer wandering around trying to figure out whats up and where the food is at.

So basically you like watching disoriented animals slowly starve. :-D

dc just got a new baseball park which I dislike but that's kind of because camden is the best ballpark in the world

camden yards sons the park here

it sons all parks everywhere in all categories except the team

ya camden yards is wasted on angelos

tza, phil-two will have to confirm if he does end up visiting, but Seattle is sort of style-free. There is, however, Sephora.

haha jaq i don't know that i've ever heard anyone speak fondly of rochester! i spent 4 years downtown, 1 year still w/in city limits but close to highland park/mt. hope cemetary, and 1 year in greece. obv the worst was the last.

haha well i suck at style afanyc standards are concerned, so i guess that doesn't much matter.

Time makes the heart grow fonder :) I recall a whole lot of drinking went on there, too.

oh yes. a WHOLLLLE lotta drinking.

I think Roch is the only place I've been where it sunned, rained, hailed, and snowed on me in the course of 10 minutes (Wegman's parking lot, iirc).

holy shit the Walker is massive now

Yeah, some people are not at all meant for the cold. Sometimes you don't know if you're one of those people until you've lived here.

i am one of the people who is not meant for heat.

Hope you don't mind FREEZING EYEBALLS then BL.

I don't know why I just said that I think deeznuts was just channeling me.

Shall I say "England" again?

As long as yr eyes are closed and yr legs are spread, sure.

Seattle is the best place ever for 2 months in Summer. It is greyish and misty the rest of the year, but not terribly cold and there are sunny places nearby you can get to on weekends (like California, lol). It is not a really top arts town but it's pretty good. I think you can get by there without a car, especially if you're a bike rider, but it would help to have one.

DC is a serious arts town that is fairly easy to live car-free in.

LA may be somewhat opera-challenged compared to its coastal competitors, but overall seems the rough equal of SF in the arts world, and perhaps destined to outclass it. yes, you need a car.

yeah dc i have connections etc. but i just really don't want to live there.

guys my friend and i had time to kill before movie @ alliance francaise tonight and were browsing crate and barrel and all i could think about was how much i want a kitchen with room for all these things!

haha! Kitchen has been #1 priority for me - we just got home from looking at a new space, it's fantastic. The kitchen here may be a smidge better, but this new space is 2x the size, has parking, has 2 bathrooms, has a SOAKING TUB <---newer priority, after 1 year w/ only a giant shower stall, has a fireplace. We'll know if we get it in a day or two. Oh boy moving again.

ooh so soon! tubs are soooo nice to have, though!

another dream i realized in the furniture section: a lovely dining room table around which to have fabulous dinner parties.

(we have moved 8 times in 8 years, which is kind of psychopathic really - this will be the 9th move. I can see us staying in this place for a good long time though.)

lol i lived in 7 places in 3 years. now i have been in this apt. for 1.5 years and it feels like forever!

Jaq, that is crazy! I kind of wish I could do it, though; something should force me to toss out all the extra junk in my house.

I like my house, but I have really come to loathe my kitchen. It's too small and it is badly set up. VERY annoying every time I'm in there!

South Florida is nice. Warm. Exciting. No state income tax.

this thread is making me dream of moving to seattle now.

Photos of potential new place: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illiterati/sets/72157606330731094/
Photos of current space (will possibly be available for Sept move in): http://www.flickr.com/photos/illiterati/sets/72157602064290691/

okay, that new place has an absurdly-wantable kitchen

read that as absurdly wankable kitchen

i should say LA may well top SF already. it certainly beats anywhere except NY and Chi in theater, is my understanding. Does Mpls have any opera? I know they've got a serious and interesting orchestra and a lot of theater, but not sure how much of the latter is homegrown.

There is opera in MPLS but I'm not sure how much; a friend of ours from high school was in the chorus for a premiere last year that I'm now forgetting (Sara, you told me about it... Do you remember what it was?.

Dammit, that was J3nny 3ckes... wasn't it an opera version of The Grapes of Wrath? I am lame and didn't see it... (although I would like to know what they did about the last scene in the book, ha)

My friend M4rk Ki3ffer is a huge opera fanatic, but he goes off to NYC and Chicago a lot, it seems. I could ask him about what the deal is with MPLS/STPAUL and opera, though.

http://www.mnopera.org/

15th largest in country, which means - well i have no idea what that means but i assume there are more than 15 on the list, so ?

I'd just like to point out that next season Opera Boston is going to rock balls:

http://www.operaboston.org

Please don't take this as a plea to move here, tho

per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_opera_companies, the 'most important' opera companies worldwide include, in the US: Chicago, DC, Houston, LA, NY (2), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, SF, and Seattle

that looks like a cool season, xp

Please don't take this as a plea to move here, tho

No, YOU'RE supposed to come HERE. You're annoyingly resistant, though.

btw, my cousin (who is from North Dakota) is expecting a baby boy in October, and apparently considering naming him "Boston." (If anyone has an explanation for that one, I'd love to hear it).

Because of the band?

mn has opera. in fact, an alum of my program is devo director there, so HI NETWORKING.

guys, i just met up with my sister for lunch and afternoon and she told me her husband is thinking of taking principal audition for MN orchestra and that they have also strongly considered a move to mpls!!!

she also told me about her friend who had lived in nyc, dc, and boston and had all sorts of troubles and met some dream dude as soon as she moved to minneapolis lol.

(haha! I won't go into my internet dating fiascos of MN, because it was a LONG time ago and surely things are different there now...)

OMG jaq pot. place is AMAZING

I have no idea if it is the band or not! It might just be a weird name fetish.

tehresa, you should alllll move here for sure. And I will vouch for the awesomeness of men from this area (where "this area" = Minnesota and Wisconsin)

yeah jaq's apt + seattle ilxors seeming generally cool + very vague impressions of thinking seattle was neat for the one day i spent there when i was 12 = me fantasizing about moving there right now

MPLS ilxors also seem cool, but i don't think i could live that far from the ocean

everything i've looked at in seattle craigslist has a balcony. balconies = happy!!!

I suppose the Mississippi isn't the same thing. ;_;

I would consider moving to Seattle if I could get Jaq to cook for me all the time...

seattle houses and girls are awesome, guys i can't speak to

well you are no help.

I miss Minneapolis a lot sometimes. It is really a cool city.

no we are awesome omg we are amazing

TELL ME MORE

we are the best

remy, as a recent transplant, said the other day that it's harder to meet/date people here than other cities. he's probably right

I never got tired of seeing things like this:

http://www.cgstock.com/pics/5191.jpg

(Though the watermark in the sky was always a bit surreal to me.)

even my manicurist today was like 'are you married?'
me: no
her: don't you want to be?

argh not like i am all gold-digger gotta be married now but yeah... i would like to someday and nyc is kind of EH for that.

so does remy's comment mean it's hard for boys to meet girls because there are fewer women? bc i like those odds lol.

i just texted him and asked so maybe he'll show up

I didn't have any trouble meeting/dating guys here, but I am in a different age group and perhaps that is a factor?

Seattle looks a bit like Denver in that pic (which is a plus - tza, Denver?).

except for the fact that its a picture of minneapolis

so by the transitive property of attribution i think that means that minneapolis looks like seattle looking like denver

aka all fabulous cities look pretty similar

Would like to commend everyone for ignoring Mark's rigoddamdiculous "England" suggestion. Not that you wouldn't be more than welcome but I cannot come up with a single legitimate reason why you might want to.

I'm thinking Portland/Seattle/Vancouver in two years time.

vancouver's wonderful but hey they're all great

Yeah englande wld be cool but v v difficult!

this is bullshit DON'T LEAVE ME

aww mookie.
did you guys end up going to the game?

MPLS ilxors also seem cool, but i don't think i could live that far from the ocean

-- bell_labs, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:37 PM (Yesterday)
fyi seattle is actually like 120 miles from the ocean, but it's right next to the puget sound, which is massive and is saltwater.

fyi i recently learned that the puget sound contains the world's largest species of octopus http://youtube.com/watch?v=tNAT4oOdOZ4&feature=related

o does remy's comment mean it's hard for boys to meet girls because there are fewer women? bc i like those odds lol.

-- tehresa, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i just texted him and asked so maybe he'll show up

-- jergins, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

okay, a day late i am showing up. and i would like to agree w. what i said the other day.

dating is hard here, because (as mackro mackro has said elsewhere) there is an initial overt friendliness from strangers that conceals a clique-y-ness tantamount to middle school lunch table politicking, and an established set of clans and groups and insideriness that is v. v. hard to break into on anything but the most basic conversational level.

e.g. you go to the party and talk to everybody, and get along w. all the potential hotties, but if you are to ask for a number or make an actual move you will probably face some sort of stigmatic ostracization.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

that said - i have dated (mostly fruitlessly) a lot since i got here, but that is probably due to increased self-esteem from weight loss and change of venue &ct.

i would love if you all moved to the west coast. i'm like bell labs - having lived on an 'island' my whole life, i have issues about living inland. i've always lived within walking/easy-driving distance of the sea, and feel claustrophobic when i'm too far inland.

I get you all who have issues with being inland, but as long as there's a river or canal nearby, you needn't worry.

i have to say - i really, really am loving the bay area. i just think it's the most beautiful place i've ever been to. i mean, wellington is a beautiful city, and there are parts of it (like the area i lived in) that have tons of character. but this whole area has tons of character. it's pretty rundown in a lot of places, but the architecture is just stunning, and i love the port - i love all that crazy, sci-fi looking machinery.

yeah... i really don't feel that much differently about living by the ny rivers than by lake ontario (though that was obv lots colder).

i really need the cool ocean breezes in the summer. toronto got so stagnant. i like the faster-moving weather patterns created by the ocean...

(i didn't actually live in toronto, it's just the only place in the middle that i've spent a significant amount of time in the summer)

kind of miss this view from my parents' backyard:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3003/2698289403_0b2ebcb0a6.jpg

wau

but for some reason i like this view from my new front door even more:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/2698289497_b6bed0ea61_o.jpg

Aw, air pollution. :-D

(Seattle people - we got the place! This time, there WILL BE an unpacking/book-shelving party! possibly w/ beer waffles + cheetotinis...)

also, tehresa and bell_labs, come visit!

i would love to!

congrats!!! hmm how much is plane fare...

maybe when i finish school i'll try to get interviews over there.

maybe jergins can get me a job at his co

tza i've got a handydandy breakdown i've been working on to help you sort things out

prince or sir mix a lot
soul asylum or mudhoney
-30F or rain
lost kevin garnett or lost a whole team

xpost yeah i can keep an ear out. you'd totally fit

oooh good list!

p.s. i wld like marketing but i would be ok running the whole joint, too.

seattle please get me $$$ job at gates foundation

the art museum is looking for a new director right now! M1m1 G4tes is retiring!

gates foundation (2 blocks down the street from here) just broke ground yesterday and man they are tearing up the pavement

i'll work at any museum, foundation or nfp pretty much!

i'll work anywhere that pays and doesn't make me interact w. too many customers

remy, maybe ur doing it wrong. try asking them to go hiking or something.

ooh there is a job on the gates fdn website i want and may actually be qualified for in 1 year's time

if school doesn't make me die

people asked about seattle pictures a while ago and here's a good one from a Seattle thread i made on the sandbox

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/4540/210890736dded69ca00bdx3.jpg

key quote from that thread:

Seattle has a giant Kurt Cobain statue that straddles the I-90 floating bridge and ejaculates grunge onto lucky drivers.

-- Lingbert, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 00:17

hey remy, what's it like working at a barnes&noble? i'm thinking of applying at one near here.

Lolol lingy

ian said he got hit on by lots of cougars when he worked at barnes & noble

space needle looks like a loner

once i ated lunch in the revolving space needle rest.

i once puked in the puget sound after some bad clam chowder

man, somewhere in my parents house is a picture of a 15 year old me next to a life size cutout of michael jordan in the market in seawa.

Ha, that photo makes the Space Needle look SO TALL! Did you take that one, jergins? Looks like it was from the ferry deck.

damn everyone is leaving nyc right after i get here

i have not seen u here, dude...

guys: my dad just alerted me to this.

(note: i am not making 100k i think he is on crack and do not know why he put that in bc it is lolllll but it doesn't matter it is more those nice bar graphs)

uhhh i do not know why link broked.

http://xs329.xs.to/xs329/08306/costofliving587.png

yeah on Monster.com today there was an article "Top 5 cities for building wealth" and Minneapolis was one of them.

And you will spend all of it in winter on heating oil. (Perhaps I lie.)

Raggafornia has never heard of these:

http://s7ondemand4.scene7.com/is/servlet/izoom/BandQ/7640112390069_001c_v001_zp

those heating oil costs would be lumped into that ridic. low cost of living though, no?

we don't use no stinking heating oil, we got smart and opted for natural gas which = a big win nowadays.

also none of this filling up your not dying in the winter tank nonsense

What they aren't telling you is that we all stay warm by burning refuse and telling hearty, Minnesotan jokes.

Also peppermint schnapps.

Well that goes without saying.

I am going over in my mind the places I've spent a decent amount of time in the US, and the winners are so far Denver, Chicago, Western Massachusetts. Santa Barbara seemed nice (in two days) as well?

jordan lived in santa barbara for about 18 months (i think?) and hated it. it's real pretty but there's nothing to do there and everything closes early.

i am back to wanting to move to portland, maine again since all of my loved ones freaked out when i brought up seattle

bell_labs, suggest London to them. Then Seattle will sound a lot more passable.

my goal is to move somewhere CHEAPER than nyc. i don't think london is that place!

Hmm, right now, maybe not :/

haha yeah.

london would be awes, but seems quite difficult!

my cousin suggests i join her in miami. she says people get paid a ton of $ there, but i don't believe it.

also seems a bit scary and hot, though having the beach there would be nice.

Portland info plz

it's a good place

details.

i like it there. it feels small, compact mostly. the city's divided into 4 quadrants: downtown, northwest (shishi shops and little apartment buildings backed by hills), northeast (formerly african-american but much gentrified in the past 10 years), southeast (formerly hippie central and still kind of but also more gentrified). it's inexpensive, especially for housing, especially vs. what you're used to. the arts organizations are well-entrenched but second tier. i don't know a thing about their opera. music-wise there are a million things going on. i go there once every two months and there seems to be a new club open, a new bar in my friends' neighborhood, a couple of restaurants. it's got a more DIY spirit than seattle (my easiest point of comparison), and that results in both more experimentation and more amateurism. i don't know anything about their gallery scene, though i think video installation is their strongest point.

the buzzwords there, at least among the people i hang out with and the stuff i read, are sustainability and community. i mean, those words are everywhere, but they do seem to mean more in portland. restaurants focus on locally grown produce. people use rainwater barrels. new developments go for LEED silver or gold. neighborhood associations are strong and impactful. the public transportation is 2nd best in the west (after SF) but that's really not saying much compared to NYC. sure, if you live in the right neighborhood, you can take rail, but most people i know are bus/car/bike types still. they own cars and use them sometimes, ride bikes when it's nice, take the bus downtown for work.

what about negatives? i love the weather but not everyone would. the town can feel provincial and small. the arts organizations are 2nd tier at best. you won't make all that much money, not compared to other places. the hegemony of organic-allnatural-always be nice can get stifling.

there's more i'm sure. most importantly though, portland's a one-team town. it's all about the Blazers. and they're going to be good this year, and next, and the one after. Brandon Roy is just becoming himself. Greg Oden has yet to step on the floor. Nate McMillan's a great coach.

I've spent a fair amount of time in Portland for never having lived there, and my brother-in-law just moved there in August. I love it there and would gladly move in a heartbeat. For reference, I've spent lots of time in Chicago, MPLS, and Seattle as well and would gladly live in any of these, but Portland is still the top pick.

My three-day-visit every six months take on it: it feels like a big small town, for better or worse. Lots of different neighborhoods, but they aren't really as separate or distinctive feeling as Seattle. It's pretty quick to get around the whole city, biking around it is great, my brother-in-law does not own a car and gets along fine, lots of good beer and coffee and places to eat and such. It feels rougher and less shiny than Seattle, and less beautiful in terms of mountains and water and green - but it's certainly not ugly, especially when it's sunny and Mount Hood is out. Feels a lot less diverse than Seattle, but I seem to see more old people in Portland, instead of vast swathes of super young people - not that there aren't these in Portland either. Can't speak for rents but it doesn't seem terrible.

For me, it's a pretty perfect combination of lots of things I would want in a city and not a whole lot of what I find exasperating. I've lived in smaller places my whole life so Portland feels big to me, but compared to other places it feels much smaller.

tell me about the the homeless population. i read it's a place where a lot of homeless - esp young homeless - gravitate towards. this puts me off wanting to live there... i'm sorry if this sounds heartless/selfish/not-compassionate but one of the hardest things i've found with living here is dealing with being accosted by v strange homeless/pseudo-homeless people in the street (esp when i'm on my own). this guy in sf the other weekend stopped us and started telling us about the apocalypse and i pretty much had an anxiety attack.

maybe it's just cuz there's not that many homeless people where i come from? i dunno, but don't think i could cope with the stress of having to make daily treks thru areas like sf's tenderloin.

not that we are packing up and moving anytime soon, but it's on the cards in a couple of years time.

my impression is that there are waaaay more homeless people, and they're way more aggressive, in SF. portland (and seattle) homeless are on the whole pretty chill. and when the rains come they seem to hide themselves away more. or head south?

u could do a lot worse than spend the rest of your life rooting for the blazers

downtown oakland is pretty bad for it, but there are parts of sf that are just so grim - homeless ppl literally line the street.

i've never seen a homeless problem like SF and LA have

LA? really? i feel like i see way more homeless ppl in NYC than i did in LA. SF is definitely "the worst" city ive been to as far as these things go

i think in nyc & sf they're more spread out everywhere but the homeless areas of l.a. are the worst i've seen by far. skid row ftl.

yeah thats fair, skid row is tragic

SF is by far the worst (in terms of numbers / aggressiveness) that I've ever dealt with for homeless people. My first visit we got to a hotel at like midnight on a Tuesday, walked around the block and got hit up for change like 10 times. It was just constant and pervasive there.

I see lots of gutterpunk / train hopping kind of kids around Portland but have never been been asked for money or anything, no crazy rants, etc.

most of (but shockingly not all) our homeless migrate away for the winter for obvious reasons

K went to school in Portland, I will try to lure her momentarily back to ILX to give her perspective.

yeah it's strange to me that the homeless pop. is higher in sf than oakland, considering how great oakland's climate is.

nobody in oakland gives them money. SF has TOURISTS.

there are a lot lesbians here, instead.

regarding the blazers, I wrote a song about their owner one time:

Paul Allen!

Paul Allen was born into a modest Jewish family in Seattle in 1953!

Paul Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks!

Paul Allen helped Bill Gates buy QDOS for fifty thousand dollars back in 1980!

Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease and got a bone marrow transplant and some radiation!

Paul Allen founded the Experience Music Project!

Paul Allen's house is seventy thousand square feet on six acres of Mercer Island!

Paul Allen funded a two-year lawsuit to get Jimi Hendrix's family the rights back to Jimi's music!

Paul Allen was the sole investor in the first privately funded effort to successfully put a civilian in space; that means Paul Allen won the Ansari X-Prize!

Paul Allen owns the Portland Trail Blazers!

Paul Allen has a fly named after him for his contributions to Dipterology: Eristalis Alleni, Paul Allen's Flower Fly!

Paul Allen's biggest yacht is the Octopus, the fourth biggest yacht in the world!

Paul Allen dated Miss USA 1985, Laura Harring, who was in Mulholland Drive, a film by David Lynch!

Paul Allen owns the Sporting News!

Paul Allen's other two yachts are named Tatoosh and Méduse!

Paul Allen!

nice!

i am working on some school projects based on portland this semester to try to familiarize myself with it.

jergins, i read an article about portland opera where the dude was basically like 'why should we go to portland opera when we can take a train to seattle to see way better stuff?' it's confusing to me because in my research, they seem like a really interesting company! maybe the singers just suck, though :\

i should start a paypal fund for PNW TRIP

i'll give you a buck

awesome! At this rate I will be there in two years!

that job comparison thing from salary.com is pretty addictive

and basically tells me i should try to live anywhere i can besides new york city

i know, right?!

i'll give you 5 bucks

guidestar.org is kind of awesome when you want to look at nonprofit salaries (of course, this is only salaries of the top 5 highest paid people in an organization, but it gives you a nice overall idea of the company).

jergs do you know anyone at seattle op? bc whoever approved this picture for marketing use needs to be fired. and i need to take their job. yes.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/637/elektraticketskt2.jpg

haha that poster sucks so much. i see it every day and say wtf

i mean, i get it, it's ELEKTRA!!!!!

ugh.

that is also the building i live in:

the elektra

http://tgmmanagement.com/Photos/Elektra/elektra%201.jpg

Move here, dress up as me, do my next clinical weekend plz.

Will pay in booze and sarcasm.

lol how weird would that be. "i'm going to take your blood now. could you point to a vein?"

"does that hurt? oh wait, it's supposed to! lol just kidding!"

"see, i'm actually into opera and not nursing. could you sing how you're feeling?"

"hey, i am qualified -- i just saw doctor atomic!"

I might get to go to the seattle opera next year, my godfather goes pretty much every year and has invited me to come.

hey p3rry, tell me bout boston. my friend is trying to convince me it's more afordable than nyc and that i would like it... is there anywhere i'd be happy working?

Hmm...

Boston is more affordable than NYC but don't let that fool you into thinking it is affordable. It kind of isn't. On the flipside, though, there are a ton of organizations up here that you could apply to work at; off the top of my head, there's the BSO, Handel & Hayden, Boston Baroque, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Boston Philharmonic, plus countless smaller organizations that would probably require a secondary job in order to make ends meet. This isn't even taking into account a bunch of theatre companies in the area, as well; there are plenty of organizations to try up here.

As far as would you be happy... I don't know. I know that H&H went through some culture changes that made it a much less fun place to work a few years ago and the BSO is almost entirely dependent on which subgroup you get into and who's running it at the time. Opera Boston is like a little family but I don't know if they're hiring and everyone I know at Boston Baroque would basically give them their first-born, they love it so much. I know nothing about the behind-the-scenes at BLO or BP.

Also, keep in mind that economies of scale are going to dictate that there will be less going on in Boston than there ever will be in NYC; we just don't have the population or the seemingly-endless coffers to support that number of organizations and the night-life scales accordingly (in fact, they recently bulldozed my favorite area of town to go out in and plans to rebuild were quashed by the developers suddenly going bankrupt). There's fun to be had here but it isn't nearly as wide a variety. There are a ton of great restaurants, though!

i am thinking about this moving a lot. more ideas!

MPLS/STPL - still the shit, yo.

username fixed

http://www.city-data.com/forum/general-u-s/453458-best-performing-arts-centric-cities.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/general-u-s/458748-where-move-minneapolis-vs-portland-vs.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/general-u-s/209803-seattle-vs-minneapolis-vs-boston-vs.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/general-u-s/269684-boston-v-seattle.html

http://www.pw.org/content/los_angeles_named_best_city_artists

tehresa, do you like seeing mountains or being near mountains in all four directions?

Or do you not really care for that?

Basically what everyone above said.

Though I'll add that Portland just isn't the sum of its parts for me. In theory, it sounds like the best city in the U.S., but in practice, it feels too isolated and creepy. :( MAX is also a drag.

That said, I'd choose Portland over many other places. I'm probably just way too settled into Seattle to be objective anymore.

I admit that I'm slightly agoraphobic in that I don't like living in large, open flat cities. Just the idea of living in any city in the Great Plains really creeps me out... the neverending flatness in all directions. Seattle conveniently has something in all directions. Portland has hills to the west, and there's a volcano in the distant east, but that's about it.

lol at me feeling more comfortable living near a volcano than a flat plain.

i am totally cool with mountains! in fact, mountains AND city sounds awesome to me!

yeah seattle is pretty rad. mountains, waters, space needles...

ok, this is a bit cold to say but...

If you're in the banking industry, you probably want to avoid Seattle, period.

but if you're NOT in the banking industry, the gutting of WaMu will have some bad side effects, but overall, things will become slightly cheaper overall.

I know this is like being a vulture, but the gutting of WaMu = non-WaMu Seattle peeps resting easier on rents and stilting of inflation.

...

Please smack me if I'm not seeing other really bad side effects

Also, given gabb's links above, I think 90% of the price quotes on Seattle are in the Capitol Hill and pricier downtown parts.

You don't have to live in Capitol Hill or downtown to enjoy Seattle, car-free and all that. In fact, I would avoid Capitol Hill now -- aside from 15th ave -- because it seems all the methheads have taken over Broadway more than ever, even though the prices haven't gone down. If you see an advertisement for a place that says "Walking distance from Broadway!", RUN!

I WOULD LIKE TO GO ON A VISITING TOUR THIS YEAR.

my friend has convinced me to visit boston even though i'm still not sold on it. he sez brighton is great and the bolt bus is $15 so what the hell? worth a weekend!

we have a guest bedroom. you can stay in it. for free!

yay!

so current list:
portland
seattle
mpls
boston ???????
sf ???????

boston no
mpls too cold
sf too expensive

why no boston?
srsly i have not thought about it much and i don't know if i am down with the music scene there (though lots of good early music stuff) but friend who was just at my place says i could get a nicer place of this size for WAY less than here... and also that i could afford my own place for what i pay now or slightly more... tempting!

DC!

Good enough for Obama.

tza when i meet you i will be ready to pronounce which city you most seem!!

lol if it's NY

lol it prolly will be bc i am immersed in lolny life right now

why no boston?
srsly i have not thought about it much and i don't know if i am down with the music scene there (though lots of good early music stuff) but friend who was just at my place says i could get a nicer place of this size for WAY less than here... and also that i could afford my own place for what i pay now or slightly more... tempting!

Really? I wouldn't exactly say we're known for cheap apts but you can find stuff if you look. I hate it when people hate on Boston - it's usually without good reason. I dind't like it much when I first moved here but that's changed and the longer I'm here the more I love it.

sf too expensive

― yuon (jergins)

which is why you should move to oakland!

boston's nice if you like to wash down your racism with a sam adams

― =[[ (eman), Tuesday, August 29, 2006 7:30 PM (2 years ago)

i do not like either of those things O_o

boston's nice if you like to wash down your racism with a sam adams

― =[[ (eman), Tuesday, August 29, 2006 7:30 PM (2 years ago)

― yuon (jergins), Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:12 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah but you'll find racist assholes in any city! I wouldn't hang out with them if I lived in NY for example and I don't hang out with them here or encounter more than in other cities I've lived in. I've heard the Boston is racist thing a lot lately and I really don't think that is necessarily true here more than other places.

yah totally
just a good quote

god damn ilx search function now
type in two words from a half-rememberd post a couple years ago and BAM, first result

rubyredd is rightt... oakland is san francisco's cheaper, dirtier, more dangerous, less scenic, less pretentious, warmer, less foggy, flatter cousin. plus, you get berkeley, which is like a tumor on oakland's shoulder. but a rad tumor.

that's not entirely convincing.

i should add that i love oakland and berkeley, and i think they're cooler than san francisco. but the above statement is still true.

I've heard the Boston is racist thing a lot lately and I really don't think that is necessarily true here more than other places.

― Lady Gorgorrand (ENBB), Wednesday, December 10, 2008 12:16 AM

it's not more true there, but imo maybe just a subtler and more sinister strain (and easily missed if you're not accustomed to recognizing it) than the wear-your-prejudice-on-your-sleeve type you might encounter in say the south or elsewhere. i dunno, just going by family and friends tied to there. lol @ me. goes for all of new england btw, not just boston :)

how do you go about doing this?

if i plan trips, what are key things i need to do in each city to determine if i would like to live there? how do you really get a sense for life in a city in a short visit? should i try to set up informational interviews? nervous.gif!

threat of potential layoffs making me think about this a lot! (also making me scared i won't be able to afford visiting trips!)

i've never done a move like this before.

I'm surprised I haven't seen this thread before! I'm in the same exact boat, finishing grad school in May, looking for somewhere to move. I'm envious of you, Tehresa! You get to pick a city and then find a job! I feel like I have to apply to tons of jobs, hope I get a yes answer from at least 2 of them, and then make a decision.

And right now I'm in this horrible position where it's possible that the only decent paying job I'd get accepted to will be in Norfolk, VA, or some similar place in the middle of nowhere with no friends.

hah i don't really get to do that. i will probably move the place that seems most likely to give me a job. or not move until i get a job. or get a job that's not the job i want but pays enough to keep me going til i get a job that i really like. my field is not exactly lucrative and at this juncture i will probably stray outside it for a bit unless i get ridiculously lucky.

problem with finding jobs in my field is that it is SOOOO networking based and i don't have a network built in any of those places aside from a completely random connection here or there. scary!

can anyone tell me if there are sites like nyfa.org for my chosen cities?

Is your current list still Portland, Seattle, Boston, Minneapolis and San Francisco?

That's actually really similar to the places I'm hoping for. I'm hoping for Chicago since I've lived there before and a lot of my friends are still there. I guess my wishlist would go something like this:

1. Chicago
2. Portland
3. Seattle
4. San Francisco
5. Boston
6. St. Louis (Shithole of America, but also where I'm from, so family & friends are there)
7. DC (Don't really want to live there but that's where the policy jobs are, unsurprisingly)

it is mostly portland, seattle, minneapolis, with huge maybes for sf and boston and (last resort) dc. really don't want to live in dc though. so yeah let's forget i said that.

zs it appears you and i should be going on a national tour together!

"Give me a job+benefits plz tour 2009"

I've never been to Minneapolis. What puts it so high on your list?

excellent arts scene. working someplace like the walker, mn opera, or mn orch would be really good for my resume. also it's cheap.

tza when i meet you i will be ready to pronounce which city you most seem!!

― yuon (jergins), Tuesday, December 9, 2008 11:34 PM

what was the verdict!?

i don't know you that well, but you seem pretty cool. you might like seattle. are you considering a visit?

what a coincidence that you should ask that! it appears as though i have purchased a ticket for one of those newfangled aeroplanes to take me there in late march!

oh hey cool we should get a drink or something when you're in town. you can always go sing or something if the drink experience doesn't go well.

mpls is great, tza

a drink or something would be splendid! i think they generally only don't go well when they involve things like jager or overly sweetened drinks ending in 'ini'.

gbx, isn't it v v cold?

i thought i was ok with that and then i went to buffalo, which is not as cold as mpls, and it was sort of a harsh blow. apparently forget v quickly what it's like to live in colder climates. now i am not so sure.

well, yeah, it is.

as goole pointed out the other day somewhere on this message board, the difference between -15 and 15 is the same as 60 and 90, which means MPLS has five season. summer, fall, winter, double winter, spring

double winter is only like two weeks long, tho, and it builds character. otherwise i'm liking it here very much, save for being far away from my Chi buddies :(

double winter!!!!

yeah! yesterday it was 30, and like a week ago it was -15. that is a full season of difference! serious business!

i can't wait to get back into living in a place that gets winter one of these days

why does serious business still make me laugh every time?!

i can't wait to get back into living in a place that gets winter one of these days

― shook pwns (omar little), Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:08 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i was saying the same thing this time last year, and now i am always cold

since moving from rochester to brooklyn, i always find myself saying 'when are we really gonna get winter!' and i feel all cheated but then buffalo was like 'ugh this is awful!' so i really don't know where i stand.

i don't mind hot summers, but i think i would like to summer somewhere that smells less bad when it's hot.

i really just want to move back to chicago for maybe ten years and then head to europe.

^^^^^^ or at least the "head to europe" part

figure I'm here for probably another 7 years, so hey

i'm missing the seasons here in oakland. there have been a few cold nights, but the winter here is like late spring/early summer where i come from.

i don't want to offend anyone from slc, but never move to that shithole. i was just there for a week, and it is so dirty and disgusting that oakland is like a shiny paradise of lush greenery. i guess it's cool if you like skiing.

lol slc would probably never, ever be on my list!

recommend important things to do/see in seattle and portland, pls!
i have 2 months to plan, but these things creep up really fast.

what kinds of things are you into tehresa? do you like parks? what is your drinking "scene"? do you like wearing lots of make-up, overly nice hair and such, and dudes with backwards caps, polo shirts or kewl-striped dress shirts and baggy jeans? if so, we can go for a night on the town. my neighborhood has some places that would be right up your alley.

tza will be in good hands w/lingbert. Mackro's advice should also be sought.

I too will be back in Seattle soon, but not until mid-April.

yeah, i'm happy to show you what i can tehresa, but i'm kinda boring. i'm guessing the stuff i'm into wouldn't be up your alley? it'd be cool to meet, but i can't promise anything.

if you like books, powell's in portland is a must-see. i was only in portland for a day, though, so i can't really recommend anything with any great fervor.

tza when i meet you i will be ready to pronounce which city you most seem!!

― yuon (jergins), Tuesday, December 9, 2008 8:34 PM

lol if it's NY

― yuon (jergins), Tuesday, December 9, 2008 8:34 PM

Ummmm....

lol it prolly will be bc i am immersed in lolny life right now

― very quotatious (tehresa), Tuesday, December 9, 2008 11:36 PM

lol

lingbert, i do quite enjoy parks of all sorts. as for dudes, the backwards caps i could give or take but popped collar is a must. i'd like to hang out somewhere with dave matthews band on the jukebox and maybe a bucket of beer special. what kinds of things are you into? i am eager to learn about new lifestyles.

lol i'm not trying to flirt or anything but i pop my collar any chance i get.

ALSO: you probably already know this, but dave matthews lives in seattle!! i think in wallingford. i keep hoping he'll "crash into me" one of these days when i'm going big not going home on the weekends, because i would def buy him a brew-ha-ha.

when the weather is icky like right now, i spend most of my time trying out different colognes and sculpting my abs and chilling at the tanning salon so that when the sunny weather comes around in the summer, i can take my shirt off on day 1 and boom no one will be able to fuck with this

jergins what city do i most seem

when lingbert was in sf he couldn't hang out with ruby and i because he was getting ab maintenance advice from some guys on castro no joke.

oh hay, popped collars. we should definitely hang out! question: do you have any pink (salmon, if you're picky) polos that you like to pop? cause those really get me going.

hey ytth man, sorry for your lots and all, but how could he go to sf and NOT get ab maintenance from guys on castro? seems to me that's like asking someone to go to times square and not eat at the olive garden! i mean, it's kind of an institution.

hey lingbert, are you a tanning bed or spray-on type of fella? i find the spray on actually let's you accentuate the sculpting in yr abs so maybe you should try it out sometime if you haven't already.

oh whatever ytth. i don't need advice from those guys. you have no idea how chiseled my abs are. i can play them like a reco-reco.

tehresa: i feel like only douchebags would wear pink shirts, sorry. but i like using beds because when i'm lying under that light, i feel like i'm charging my life force up, harnessing the energy of the sun. when i'm experiencing the light like that, i feel like god has awakened me, and i am going to awaken the world.

max you are 50% la 50% ny
maybe, not sure

sounds about right. how do u get one of those sweet situations where u spend six mos in LA/six mos in NYC.

marry a rich actress

gotta be something easier than that

http://travel.msn.com//Guides/MSNTravelSlideShow.aspx?cp-documentid=843006&imageindex=12

DUDE IF MSN SAYS IT YOU KNOW IT MUST BE TRUE

minneapolis is cool alright..... 18 below zero cool! ! !!!!!!! 1!!!

OH SNA_P

more like OH COLD SNAP

lingbert: i am really kind of saddened that you aren't into salmon shirts. i thought you liked salmon for some reason? maybe i was confused. we should still get a drink and listen to some dmb anyway, though, cause i dig your take on tanning lamps. do you have any tanning tips for those of us with lighter skin tones? an apparent lack of melanin on my part makes me susceptible to burns, but i see these bronzed beauties all over the place and am so so jealous!

jergins, what is the most nyc thing about me? (lol if it's neuroses!)

Salmon was my high-school colour and the rowing team got to wear pink sports coats with white trousers on certain days i the summer. I'm sure there must have been popped pink polo shirts but they have been blotted from memory, all in-one pink lycra, sadly, is still very much seared in.

oh yuck

GAH

you had a John flashback too, huh

lets not ruin our mutually assured destruction high school info detente here dan

wait Sara already let that "cat" out of the "bag", so to speak, you can't hold that against me

true really we should just both try to destroy sara then

I approve this proposal

here to keep from cluttering this thread i have made us something nice: OFFICIAL ITR "DIMIN' ON SARA R-C LIKE IT AINT NO THING" THREAD

teamwork!

yeah less teasing, more tanning!!!

i guess nobody wanted to tan.

REVIVE:

THINGS TO DO IN PORTLAND AND SEATTLE IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTANDING LOCAL LIFESTYLE AND CULTURE?

They throw fish at each other in seattle, and stick needles into space.

ok so:

1. throwing fish
2. shooting up (nb i have already been to the space needle)

I only had a few days in SeaWa and most of them were spent visiting my gf's grandmother, nice lady, lots of photographs, you should visit, however what the things we had to do whilst we were there were:

1) Eat lots of clam strips and tartare sauce
2) get a burger and shake from that classic hole in the wall place in the hip part of town, i remember the name of neither.
3) Ride a ferry on the sound
4) Visit the REI mothership

I have a very warped view of the place as it didn't rain in 5 days whilst I was there, I thought it was lovely, very liveable, but really have only scratched the surface especially as we were staying out at everett.

Point 4 was mainly to indulge my lovel of the outdoors and outdoor gear, however they have a lot of very good raincoats, which I hear is quite the thing for seattle.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg187/nick-uptoeleven/n1412231_31526581_8022.jpg

^that's the bunny.

(not meaning to insult, just wondering if this ^^ is the place Ed means by #2)

HA

ok REI I have done - including climbing wall! maybe if i have any $ left over (not likely) i will buy something neat.

As part owner of REI, I encourage you to buy more stuff, but only if you want to and you can bring it back any time if it doesn't suit.

haw.

ah hell don't even worry about it we'll show u around and you will have the real seattle experience

ok but i know that we are list makers. we make lists. so why not

walk in and around the following neighborhoods:

pioneer square
market
belltown
queen anne/lower queen anne
capitol hill
u district
freemont
old ballard

hit all those and you'll have a feel for the city

awesome, thank you! i would love for you to show me around and keep it 'real.' neighborhoods/destinations are good, too. i like to wander. hooray!

yeah we'll have funfun

wooh wooooh! like an alarm clock!

(a hello kitty alarm clock even?)

you going to train or drive to portland?

which is better?

The train is a spanish built Talgo, so train train train.

is the seattle REI better than any other REI?

I haven't been to every REI, but I'm going to say yes on that one. It's like an entire city block with a bunch of ridiculous stuff. I think every other REI I've been to could all fit inside of it.

it's way way bigger and it's got this climbing rock

http://artaban7.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/rei-pinnacle-seattle.jpg

http://www.flavorj.com/~skysea/Images/Stereo/Seattle/I5_REI_ac.jpg

flagship store too

well hot damn, i'm going to have to make a trip. i've only been to seattle one time, and i went straight from the airport to a job interview and then back to the airport. didn't even spend the night.

(see guys, i'm working on him - we'll be in seattle for a weekend before you know it!)

maybe it should be the weekend of march 21-22?

just a thought!

not a bad idea...

or you could just go to yr career meeting things and then skip the rest of seattle and come to oakland!

you know, we have some nice single male friends here we could introduce you to

it is good to see that when push comes to shove, ITR is not above pimping out their friends

i love a quality pimping.

lucky for you i'm all about quality pimping

ain't easy, but it sho is fun.

it aint easy

xpost AH GODAMNGINT

lolz

when is a good time for MPLS?
i guess i should see how SEAWA and PDX are first?
student loan disbursements soon & makes me wanna plan another trip!

basically i am asking: when do you thaw?

I think they thaw in MPLS for two days in August, which is also the Great Annual Mosquito Race season. The key event involves moms fleeing with their children in their arms to shelter to prevent all the blood from being sucked from their bodies, an event Sara has won for five years running.

The opening event of the race involves a ceremonial releasing of eight million snow-white mosquitoes in a celebration of peace, harmony and cheerful cries of "Holy fucking shit!"

ew

(At this point our own John J. then usually leads a guitar orchestra in a performance of "Angel of Death.")

Further anecdotal proof of my various lies:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/young_naturalists/biting_bugs/index.html

http://www.mmcd.org/

http://minneapolis.about.com/b/2008/06/29/minnesotas-unofficial-state-bird-mosquitoes-are-back.htm

guys, this is not good. mosquitoes REALLY like me.

The last two years have been wonderfully mosquito-free, but this year, as you probably know, the mosquitoes are back, and they are hungry. I'll spare you the details of where they've bitten me so far.

true story - the best times to visit MN are between april 15th and october 31st, if you want temperate weather. i would try to dodge late july and early august, but that is because i hate hate hate the heat.

i went backpacking with a coworker last summer, and despite working in a warehouse filled with 50 pallets of bug repellent, we both forgot to bring any. good thing the third guy bought some from REI before the trip.

also, if you're planning trips, have you given any thought to oakland? i heard it's nice.

my friend/colleague just got back from company managing a tour that stopped in mpls for a while! she brought me a lolhueg packet of mpls/walker/arts pamphlets for studying!

maybe will inspire a visit!

yeah oh btw were awesome. srsly tho, i just went to the walker auditorium for the first time last night and had this weird moment where i realized that by building the new walker, the new guthrie, and the new library just moments before this whole recession deal hit (plus a ton of rebuilds of the old theaters around town), we have all this new super modernized and streamlined ultra-usable art space that we would never have gotten at this point otherwise. its kind of sweet.

yaya i went past our symphony hall last night and thought, "look at that beautiful monument to this decade. wouldn't happen now." same thing.

seawa has some great arts buildings!

would love more seattle info!
i have lots, but every little bit helps!
i will try to think of good questions.
i guess i have already decided to move, now is just finding out bonus info to make it better/easier.

omg mega seawafap when you get there - we will def make a trip!!!! <3

<3 even if i live in a closet, you can stay at my place!

seawa apt application: mailed!!!
wish me luck!

LUCK!!!

luck 2 u

good luck! applying for apartments in absentia sucks pretty bad, but with all this luck, you should have no trouble.

super nervous about credit (i honestly have no idea what my credit report looks like!) but i hope that i have impressed this woman enough to give me the place!

thanks :)

i accept that you will not be moving here :( but also AWESOME SWEET GREAT JOB YO!!!!!!

ok i just checked my credit and it is good!!!!

today is a great day for ITR!

yesssss

yes it is because i received in the mail today a SIGNED yes SIGNED copy of a raymond carver book as a wedding prez from my beloved husband.

Yay!!!

(to all of that!)

awwwww yay!!!

so yay because he got it for this amazing bargain price, and it is pretty rare and i honestly never thought i would ever be able to afford one (they go for sums in the hundreds of dollars normally)

un so also to crossreference PUPPERS WAHT IS PUPPY WAHHHHHH

yeah dc i have connections etc. but i just really don't want to live there.

― tehresa, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 7:26 PM

*heavy sigh*

also lol

it is mostly portland, seattle, minneapolis, with huge maybes for sf and boston and (last resort) dc. really don't want to live in dc though. so yeah let's forget i said that.

someone in dc make me feel better about this, please! rents are even higher than nyc!

U Street is awesome

also my brother lives there and he is a lot of fun and has a cute new baby

Can he convince my sister to have one? I think that would mayyybe help even though cute babies aint gonna pay my rent.

true, market price for cute babies has dropped like all other things in these trying economic times

hahahah I win! You are moving at the bestest time--DC has hit full-on gorgeous mode. Spring and fall in DC are tops imho, better than everywhere else I've lived. And we have awesome food, lots of free stuff to do, notable ilxors, and oh yeah also a job for you. We are ready to embrace you! Get ready to embrace US!

seattle is also v v pretty right now. at least i will get some blossoms on both ends.
still sad. also summer in seattle >>>>>>> summer in dc

i will embrace you, of course, but it may take me a while to embrace the move.