Boston's the city I like the most, but I'd have to give up on the idea of driving and probably live in a studio apartment smaller than my current bedroom to make ends meet. Also, the distance from family would really suck.

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The essay turned out to be an essay for the Advanced Placement English test, if I understood it right. The student is Nepali, so she was struggling with the grammar on top of the usual mistakes young writers make. Nothing wrong with her ideas or the structure of her arguments, though. She seemed to think I'd been helpful (all that workshopping and betaing fan fiction may have taught me something) and asked if I was going to be available most Fridays, so I think I passed.

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Oh, London, for sure. And I'd winter in California.

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Cobble Hill, about 5 blocks south of where I live now, or Red Hook, about 25 blocks south.

HA. I would love to live in Cobble Hill again. Or Windsor Terrace. (I lived in Windsor Terrace before it got cool, and now I just want to go back in time and kick my younger self until she buys a townhouse on my old block. That skeevy laundromat will one day be an awesome little cafe! The skeevy liquor store is going to turn into a GREAT liquor store! The great bodega will change owners but essentially stay the same great bodega! THE SCHOOL DISTRICT YOU ARE IN IS THE BEST IN BROOKLYN YOU IDIOT. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE GIVING UP, 2002 JESS.)

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M and I still hope to move back to the Northeast someday, and I think that's my ideal. Boston or environs would be great, if we could afford to live somewhere with a decent school system, or else beautiful Western Mass (which will always be my spiritual home). But southern Maine, Vermont, upstate New York, or the Philly area would all be just dandy.

Boston's the city I like the most, but I'd have to give up on the idea of driving and probably live in a studio apartment smaller than my current bedroom to make ends meet.

I hear you on the affordability issue, but I would be SO EXCITED to live someplace where I didn't need a car to get around. My commute isn't even that bad (15-30 minutes, depending on traffic), but I hate it so much. What I wouldn't give for decent public transit!

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If I could live anywhere... Well, I can live anywhere, as long as I can get fast Internet, and I'm still here in Charlottesville. I've lived and been enough places to know that, unlike a cat, all places are not the same to me. I didn't like living in New Jersey; I'm too much of a Southerner to feel comfortable among people who don't smile at strangers. I don't want to live in a place that's too flat. I need hills, if not mountains. I like being near large bodies of water, but I like being in mountains even more. I want a place without a lot of traffic and fairly low population density, but I don't want to live in a rural area anymore; I want easy access to shops and groceries and doctors. I like living in a small city, with some history and "charm", versus a big city or a small town or rural area. Cost of living is important too. I'm not a foodie; I don't care about having a wide variety of different kinds of cuisine available. Although C'ville's not bad on the food front, and not bad on the culture front either. As for climate, I've found I need sunlight more than I like being in sunlight, and I can stand heat pretty well if it isn't humid, so, a warm, bright, non-humid climate would be great as long as I have an air-conditioned inside to retreat to. C'ville covers most of my needs and wants; it would be perfect except it's too damn humid most of the year. And the airport is small, it's just commuter planes and you have to connect to a hub to go anywhere. But I've bought a house, so going anywhere else is unlikely unless it would majorly improve my life financially to do so.

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Timelies all!

I could do without the winters(or at least ones like last winter), but I think where I'm living now is good. Nice balance of the things that make me happy.

Meanwhile it's supposed to go down to 30 F tonight. At least there's no snow in the forecast.

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Then I think the nomadic life would suit us just fine.

Me too. it was foolish of me to buy a house.

Oh, I do prefer to be near water. I forgot that that wasn't a given. I'm not sure how large the body of water has to be, I haven't tested that extensively.

One of the officers in my mom's genealogical society spends 6 months of the year in California and 6 months in Australia. That does seem rather nice.

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I like being near large bodies of water, but I like being in mountains even more. I want a place without a lot of traffic and fairly low population density, but I don't want to live in a rural area anymore; I want easy access to shops and groceries and doctors. I like living in a small city, with some history and "charm", versus a big city or a small town or rural area.

Bellingham hits every one of those buttons. Our house is on a ridge--on one side we have the recreational lake, on the other, Bellingham Bay, Chuckanut Bay, and so on--the whole stretch of water between the mainland and the Olympic Peninsula. WWU keeps a young, student population and cultural events skew to that, but it's also a popular retirement area. The area surrounding town is rural, people with traditional values, predominantly Dutch. Pleasant enough, but repressive, and conservative. It is a down side.

An adequate hospital, and clinics galore to handle skiing, cycling, and other sports-related injuries and conditions, as well as general spectrum specialties, including those related to geriatric patients.

Having grown up in town, and having worked with Wake Forest Medical Center/Medical School/Cardiac Center/Burn Center/Brenner Children's Center complex, I hadn't realized how high my standards were for medical care and providers' knowledge levels. It's disconcerting to be able to inform your PCP and dietician, rather than the other way around. But the orthopedists and PT are first-rate.

Cost of living is important too.

That's significantly higher here than in NC. But the availability and quality of produce is higher. And fresh wild-caught fish is available and reasonable--as long as it's salmon, which we love. I do miss the variety of fish we had in NC. I find greener, leaner practices in place here help cut COL, versus the more careless, wasteful, less conservation-oriented south, where we wasted an awful lot. Our house is more energy efficient, we plan more, and I think being more mindful helps offset a lot of the COL difference.

I'm not a foodie; I don't care about having a wide variety of different kinds of cuisine available. Although C'ville's not bad on the food front, and not bad on the culture front either.

I don't know what cuisines have become available since we left NC, but here we have more cultural varieties, and a better quality result. We rarely do fast food, so our eating out dollars go for quality experience--which doesn't mean flaming crepes, necessarily, just well-prepared cuisine with quality ingredients. As for cooking at home, we use almost nothing prepackaged. Frozen veg for soup, and breadcrumbs, that's about it. Again, practices are lean--excellent quality food, enough for one serving, or planned servings, nothing wasted, nothing to spoil and throw out.

As for climate, I've found I need sunlight more than I like being in sunlight, and I can stand heat pretty well if it isn't humid, so, a warm, bright, non-humid climate.

I was really suffering with the heat and humidity, so getting out of that climate has improved my health, mobility, and outlook. I don't mind the chill, I sustain chill better than heat, and if I'm cold I put on a heavier hoodie. But the daylight--oy. Someone find me a temperate-cool climate with mountains and picturesque fog and water views and wildlife that gets ten hours at least of sunlight all year long. That would be my heaven!

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Suzi, looking ahead, keep in mind that colleges have resources for students with ADD (including extra time for tests, etc), so when CJ starts, he should hook up with whatever department/office/whatever manages those things.

Also, make sure he knows to talk to his instructors about all this stuff as early in the semester as possible, and to make an actual appointment for a meeting, not just hand them the paperwork after class. (I've had students hand me the extra-exam-time paperwork at the actual exam, and just say, "I get time and a half. What am I supposed to do?" and the answer is that they were supposed to hand in the paperwork at least two weeks ago, talk to me to make sure I understand what accommodations they get, get me to sign the paperwork and then they'd turn it back in to the disability services office, and then the math department would send a copy of the exam to disability services, and all the people who got extra time would report to a specific room at a specific time to take the exam.)

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