Back from KCK
Lovely trip to Kansas City on the Kansas side. Parents, shopping, chain restaurants, old friends and big summer storms. Almost as good as Austin.
According to this calculator thing that I found on MSN, I would only have to make $20K per year to live in Kansas City and maintain the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed (ha!). That, coupled with the fact that my KC friends have recently purchased a ginormous beautiful house in Overland Park (the KC burbs), led me to ponder leaving the big city and heading back to the midwest. On one hand, I would LOVE to be able to buy a house. That just ain't gonna happen in L.A. Maybe a $300,000 condo, but unless there is an earthquake or a major bubble burst, there are no houses in my immediate future. There are other great things about the burbs too. Every single chain restaurant and retail store that I have ever heard of is within a 5-mile radius. That would be convenient. There is basically no traffic. That would be fab. There are yards. Except for the mowing part, I would be down with a yard.
On the other hand though, it all seems so Wisteria Lane. Everything is new and shiny. There is basically no diversity. Museums? Nope. Live music scene? Nope. I remember being in the LNC growing up and being so bored, and I can't imagine going back to that. I like the fact that the fiance has a really cool job, and he can really only do that in a big city. I like working in a big city (although Calabasas is something else altogether). Maybe I will feel differently when it comes time to have kids and things like good schools and big yards become more important, but for now, I will keep L.A. and visit the midwest every once and a while to enjoy the suburban life for what it offers and to remind myself why I left in the first place.
According to this calculator thing that I found on MSN, I would only have to make $20K per year to live in Kansas City and maintain the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed (ha!). That, coupled with the fact that my KC friends have recently purchased a ginormous beautiful house in Overland Park (the KC burbs), led me to ponder leaving the big city and heading back to the midwest. On one hand, I would LOVE to be able to buy a house. That just ain't gonna happen in L.A. Maybe a $300,000 condo, but unless there is an earthquake or a major bubble burst, there are no houses in my immediate future. There are other great things about the burbs too. Every single chain restaurant and retail store that I have ever heard of is within a 5-mile radius. That would be convenient. There is basically no traffic. That would be fab. There are yards. Except for the mowing part, I would be down with a yard.
On the other hand though, it all seems so Wisteria Lane. Everything is new and shiny. There is basically no diversity. Museums? Nope. Live music scene? Nope. I remember being in the LNC growing up and being so bored, and I can't imagine going back to that. I like the fact that the fiance has a really cool job, and he can really only do that in a big city. I like working in a big city (although Calabasas is something else altogether). Maybe I will feel differently when it comes time to have kids and things like good schools and big yards become more important, but for now, I will keep L.A. and visit the midwest every once and a while to enjoy the suburban life for what it offers and to remind myself why I left in the first place.
posted by Jayme @ 9:18 AM
2 Comments:
At 5:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
ok, i'll give you most of it, but "Museums? Nope. Live music scene? Nope." uh-uh, that's flimsy.
certainly LA offers more raw cultural material (based on sheer size alone, I'm sure) but how often do you go to the f-ing museum? honestly?
if you said LA beats the midwest because of the weather, or the beach, or the proximity to other cool places, or the shopping, or the attitude, or the people, or the energy, or the industry, or the opportunties, or the feng shui, or the celebrities, or because you have fukking In-and-Out Burger and we don't, then I'd completely understand. but museums? museums?!
and the live music thing is dumb. KC aint LA in terms of quantity and frequency of good acts, but we get basically everything you get, at some point. the club acts aren't nearly as good, I'm sure, but since when are you some hardcore music-maven?
anyway, whatever...I've got to go. the lawn boy just showed up and I think he might be banging my wife.
At 9:35 AM,
Jayme said…
I wasn't just talking about L.A. though. I was talking about large cities in general. And I wasn't just talking about the K.C. burbs, but burbs in general. On the museum thing, since I was working with teachers all week, I was thinking more in terms of educational opportunities rather than my own weekend activities. I don't go to museums all that often, but if I had a child in school and those kinds of opportunities were available to them, I would appreciate that.
In-and-Out rules!
I know you don't have a lawn boy either because your ass was mowing your lawn on Wednesday evening!
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