Okay, really for-reals...

[Sarah]

Come visit me. It's like 80 degrees.

[shellyindallas]

I'm totally jealous of your snow. Every time I tell someone I wanna live where it snows there all "Wha? Why the hell would you wanna do that?!" Then they work to convince me it would get old after a while and what a pain in the ass it would be to shovel snow and blah blah. But here the weather sucks so bad (to me anyway) they don't have a leg to stand on. Sure, it's pleasant now. Last week we had a 100 degree day! WTF?! Summer is miserable and it's about 8 months long. I can remember so many hot Halloweens where my scary make-up just melted off my face. Oh to have a legitimate Fall. Ours is about 2 weeks.
I'm thinking of moving in May. Me and my boyfriend were tossing around ideas but I don't know where to go. We can't do the Pacific NW, we did that one already and as pretty as it was the constant drizzling bummed us out.
Any suggestions? Somewhere without blazing hot summers and a decent cost of living?

[Kim]

I've always been partial to the Northeast. But, it's probably the yankee in me. I enjoy Vermont...but, we've had 121 inches of snow this year (so far, another storm coming on Friday). And then you have the skiers ,

The autumns are something though.


Boston is a great town. I can see it being a lot like what I would imagine Austin to be like. (my idea of Austin is completely based on Linklater by the way)

[Hertzan]

K.D.

we got 'snow for Easter' here in UK too and I HATE that it was such a really pathetic three-minute snow storm. I want my snow catastrophic, epic, expansive plains of purest white HATE.

:)

[Amanda]

Shelly, I'm with Kim--LOVE the Northeast. But I've only lived there over the summers. I absolutely cannot, repeat CANNOT, handle the cold. I have every intention of retiring in New England, and wintering elsewhere.

What about West Virginia? Have you ever been there? Gorgeous, and I bet their climate is pretty moderate and season-filled. I've never lived there, but visited.

[Tracy]

west viriginia is beautiful, and the weather is pretty nice (my partner is from charleston, so we spend most thanksgivings there with his family: the fall foliage all over all those little miniature mountains is breathtaking. even the 4ish hour drive through the boondocks of southern ohio and WV are pretty enough to keep me entertained (he's been driving that route so long that he usually just naps now). the weather seems nice, it's not in a valley like cincinnati, so i don't think the summers get as humid and smoggy and gross, and i know they get some decent snow in the winter. and if you can deal with being at least a couple of hours away from any decent shopping or "city" activities, then you might just love it there.

baltimore and maryland in general are also nice, and the winters are great (i loved when the nor'easters came through when i was working there. i'd never seen so much snow at one time). but the summers get pretty hot.

i've always wanted to move to canada myself... i'm in love with toronto, mostly because it reminds me of london and chicago, but without so much fog and the ridiculous 105 degree summers respecitvely.

[[deleted user]]

London, 105 degree summers? For like a week, maybe...

Shelly is used to WAY longer and hotter. It was the thing that I really couldn't handle living in Dallas, too hot for too long with no rain for MONTHS.

Yes, everyone, the NW is way too rainy...you should all move elsewhere. I don't know why I even consider influencing people to move here when I bitch about the transplants and how they clog up my communte (STEVE!)

[[deleted user]]

Yep King, it was sleet all the way to work this morning! Happy Spring!! :)

[shellyindallas]

Yes Amy, thanks for reiterating how truly shitty the weather is here! Don't forget the humidity! Here when rain comes it teases us by hanging out in the clouds weeks beforehand.

I've always wanted to checkout the NE, but then I hear about the cost of living and get freaked out--particularly Boston which I've always been interested in--I love their accents.

I thought about Baltimore too, but then one of my previous co-workers told me they lived there and thought it was a shithole.

Virginia sounds nice. So does Vermont.

Kim- I know I'm gonna make myself sound stupid here but where does one live in Vermont? Burlington? Montpelier? Those are the only two places in Vermont I have heard of. I just think of Vermont being mostly rural with little urban areas. What I love about Austin is how it's small but feels big. There's tons to do. What's Vermont life like? Outdoorsy?

[[deleted user]]

Mmmmm, yeah, the humidity...you gotta love the humidity. And, with these little Greek curls, oh how cute I look!! A bit like Diana Ross...

Once we went to Fiesta Texas in San Ant. and got all drenched on the water rides...yeah, we never dried. Changed clothes right there in the parking lot because I couldn't bear to drive back to Dallas in wet knickers and jean shorts!

What about Providence Shelly? That's always been one of those places in my head that sounds good!

[shellyindallas]

Good one! I just googled their average temps--highs in the 80s in the summer! I'll have to do some more research.

[Kim]

I would go with Burlington. We live about 10 minutes outside of it and it's like a mini Boston. There's about 6 colleges and then Lake Champlain. We're in the valley (between the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks). It's actually quite picturesque. But, you are right... mostly rural with little urban areas. Montpelier is nice, small and too tucked away for my liking. I like being on the lake. Then there's always Brattleboro and their 'clothing optional' law.
But, yes... it is EXTREMELY expensive to live in New England.
I lived in Boston during my college years and without at least 2-3 roommates it wasn't possible to survive... and that was eons ago. I would still retire there. There's a little carriage house off the Commons that I've had my eye on for years. :)

[Kim]

Providence is nice too. A small Boston. I haven't been there in years, but Val went to school there, she might be able to chime in.

[Valerie]

I lived in Providence while I was in school. RISD and Brown are both right there, as well as Johnson and Wales (a cooking school), so there are lots of students... I recently went back, and they've done a lot for the town. They renovated and constructed canals that run through the city, and there are some art installations on them... it's pretty nice. But they also built a bunch of huge hotels/malls/chains in the downtown area, which takes away from the more historic character of the city.

There's quick access to Boston and New York via the train, which is nice. And it's close to the shore, if you like the beach (the cold, New England-y style ones).

[shellyindallas]

There's a town with a clothing optional law?! Oh jesus, my boyfriend is obsessed with clothing optional places, every time we see a girl jogging down the street he says "she'd look much better nude"--ugh!, if I tell him about such a place it's all over, he won't even want to finish out the lease!

(btw-don't get me started on nudists, they are never the people you would like to see naked)

Kim- do you ever watch 30 Rock? My image of Vermont is from that show. Where Alec Baldwin's character dates a Senator (I think--anyway the actress from the Sopranos) and finds out she's a) A democrat and worse b) a democrat from Vermont. The most liberal of all liberals! And everytime she's around everyone smells syrup! Hilarious!

Val--Providence sounds cool. The centrality to NY and Boston is quite the selling point, as are canals that run through the city. One downside: The Patriots. I'm with The Onion on this one:
"Patriots season perfect for everybody else"

[Valerie]

Madison's nice, too. Lots of lakes and bike trails, and very liberal. It's relatively cosmopolitan for a Midwestern city (IMO), 2 1/2 hours from Chicago, and if you lived here, you'd get to root for the Packers.

I'm not really a sports fan, so I'm not sure if that's better or worse than rooting for the Patriots...

[Valerie]

Oh, but we've had over 100 inches of snow here this winter, and it's snowing again right now.

Almost forgot that bit.

[Sarah]

My husband's from Parkersburg, WV. And they get plenty of snow in the winter and miserably humid summers. I lived in Raleigh, NC as a kid and had gotten used to the hot, humid summers but after living in the dry heat of Sacramento for 15 years, going back to that humidity was awful. You get out of the shower and never dry off.

Plus, there's not even a Starbucks in his town! Not only that, there are no cafes at all! My husband thinks we should move there and open a Starbucks and become gazillionaires.

[Kim]

Yes... Brattleboro causes quite the stir for our little state. They also have passed this little gem of a 'law'

On January 25, 2008, the town council by a 3-2 vote approved a petition to be placed on a March 4 ballot, calling for the indictment of [[It is the headquarters of the President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for crimes against the United States Constitution. The petition reads: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecute or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?"[5]

huh... and in finding that, it looks like nudity was banned in December of last year ($100 fine).

Vermont also wants to secede from the U.S.

we're just a bunch o' radicals up heeyar...

[Kim]

Kim- do you ever watch 30 Rock? My image of Vermont is from that show. Where Alec Baldwin's character dates a Senator (I think--anyway the actress from the Sopranos) and finds out she's a) A democrat and worse b) a democrat from Vermont. The most liberal of all liberals! And everytime she's around everyone smells syrup! Hilarious!


That's us.... we love our syrup. And our ice cream... and our chocolates... but not Phish.

[Tracy]

no amy, london has fog (which i actually like, although it sort of renders good hair days nonexistant), chicago has 105 degree summers. believe me, i spent a good week in july visiting a friend's mom waaaaay up in the north suburbs... she lived in a trailer, and her air conditioner was broken... i thought i was going to die.