That line has been my mantra for choosing my places to live over the last however many years. The thought of the suburbs is a scary, scary thing.
Kathryn was living in So. Cal when I moved back down to Florida. She said she'd move there with me, but I wasn't allowed to move her to the burbs. It had to be city. I quietly keep it to myself that Florida is pretty much all what the rest of the world calls suburbs, but managed to find a killer (and I mean killer) apartment in downtown Orlando overlooking the little skyline thats available in the area. It was a perfect staging ground from the world that we were used to -- just enough crime to make us feel alive ;)
It's funny though, because those frightening 'suburbs' that we so desperately wanted to avoid are exactly where we find ourselves now. After searching all over Central Florida, we've bought a home in Satellite Beach, FL.
54 miles of highway separate us from Orlando proper (as defined by UCF, which for those that know me well, I consider to be the center of the free world). I've timed it at 40 minutes to 408 from here on average. Heading downtown, it's seems to be an hour worst case, 45 minutes at best door to door to my old apartment. Even with the added bit of distance, the highways between "here" and "there" make it equivalent to an Oviedo or Orlampa style commute to downtown. The difference is that I'm about 1/4th mile away from a nature preserved beach access (The biggest negative for Orlando was always that its so dang landlocked), close to my family (born and raised here), and in one of the best public school districts in the state.
So far so good. I miss my morning/lunch meet ups with friends (I'm one of those 'never eat alone' kind of guys), but it's great being so close to family. It's also been completely awesome having a really big home office, which was central to our cause when we were looking at places. I can crank the music way up and stay in my own little world here. Condos/apartments make that thing sort of tough sometimes.
Anyhow. I'll still be around probably just as much (which really wasn't all that much these days, anyhow). I'm traveling up to dulles quite often (one or two days a week lately), so that may limit how much I'm downtown. If/when it subsides some I think I'll try to do the tuesday coworking/jelly-ish session at Stardust to stay in the loop.
If you are over in Brevard though, hit me up! Looking to rebuild my connections on this part of town. It's been awhile.
Kathryn was living in So. Cal when I moved back down to Florida. She said she'd move there with me, but I wasn't allowed to move her to the burbs. It had to be city. I quietly keep it to myself that Florida is pretty much all what the rest of the world calls suburbs, but managed to find a killer (and I mean killer) apartment in downtown Orlando overlooking the little skyline thats available in the area. It was a perfect staging ground from the world that we were used to -- just enough crime to make us feel alive ;)
It's funny though, because those frightening 'suburbs' that we so desperately wanted to avoid are exactly where we find ourselves now. After searching all over Central Florida, we've bought a home in Satellite Beach, FL.
54 miles of highway separate us from Orlando proper (as defined by UCF, which for those that know me well, I consider to be the center of the free world). I've timed it at 40 minutes to 408 from here on average. Heading downtown, it's seems to be an hour worst case, 45 minutes at best door to door to my old apartment. Even with the added bit of distance, the highways between "here" and "there" make it equivalent to an Oviedo or Orlampa style commute to downtown. The difference is that I'm about 1/4th mile away from a nature preserved beach access (The biggest negative for Orlando was always that its so dang landlocked), close to my family (born and raised here), and in one of the best public school districts in the state.
So far so good. I miss my morning/lunch meet ups with friends (I'm one of those 'never eat alone' kind of guys), but it's great being so close to family. It's also been completely awesome having a really big home office, which was central to our cause when we were looking at places. I can crank the music way up and stay in my own little world here. Condos/apartments make that thing sort of tough sometimes.
Anyhow. I'll still be around probably just as much (which really wasn't all that much these days, anyhow). I'm traveling up to dulles quite often (one or two days a week lately), so that may limit how much I'm downtown. If/when it subsides some I think I'll try to do the tuesday coworking/jelly-ish session at Stardust to stay in the loop.
If you are over in Brevard though, hit me up! Looking to rebuild my connections on this part of town. It's been awhile.
Thinking about it... I've been "on the road" for all but about ~1.5 weeks in the last ~4.5 months or so. Dang. 