Boise

[cjsmith]

Step 1 in figuring out what to do with the rest of our lives: figure out where it's going to happen.*

This weekend Rob and I checked out Boise.

General impressions:
- pretty darn white
- pretty darn hot
- surprisingly un-oppressive about how overwhelmingly Christian it is
- surrounding area just as dead and brown in the summer as where we live now
- fun walkable downtown (if ya have feet)
- close to skiing (good if ya have feet)
- lots of kayaking
- good potential for finding a house we like
- not much aviation community (though there's lots for the population size)
- friendly people (except the guy at Piazza di Vino)
- full complement of the same big box stores you can find in larger cities in America
- significant variety of restaurants
- no Challenge square dancing potential ever
- no veterinary school

Several of these traits will be shared by just about every place we consider. Places with perfect climate and comfortable religious diversity don't come cheap; if the point is to ditch the rat race and move to a far less expensive location, we'll have to accept some changes. Given that, Boise's pretty nifty. It has a Pride parade. lkeele, I found an EGYPTIAN restaurant! It's more cosmopolitan than a coast-dweller might guess a city of 185,000 to be.

I don't know if I can handle summer heat of 103F. weather.com claims the average July high to be 89; that is a sobering reminder that Albuquerque (92) and Austin (96) are probably also hotter than they look.

Could I be happy in Boise?

Probably.

Next stop: Albuquerque. Also on the list: Austin, Boulder, maybe Portland if we forget about cheap or sunny.

______________________
* People of my generation and even a bit older change careers more often than they move from one state to another. Therefore, says Penelope Trunk, pick the location first and then pick the career. The location will last longer.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Perhaps on further searching we'll find Boulder itself to be too pricey. Fort Collins (vet school) might be less so... we really haven't researched costs there yet.

Yeah, I worry about College Station. It's difficult to predict I would be happy there for four years.

I gotta decide whether I really want to be a veterinarian or not. Like soon. It's a heck of a constraint to put into the decision.

Environmental Educator at a wildlife refuge seems really nifty! I hope it does just what you want it to in terms of the level of social contact. It's hard for us introverts to find the right balance. Congratulations on finishing the Masters!

I too enjoyed the book "Your Money or Your Life" and have gotten a lot out of it. Without that, I might not have the courage to be thinking about all these options now.

replied to the wrong thing, reposted to correct.

[lizzie-omalley.livejournal.com]

ort Collins is cool. I like it a lot better than Boulder actually.

When I was living in Denver, we used to joke that Boulder was a quaint little town nestled between the mountains and reality.

But in all seriousness, Boulder has a feel of being fatally hip with a materialistic spin while Fort Collins feels down to earth and real. But that's just me.

I have done the EE stuff before both as a volunteer (it was one of the things my day job interfered with) and ages ago for pay. I would be tired and cranky before my volunteer shift and it would be hard to drag myself there but I would come home energized. That became a "clue". *grin* The other thing that accomplishes that is theater. Both of which the day job interfered with.

I am not the type of person that likes to "go out" most evenings and being single I ended up feeling isolated. Denver is a very isolating city if you don't like joining things. Working in an education field helps break that isolation.

While I agree with the aritcle that relationships are important, I do think the type of work has to fit as well or it becomes a drain to the relationships. The career I left was doing GIS as an environmental planner. I was sitting behind a computer all day in a little grey cube and I hated it. I was never outside and I had little human contact. It would have been less awful if it had been contributing to the welfare of a family but it was still wrong for me. I need a social job. Changing careers at 50 was the best thing I did. This will be my third change, I think. *wry grin*

And thanks on the congrats. I am very excited.