Waiting Casually

As I mentioned previously, I’ve been thinking about the issue of where I live and whether I’m happy here. As one might expect, the topic is pretty complicated. There are things that I love about Ann Arbor (Seriously, how hilarious is that home page? It’s like going back to 1998 on the web. They have a freakin’ weather widget!), and things that make me want to pull my hair out.

The Good (in no particular order):

• Unlike Berkeley, Ann Arbor as a city seems to have embraced the university and its students wholly rather than pretend that the city would be the same without all of the income from university jobs and sales tax collected from all of the goods that the 37,000+ students buy in the state each year.
• The city does a great job of sponsoring local artists. I mean both at the government level and the community level, because there are a lot of sponsorships that are out there for artists, and there is a big focus on buying locally and supporting local artists within the community itself.
• Zingerman’s
• My job (as I discussed earlier).
• The Mrs. and I were able to buy a house that we love at about a quarter or less of what it would have cost us back in the Bay Area.
• We really have made more friends here than we made back in California. Don’t get me wrong - my two very best friends still live in the Bay Area and I miss them intensely, but we have casual friends here that are an absolute blast and we didn’t really make that effort back home.
• People just seem to be nicer in the Midwest. Did I mention that folks who live in Michigan are referred to as Michiganders? Isn’t that just so pastoral and cute?

The Bad (etc. etc.):

• With the exception of Zingerman’s, the food in Ann Arbor can’t hold a candle to the food in the Bay Area. If there are any Ann Arborites reading, I’m sorry, I know that you think you’re in some oasis of high cuisine, but, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Eve is nice, yes, but you have to understand that there are a hundred restaurants in the Bay Area that are as good as Eve, and there are fifty more that are better. You have two good sushi places. The Bay Area has a few dozen that are better. You have some crappy Indian food. The Bay Area has the best saag chicken this side of New Delhi. You have coney island dogs. … Actually, those are really good. We have Top Dog though! My point is that there is wider variety in the Bay Area and it’s almost always better and (when appropriate) fresher than what Ann Arbor offers.
• We miss our friends. My two very best friends live in the Bay Area, so being far away from them is tough. Sure, drunken voicemails left at 2AM are fun, but that doesn’t replace being able to run around together in person.
• We miss our families. Both of our families live in California, so moving to Michigan put us very, very far away. I’ve always been somewhat of a wayward child, but I know it’s been hard on the Mrs. I need to call home more…
• It’s. So. Goddamn. Flat. Where are the hills even?
• It’s. So. Goddamn. Land-locked. And no, the river isn’t cutting it.

So there you have it. There are things on there that really add to our quality of life (happier at work, the house, nice people) and things that detract (geography, lack of close friends and family, food).

At this point we’ve decided that it’s good for right now, but not for the long haul. I’m not sure if that means we move back or move on, but we’ve got time to decide.