I'm not even going to mention the differences in crime rates.

This weekend The Mister and I will be traveling to Marietta, Ohio to visit some friends and celebrate Capitall's birthday. (You can read about Capitall, Wino, Drinky and Red here, here, and here.
Marietta is an amazing town where we always have a great time. The Mister and I have dreams of having a house there someday... y'know, like when we're 85 and actually have the money. Well, the truth is, we could afford a house there now, but The Mister's work is not something he can do outside of a big city. It would be wonderful to have a place there now and still have our apartment here, but that is NOWHERE in the budget! We are going to be city dwellers for a long, long time. It's a great thing we both love the city!
What's really funny (not haha, rather eye-roll), is we could buy this house for less than the cheapest condo I could find in our Glover Park neighborhood. This gorgeous Victorian house is... are you ready?... wait for it... $220,000. The aforementioned condo, a one bedroom -the 'cheapest'- is $224,500.
I know, I know. It's all about "Location! Location! Location!" But sometimes, when you love a place as much as I love Marietta, it makes you wonder what makes a Location so great?
Sure, we have great resources; we can walk to the store, use public transportation, and there is no reason anybody should be jobless in this city. (You may not be able to find the job you WANT, but don't tell me you can't find A JOB. Hell, I can't find the job I want, but that doesn't mean I can't trot to Wisconsin Avenue and find another waitress gig. )
In Marietta you can walk most places. However, there is no public transport, which makes a car quite handy especially for haulin' groceries. Jobs are hard to come by and this is the big chink in my chain. Sure, I could probably go teach and I am pretty sure I would a) enjoy it, and b) be good at it. I almost studied Education in college, but in order to fully spite my mother, I chose Radio/Television Production instead. Real smart, I know. The school system in Marietta is fantastic but since The Mister and I are never having children, the reason I care is I think I'd like to teach. I've really considered going back to school to get my teaching certificate, but as long as we are in DC, zippy chance. There isn't enough money in the world to get me into a DC classroom. I'm a wee girl and in no way prepared to deal with city kids. They're tough. I could break a country kid. I've watched my mom do it for 28 years. Mom's a teacher, dad's a principal and they've taught me a shit-ton.
The greatest obstacle is The Mister's career. He is amazing, talented and very good at what he does as an Audio Engineer. However, there is no market for him in Southeastern Ohio.
It's cool, though... we love to visit, make the most of our times there and this coming weekend is going to be a blast! Especially because I've got a couple surprises up my wee little sleeve!