Happy New Year to you, Art, and everyone here at ecoustics. 2010 was a great year for Kim and I, hopefully 2011 will be even better. Hope it's better for everyone.
Ain't that the truth. Seems like just yesterday I was in high school with all the energy in the world and the only stress coming from a report due on Friday. Today my kids are calling me old and I actually like piece and quiet as I fart around my house on my days off in house slippers and a robe. Uhhhhhggg.
Lol Paul! I remember those days. Now, I'm hangin' 'round the house in shorts & T-shirt w/bare feet now that the Christmas decorations are all down & put away and all the cleaning is done. If it were cold, I'd have sweat pants & slippers on. My sons want to go places and do things and my wife and I are saying "Relax guys!"
By you guys' account, I guess I've always been old. I've always hated big crowds, long lines for things, and so on. Reminds me of when I went on my honeymoon - Kim and I went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and stayed at a resort. A waiter in one of the restaurants said we came at the worst time, because no one was there. When it's busy, you have to wait a while to find a chair by the pool, and the bars are packed. My response - I go on vacation to relax by the pool and not wait an hour to get a drink. If being on vacation is all about being overcrowded and waiting too long for anything, everyday is a vacation where I'm from!
Even in college, I was always the guy far happier in a small uncrowded pub having a lot of beer that I didn't have to fight for and playing darts whenever I wanted to. I was never the guy who was looking for the hottest new club that had an hour long line just to get in. That never made sense to me.
I never had the desire to go to Times Square on New Year's Eve. I've got far better things to do and more comfortable places to go than being in the middle of 1 million people crammed into 6 blocks.
The worst was going to Manhattan to Rockefeller Center the last weekend before Christmas a few years ago with some friends of ours. There were so many people everywhere, that you could not stop walking. If you stopped for a second, you'd get run over. The line to get into St. Patrick's Cathedral went around the corner, all the way down the block, and wrapped around 3 times. Everyone loved being in the middle of that crap, except for Kim and I. Not that it wasn't nice being with our friends and seeing the tourist stuff, but the crowds killed what would have been a really good time. Those guys didn't mind it at all, and it's not like they've never been there before during the holidays.
Yup yup giddyup. I agree. I always preferred renting a flick and watching it at home then paying tons of $$ for tickets and food, suffer through the lines and countless previews, cram myself into a seat made for a 6 year old and pray I don't get surrounded by imbeciles who only came to see the movie because it was the "new" thing to do.
I did Times Square on New Years. Once and only once. I was 22? A complete mad house of chaos and lunacy. Our group walked into a McDonald's at around 10pm. I kid you not the place was filled with only two types of ppl. On the right side were nothing but NYC cops, all drinking complimentary coffee of course. On the left? Approximately 50-75 transvestites in full drag. You just can't make stuff like this up lol. Yeah, every year there after was watched on tv.
Xmas shopping is the same way. Every year ppl complain about the same headaches over and over and over again, yet they all still go out on black Friday. Hello!!! Anyone home upstairs?????
I'm anti-crowd too. Always have been. Times square? Downtown San Antonio? Never happened, never will. We buy a bottle of Asti to toast the New Year and just enough other booze to get buzzed, watch rockin' eve and SA, dwntwn coverage on TV. The filth palace accross the st sets off firewerx, so we watch those. Then we go to bed around 3 am.
I am the same way Stu. Did all my xmas shopping online this year and stayed in for new years with Ava and Danielle. Fired up the theater for a flick and drank some beer. It was nice to finally relax this holiday. I get 10 days every year at xmas paid but always somewhat dread it as I am just driving all over the place for a full week. lol Next year people can come visit us, they know where I live. It only took New Years to finally get a relaxing few days before I got back to work next week.lol.
I'm tired of running around on the holidays. My parents are divorced an re-married. Combine that with my siblings and their kids, Kim's parents, her siblings and kids, and it equals spending more time in the car driving around than anything else. We swore once Kathryn was born we'd stay home. Didn't work out that way on Christmas...
Our families live about 3 hours away, but all within about 20 minutes of each other. Since it was Kathryn's first Christmas, even though she's only 1 month old, we decided to make the trip, with the condition that we'd only take her to our parents' houses. We did that to minimize crowds, cold weather exposure, etc. to minimize the chances of her getting sick. She got sick anyway. Nothing serious, but a 1 month old being sick isn't fun. We're not happy about it at all.
Everyone knows where we live. If they want to see her for the holidays, they'll have to make the trip. Tired of inconveniencing us to make everyone else happy. When it was just Kim and I, it was easier for us to go see everyone else. We did that for the 9 years we've been together. Now its easier for them than it is for us. I'm pretty sure they won't see it that way though.
You and Kim need to be tough about it Stu. If all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc don't see Kathryn next Christmas, they'll realize you're not bluffing and make the trip. I would never ask my son & his wife to take the baby out in the cold. We told them, "No, we'll come over there." It's only 5 minutes, but still....and it's not even very cold in south texas.
Are you in/near San Antonio? I was there 2 summers ago for the NATA convention. It's a great town. I'd say top 3 places to have the convention in the 11 or so years I've been attending them. Next year is New Orleans. That should be a great time.
I stand corrected - New Orleans is this year. Not used to it being 2011 yet!
I live within 2 hrs of San Antonio. It's the only city I've been to that I like. Been to NYC, Philly, Jersey City, Austin and others. They all suck. We go into SA on a regular basis. Been on a few boat rides.
I have been to SA many a time, but only really got to enjoy it once, that was 25 yrs ago. Convention Center, on the riverwalk, lots of spare time. Irish piano bar with a performer that is no more Irish than me. A chickie goes through the place with a snow shovel to to clear peanut shells. I says "Hey, that's a nice snow shovel", just to open, right? She say's, it's a peanut shovel.
In my personal experience and opinion please stay away from Jersey. Not foolin' at all. The people are rude and drive live azzhats, the taxes are insane and so is insurance rates. We're the only state that is completely covered in HD on Google Earth for a reason. We are so highly populated and bouncing off each other's lives it kills us all lol.
I didn't choose to live here, I was drug here with the rest of my family with my Father back in the 80's because of a career change. Now we're all grown up and have families of our own. Naturally we all spread out like leaves off a tree so my Father is stuck where he's planted.
I have many bad experiences and opinions of living in the "Garden State" and I won't bore you with them all.
I agree Paul! I spent 30 years in NJ. Every single thing you said about it is exactly right. I moved to TX 8 1/2 yrs ago, never looked back. My wife and sons were born & raised in NJ. None of us want to back.
Ooh! Painful realization eh Paul? There are many nicer parts of the country. Once you get either south of VA or west PA, things improve dramatically. Maine is nice too, but 9 months of winter is not for most Americans.
Last stats i read showed PA to have the lowest rate of people leaving for somewhere else. People seem to like PA. I'd like to go for a drive in PA, except for Philly. As for '9 months of winter' in Maine, a little south and perhaps west you will find VT and NH, both real nice with slightly milder winters. Stay OFF of Mt Washington. Highest wind speeds recorded were around 200mph and even the Natives stayed the heck away. Great view on the rare clear day.
Unfortunately I'm cemented where I am. Taxes and cost of living are my biggest gripes. I have a small 3 bed ranch that sits on 1/4 acre and my taxes just got reappraised at $5200/year. Car insurance is one of the worst in the country and due to the congestion it can take me 45 minutes to travel 5 miles to work, in the suburbs! I pay two water and two sewer bills. One goes to the municipality I live in and the other to Camden county. They double dip you whenever they can.
Recently they changed the permit process on home improvements and routine maintenance on your home here. It used to be a flat fee for various things like a new roof or siding. NOW the permit fee is a percentage of the cost of the project. It's absurd.
Registration fees for your vehicles go up almost every other year and so does the cost of crossing a bridge, which they were trying to raise to $5 this coming year.
About the reappraisals? They jacked almost everybody, including myself. I saw him coming and didn't answer the door. I had done alot of remodeling inside which includes my bar and some finishing of my basement that I didn't need him seeing. Wouldn't you know he walked around my yard counting trees and shrubs? Anything at all that would allow him to raise the value of my home. They even measured flower beds. FLOWER BEDS for God's sake. So two weeks later I got the reappraisal in the mail and my property value almost doubled, stating that since they couldn't see the inside of the home they "estimated" an adjustment and calculated accordingly.
One of my brothers got out and lives in Georgia. He lives in a beautiful neighborhood inside a $500,000+ home on 2+ landscaped acres and pays $1800/year in taxes. Mild weather most of the year.
I could go on but I'd have to pause to vomit first.
Oh snap. It looks like I bored you all a bit after all.
I'm in PA right now for a basketball tournament. I hate PA! Outside of Philly and Pittsburg is awful. Amish and Menonite country, but not in a good way. The college I work for's athletic conference is made up of mainly PA schools. Something just isn't right out here.
I've heard the argument that Iowa is the most civilized state in the country. One of the highest rates of college and graduate education, home ownership, employment, and very low crime rate. I've been to Iowa once. I guess civilized has several different meanings!
When we lived in NJ, we used to visit Lancaster a lot. It's beautiful country with a lot of old fashioned values, but the Amish and the "english" as they call us don't mix very well. It's just a strange situation.
The rest of the state varies. The further east you go, the more like NJ it gets. As you go west, people are nicer, but not especially bright.