I've been so busy at work that it looked like I just declared I was moving to Portland and never going to post again. Heckaportland does not have the same ring. I do have to stay for a while for my job anyway, and by then maybe the urge will have faded.
But it kind of seems crazy that me and smiller would live in the same city our entire lives, given how much we like to explore and get to know new places, right? How many of you out there lived here growing up and have stayed?
But I'll post more. I don't have any time now, either!
Oh yeah, I posted about e-40 on heckarap
The Air Force moved us around a lot for a while, but since age 10, I've been somewhere along I-80 between Sac and Fairfield except for the year in (near) Portland.
ReplyDeleteI've overheard people talking about friends living in Sac as if they "got stuck in Sacramento", often completely discounting a friend's open willingness to live in Sacramento despite other choices. I used to be reflexively offended when I'd hear that, but now I consider the hypocrisy and rather delight in it. Like, when I hear a recent UC-Davis grad say that while they live in SF, and then they become vocal in the opposition towards the gentrification that they are participating in, and then when we visit their city to partake in live music and eating awesome food, their excuse for why they can't join us is because they are flat broke despite working two jobs to afford rent in the house that aggravates their chronic bronchitis.
I want R. Kelly to sing about Sacramento.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/watch-r-kelly-sing-ridiculous-sex-songs-20131119
Sacto lifer here.
ReplyDelete-DB
Moved to Sac at twenty. Then lived in the bay area for 5 years and then moved back. It kind of struck me a few months ago how many Sacramentans have lived their while lives there. It was surprising for some reason.
ReplyDeleteAbout 18 months ago, I was seriously considering moving away for 5 or 10 years, but I realized that I don't have the energy to go through the stages to get to real friends again. Like you meet one person and they are OK, and eventually you meet their friends and they are cool, but finally you meet their friends and you make a real connection. It takes a few years. It would be easier on the west coast since there are so many friends here, I've spent my whole life here, I am way more interested in moving east.
Anyway in the end, I didn't think I had the chutzpah, so I decided to change up some things about my life in Sac. Don't really know if it's working yet.
Gbomb
I've lived in Sacramento my whole life. Not only that, but if you drew a 7-mile radius around my childhood home, every other place I've lived would fall in about a half of that circle.
ReplyDeleteA ton of my high school and childhood friends still live here.
My husband is from Eugene, but spent ten years in Portland. He used to really want to go back, but this place and its weather have grown on him.
Moved here when I was 7 - I planned to move back east throughout my whole childhood, but when I discovered downtown in my late teens that desire largely faded. I've toyed with the idea of moving over the years, but there is a lot that I love about Sacramento.. for one thing, it's the perfect home base. It's cheap and easy enough to live here that you can have a life beyond work, and you can save up for traveling. I'm not sure how easy that would be if lived in SF or NYC. And, as people mentioned above, we have great friends here - something that can't really be underestimated in quality of life.
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Yeah it's hard to believe as an adult that I'm here when I spent so much time as an adolescent plotting my escape. And I've had stints over the years of moving away to other parts of California, other Western States, and overseas to go to school or work. But like others have mentioned, Cost of Living and Community really do make for a pretty good Quality of Life.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, but I see a good mix among people I know of having moved away versus stayed here all their life. I will say that the people I know who've stayed here are also well educated, well read, traveled and generally curious about the world. So staying here isn't really a hinderance. Versus a lot of my old high school classmates I've run into (I went to Bella Vista), who haven't so much left Sacramento as much as they've stayed in the same bubble of people, places, and experiences their entire lives.
I lived in Sacramento a week short of 21 years. I was cruising through Sac State, but I felt weird going to college where I grew up when I could get into/afford tons of other places. Plus I was just sick of a giant city -- moving to Humboldt County just verified I was a small-town hick at heart and that I have to live right by the ocean. Of course, I became that guy who graduates and never leaves the college town, but that's like a third of the population up here (they counter balance all the locals who yearn for the bright lights of Portland and Brooklyn, leave and never return. I feel like a but of a schlub for only living in two places, since I fully intend to retire and die up here, but I have no regrets. Still love Sacramento, love to visit it, it's sure gotten better since in the 80s, but I'm just an urbanphobe. I don't think there's anything wrong with spending the whole span of one's life there -- beats doing it in Coalinga or Battle Mountain or Celebration, FL. And plenty of people do.
ReplyDeleteYou can't smack on Coalinga....They know how to party!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh7zhxXKEC4
...unlike the city of Avenal or Kettleman City!
I was born in Sacramento (third-generation, even) and I've never lived anywhere else. When I was a moody teenager, I hoped I would get out of town and reinvent myself in a bigger city, but that never happened and I have no regrets about it.
ReplyDeleteAs I got older, I learned to really like it here. Other people mentioned community-that and having my entire family here are huge parts of why I stay.
I do not in anyway feel like I'm missing out on anything. I take trips, I see friends in other places, but I can't really imagine myself relocating permanently.
This is a nice place to live if you are not too lazy to make your own fun and are relatively social. I don't really see why anyone without preexisting ties to Sacramento would intentionally move here if it wasn't for work or something.
NL
To and from Sac has always been my thing, but I'm not sure if I'm the answer or perspective you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteI have a love/hate relationship with Sacto (really it's with everything, especially if you know my dating history). I'm usually friendly towards everyone, but I like having a small number of close friends.
Recently, I spent a year in Oregon. Mostly in Portland. Food, beer, cocktails, dive bars/diners/food carts and the old car/motorcycle scene is way better in Portland, but the drizzle and clouds sucks ass.
I really enjoyed living in Chicago, but the summer of 105F and 90% humidity and the winter of -40 windchill factor sucks ass.
I enjoyed living in San Francisco, but I like owning cars and motorcycles. I've turned down high paying jobs where I could get a place in SF with car/motorcycle storage, but it ain't for me. I'm a slacker in the traditional sense: less money, less responsibility, less problems.
Currently, I'm back in Korea. My plans are always changing, but I think I'm going to end up in the Middle East for a few years. Then I'll pay cash for a house outright in Sacramento. I still need to finish my ride round the world.
No matter what I do, I know I'll end up back in Sac. There's a Rina and Poodi R Mike, and an Ella and Lauren the Locksmith I need to tease until I die.
But in the meantime, there's so much stuff in the world to see and do and eat and drink. It'd take a few hundred years for me to do the stuff I want to do. I read a story about a book collector who talked about how hard it was to narrow down her interests of what to collect to just a subject. I'm trying to do that with everything in my life.
Wow, Dave, that's so cool. I know what you mean. I feel like I can't cram all my interests into my life, which is a really good thing to feel.
ReplyDeleteI would always want to be close and I think we would come back. And if we do end up living here forever and ever and ever that's fine. At some point when we're old we will probably live part time in Mazatlan. Snowbirds! This is news to Scott.
That god-damn motorcycle trip around the world!
ReplyDeleteThe motorcycle trip is a good long term goal. It keeps me traveling and seeing new things. Otherwise, I'll end up buying the house next to you and will become your Kramer.
ReplyDeleteThat begs the question, who will be your Newman?
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