Inspired by PF's country boy post.
I'm a city girl at heart. For all its lush, much beloved (by me, anyway) vineyards and farms once you get out east, most of Long Island - the place I spent my first 21 years - is basically an extension of NYC. I spent many many school breaks visiting with my Aunt Louise in the Bronx, I love Hunts Point Market, I love Manhattan, I love Broadway, I love the subway, I love the noise, I love the streets, I love Central Park, the hustle and bustle, I love it all. I get all wistful watching Sex and the City.
Seriously folks, the smell of diesel fumes is a comfort to me. I'm NOT kidding.
My husband is a country boy at heart. You can see how this would cause a problem.
When I first moved to Wisconsin, I spent the first 7+ years living in Beaver Dam, a small Midwestern town of about 15,000. A few grocery stores, many many bars, an older-than-dirt YMCA as its only gym (at the time), a mall desperately in need of revitalization, a 4-screen movie theater... but it's a sweet, quaint, quiet little town. Tree City, USA! A lot of our friends are there or nearby. And in time, I grew to love it. But I itched for something more. Something... bigger.
We moved to Fond du Lac the last week of October, 2005. A smidge closer to what I wanted - more stores, more shopping, better restaurants, more to do in general. Definitely an improvement.
But Madison... April 12, 2007 was the day I got as close to being a city girl as I'll probably ever get again. Loads of things to do, lots of shopping - and not all big box! - a thriving music scene, culture. Driving the Beltline during my first Madison rush hour (as a resident, anyway), I actually felt at peace. It's not NYC, but then nothing is NYC except NYC. It does my city heart good, and it's close enough to Wisconsin's rolling countryside to placate my country-boy husband. This'll do.
But if we ever strike it rich, we're SO totally getting a brownstone on Central Park West.
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