What town, exactly are you in? Your profile says Olympia, WA, and although I have never been there, I cannot believe that it is more stressed out than Boston. I always thought that WA was land of the chill pill.

Heck, I'm getting stressed out just thinking about this. Dang! Where's my Prozac and Ritalin?

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I currently live in a small pocket of poverty located in Olympia's ultra-trendy, exclusive Westside. I won't go into what a hell hole this place is to live. You are totally ranked on what you make and what you drive. Most people here would rather die than live in a house that cost less than $300,000. If you are still driving a car that was built in the 90's, will you please visit the dealership!!! We have standards here to maintain. I was born in Tacoma/Puyallup area and when I was a little fart, my Dad got a job with Del Monte in Walnut Creek, California. I lived there until I was 13/14 and then the parents moved back to the Northwest. I like Tacoma and still hang there fairly often. It's a gritty, blue-collar town with charm. Lots of runners and some real good races like the Sound to Narrows which is a 12k that goes through Point Defiance Park. Olympia is about 20 minutes South of T-town, if I didn't mention that in my first post.

Brett

You mentioned T-town, I just didn't know what that was.

We don't even have houses under $300,000 out here, unless you want to live in a slum. Most suburbs are in the 4's or 5's, with the nicer one's going over $1M. I think that a lot of what you are noticing is fairly pandemic, since you could well be describing most of the Boston suburbs.

Bostonians introduce themselves thusly: "Hi, I'm <your name here.> I'm a <misleading but impressive title> at <Your Prestigious firm's name>. (In a condescending voice) What do you do?" Or if you're a female who stays at home raising the kids: ""Hi, I'm <your name here.> My husband is a <misleading but impressive title> at <Your Prestigious firm's name>. My children go to <trendy private school.> (In a condescending voice) What does your husband do?" They may also needlessly say something like, " Is my Lexus blah-blah SUV blocking you? Just let me know and I'll move it."

The best vacation I think I ever had was a San Fran-Tahoe-San Fran wedding trip. Four days in SF, six days in Tahoe for a friend's wedding, and another 3 days in SF. It was wonderful, relaxing, and enjoyable. In the entire two week period, not a single person asked me what I did for a living. And no one ever talked about work. It was as if they didn't care. By the time I got home, I had damned near forgotten that I had a job. It was nice to just be Jeff for a while.

It may not console you much, but people are like that everywhere, not just in your town.

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I don't know why the link didn't show up in my original post (unless it was operator error).

http://houseandhome.msn.com/...StressfulCities.aspx

Last year, Tacoma was the car theft capitol of the U.S.

"Fifteens in the trunk, nine in my lap"

Brett

Oh! I get it now. It's kind of a misnomer. It should be "Quality of Life" Index, not stressful city index.

I lived in Las Vegas for over four years, and it had all those things in abundance, except for commute time, but I wouldn't say anybody was stressed out about life. Everybody was just working on a way to hit bottom in their own special way.

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My favorite thing about Olympia is the East Coast Trustafarian (wealthy brat with dreadlocks and a Land Rover) clique here. Dating these chicks is tough. It's hard to win the heart of a gal who works eight hours per week at the organic espresso bar/world folk-music cafe, lives in a $1100/month pad and again, drives a Land Rover. Sadly, this girl has to work in order to stretch the paltry million dollar trust fund that she got at 21 and won't be getting another mil until she's 40. When not criticising the Bush administration, she'll take off for Argentina or Nicaraugua (sp?) for a few months to sort things out in her head. Life can be rough sometimes.

Brett

"Sadly, this girl has to work in order to stretch the paltry million dollar trust fund that she got at 21 and won't be getting another mil until she's 40. "

Is she cute... post her pix... and number...

<<Is she cute... post her pix... and number... >>

Which one? Heck, Oly is littered with 'em. Tell you what: Come to Oly, we'll hang at "Traditions" and sip some organic espresso, snack on a soygurt smoothie made with organically grown Chilean blueberrys while listening to a local musician play a drum that was made with wood from the rainforest (but we'll ignore the hypocracy of that) while reciting poetry from a femminist author. Afterwards, we'll discuss how NPR is being corrupted by the conservatives and that all heterosexual intercourse is rape. Then we can plan our trip to the Andes because all of this stress is really bringing us down.

Brett

Dude you've described Long Island to a tee (except for the dreads).

Having spent 10 years in Seattle and the last 1.5 years on Long Island, I have to say...

They both suck!

Cali has a lot of problems too, but dang if I can come up with a better place to live AND work (as in there are jobs there). Bend, Fort Collins, Flagstaff, cabin in the boonies have their appeal too.

$300k for a house! WTF? Is it some kind of mobile home park?

LI Land Rover = Hummer

LI Chevy = Beemer

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Justin in Austin, get it? :)

Cool races:
- Redman
- Desoto American Triple T

<<Dude you've described Long Island to a tee (except for the dreads). >>

Does this imply that the women still shave on the East Coast?


<<$300k for a house! WTF? Is it some kind of mobile home park? >>

I know. I mean, can you imagine? Ugh! If I can't have waterfront, I might as well just die.

BMW? Please. I hope you were referring to five series or above...

Brett

I'll hang but only if I can get a real soda not some fufu non caffienated crap. Sugar, carbonation and caffiene.
My sister just bought the first floor, and just the first floor, of a 3 story house which amounts to 700 sq feet in a ok burb of boston for a mere $270,000.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Once again, we have that here too. We call it the People's Republic of Cambridge. It's where all the rich folks isolated in academia get to criticize people in the real world, free from the pesky annoyances of contrary viewpoints.

Indeed, the world would be a better place if we could all just live in rent-controlled mansions and get rid of those stupid beggars who keep asking for my latte money.

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No....we're #1 (Albany). ;) They didn't poll me, though! Odd criteria, in my opinion.

"You are totally ranked on what you make and what you drive. Most people here would rather die than live in a house that cost less than $300,000. If you are still driving a car that was built in the 90's, will you please visit the dealership!!!"

Back in 97/98 Ireland was getting like that. Where you lived, what you drove, where you had gone to school, all that crap. I split and moved to Oz and I don't have to put up with that any more. There's plenty of flash homes around these parts, and quite a few of those new Porsche SUVs, so maybe just lucky in that the group of friends I made aren't into that stuff at all.

You guys all need to come to Sydney! Perfect weather, the best harbour in the world etc. etc.

Damn, almost makes Detroit look good.

But then we are now the #1 city of lard having ripped the title from Huston