City vs. Country living
While we wait for the powers that be allow us to live in our house, Rafe and I have been apartment surfing, staying two months in a quiet neighborhood near a lake, and this month in an apartment near downtown Bellingham, which isn't exactly a huge city, but there's traffic and trains and boats and parties going on all the time.
After comparing the two, I believe that I will end up living in the country or far-out suburb; despite the fear of encouraging urban sprawl and horrendously high gas prices, there's something so wonderful about the sounds and smells of living in the middle of nowhere. That said, for the moment I am not minding the city noises (which is good because our future house has a lot of them), and the convenience of being in the middle of everything is really a treat. It also helps that the noisy neighbors upstairs that play their music ridiculously loud at least like the same music we do.
I have also noticed that living with roommates again - and a lot of roommates at that - was not as bad as I expected it to be (our last one here in Bellingham was sort of a weird situation anyway), although I like the privacy of just Rafe and I having the house all to ourselves. But it did help assuage my concerns about trying to find renters for our new place. We may have issues between Rafe and any militant vegetarians, though...
-B