2002-02-18 - 9:53 a.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Some Tool song, from "Aenima"

Well, shit.

Time to rearrange my priorities, it looks like.

You've heard me go on and on about how much I want to live in a place where I can walk everywhere, right? It's like, my dream to live in a place where I have nearly everything I need within a mile's walk, with a great deal of it within a few blocks. And most especially, in a place that was designed for pedestrians, not cars. I can walk to a lot of places where I live now, but everything is along a major artery and I have to cross a lot of parking lots.

The thing is, I'm beginning to get the impression that in order to have this, I must either be filthy rich so I can afford to live in Rittenhouse Square or a similarly nice neighborhood, or I have to live in a crappy neighborhood and shop at dirty stores, with restaurants that look like they're violating fifteen health codes.

It's possible I'm being overly pessimistic, but I don't think so. A 2-bedroom 1-bath condo in Rittenhouse square can cost around $300,000. But such a tiny condo means that we can't have guests stay with us, which isn't an option. We want family and friends to be able to stay with us when they visit.

OK, so, no Rittenhouse Square then. That means we're getting into crappy neighborhoods again, or suburbs.

Suburbs. Sigh. There's a way around that. If we live within a couple blocks of a good shopping center AND we are within a few blocks of a train line that gets me into the city within 15 minutes, I think that would be a good compromise. It is pretty likely we could have a garage or build one, so we can keep the Volkswagen and motorcycles in there.

But is THAT possible? Maybe, but we'll probably have to wait a loooooong time to find it.

Some non-negotiables:

- Poindexter will not live in a place where he has to fight for parking on the street. He wants, at least, a guaranteed parking space. If we have a small yard, the motorcycles can be kept in a storage shed. Ideally, he'd like a garage attached to the house or on the property. I am more willing to look for garage alternatives, such as paying for a parking space in an underground garage and putting the motorcycles in a shed, if we can find a house with a small postage-stamp backyard.

- I will not live farther than a five-minute walk from some stores, including one where I can pick up some grocery staples.

- We must have room for guests, and I don't mean a 6x6 closet of a room and sharing a bathroom with us. I want people to be comfortable. All of Poindexter's family and most of our friends still live far away, and I want them to be able to stay with us when they visit and not feel cramped and that they have no privacy.

Negotiable, but desired:

- Living within walking distance of a train that will get me to center city in less than 15 minutes.

- Not to have to sell the Volkswagen because it isn't cost-effective to keep it.

So I'm asking myself these questions:

- How much do *I* want a garage? Can I live without the Volkswagen? If I'm never going to drive much again, probably yes. But what if we tire of the city and we're living in the suburbs again in five years (or have more money, thanks to an excellent real estate investment in the DC area)? Then I'll be freakin PISSED that I got rid of it. If I need a car at all, I want my Karmann Ghia. I've had the damn thing for seven years and I drive it nearly every day it's not raining. Even when it's cold and I arrive at home with frozen fingers. I just love the car.

- Can I put up with having to drive to a train station and park to get into center city? Or can I give up the whole walkability thing in exchange for everything else we want, plus being able to walk to a small handful of stores?

- More on the car issue: Is it worth paying to store the VW for a while (say, a year or two) until either we have more money or I figure out whether it's unlikely I'll want to move back to the suburbs? The most annoying part of this whole question is that my desire to live in center city is an idealistic one; what if it turns out that the noise and the weirdos get to me and I'm willing to forego walking convenience for a little peace and quiet?

- Where do I stand on the nice-house vs. walkability issue? I used to think that I would be happy in a studio in the city, but maybe it is important to me to have a nice house, since we spend so much time there. We don't go out to the movies, we like to cook together, and we like to have people over rather than go out when we visit with friends.

BTW, we're in Philadelphia now for Poindexter's interview tomorrow morning. Eeek.

Well, I wrote all that last night. We had a frustrating trip yesterday. We checked out West Philly, and it certainly has a lot of interesting architecture and it's walkable, but the problem is that a lot of it seems very run-down, and as far as shops and restaurants, Poindexter said, "Yeah, you can walk everywhere, but where would you want to walk to?"

We passed through Rittenhouse Square on our way to the hotel, and I was all agog again. I really like it. Then we got the newspaper and I started browsing the classifieds, and it looks like we can only afford a teeny tiny condo with no parking. Argh.

We also looked at Upper Darby, an older suburb just outside the city and on the train line. It looks a great deal like Arlington in terms of layout. I don't know how much the houses cost, though -- I'm trying to find out. If we could find an affordable house near shopping, that would be nice. We might have a yard, though. Yick. Although as long as the prices are not like Arlington, I could probably hire a neighborhood kid to mow the lawn, and my mom can help me figure out how to make the front yard look nice garden-wise with a minimum of work.

I was kinda upset last night -- Poindexter said I was "moping" -- but as I've written about before, what I end up doing is priority-shifting. Weigh my priorities, compromise with myself until I find something that will make me happy give the current circumstances that I can't change.

Hunh ... there aren't many houses online in the Upper Darby area, but the ones I'm finding are tasteful duplexes with detached garages that are well within our budget. Maybe this is something I could get excited about.

Poindexter pointed (hee) out that it's winter, and nobody's selling their houses now. We might find more options in the spring. I hope so.

Poindexter just walked out the door on his way to the interview. GodDAMN does he look good in his new suit. Good grief. Woooooo!

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