Things I Won't Miss about the East Coast

Part of me feels a little bit like we failed the east coast. We never actually moved close enough to DC to really enjoy it even though we commuted in for work every day and we've only lived in the NOVA area for about six months. So it kind of feels like we didn't give it a full go even though we've been here for over two years.

But, this opportunity was just too good to pass up and we absoeffinglutely cannot wait to move to Denver. We are getting a little overexcited about it, let me tell you.

So, sorry east coast, we kind of failed you, but there are some things I will definitely not miss about yo' ass.

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Commuting! My daily commute to work goes like this:  get up at 5:45am, leave the house by 6:30am to get to the nearby VRE station, train leaves at 6:55am, get to Union Station around 8:00am, walk through Union Station and get on metro, get off metro at Dupont and walk to office, get to office about 8:30am. That's already two hours out of my day  just to get to my job. Commuting has really kicked our asses. We knew it would suck, but we didn't realize how much of our lives it would affect. I am adding an extra four hours to my day every day just to get to and from work. By the time we get home, we are exhausted and just ready to eat dinner and go to bed. If we moved closer to DC like we had planned before I got this new job, we still would have had an at least 45 commute on the metro with at least one line change to get to work every day which is still not ideal. Or cheap.

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Dealing with people on my commute. To be fair, I spend a lot of my commute checking out people's outfits and being really inspired in that way. But I spend an equal amount being super mothereffing irritated at those around me. People who take up multiple seats on busy trains people who shove others to try to fit into a stuffed car, people who talk super loudly on their phones on a quiet train, people who eat McDonalds in small spaces on the train, people who stop in the middle of the walkway in Union Station because they're lost, people who glare at everyone (seriously DC, you ever heard of smiling?!), people who put their purse on their shoulder instead of holding it in a packed metro and shove it into you at every jerk of car, people who stand on the escalators, people who fall asleep and snore on the train, and just, you know, people!

Also, and this one might make me sound like a giant turd, but I will not miss the crazy people. I feel for homeless people; especially in a cold place like DC, but some of the homeless people I walk by every day are not just homeless, they are straight up crazy. It's never fun to not feel physically safe on your commute. I have had people sit next to me on the train who, when you looked in their eyes, you knew they were cracked out of their minds, and there's nowhere you can go; you just sit on that train trying not to make eye contact. My work neighborhood is home to quite a few crazies, as is Union Station and I will not miss the uncomfortable feeling of walking by crazy people screaming BITCH at the top of their lungs on a daily basis.

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The 95. Don't even get me started on the whole HOT/HOV lane bullshiz. The 95 sucks and everyone knows it and it's the only way to get anywhere in Virginia. Boo.

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Dirty DC snow. I know this happens a lot of places, but it seems like here, once it snows, it never melts. This is what my entire work neighborhood looks like today. Just sidewalks filled with dirty ass snow. It's pretty gross.

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The allergies. None of us (Gizmo included) ever really had allergies until we moved to the east coast and now we're all periodically sniffy, itchy, and sneezy monsters.

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The cost of living. In Denver, we'll be living .75 miles from my work so I can walk to work everyday; which means we are smack down downtown Denver. This beauty shown above is only .86 miles to my current work in DC and is a dream on the inside and costs over $300 more a month for 400 less square feet and doesn't include parking, a gym, a pool, or any outdoor spaces. 

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Having to spend so much time indoors because of the weather. I'm okay watching 15 hours of Netflix in my pjs, but all the time indoors has been making Mike INSANE.

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The honking/traffic. 'Nuff said.

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The mosquitoes. This was more a Maryland problem than DC, but oh man did we get eaten up by mosquitoes the second it got a little warm. It was miserable outside all summer.

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The humidity. We're desert people and we never quite got used to humidity. My hair hates it and I hate it.

I promise to do a Things I will Miss about the East Coast post to try to counteract my bitchiness in this one, I swear.