I'm not necessarily talking about events that go on. But, let's say you're off from work & don't feel like going straight home. Do you have many choices of places to go to? During the weekends, do you stay in your area or drive a little distance to do things? My city isn't huge, which I like. (I used to live in L.A. before I was old enough to drive.) The city I'm in now is beautiful & I love it. There's 2 indoor malls & an outdoor mall, which I know like the back of my hand. I could walk around Target or work out at my gym, then there's little shopping plazas, but other than that, there's not many places to go to walk leisurely &/or unwind. I'm not a drinker, so I don't hang around lounges or bars. On weekends, I usually stay around town, for now anyway.
I'm in the 'burbs, not in a city. There's a mall about a mile and a half away. There are lots of restaurants and shops. If I'm hungry I can get anything from sushi to burgers to tacos to chicken,all without gettign into the car. There's a park with a driving range, mini golf, picnic facilities, a swimming complex and a year-yound ice rink in my town. The beach is 15 minutes away. Manhattan is 40 minutes away. The Catskill mountaing are about an hour and a half north, if you want to ski. We have our share of issues, but I would never want to live anywhere else. Besides, it's home. There's very little that I don't have access to if I choose.
Boredom is a choice. I make my own fun. Wherever I go. It's not about amusement parks, or ice skating shows, or movies..Or malls, despite being in NJ which is Mall Central...just doesn't give me a buzz.....sometimes not being bored can be as simple as reading a great book, taking a walk, lighting up the fire pit with the one you love, a stimulating conversation over a bottle of wine, dinner with friends, planting a garden... I also live close enough to THE CITY to go in for a museum trip, or the flea market, or dinner...Yeah, no, I'm never bored...I just run out of time to do all the things I want to do.
I agree with you cza in every way ...... For me it's the great outdoors ..... that's where I'm free to explore, reflect, ponder, and dream..
I'm about 45 minutes from all that Toronto has to offer. I love the town I live in--small town feel with big city amenities. I can't think of anything I would want to do that isn't within a reasonable drive.
I live in a small town so there are no big malls or shopping plazas. However, there are small stores to browse in that are sometimes more interesting than what you would find in a mall. Also, there are a number of hiking/walking trails, historic sites and gardens to check out, and a bunch of other small towns to visit that are close by. I wish I had more free time to do everything there is to do in my community.
I live within a 2 hour drive of the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, wine country, the Sierra Nevada mountains... not to mention all the things to be found in my own city! I can always find things to do that aren't too far.
Let's see. If I want to do something in town on the way home, I can stop by the dollar store, the grocery, the gas station, or one of the few restaurants. I'm in the boonies. I love it here, though. I can be in a major city in about an hour, and the next town over from us has several decent stores if I need to shop.
I just moved out of a boring city and into a great city. I love it. I'ts a smallish university town that full of little gems and fun things to do. I lived in this town when I went to the university so I'm taking my time getting to know this town again.
I live in the boonies too..small rural community..about an hour away from Cincinnati and a hour and a half from Indianapolis..there are definitely advantages and disadvantages..not a lot of cultural opportunities around here..
I so totally agree - boredom is a choice. You're either satisfied with what you have or you're coveting what you feel is better. I live 3 hours away from what many would consider major shopping (Walmart, Costco, malls, restaurants, theaters, museums, etc.). When I get off work, I go home. That is where I want to be. When I get tired of the same thing, I go 2 hours to the nearest "big" town and go to Walmart and Safeway. I have lots to do at home and on the ranch. I don't need to go anywhere to find something to do. What someone would consider a boring place to live is ripe with plenty to do for others. I don't need "civilization" to entertain me. My deer, antelope, coyotes, eagles, quail, hawks, elk, cows, kids, husband, sunsets, sunrises, weather patterns, growing grass, blooming flowers, chirping crickets and frogs, bellowing bulls, and absence of all "civilization" is all I need to be content.
Now I was going to add in my original post that ANY situation or outlook you have in life is what you make of it because I just knew someone would bring that up. Of course. I think or hope we would all know that. But, I'm not trying to be philosophical here. Hey, if you live in a place where there's not much to do, then there's not much to do. I can entertain myself at home too, which I've done a LOT since I'm alone a lot.
I live in a very fun city! Even though it is winter here 6 months of the year, we have plenty of indoor and outdoor things to do. In the summer my city has tons of outdoor and city wide events. Plus there are great beaches and campgrounds within driving distance. But, like czacza said, I make my own fun. I have hobbies I enjoy, great friends and family. It's just having enough time to enjoy it all.
:thumb: I very rarely want to go anywhere except home on my way home. (I have a 90 minute commute each way from where we live to the San Francisco metro area, so there are ample opportunities along the way.) The best thing in the world is to come up the drive towards the barn, close the gate, and not come out until I have to. I haven't been to a mall in years. If UPS or the post office won't deliver something to me, it probably isn't something that I really need. It is much more interesting to watch the cats hunting in the meadow than to look at items in a store. I'm always content to be home because that's where DH, the critters, my toys, and my heart is.
I love my small-sized city. The only thing missing is a dog park, which I would go to all the time if we had one. I also miss being in a larger city that got more touring bands through, but being in Louisiana, we have a decent local music scene anyway. I never am looking for something to do on a weekend night, and I'm too busy during the week to do anything then anyway!
Well, there about as many people in my "city" as students in Alice's school...so there isn't much in the way of shopping and such, but I don't often find myself bored. Of course, I like to remain at home most of the time...and after work, I really want to get home.
I live in a small town, but we have a lot of places to eat and shopping. There is a movie theater, a couple of parks, lots of golf courses so there is nothing lacking for something to do. Not to mention that there is almost always something going on in the square on the weekends. And the closest big city is about 45 minutes away so not that bad of a drive.
Do you take your little friend to the dag park? I usually enjoy that on nice weather days, which we tend to get a lot of here.
I live in a rural community, and it is gorgeous. I'm about 10 minutes away from some of the best fishing in the midwest, and great hunting (but neither my husband nor I are hunters). I love the outdoors, so I am right at home. For fun: our dogs, my husband, my Kindle, walks and hiking, my parents are close by (and my mom lives on a ranch farm so there all kinds of things to do there including horse back riding). A city with everything is about a 30 minute drive (through the countryside!)
ku~sounds like a place I'd love! I really do love just being at home or going over to a neighbor's to sit on her front porch and talk. I don't need a big party city.
My city is huge, but getting from place to place is crazy (or can be) because of traffic. I really don't go anywhere much other than work, home, Walmart, occasionally to one of the shopping plazas, and that's about it. I don't drive here in the city because I am scared of the traffic, but my goal is to one day start driving again (yeah-when I am making much more money and purchase another vehicle...so, not anytime soon!).
msmullenjr, I've taken my dog to one once, but I don't like dog parks, but there's a couple of other places I can walk my dog.
Oh really, we love going to the dog park. My dogs love that much room to just take off running. I have labs and they are so energetic.
I used to take my dog to the dog park, but then she suddenly became very aggressive to other dogs. I can't figure out why or how to correct her. She's a lab mix, and she's very loving and gentle to people and even to our cats, but if she sees another dog, she goes for blood!
Oh no. That's so sad. I would hate it if my dogs changed like that. They are super friendly. They are a little over a year old so they are still a little too energetic for some older dogs' taste.
I'd love for my dog to run freely outside (in a confined area of course), but I've read a lot of dog park horror stories. We can know how our own dogs behave...or sometimes not, as bandnerdtx said hers suddenly got aggressive, but we have no idea about other dogs. EVERYONE thinks their dog isn't the problem. That's true w/ some of course, but not w/ all. If I took my dog I'd try to take him when there's hardly any other dogs. If I had extra $, I'd take him to my indoor pet daycare/sitting place where he can be social w/ other dogs in a hoefully more supervised space. But that costs money. I took my dog to that when I had him boarded once. My dog's not used to being w/ other dogs, so he's cautious & keeps an eye on them.
I live in a very touristy area. In the winter, tourists outnumber locals 4 to 1. So there is plenty of nightlife and things to do on the weekends, and there are always festivals, fairs, and concerts going on. I also live about 3 minutes from one of if not the best ski resort in the country- and teachers get season passes VERY cheap. Not to mention hiking, biking, rafting, etc. I also belong to a very nice gym where I got a hefty teacher discount The one thing I don't like about this town is that it doesn't seem to be built for people that actually live here- its made for tourists! We don't have any chain resteraunts whatsoever and most are very fancy. I'm originally from the midwest- I like chain resteraunts! We also don't have any malls or affordable shopping. Thank god there is a walmart as that is the only "normal" thing here! I have to drive about an hour to get to some outlets, and thats the only place I could do any clothes shopping or anything like that.
I guess my town is boring at certain times of the year. It's a seaside tourist town - lots of stuff on the weekends during the winter; dead in the summer. But who wants to be outside when it's 95 degrees and the humidity is 90% anyway? :lol: It also takes a minimum of 25 minutes to get to shopping or the movies or restaurants... So as long as there's a comfy couch, a beach, a library, and some good friends around, I'm pretty ok with being in a boring place
We're just 10 minutes north of San Francisco, so we have fast access to anything 'city' we want to do. But our area has a ton to do as well-we mostly work out at our gym for entertainment. All our friends are there, we go out with those friends, etc. We like to go surfing at the nearby beaches-that's about a 30 minute drive because it's super curvy roads. We also like to take random drives up north to the Petaluma/Napa area, which is only about 30/45 minutes away-great antique shopping and people watching. Dh loves to mountain bike (we live next to Mt. Tam, where they say mountain biking was invented) and road bike with his friends. Dh met me while we were living in Michigan, and he always complained that it was so boring. Yes, my town was super small (considered a village on the map), but my friends and I were always hanging out and exploring-garage sales, vintage stores, fruit orchards, small restaurants-we ALWAYS had something to do. Now I'm starting to make some good friends here and we're finding the same kind of random stuff to do-I went with one of my girls the other day to a latino grocery store (she is from Peru) and we sat and ate burritos and talked for 3 hours.
Did you know there is a city called Boring in Oregon?! Just think of the jokes: "I'm going to the Boring Library, the Boring ______" hehe
My location is really ideal for me... the town I live in is kind of considered the pulse for many surrounding towns with great food, shopping and a downtown. In three minutes I could be in the city/capitol of my state or 10 minutes the other way and I'm in the woods with hiking trails and mountains. I forget which magazine it is, but this summer my town was named in the top 10 of the best places to live in the next 10 years.
I like in a great city with TONS of things to do. We are on a penisula with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Tampa Bay on the other. We use to have A LOT of older people-we were called "Heaven's Waiting Room", but things have changed. We have a bustling waterfront with museums, shops, restaurants and there are things happening every day. The beaches are wonderful-beautiful and unspoiled. We are still close to "nature" everywhere. The down side is that we are a tourist area. During the winter we get the 'snowbirds' who come down for 3 or 4 months, the springbreakers, and the families in the summer. It is a trade-off for living in a great area.
I live in the middle of nowhere. Love it. The population of the town where I teach is probably the size of Alice's senior class. Maybe. The town that is my actual address is half that. But I live miles from either one of those towns. But for the same reasons people have stated, this is my home. Anything I need, I have o.co, amazon, and diapers.com. As for things to do, we keep busy with trips to the lake, hunting, fishing, walking, and just being together. Love it!
I'm an hour's drive away from the beach, L.A. which has museums & lots of other stuff, about 30 min from the mtns, etc., & several min from a sports arena, but I'm not going to go to those places on weekdays after work. I was mainly talking about things to do on a workday after you're off. For me, there isn't much at all in that case, except various stores & malls.
I also live in the boondocks. About an hour from anything. There is a McDonalds down on the interstate about 30 minutes from here. Our town has about 1243 people, two gas stations (one with store), two banks, a flashing red light, and a library that is about the size of 1/2 of a single wide mobile home. We have to drive to get to anything. Walmart is 40 minutes away. Not a lot of cultural opportunities but we make do with what we have. They play movies in the park projected on the side of a trailer in the summer. In the winter, they have movies on the walls of the gym at the elementary school. This Friday is the fish fry at the fire department - can't wait!
