Formerly Floridian
Tomorrow Meagan and I will be flying back to the sunshine state for a few days. It started me thinking about some of the things that I miss about Orlando, and what I like about Salem. It’s been six months since we moved up here, and I feel as though enough time has passed that I’ve gotten a little perspective on how these places stack up to each other.
So I thought I’d write it all down, in case I feel like referencing it sometime in the future.
Things I like about Salem
- The weather Summer was just about as hot as Florida, but late-summer was great. Fall was better. And the closer we get to Winter the more excited I am about sledding, fort-building, and skiing. I love the snow.
- Access to a big city We don’t go into Boston every day, every week, or sometimes more than once a month. But knowing that it’s there to run around in is fantastic. There’s so much to take pictures of.
- Pubic transportation This is huge. Trains, busses, more trains. Trains. TRAINS. It’s great. Especially if you like trains. I like trains. So its been working out pretty well. Because I actually kind of like trains.
- Brooksby Farm This is the place Meagan and I went apple picking a month or so ago. It’s something like a ten-minute drive from our house and they sell the most amazing pre-made fruit-filled pies. I’m told they even offer skiing in the Winter. I can’t wait.
- Boylston Street Apple Store This could go with the whole ‘access to a big city’ bit, but I feel as though it warrants its own point. This store is huge (the biggest, actually), and the staff is among the friendliest I’ve met at any Apple store (I’ve been to a fair few). They also have the fastest Internet connection I’ve seen anywhere. Ever. Great for uploading several gigabytes of video proofs.
- The food As a person that doesn’t eat meat from cows, pigs, dogs, lambs or chickens I’m happy that the variety of seafood (and vegetarian-friendly) restaurants up here is in high supply. Moreover, the quality of the food is worlds away from most of the places we haunted in Orlando.
- Our apartment It’s not amazing. Especially probably for people that aren’t us. But I think we sort of lucked out here. The rent isn’t terrible, our neighbors aren’t assholes, and we really like just hanging out here. Our furniture is perfect for us, we’ve decorated the place how we want, and we don’t live on the ground floor. Those are all wins.
Things I miss about Orlando
- Driving As bad as I-4 is, I’m less afraid of it than I am of trying to merge onto the expressways here. There is no grid system here. Roads go all over the place and are in pretty poor repair. Also, people don’t stop when pulling out of side streets. They just go. You’ll see a car pull up, slow a bit, then continue out into your lane and oncoming traffic. I hate driving up here. 1
- Millenia I can’t believe this, but I miss the Mall at Millenia. More than that, I miss going to a mall that was well-designed. Almost all of the shopping centers I’ve been to here have been design failures. It took Meagan and myself 20 minutes to find an unlocked exit from the North Shore Mall one afternoon. That was horrifying.
- People We met some hardcore douchebags in Florida. We did. But douchebags are everywhere. That said, the douchebag-to-asshole ratio appears to be much higher here. I kid you not. I have met some real garbage in the past few months. Like the guy that screamed at me from his car for trying to return my shopping cart to the corral instead of giving him my spot even though there were several other spots in every direction all around me. This point could go hand-in-hand with my driving complaint. 2
- Friends This is sort of a no-brainer. Everybody has friends they miss when they move.
- NASA Well, more than that, standing outside and seeing the shuttle go up. I always thought that was pretty cool.
- Getting work Things were going pretty well work-wise in Orlando. I was doing stuff for TurnHere, Inc. and had a lot of fun working with some locals. Not so much anymore. But I know a lot of people are in the rough as far as work right now. So maybe that’s not really a strong point.
- Orlando Int’l Airport (MCO) Because Boston Logan (BOS) is a disaster. It feels like it was designed by filing interns. Signage: awful. Parking structures: nightmare. Maps: useless. A simple “You are here” would do wonders for that place. MCO isn’t amazing. In fact, it sucks too. But I’d rather be stuck there for hours waiting for a flight than at BOS. 3
- It’s also nearly impossible to get from Point A to Point B without some kind of assistive device. I have an iPhone, and I’ve still managed to get lost driving relatively short distances. The signage here blows. It would also help if they painted their roads every once in a while. There are entire stretches of road — including major expressways — with absolutely no lane markings. Unbelievable.
- To be fair, I’ve also met some of the nicest people here too. Really great, fantastic people. They’re not all monsters.
- In the interest of full disclosure, Meagan and I would go to the airport to hang out. I like airplanes (I also like trains, btw), and it turns out the airport is a great place to see airplanes do their thing. It’s also cheaper than a movie.