A few weeks back, I spoke to one of my old contacts from the bookselling world. He asked me, “do you still like living in the Hudson Valley?”
I told him, “You know what? I love living in the Hudson Valley!”
Then he said, “And how is that job going?”
I told him, “You know what? I love living in the Hudson Valley!”
And it’s true. I’ve lived, which for this purpose we will define as “stayed for seven weeks or more” in suburban New Jersey, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, London, and now Poughkeepsie. In my mind, I’ve lived in California, but none of those places fit so well as here. And why is that? Well, let’s get a bullet point out:
- I just got my lease renewal form. My rent is going up exactly $0. For those of you who love math, that is a 0% increase. For those of you who love English, that is a ZERO PERCENT increase! I didn’t even negotiate, it just came in the mail that way. Anyone who has lived NYC and experienced the standard “as much as we can leagally charge you” yearly increase will know how shocking that is.
- Dutchess County, like Putnam, Westchester, and New York Counties to its south is a superior county, which is why it costs a toll to come to this side of the river, and none to leave it.
- We don’t have wildfires.
- We don’t have hurricanes.
- We don’t have the Taliban.
- Our top-level county managers make $50,000-$152,000 a year and have a full benefit package. For life.
- Ulster county managers make seriously less, and get fewer benefits.
- Sure it rained a lot this summer, but was 3/10ths of an inch less than 1975, the record-holding rain year.
- (the preceding six items were generated while I was listening to the morning news update on the radio.)
- Speaking of, we have WDST, which has opened my eyes to some great music.
That’s all I can think of in my alloted blogging time. But there’s so much more I could say. I love living here so much, I’m going to see about running for a county management seat because I’m that dedicated to public service. And cushy benefits packages.
Posted by Allie on September 1, 2009 at 7:44 am
I think you should become a top level county manager.
I totally forgot about the toll thing. Always thought it was funny.
It’s nice to love where you live. I wish I could say I did. But it’s very inexpensive to live here.
I hope you don’t love it too much to not want to join the blogger commune when we all start one. Thinking someplace sort of warm.
Posted by heidikins on September 1, 2009 at 10:17 am
This makes me really want to visit the Hudson Valley…like, a lot.
xxo
Posted by elizabeth on September 1, 2009 at 12:18 pm
How come you left out the years you lived on Manhattan Island?
Posted by bing on September 1, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I feel bad for not loving Po-town that much when I lived there, but I am more of a city girl. I found it sort of depressing (especially in the winter) and expensive. But I did love how beautiful the natural scenery was. And WDST is a great station!
Posted by Knot on September 1, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Don’t do it. I watched city politics. It’s like watching amateur night.
Posted by Kate on September 1, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I don’t know … I believe Dutchess County and McHenry County (where I live) are going to have to duke it out in terms of superiority.
Posted by nancypearlwannabe on September 1, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Sigh. I miss Boston.
Posted by Courtney on September 1, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Yay for the HV! If I lived there, I’d vote for you.
Posted by Brando on September 3, 2009 at 9:31 am
LOL at the Taliban line.
Posted by Anika on September 5, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Ha. The Taliban line made me laugh out loud!
Posted by Vanessa on September 8, 2009 at 9:01 am
That is an awesome list! Like others, love the Taliban line.