Things I won't miss about living in the city...

I find myself dreading the move, now that it's just hours away. It's wierd - buying the house itself wasn't that emotional, but now that I'm about to move into it I'm getting nervous and apprehensive.

I don't know wby. I've never really fit in in the city, being a registered Republican and all. And my new neighbors seem cool - I've got a hot blond Towson coed next door (and her boyfriend of course), and the Russian dude who helped me move my couch and doesn't speak a word of English 2 doors down. As opposed to in the city, where the house next to me on one side has been vacant and "under renovation" since I moved in 3 years ago.

I think I just fear change. And unpacking and getting everything set up is going to be a pain. Once I get settled, have bought and unpacked and assembled and connected everything, have cable installed and broadband and furniture and clean dishes and a full refrigerator, I think I'll be much happier. But that will take weeks, months, and in the meantime things will be less comfortable in some ways.

There are three things I'll miss about my current abode. First is the fact that it's cheap - my mortgage payment is over 2x what my rent was, and my rent included utilties and broadband. Second is location - I'm going from a 10 minute commute - 2.5 miles in the opposite direction of everyone else - to a 40 minute or so commute in the same direction as everyone else. Third is the feeling that you are cool that comes with living in the city - there's something about driving around Druid Hill Lake Park Drive that makes me feel like I'm a trendsetter, I'm one of those cool hip urban dwellers.

But there are a bunch of things I won't miss:

- random people asking me for change
- having to park 2 blocks away because of street cleaning, or not being able to go somewhere for fear of losing my parking spot
- walking up 3 flights of stairs with groceries or eBay inventory
- not being able to have packages shipped home for fear they'll get stolen off my porch
- the sound of helicopters overhead, occasionally accompanied by bullhorn messages to "stop what you are doing or you will be arrested"
- seeing the blinking lights of the police cameras out my back window, blinking up and down Whitelock.
- Driving home on a Saturday afternoon to find out the block next door was closed for a block party and that I would have to drive several blocks out of my way to get to my house
- having to dump my trash at work because my landlord worried that the rats in the alley behind our apartment building would tear into it, and then the city would fine us.
- visits from building inspectors writing me up because of too many cardboard boxes and wires.
- not having enough room
- having to pay $3 a load to do laundry