Mild Inner Turmoil

You may have noticed that I've become a little bit obsessive about our home search. When I get an idea I tend to focus in on it and that's all I can think about until the task is accomplished. Plus, one thing I really enjoy is taking care of and decorating my surroundings so if I have the opportunity to change my entire home environment it is not only exciting, but pretty all-consuming. Since wherever we choose to live will become our "family home" that we stay in for ten years or more I want to be sure that we get it just right. The one thing about the area that we live in though is that the suburbs dont' really have a sense of community. I can't believe I'm going to say this but I almost think I miss living in the city! I joke about being a suburban soccer mom a lot but the truth is that in the four years we've been out here we've had a hard time connecting with the people in our area. I may be a stay-at-home soccer mom but let's face it, I'm kind of an odd ball. I like old-timey music and weird movies and this thing called modern dance. I've met some people in the neighborhood who are very friendly and nice but for the most part (with a couple of exceptions) my real friends remain in urban areas like Chicago and more specifically Milwaukee, which is almost TWO HOURS away. On one hand, I am very excited that we've decided that to look for an older, vintage-style home rather than a cookie-cutter house like all the new developments going up, but a lot of the time I find myself wishing that I could meet my best friend at a coffee shop for lunch or have dinner parties that don't require people driving for hours and bringing an overnight bag.