Adaptation!?

People frequently ask me how I'm adjusting to life in DC.  Normally, I enthusiastically respond that I love life here, and rattle off a few of the inconveniences such as traffic, cost of living and TRAFFIC.

TRAFFIC -  :(  I only drive between the hours of 10am and 3pm and I'll drive after 7:30 pm if I'm not going too far from home.  That's it, there are very few exceptions to that rule!  Something I've noticed is when asking people for directions they do not tell me that my destination is 2 miles north, they tell me that it is 10 minutes north.  I learned this concept when trying to go to the shopping mall for the first time.  The mall is 4 miles from my condo, yet it takes 25 minutes to get there most days and even longer on a bad day.  The obscene amount of stoplights coupled with the extreme volume of traffic is compounded by the fact that the speed limit is only 25 mph in many parts of Falls Church.  It is a nightmare!  Oh, and forget about letting anyone in on a busy street.  One can wait hours (well it feels like hours) to turn out of a parking lot.  The mindset is every driver for themselves!

Before I talk about cost of living I should probably clarify that I live in Falls Church, VA.  It is 2.2 sq miles with a population of 11,200.  It boasts one of the top school districts in the United States and is actually 7 miles outside of DC.  However, I am part of the DC metro area and close enough that I reap the benefits of congested DC traffic. 

COST OF LIVING - Exorbitantly high!  BTW the e-word means ridiculous.  This includes groceries, gasoline, parking, milk, housing and all things entertainment.

EX #1- Groceries.  You know there is something wrong in the world when I do most of my grocery shopping at Whole Foods, dubbed whole paycheck by my good friend Sarah, and I look relieved when my grocery bill is just over $50.  BTW the $50 only covers bananas, apples, salad and Kevin's odd energy chunks.  Supertarget has turned out to be pretty reasonable as well, but the selection there is mediocre at best.  Plus, they have a lot of what I call distractor items that scream "BUY ME, BUY ME, BUY ME!"  My favorites are random expensive household furnishings that I don't need but I talk myself into accepting that I can't live without them.

EX #2 - Housing.  My two bedroom condo costs 2x as much as my 2 bedroom apartment in cost in Madison, WI.  The place in Madison was a bit bigger and had a balcony which made for happy kitties.  Furthermore, we could have 2 parking spots and we weren't threatened with towing if a friend's car was there after midnight.  Even better is that people in WI actually plowed the parking lot and didn't form big piles of snow 6 feet and higher) behind cleared out parked cars.

Husband and I decided to check out some real estate in our area.  Most houses are way out of our price range.  A few weeks ago we found a place in an awesome area that we were sure we could afford.  The downside was that it was a bit small.  The house was 864 sq ft, way too small for us.  It was a 1 bdrm 1 bath on a plot of land totaling .44 acres.  It was surrounded by beautiful enormous houses.  I guessed that the house would cost less than $350,000.  I just about gagged when Kevin stated that it cost $695,000.  At this point we've stopped looking for homes and will continue to enjoy our condo and the perks of our location!!

So...adaptation...as good as can be expected so far!