Advice on Relocating to Greater Boston area

[LocalType]

You may hate the commute once you get here. I've lived and driven in several metro areas in the US. I cut my driving teeth in Dallas proper, so that was as good a trial by fire as any at the time. I have come to have a special hate for driving in and around Boston. No reason to go into great detail as to why, or else there'll be no surprises left when you get here. Boston is a mysterious, fickle mistress when you are in your car.

Love Corpus, btw. Been there several times.

If you have an idea of where you might want to work, and what you're looking for in a town, it would help us recommend areas to live in. Like, I would say Bedford's nice, but so is Arlington. I would also say both are "near" the ocean, because all of this is near the ocean, but depending on what kind of homes you're after, maybe look into Medford, Malden, Melrose, Arlington, Lexington, Winchester, Woburn, Reading, Billerica, Wilmington. Just some ideas.

[asdfx0rz]

I could go into GREAT detail as to why we want to move, but I'll just touch on a few. Without sounding too much like an ass, I'd like to play on my home court for a change, and I'm entirely sick of living in North Mexico. Corpus Christi can be nice, if what it has to offer is what you want, but this town is slothfully slow. No big business here, no big corporations, no reason for anyone here to be in a hurry to do anything of any importance whatsoever. We have some MAJOR family issues here, and in a nutshell, our family sucks, grandparents RARELY are involved with the kids, and they more or less burden us with their problems incessantly.

I keep hearing about this commute thing being a pain, but I still fail to see how and why.. I guess coming from Texas where everything is SO spread out, to somewhere like New England where things are compressed, I think it balances it all out.

Also, here in South Texas, the climate is just awful. As I often tell people, we have about 10 months of Summer, a month and a half of Almost Summer, and a few days of OMG WHAT IS THIS COLD STUFF!? I'm frankly just sick of the heat. Massachusetts has a much more appeasing climate to us. We really love the cold, even snow, and I know there are hardships that come along with the bitter New England winters, but believe me, it is MUCH easier to pile on clothing to stay warm. You can only take off so much when it gets hot. For example, our actual temperatures here, before factoring in the heat index, have been over 100 degrees for almost two weeks straight now. So what you experience during the Winter, I experience during the Summer. Except you get to cozy up next to the fireplace, bundle yourselves up with blankets, while I sweat my ass off in my own house because my air conditioner can't compete with sweltering 107 degree weather (115+ with the heat index)...

My wife and I will virtually work anywhere, we don't have any sort of limiting demands. If we must commute, we will commute, and it's an easy sacrifice for us to make to relocate. We are REALLY hinged on Salem at the moment. The package deal is really what we're into, and you could stick us in ANY place in New England, and given our current situation, we'd be happy with it. Most people avoid change like the plague, we welcome it with arms wide open. We're ready for a radical change, a new way of life, some new culture.

Oh, and did I mention that I absolute adore the way Bostonians talk? Most definitely the best accent in the world. Also my mother was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Maine for a while, have some family in Northeastern New York, and Southern New Jersey. I just feel like I belong up East. I'm tired of being surround by brown.. =/

[LocalType]

Well... you've got the right attitude, you'll fit right in. Do you have AAA? You'll need it here. Also, a good set of winter tires, and a GPS (even if your car has one - you'll need one to carry on your person, or take to another car).

Also, are you talking Salem NH or Salem MA? For some reason I think NH when I hear Salem. A lot of people live in Salem (NH) and commute into Boston. I've even thought of it. My commute isn't bad now, about 30-50 minutes.

I had family in this area as well. Boston, Hampton, SE Maine. Of course, that was 350-something years ago. But still. I've always felt a pull to be here. And now I am, and I'm happy, feel like I've been here all my life. Go figure.

I wish you guys lots of luck - uprooting can be hard on you especially when you've got a family in tow, but I think you'll like it once you're here and settled in. The pace of life is different, hell everything's different. But it's good. I don't think you can beat it.

[asdfx0rz]

Well I guess we can cross Woburn off that list...