Moving!!! (Los Angeles, Palm Desert, Canyon Lake: how much, new home, movie theater)

[Roma]

artichoke63 and lydunn,

One's likes and dislikes are different. It is a personal preference. Both my husband and I are not native Californians but we prefer California over any other state we have lived in. I have said before on here some of my reasons and yes weather is one of them but not the only reason.

[Twinkle Toes]

Okay guys - I'm back to answer all of your questions (hopefully)!

Why did we move to Texas? That's simple - we were absolutely CRAZY out of our minds!!! Seriously, we just wanted a new adventure. I wanted not just a "nice" home but a FABULOUS, SPECTACULAR home! We got that in Texas. Our CA home was very nice, over 4000 square feet on a 1/2 acre with a pool, spa, built in BBQ, front courtyard with fireplace - in addition to the front yard, which was before you even entered the private courtyard, TWO guest casitas - a mini-estate, if you will, but I wanted something even more spectacular! We had a 6200 square foot home built here in Texas for less than half of what we sold our desert home for. I am a competitive ballroom dancer and have always wanted my own ballroom to practice in and have dance parties in. I have that here in Texas.

Why do I want to leave? There are a myriad of reasons!!!

(1) The weather here SUCKS!!! There are very few sunny days and it's always extremely humid. Plus, it's COLD here in the winter. I was iced in for 3 days! School was canceled and I couldn't even get out of my driveway because it slopes down toward the house. I tried to get up the driveway and slid back down toward the house and almost hit my house!!! Talk about an "Oh S-hit" moment!!!

(2) The traffic here sucks even worse than the weather - and it is worse than driving in Los Angeles!

(3) The road/freeway system here sucks! The freeways are all 2-lanes, big rigs are allowed to drive in the "fast" lane, and everybody drives slow and paces each other. There are no on and off-ramps like CA. What they have here are frontage roads with access onto the freeways and you just hope to hell people yield to you as you are turning in front of them to get onto the freeway. Same situation for getting off the freeways - you have to exit onto a frontage road and hope the people on the frontage roads yield to you.

(4) EVERYBODY with a Texas license plate tailgates you! I have never been tailgated so much in my life - and I'm a native Californian!!! Texas has THE rudest drivers in the world!

(5) You WILL get a ticket if you drive even 5 miles over the speed limit (I got TWO tickets for 5 miles over!!! ) and if you have a CA license plate - forget it - you are toast - they'll pick you out in a heartbeat!!!

(6) It is just too damn crowded here. Yes, the shopping is awesome, but what good is it if you can't get to it? It's such a chore to go out of the house because you WILL be stuck in traffic and you WILL have to park out in the back 40 to go to the grocery store, mall, movie theater, restaurants, etc. It's a miracle if you ever get a close space. Then, once you get inside of the place you are going to, it's elbow to elbow crowds!

(7) Since my son got here and enrolled in school (7th grade) his grades have dropped to D's and F's. In CA he was a happy, well-adjusted kid and a straight A student. He is just so unhappy here and hates me for making us move here.

(8) You just can't make any money here! I was going to go to work here in Texas but for the field that I work in with 20+ years of experience - they want to pay me what in CA is an entry level wage and a wage that I have not made since I was like 17 years old!!!

(9) We all miss our friends. We took them for granted. We didn't realize that our friends, many of whom we have known most of our lives, we're so important to us. Sure we have a beautiful home, but without friends, this big house means nothing! We also took our beautiful, sunny CA weather for granted.

(10) Hubby is bored out of his mind because it rains so much here. He is an avid golfer and there are very few days that he can actually go out and golf, which means he is joined at the hip with me and driving me insane!!!

(11) There are no Saturday social dances here! What the hell??? In CA we went to Saturday night dances all the time. You have all day to lay around, then you get all gussied up and go out to dinner with friends and head off to the dance to dance the night away! Then you sleep in on Sunday morning because it's not a work day! The only dancing I do here in Texas is training for competitions and dancing in competitions. Nothing just for socializing and fun. Don't get me wrong, training and comps are my thing, but some socializing with friends and maybe making some blunders on the dance floor would be fun every once in a while.

So ... if anyone wants my gorgeous 6200 square foot house in San Antonio, it's for sale!!!

[Twinkle Toes]

I forgot to answer someone's question - somebody wanted to know how far Palm Desert was from LA. It is approximately 120 miles from LA and it takes about 2 hours to drive there. Hubby's office is in downtown LA and he commuted there from Palm Desert. On a good day it is about 2 hours, maybe less. You have to time it just right - both ways - going into LA and getting out. On bad days, or at the wrong times, it can be a 3 or 4 hour commute one way. I worked in Palm Desert because my bladder can't do a 3 or 4 hour drive, but it could handle a 10 minute drive!!!

[artichoke63]

Twinkle Toes,

Sorry to here you didn't like San Antonio. But if you can afford to move back and be happier, then why not? Welcome home.

Artie

[monti]

You think the weather in Texas is bad? Try Minnesota, it's still 19 degrees here, and it snowed 5 days ago, and it's been constantly cloudy for the past 2 weeks (although we finally got some sun today)

[Twinkle Toes]

It's in the low 30's here and raining (again!). My dad and brother are on their way here from CA and got caught up in several accidents already in another part of Texas because of snow flurries and sleet. So that has delayed them by several hours. Not that I'm a spoiled brat or anything ( ) but I am used to winters being in the 70's and 80's and summers in the 110 to 125 range. Not that I'm looking forward to sumer in Palm Desert, but it won't be a shock to my system since I'm already used to it.

But at 19 degrees I feel your pain!!!

[Yetti0]

Texas traffic is far better than LA any day of the week. I have been in LA and San Antionio and many other cities. We moved 4x in our family's life and our child never had any problems making a transition or making Less than all A's in any of the cities. My child is now grown and an economist on Wall Street.

When in Rome do as the Roman's do. It is the obligation of people who move to a new state to fit in.
People have different forms of socialization and Texans are very very friendly. People in Tx even wave to others from their cars.. it is a state trademark.

If one does not do their homework when they move to a new location , its not the state's fault. Tx will never be California. People cannot expect a state to be the same as the state they came from. One has to have skills in making new friends in new places... People in Tx are not impressed that someone moved there from California or any other state. Houston itself is a major international city where some of the wealthiest in the world have homes or second homes there. Nancy Pelosi's daughter and Granddaughter live in Houston and love it.

People have different reasons for moving. Texas does not have major earthquakes, mudslides, or fires. Housing is very very inexpensive compared to California.

Weather history for any state can be found on the internet...for an annual report or complete century history.

If one breaks the traffic laws in LA or Texas, one will be prosecuted.

[Yetti0]

I talked with a journalist who lived in LA and San Francisco and just moved to Austin. She had no problem finding a job to meet her skills/pay. In fact she raved about being able to find a job in a week and told me how it is so easy to find a job in Tx compared to California.... The job market in Texas is hot... Its hard not to find a great job , in her opinion. She is buying a house in the next couple of months and is loving Austin... She is purchasing a home that is 2x bigger and better than her place in San Francisco. She was VERY personable and lovely. I met her at our State Capitol while on business. I see lots of california license plates in Houston and in Texas. I think many have the skills to adapt to new places and they apparantly love it here.

[Yetti0]

The reason a person can purchase a 6,000 sq ft house for the price of a 4,000 sq ft house in another state is because the cost of lving is lower.. salaries are lower. One should not expect to make the same in NYC or LA as they do in Baton Rouge Louisiana or in San Antonio Tx. Again, if homework before moving.. one can check the difference of salaries in careers on salary.com. We did so before our child accepted her position on Wall Street.

Also when a person moves , they leave their friends... .One thing moving to new states teach is better social skills to get along with people of different cultures. no one should expect people to run to their beckoning call because they are from a different state.... Volunteering is the best way to meet people... for example in a person's child's school.. Meeting the parents and their friends. One can learn why their child may have challenges in school and also people of the community look favorably on people who volunteer. A friend of mine did that while they lived in England for 10 yrs. They are from Tx and they made life long friends in England... So has my Texas child who is engaged to a person from London who is transferring to NYC to get married. Our child has life long friends in London, Paris, and Cote D'Azur, as do I. I have never had problems fitting in with Europe myself much less another state in our union. Many of our friends in Tx have home in France and UK.. and travel back and forth. They love both places and most are Native Texans.

One thing they have said about my grown child is manners. Europeans talk about the lack of manners Americans have and are impressed with Texans and people of the South and their custom to teach their children manners. It enhances social skills in children to get along with many cultures. The former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son married a young lady in Dallas.. She almost lives there now herself on her many visits.

[Yetti0]

I guess the most successful Indian Restaurant in London where the Queen has her take outs sent for... selected Houston to be the first US city to have their new Restaurant along with a large Bollywood Dance Club. Texas does not want for dance places. As for rain... we sail during rain, scuba dive during rain, play croquet during rain, and in all honesty Some of us even dance in the rain. Tea time is very popular in Houston at 3pm. We don't dance during tea time. Hard to serve tea that way.