NoVA is Amazing! (Arlington, Reston, Manassas: rent, townhouse, university)

[fdeitz]

Originally Posted by car54

What's with washers and driers in the KITCHEN? Is that the new thing?

Well, count me out....that's just plain gross!

When I moved here in 1981 and had an apartment for the first 2 years I was here, I also had a washer and drier (actually separate regular sized ones) in the kitchen. Where else are you going to fit that in a 1 bedroom apartment? I suspect most apartments are set up that way except for really large size ones - or maybe 2 bedroom apartments.

[fdeitz]

Herndon is not a dump. As in any area, there are good parts and not as good parts. Don't listen to people on the board who refer to some town in Northern Virginia as a "dump". You can't label an entire town that way. There are even not so good parts of Reston, for example. Alexandria goes from very good parts to extremely bad parts, sometimes in the span of a few blocks. People who generalize a whole town with a description just are clueless.

[fdeitz]

And not that it matters, but I see plenty of 20+ year olds dining with their parents at restaurants around this area. So that in itself should not draw attention to anyone. And not everyone drives around in fancy cars, certainly not the people I know. There's rich people anywhere in any metropolitan area around a big city - Northern Virginia is no different than suburbs of Philadelphia in that regard. You'll see BMW's and Mercedes and other cars there too. I don't know Scranton, but it is not near a big city like Philadelphia or New York, where you are going to see that kind of stuff. There's plenty of people around here driving 10 year old cars too. My last car was 8 years old and 120K miles when I traded it in, and it was just a Saturn, nothing fancy.

[Caladium]

A kitchen with a washer and dryer in your first apartment? Sounds luxurious to me. I went to a laundromat until I bought my first house. In fact that was one of the biggest reasons we bought a house.

[Yankeesfan]

Older apartments (and maybe many newer ones?) have laundry rooms in the basement so having one in the apartment at all sounds like a luxury to me. (As long as we're reminiscing: first apartment, 1981, two-bedroom with den and balcony in Alexandria City, $470 a month including utilities.)

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

To be fair Normie I've always had very low self-esteem. I was bullied growing up first for being nerdy and then for being of an alternative sexual orientation, so I never received any sort of positive reinforcement growing up and always felt like I had to "prove myself" to others. I've always felt inadequate to meet the expectations of others, so when I was at Reston Town Center surrounded by hundreds of people my own age who were flaunting so much more extravagant lifestyles than my own I just felt very, very diminutive in comparison---as if I had no business trying to measure up to such lofty standards.

They had an article in the Wall Street Journal today about how the human brain cannot pay attention to everything it sees. There is simply too much information to digest, so we all have to make choices in what we see and how we interpret life.

So my point is, if you focus on "posers" that you believe are judging you, that's all you'll be able to see and you'll think you see them everywhere. Reality is, there are all kinds of people here, that's one thing we really love about NOVA, the diversity. Posers demand attention, that's their nature. But why give them any importance? There are better people all around you who deserve your attention. If you make a point to look past the people who make you feel uncomfortable and see who else is here, you can find plenty of people who don't care about flaunting their wealth.

When I was fresh out of school and moving to a new town, I discovered starting a new life in a new town is the perfect time to let go of old ideas that may not be working for you anymore. Like maybe the idea that you have to impress other people, or that everyone around you is judging you, or even paying attention to you. Try letting go for a little while, if you miss your old ideas you can always taken them back.

[Samara11]

Congrats Paul, I'm so glad you found a place you like and welcome to NoVA.

Nice pics and that washer/dryer in the apt. is such a luxury.... I remember my first apartment where we had a shared one (hated it) on each floor, people would just take my clothes out of the washer and dump them on top of the dryer *eww* (even if I was just 5 mins late, had to wash them all over again).

Normie's picture is so cute

And ignore the 'posers', IMO the posers usually have a superiority complex which in turn stems from an inferiority complex...... and the feeling that they need to prove they have more than others. Just chill and enjoy your new life, you'll find plenty of non-posing and normal people here. My advice... don't ever try to 'fit in', just be yourself.

[athousandlogins]

washer/dryer in the apt. is such a luxury

So true! My first 2 apartments had no laundry at all. It wasn't until my third apartment that I had the luxury of sharing machines in the basement, which was dark and scary and smelly and ALWAYS had bugs. I'd take a washer in the kitchen over that basement any day!

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

If nothing else I love the DIVERSITY! Except for Leesburg, where 99% of the people at that festival we attended were Caucasian, it seems like only 50%-60% of the people in Herndon/Reston are like me, and I APPRECIATE being around so many Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, etc. Hopefully there are other LGBT people down here as well (although I've only seen a few "open" couples at the RTC).

Yes Virginia is definitely diverse. Now I'll say that it's way more diverse in VA and MD than DC. So I was definitely not used to that when I moved up here. I think it's awesome. At the same time, at least to me in Oakton, it seems to be mostly white. I always get on the phone and call my mom when I see another black person in Oakton. "Mama I saw four of us at Giant the other day I couldn't believe it!" So I think oakton and Vienna are definitely more homogenous while you can cross 66 and get your diversity on. From what I hear Reston and Herndon are definitely more diverse. I think that's because those areas are really nice but at the same tiem affordable.

As far as LGBT. You might meet a few people here and there but they're mostly older. If you want to go out and stuff you gotta drive into the city. There are a handful of organizations in VA and there's a MCC church and an unitarian church in Fairfax or Oakton if you want to get your prayer on. But if you want any type of gay scene be prepared to drive into DC. Also be prepared to get a lot of crap from the city folk about living so far out. Just dust your shoulders off when the distance thing comes up.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by car54

What's with washers and driers in the KITCHEN? Is that the new thing?

Well, count me out....that's just plain gross!

That's how I grew up. We had the washer and dryer in the kitchen. There's nothing wrong with that. It's better than not having one at all. How is that gross? Then you're counted out but don't be ugly.