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Old 09-10-2014, 03:32 AM
 
3,149 posts, read 2,695,105 times
Reputation: 11965

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Quote:
Originally Posted by eithne25 View Post
Warning: If you live in and/or love Cape Cod, you may find this post offensive! Sorry. Just being honest...

I am a freelance reporter and have been beating my brains out here in Massachusetts for the past four years since college graduation (I am from New York, moved to MA for college, and have been stuck here ever since). I currently live on the south shore and work a temp job (to support my writing) on the Cape. I've been temping for nearly a year and thankfully my position is wrapping up in few weeks, because I hate Cape Cod! Not sure if California is much better from what I've read here... I guess the grass is always greener, huh? Well, I am looking for a major change, and I hate New England and its extreme seasons, especially the bitter winter. I highly doubt I would get sick of the endless CA sunshine and warmth... sounds like a slice of heaven to me!
It's ridiculous. Especially on the coast. In the "blazing heat of summer" it's 74 and sunny here. In the "dead frozen winter" it will be 72 and sunny. 30% humidity. There are worse and better climates in CA, but the coasts are pretty sweet. "Cold", to us, is anything below 65 degrees. Parts of the coast can get foggy and damp, especially up north. Inland can be 110+, but it really is a "dry heat". Nothing like that muggy swamp BOS turns into for the 3 non-frozen months.

Quote:
So I'd love to hear from anyone who's relocated to CA, especially if you're from NY or New England. The only thing I like about this area is the coast, but I just have a hunch that I'd be happier on the west coast. I am kind of a hippie/free spirit and just don't jive with the elitist Cape Codder types I regularly encounter. I am annoyed by everything, from their attitudes to their accents.
Moved to Boston, for work, expecting it to be the San Francisco of the East Coast. Found out that it was actually a bassackwards wannabe-olde-Europe frozen(9mos)/sweltering(3mos) craphole. Moved back to CA and never been happier.

Specifically hated, about North Shore / Somerville BOS:
-10 barbershops on every block: WTF? Our CA town actually has retail, coffee, resturants--you know--places people actually want to walk to, not an endless string of hair and nail places.

-Needing "papers" for everything from BBQing in the park to going to the beach in the Democratic People's Republic of Crapachusetts. Seriously, you aren't even allowed to park within 5 miles of the ocean in the summer in some towns, unless you live there and buy a pass from the local NKVD agent! $45 permit to BBQ in the park? I'll just go to a diner. Why would I pay to buy/cook my own food? Here in CA, BBQ's are free for all, year round, and beach access is a RIGHT written into the state constitution!

-Decaying infrastructure and a crazy patchwork quilt of streets built along old cow paths. CA's roads are wide, mostly free of potholes, and laid out in a sensible manner. Stuff is really spread out, though. There are walk-able pockets, but a car is a must unless you live and work on the same bus/subway line in a major city, or live within biking distance to work in a smaller town. Google will hopefully alleviate that problem with self-driving cars (and you'll be able to just summon an autodrive taxi for cheap on your smartphone) but that's still a few years off. The state is already re-writing the laws to allow for self-driving cars. Progressive thinking.

Quote:
I would like to think that I could move out there, waitress or sling coffee and ideally find a great reporting job after a while, but I am aware that unemployment is high and the economy sucks just about everywhere. I've read that CA is deeply in debt and the cost of living is super high (though it's also high in MA, especially in my area). But I truly believe the trade-offs will be much better. Every day, I feel like I'm just wasting my time here, and am growing more and more miserable and disenchanted. It's a joke I've heard often, but people say that Cape Cod is "where old people go to die." That may be highly offensive, but I'm afraid it seems true, especially when you live here... I have such a hard time finding people my age to interact with, let alone some who share my interests and passions (specifically pertaining to my "hippie" beliefs and lifestyle). I realize that moving and finding work in CA will be difficult, but I don't want to wake up one day and realize that I wasted the better part of my twenties in a place that I loathe. Even my older co-workers tell me that if they were my age, they would do things much differently... and wouldn't stick around here!
You can live fairly cheap in CA, but you have to work at it. We grow most of the nations fruits and veggies, year round, so you can find cheap good local produce in the Mexican and dollar stores (at prices similar to Haymarket). Housing is expensive anywhere nice. Rents not as much, but that's a stern chase. Give it a shot, but don't plan on the detached single-family house near the beach with 2 cars, 2.5 kids, etc. unless you are pulling in at least 100K per year. Scrape by in your studio apartment and enjoy greater CA as your living room.

You will find every kind of person in CA, and acceptance of all comers from ultra-liberal hippies to far right-wingers, with most people inbetween.

Quote:
Ideally, I would like to make this big move sometime in the next few months. I am in my mid-twenties, unmarried and have a pet that I would like to move with me, if possible. I have a varied work history, from office administrative work to retail and various copy writing and local news reporting experience. I also moonlight as a singer/songwriter and think I could find more gigging opportunities around L.A. However, I'm not trying to "make it" as a musician, so that doesn't really impact my decision to move.

Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated!
Go for it. What have you got to lose?
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Old 09-10-2014, 03:52 AM
 
Location: Planet Earth
1,963 posts, read 3,041,725 times
Reputation: 2430
Has nobody noticed that eithne25 has only 3 posts, and that this thread is 3 years old?
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Old 09-10-2014, 04:29 AM
 
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
732 posts, read 968,128 times
Reputation: 942
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
Why have there been so many old resurrected threads around the forums lately?
I think the forum software is buggy garbage. Sometimes when I log into this forum really old posts are displayed even when I select the option of showing the last/most recent posts.

It's so annoying to me when that buggy garbage happens that I log out and check to see if the problem is corrected later on.
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Old 09-10-2014, 06:32 AM
 
Location: USA
7,776 posts, read 12,436,414 times
Reputation: 11812
My relatives on Cape Cod think it is heaven on earth and they love the elitism. They fit perfectly.
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Old 09-10-2014, 11:16 AM
zdg
 
Location: Sonoma County
845 posts, read 1,972,361 times
Reputation: 1144
Quote:
Originally Posted by marcopolo666 View Post
Has nobody noticed that eithne25 has only 3 posts, and that this thread is 3 years old?
Well, we did discuss that a few posts up, but people keep responding to the ghost of OP for some reason.
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Old 09-10-2014, 03:57 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,188 posts, read 107,790,902 times
Reputation: 116087
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe View Post
R4T, your post above is the one that supposedly bumped this thread. If it was already bumped before you posted, the mods are up to something fishy...

Wonder if the OP ever moved here.
!!! ?? You're right! How weird! No, I didn't dig around and uproot this thread. It was already bumped up.

Woo woo stuff!
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Old 09-10-2014, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley
18,813 posts, read 32,480,254 times
Reputation: 38575
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
!!! ?? You're right! How weird! No, I didn't dig around and uproot this thread. It was already bumped up.

Woo woo stuff!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSRm80WzZk
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Old 09-10-2014, 08:56 PM
 
17,815 posts, read 25,624,242 times
Reputation: 36278
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
Why have there been so many old resurrected threads around the forums lately?
Ruth, you're the one who resurrected it.

The post before yours is from Dec 2013, the next post is yours from 2 days ago.
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Old 09-10-2014, 08:59 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,188 posts, read 107,790,902 times
Reputation: 116087
Quote:
Originally Posted by seain dublin View Post
Ruth, you're the one who resurrected it.

The post before yours is from Dec 2013, the next post is yours from 2 days ago.
No, I didn't resurrect it. It was at or near the top of the day's listings when I posted.
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Old 09-10-2014, 09:03 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
1,963 posts, read 3,041,725 times
Reputation: 2430
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
No, I didn't resurrect it. It was at or near the top of the day's listings when I posted.
That could be true. If there was a post just before hers that was deleted, we'd not see it now, but it would have caused the thread to appear near the top. Believe me, I know about deleted posts.
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