What is wrong with me?? - Ashburn (Reston, Leesburg: section 8, foreclosures)

[ShannonMilligan]

I love it here in Ashburn. Yes, there are a lot of "perfect people" but I am a very honest person and I am in a moms club and I just speak to what I believe and don't care if they find me "different from them." For example, I mentioned going back to work and some did look at me like I am nuts but others understood me and I think felt refreshed that someone actually said what they too were thinking. I think when you are comfortable with yourself, you can make it anywhere.
Yeah, Ashburn is very "perfect" but that also makes it imperfect...Know what I mean?
You can live in a little less planned community and it doesn't have to be a bad community. You just may not have the kids who are competitive enough to go to Harvard (but Penn State is a GREAT school) and you may have the neighbor who doesn't keep his yard as nice and decreases the home values a little (but a little less equity doesn't hurt anyone) and you may have to battle some more of the unfriendly types in your daily travels (but dealing with an unfriendly teller never ruined an entire day)...
Ashburn is what you make of it. I can point out some homes in Ashburn where the houses are not as neatly kept and I can even tell you about a shooting a few weeks ago...Ashburn, and any other place, is what you make of it. The attitude you chose when you wake up makes all the difference. You can continue to mock those in Ashburn with your husband or you can decide to maybe put a smile on your face and play the game a bit. Or you can move.
I don't know...Long day and I am tired. I don't even know if I am making sense anymore, lol!
Good luck with what you chose to do!

[ShannonMilligan]

Oh, and I am being serious about Penn State- I went there and loved it. No Harvard grad here!

[claremarie]

You can live in a little less planned community and it doesn't have to be a bad community. You just may not have the kids who are competitive enough to go to Harvard (but Penn State is a GREAT school)

Some of the most "unplanned" communities in this area are home to the most competitive people on the planet -- such as Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase in northwest DC, for example. But it's kind of a phony "unplanned"-ness. The yard is casually but deliberately weed-filled; the Volvo is covered with pollen, dust, and faded "Kerry/Edwards" stickers; and the paint is peeling on the shutters BUT the kitchen has a Viking stove; the parents went to Harvard/Yale/Stanford/Brown/Duke/Princeton; and the kids are headed there as well (via the National Cathedral School/Sidwell/Georgetown Day pipeline).

Unlike Ashburn, the people aren't smiling -- too worried about global warming, their carbon footprint, and the propects of an endless Democratic primary season.

[littlewmn]

Hmm-- sounds a bit like me. I am more of a non-conformist. That has become part of my identity. I am proud of it.
Being in a "just so" neighborhood makes me a bit edgy. But just a bit. There are neighborhoods that would make me far more than just a bit edgy. There is a sense that things are very wrong under the veneer. That there is something wrong that people are trying desparately to hide. But I supose that is better than it being in the open. At least it is more- um- polite? Still- I also find it unnerving and creepy.
I think the trick is not to get caught up in it and to keep one's sense of humor. But that being said, I have a hard time doing it myself.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by claremarie

Unlike Ashburn, the people aren't smiling -- too worried about global warming, their carbon footprint, and the propects of an endless Democratic primary season.

LOL

I'm a Republican, but I agree with the OP about how lame Ashburn is, although not as lame as the identity crisis-stricken zip code 20165, where people have a seizure if you dare suggest that they live in "Sterling".

The endless landscape of brickface, vinyl siding houses with predictable intervals of elementary schools, strip malls, and franchise stores pretty much dulls what is otherwise about as diverse an area that you'll find in the U.S.

Reston also gets high marks for being pathetic, chain restaurants + rent-a-cops = a mall, not an "urban village".

There is a great economy here, I appreciate that, and I like the inexpensive ethnic restaurants. But I ran out of patience with the Dulles corridor after my 127th tasteless, grilled chicken sandwich. At least the liberals in DC and Arlington can get coffee someplace besides Starbucks, walk down the street to get a pizza or a beer, and enjoy a good meal at a restaurant where the entire wait staff doesn't start singing, clapping, and lighting sparklers because one of the 200 people in the place is having a birthday.

[TheseGoTo11]

Originally Posted by plf

In fact, the problem is probably with me.

No, it's not. A lot of people get tired of it.

I grew up in a modest New England town, but it had a lot more personality than the Ashburn/Chantillly/Reston/Sterling metroplex, because it had some history and most of the shops and restaurants were locally owned.

If you can afford it, Falls Church City has excellent schools and a real town, and coffee shops and restaurants that you don't get sick of the 2nd time you go there. North Arlington, too, especially in the Yorktown district.

I know a lot of people bash Herndon. When I lived there, someone I used to work with told me I lived in "Hernandez". But it's closer in than Ashburn, and while it has some trashy neighborhoods, it has nice ones as well that don't feel as manufactured as the vinyl-siding ghettos in Eastern Loudoun.

[cmacf1]

:My MIL lives in Ashburn. She loves it, but she was looking for a 'perfect' community. Hubby and I really prefer a 'less perfect' neighborhood with houses that don't look like every other house on the block (which generally means an older home,) where there are 100 year old trees, and where there's a lot of diversity. I don't know enough about Ashburn to know if any of these qualities exists there, but we just don't like the look of Ashburn. In fact, we just kind of don't like a lot of NOVA. We live in an older neighborhood outside of Baltimore, in a 1950 rancher with outdated wood paneling, but we have half an acre, lots of huge trees, a well-established elementary school, and lots of community spirit.

Non-conformity is a tenet in hubby's and my life. However, I'm really not knocking people who like conformity -- we all have legitimate preferences.

[EuroExpat]

Originally Posted by claremarie

[
Go rent the Stepford Wives....
But really, I have to ask -- what made you decide to live in Ashburn in the first place?

LOL thats what this place reminds us of. We moved here because of a much shorter commute (10 minutes vs. 45 minutes), that was the only reason which was obviously WRONG.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

"Some of the most "unplanned" communities in this area are home to the most competitive people on the planet -- such as Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase in northwest DC, for example. But it's kind of a phony "unplanned"-ness. The yard is casually but deliberately weed-filled; the Volvo is covered with pollen, dust, and faded "Kerry/Edwards" stickers; and the paint is peeling on the shutters BUT the kitchen has a Viking stove; the parents went to Harvard/Yale/Stanford/Brown/Duke/Princeton; and the kids are headed there as well (via the National Cathedral School/Sidwell/Georgetown Day pipeline). "

The quote above is sooo true - you described what I see a lot perfectly.... at first I thought the people were lazy not to pick their weeds but now I see they do it on purpose

And by "bad" neighborhood I mean drug dealer sitting out on ths stoop getting drunk.....not a bike laying in the yard.

[mdcrim]

I have to chime in. I have lived in Ashburn for 8 years. I love it, or I wouldn't still be living here. I am not a conformist. I am a mother who works full timd outside the home, rides a motorcycle and has tattoos. I get treated very well by my neighbors, who are the best I have ever had. Which is the main reason I love it here. Most of the women in my neighborhood work outside the home. We have a very ecclectic mix of people here, believe it or not. But we all share similar values-family, friends, neighborhood, pride in our surroundings and respect for others. Maybe I am in an abnormal section of Ashburn (we don't have a lot of what I would consider "typical Asburn-let the nanny take the kids to the park so I can get my manicure" type of people), but I love my little slice of perfection.