Didn’t Utah just change their laws regarding 3.2% beer?
Yes, beer laws were changed.
Nice, that was some impressive work they did. I’ll give him a shout out as I drive home from work today.
OK, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted in this thread. My wife got pretty darn close to getting that UT job, one of the two finalists who went out for an in person interview - and then they gave the position to an existing employee. Frustrating.
But, new rounds of openings are coming in. Right now there are some positions in West Haven CT, Bothel WA, and Montgomery AL. Anyone have anything good or bad to say about these areas?
I used to live on Long Island NY, so CT would be the most familiar out of these locations. I never want to return to the crowdedness of Long Island, but CT has nice areas. More winter than we want, but better than where we are now.
We’ve always wanted to give Washington State a try. We love Rainier, the Olympic Penninsula, and Orcus Island. Housing is expensive, but the salary should be good enough to get a nice house (hopefully).
Montgomery, AL would be the biggest change from anything we’re used to - both climate and culturally. We have no problem going someplace more diverse. I am a bit worried about how republican the state is and also how religious (I am neither). I’m fine with religious people, but I’m not so sure people down there are OK with people who are agnostic - not that I go around talking about it. I have heard it is pretty standard that people ask what church you go to. Housing is fairly cheap, so that’s good. I’d also welcome getting rid of winter. I can deal with the heat much better. I’d rather have 3 months that are too hot then 5 months that are too cold for sure. I’m also worried about the schools and maybe needing to put my middle school son in a private school .
Where in UT?
The UT job is gone, but it was in Orem. There is a new one north of Salt Lake City, but it is at an R1 research institution and my wife prefers going somewhere more teaching oriented.
I love western Washington. If I could go back i would. My aunt lived in Bothell for a time, but sadly that specific area just had my experience as a glorified tourist.
I hear you. Bothell means a lot of traffic and long commutes depending on your housing choices, having lived near there. Also $$$ for housing.
I’ve been to Montgomery and it isn’t the sticks; its a pretty nice University small city with all the bells and “blue center” whistles that are important to you.
@Jason_McMaster is from Birmingham (I think) and may be able to give you more nitty gritty, hence I am snitch tagging him.
Edit - forum weirdness, I was responding to @robc04
It is freaking gorgeous.
And you can be on the outskirts of the big city to get big city without being in it all the time. Nice airport, access to the ocean not far away, rivers, lakes, mountains, like real mountains… The only complaints I hear these days is rain which is why jackets have hoods and COLA. There’s traffic for commuting if you have to go in.
My dad’s family is still up there, but Bothell itself isn’t well known to me other than they had a nice house near the mall there.
Yup. My only complaints were traffic and Cost of Living/Housing. If Uncle Sugar wasn’t pitching in, I’d have been eating cat food.
So, I live in Birmingham, which is the most liberal part of the state. I haven’t been asked where I go to church in a very long time, but you can always just tell people you just moved and haven’t found one you like yet. Or some such crap. It’s all politeness most of the time, and you’ll really only deal with that mostly with the elderly.
my wife is agnostic and I’m not practicing in any faith, but consider myself Christian. it never comes up.
Public schools here are mostly crap compared to the rest of the country. This is the world of the fat-cat politician. Fun fact - a large portion of our governors and mayors end up in jail!
As for Montgomery, it’s sleepy and old, and kind of dull. However, you aren’t far from the beach and the Shakespeare festival is really nice with some world renowned stage actors on occasion. Depending on where you’re from, the food will likely be better. We’re not afraid of cooking with all manner of fats.
Summer are awful, obviously, but to be honest, theyre not that much worse than most other places nowadays. The big difference is that every house in the south has a giant A/C unit.
It is very cheap to live here, if you make good money of course. You make a lot less here but you also pay a lot less.
Come on down, we’ll have some barbecue.
Everyone who can afford it has blessed AC here. When I was a kid you just boiled alive in WA if it got hot… which it rarely did.
I’m not sure if western WA changed over the years but even when visiting I can’t remember feeling hot.
yeah, that’s the big thing about living in Ohio that I hated at first - we had a house with no central air, just central heat. It still gets stupid hot in Ohio.
I live on the Seattle side of the lake though I know there are a few eastsiders on the boards who can probably speak with more knowledge than I can about Bothell. I can say that it’s a nice enough place when I’ve been there, a good friend of mine used to live there. Definitely suburbia, for what that’s worth. I agree with folks who say traffic and cost of living are big concerns, worth keeping in mind.
One more thing to keep in mind - everyone talks about the rain out here, and that’s fair - we’re in rain forest territory here. But for most folks who haven’t spent much time out here, it’s not really the rain so much as the gray that gets under their skin. We’re far enough north that often you’re going to work in the dark, and coming home in the dark, and in between it’s overcast and drizzly. And that’s for a good six months of the year. If this sounds undesirable or might affect your mental wellbeing, keep it in mind. Upside is, the temperatures here are very moderate. It will get below freezing in the winters, but not very and not for long. And I don’t even have air conditioning, just open windows is usually enough.
Thanks @Navaronegun and @Nesrie for your responses! I’m pretty confident we’d be happy with Bothel. The biggie if she gets an interview and offer is whether the salary is high enough to negate those expenses. We love the mountains and it would be great to be able to head to Rainier regularly and the closer Cascades.
Your response makes me feel more comfortable Jason, thanks! It’s always good to hear from someone who has lived in the area. The Montgomery area leans liberal, so for us that is good. I don’t mind if Montgomery is sleepy. We aren’t big socializers / night life people. We enjoy going out for a good meal, or museum. We do like hiking and biking quite a bit, playing tennis. My wife and son would love to be able to head to the Gulf (I’m not a water person). I could see us liking the Shakespeare Festival.
My wife made some fried green tomatoes the other week because we had a bunch in our garden. They were really good! My weakness is baked goods / desserts. I do like barbecue too!
One thing I always do when we may move to a new area is look up crime data on citydata.com. Our current location has really low crime (index of 100 - US average is 274). So it always makes me nervous when I look up a potential spot and it’s 4 times as high. But, I really don’t know how that impacts daily life, so I never really know if it is bad in practice. I mean, I’ve visited cities that have higher crime rates but I’ve never lived there. Montgomery is 401. She didn’t apply for a job in Beckley, WV because there crime rate is really high (550 but had been over 800 5 years ago). Well it wasn’t only the crime rate - it is kinda in the middle of nowhere.
After I posted my initial post, my wife got an email - she made it to the phone interview stage for the Montgomery job!
Congrats! Jason confirmed my impression; a blue-statey small city that’s laid back but has cool bars, restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores and whatnot bc Auburn U, Huntingdon, etc. are there.
Also, I think not having central AC, unless in Alaska, should be against the Geneva Convention
Yeah, it’s not ideal - but I think the area has enough going for it to make up for it. Around 15 years ago (man it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago) we took a trip out there. Flew into Seattle, drove to Rainier, Mount St. Helens, over to the Oregon coast, up to the Olympic Peninsula and then Orcus Island. It was such a beautiful trip.
The pictures don’t really do it justice. I’m a sap. It almost makes me teary thinking how beautiful it is.
I’m not trying to talk you out of it by any means! But I’m guessing from those photos that you were out here during the spring/summer months and it’s not like that year round. Just more info for your decision making process, is all I’m saying.
I agree. It didn’t bug me bc I moved there from Germany but the grey zapped a few other dudes I knew; they hated it.