At some point in my life I will move from my current estate. I will bid farewell to my neighbors. I will bid farewell to my friends at the gym. I will bid farewell to those who wake up early on weekends to have fervent discussions regarding our incarceration system. No longer will I have seventy fast food options in a one block radius. Gone will be the days of the dual laundry-mat barbershop experience. These things will pass be by in a similar manor of how they entered - as a path to something bigger and better. Strictly "better" you ask? I guess we will save that discussion for another day, but I feel comfortable in at least labeling the next stage of my life as bigger. Bigger in scope - and bigger in size. I will begin a life of doing things I do not do know - leaving some activities forever in the past.
Recently I interviewed some people who live in my neighborhood and I will show you the answers they gave me to the question "how did you come to live here?" Anonymous responses were:
"It's a good location as far as being a substantial radius from any public park."
"The rent is a good price for what my family needs."
"There are alot of nice up and coming restaurants in the area."
"Just graduated college and I'm in grad school so this is a good area as far as meeting other young people."
"25 to life aint shit."
"I have been looking for an area that had a laundry-mat and barbershop in one."
"Wanted to live amongst real people - tired of the Hollywood stereotypes."
"People in this area are very eclectic - I need that in my life."
"Its a great location for everything in LA"
I would share more, as I interviewed nearly 500 people, but the rest of the answers are within the scope of the above sample. Suffice to say - we are a common ilk.
But I digress.
As you probably deduced by now my topic comes to an issue I have as far as what I will do when I find a new location - and is one that I am sure all of you readers have faced as you move to more ritzy areas. Should I:
1) Buy a slick coffee maker that allows me to have steamed milk and cappuccino and all that kind of stuff in order to offer people or give people something to do when they come visit me in my new pad.
or
2) Live near a place with a good coffee shop that I can make an event out of "going to grab a cup."
I want someone to be impressed by the selection of activities I have to do in my new neighborhood, yet I struggle to also show that I am sophisticated and have a nice coffee maker that can do alot of different, nice things. I mostly want to have a few nice coffee shops in the area to take visitors, yet I want a nice machine for myself in order to brew something nice when I need a little caffeine fix to stay awake and read and study and advance my knowledge.
This is my conundrum.
u get the cappuccino machine 100%. the shiniest and most expensive (looking) one out there. display it prominently and draw attention to it if necessary.
ReplyDeleteaside from demonstrating your value and worth, this also puts the ball in your court:
-if you read it as a situation where ur trying to entertain maybe an erykah badu chick and u want to show that ur one with the progressive up-and-coming free-nelson-mandela bush-lied hipster culture, you take her to the free-trade organic local shop for the open mic slam poetry night and introduce her to a couple of your local friends who will explain to her how 9/11 was an inside job
-if its a situation where its maybe a less confident meek girl who wants a man to put her in her place, u stay at home, and make the most complicated ass drink with the machine and describe every step of the process using many foreign words with harsh accents to show that you are both handy, sophisticated, educated and can make things happen
-its a bunch of people over at your 2-br 27th floor spacious condo overlooking the park, you definately show off the contraption, but u dont offer shit to anyone because u aint trying to pay for coffee for a group of people. this is also generally a situation where its better to get hammered and maybe hope that the quasi-fat chick in the group gets real frisky and asks you to show her the cappuccino machine again at the end of the night.
moral of the story - u want options - and u want to shine
Falstad - you came correct right here. Most of your analysis has been received and will most likely be implemented. Thanks.
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