When we're all children and dreaming of our futures, what comes to mind? For me, it was, one day, being a Master of the Universe in New York City, like the troubled Sherman from Tom Wolfe's epic of the 1980s, Bonfire of the Vanities. Big city, big life, everything BIG.
I never dreamed that maybe, just maybe, I would find paradise in a hamlet of 61,000 people.
Yet we have.
I was talking with a close co-worker of mine earlier in the week about the Southern California wildfires, the long commutes out East. I mentioned that a friend of mine was leaving the news business in South Florida to go back to Minneapolis because it was just so...negative.
I've always "stuck up" for Eau Claire, even during our five-year stay in Duluth, because the people here were always so kind to us, especially when I was a 23-year-old just starting out, long on schtick but not as long on talent.
There is something reassuring about knowing when you are in that perfect place. We don't have the constant activity of Minneapolis or Madison...but we also don't have the crime and the commutes. You don't need to send your kids to private schools for a great education.
I see Eau Claire trying, especially for parents of younger children, to offer enough services and entertainment and we do appreciate it. I don't write this to schmooze but to keep it honest -- here in 2007, you can live in a "smaller city" and not really miss out on that much. Besides, what am I really missing out on?
That may be the best part of living here. When we go on vacation, we're always happy to come back. I can say I've lived in places where that wasn't always the case.
NOTE: Two more book signings for The Interim are coming up and I hope you can check them out: Saturday, November 17 at Bookends in Menomonie and Saturday, December 8th at The Comfy Place up in Bloomer. It's good times!
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