Is suburbia that bad?

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Also available on The Calgary Herald

Ever since I moved to Calgary almost three years ago, I have lived in the same house/apartment complex. I was told that all the cool/trendy people lived in Mission, so in effort to be mistaken for either cool or trendy, I chose an apartment in Mission and I haven’t looked back since. I think this has something to do with the fact that I have always wanted to live a life similar to those on the TV show Friends. My first apartment in the house wasn’t exactly what I dreamed off, mostly because it meant I would usually be woken up by either spider bites or the sounds of my upstairs neighbors practicing the art of making babies, but it was my first apartment, so I was happy with it. I have since moved upstairs where arachnid bites and grown-up noises are considerably less.

I have always loved my time in Mission, mostly because it is one of the few areas of Calgary that has buildings older than me. But it also has some great locally owned business like Le Chien Chaud and the Purple Perk.

However, for the past two weeks I have been living in the NW as part of my duties as official house/dog-sitter to my friends from back east (the maritimes, not Afghanistan). As someone who has lived in an apartment his whole adult life, I sometimes develop a form of culture shock when I enter a real house. These particular friends have a whole house to themselves; it has bedrooms, countless bathrooms, a driveway and both a front AND backyard. To those that wake up this everyday, it would be impossible to imagine how happy this makes someone like me who doesn’t even have a bathroom in their actual apartment (no joke).

As apart of my dog sitting duties, I must take the two dogs to the area dog park twice a day. At the dog park you will find a variety of people, teenagers, moms and retired businessmen, all of who seem to be very happy with their NW way of life. So far they seem friendly and generally interested in both me and my dogs well-being. Over the past couple of days I have had to train myself not to innately respond to every question with a: “no sorry man, I don’t have any change” every time they talk to me. Sometimes they ask me about the dogs, other times we talk about the weather and not once have they asked me if they can borrow a random amount of money or have a bite of my pizza.

The other great thing about suburban life is the fact that my car and its general area have been vomit free for fourteen straight days, a record for both me and my Saturn. All of a sudden, I can’t but think that there are things more important then “cool and trendy”.

So while I may not be ready to pack up my bags and move to a new apartment away from a neighborhood thanks make me cool by association, I am at least considering it. After all, even Chandler and Monica eventually gave up their rent control apartment right?