Tomorrow we’ll be heading down to our new house to do the inspection. Assuming everything goes ok, we’ll be calling Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood home around April 22nd.

Andreas and I really wrestled with where we wanted to live. We were both raised in what I consider “subrural” areas. Growing up, I lived on a one lane dirt road and walked half a mile to catch the bus to school. There were only two grocery stores to chose from on the island, and the only thing within walking distance was a mini-mart a mile and a half away.

But once I moved out of my parents’ house, I went very urban. I’ve grown accustomed to walking to cafes and grocery stores. I love sidewalk culture and never worrying about drunk driving and walking to get dinner or picking up groceries as I walk home from work.

The one year Dre and I weren’t living in the city-center, we lived in the woods in Olympia. We seem to be very all-or-nothing. We’ve been in the middle of it all, or way out in buttfuck-nowhere. None of this in-between-y, strip malls and parkways and cul-de-sacs for us. Give us 10 dance clubs down the street, or else give us deeply forested privacy.

And yet, here we are moving to a neighborhood that by our standards is totally suburban. But there’s the clincher: by our standards.

It’s been funny talking to people about our new neighborhood. Andreas and I both say things like “it’s so far south” and “ack: we’re moving to the burbs!” We’re sort of misrepresenting it: “the burbs” to us means it’s a five minute drive to the nearest grocery store. “So far south” means that there are no cafes within walking distance and that the nearest art house theater is a (get this!) 20-minute drive.

Then I remember our time in LA, where a 20-minute drive meant something was right in your neighborhood. Where some of our in-city friends lived an hour away.

The house is actually quite urban. It’s a 10 minute walk from the gorgeous Kubota Gardens. There are two bus routes within five blocks. If I got on my bike, I’d be on a corner where I could buy some crack within a mile or two.

But you have to understand: we’re terrified of the suburbs, and we seriously debated which neighborhoods were going to pass our high standards of non-burbitude. I had a realization at one point that I was actually favoring overpriced run-down houses with bars on the windows because, well, at least they didn’t feel suburban! What’s up with that bullshit?

We’ll still live a remarkably car-minimal lifestyle. The only reason Rainier Beach was an option for us was because it’s serviced by an express bus to downtown Seattle. If that bus wasn’t there, we wouldn’t be there. That said: I’m sure I’ll have some moments of serious freaking out when I realize that we’re out of milk and I have to get in a car and to get some.

We will also have to look harder for the freaks. I’m guessing that hula hooping in the front yard will take care of that pretty quickly.