It Will Be Good To Be Home

It's amazing--I never knew I still had so many friends still back in Wisconsin! What a perfect time to join Facebook---I've been 'friended' by so many familiar faces! I'm searching high and low for an apartment in Milwaukee. Portland is so dog-friendly, I'd forgotten that other towns aren't so keen on your four legged friend sharing the apartment. The right one will come along, but it's frustrating to be turned away when everyone knows that dog owners are far superior people, and very desirable renters. Who else will pick up steaming poo first thing in the morning? Isn't that just the kind of person you want as a tenant? For those who don't know, I'm moving back to Wisconsin. I had to leave my current job, the market being what it is, and I've been wanting to get back to 'home' or at least near family for a few years now. I was originally aiming for Chicago, but the dart landed a little higher, and a little closer to a dairy farm. As it turns out, I'm probably going to love Milwaukee. Because we lived in Fond du Lac, and visited Chicago so often for our 'big city' fix, we rarely went to Milwaukee when I was growing up. As a third grader, I toured a brewery on a field trip, but that was about the extent of my knowledge of the place. The more research I do, the more I see that it has a heck of a lot in common with Portland--they are such similiar cities in fact, you could call it Portland North. The same population (Milwauke is 20k bigger), similiar demographics, similiar industry/business base, similiar neighborhoods (Pearl District=Third Ward, Riverfront=Riverfront, Shorewood=Sellwood, Brady Street = NW 23rd, Downer Street = Hawthorne, and on and on). Swap the mountains for the lake, rain for snow, and you've got the same place! Bonus, it's only an hour and half from Chicago...and all the Quinlans!