Four and a half years is long time to own a computer these days, but January of 2005 was when I made the jump from a desktop to a laptop. The little Dell has served me well and has certainly been a great computer for me.
It was time to move on though. The Dell is slow, the battery life is non-existent, and I was more than ready for a change. I had been mulling things over for quite sometime and when the updates to MacBook Pro line were announced it sealed the deal for me.
It’s the new 13″ MacBook Pro just announced the other week. This rounds out the technology family and with the exception of the blackberry, it’s almost an entirely Apple based family. The Dell will still get some work to run the old stuff I used to use in Windows (mainly Quicken) but for better or worse, I’m now a Mac.
It has been about three weeks since I made the move from Dublin to the Short North and ~1100 sq ft to ~650 sq ft. There have been some set backs in the unpacking as some things fit and others didn’t. Some furniture choices were good and others were not so good. Overall though the move has been very positive. I’ll write more about the ongoing trials and tribulations of moving later. For now I wanted to provide a few highlights on the transition:
- my commute is definitely longer, but traffic isn’t bad as I’m going against the grain
- my monthly expenses have increased mostly due to parking fees but also because of my ever expanding appetite for new restaurants (I used to think I really enjoyed cooking and I still do, but I’ve since discovered I enjoy eating way more)
- the noise can be bothersome especially when trying to sleep on a weekend night
- Goodale Park is fantastic
- Gallery Hop is so much more fun when you don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot
- random things like the Zombie Walk can be enjoyed without much effort (I didn’t participate but did enjoy watching).
So is a longer commute, higher monthly expenses, and the added noise worth it? At this point my life, those are indescribably minor compared with everything else downtown living offers. I see myself being down here for some time to come especially if the rest of the summer continues like this.
