im moving to ohio.. any advice?

You live in Lubbock now?

the thing i want most in life, and maybe you will understand my point of view, is to relax.

in vegas im erratic, constantly battling various forces, mainly negative. I talk to people in other cities across the world about graffiti, hip hop, dog training, etc..i do live near the west coast, which does have a lot of culture, but the cost of living there is outrageous compared to las vegas.All the weightpulling competitions are ont he east coast. etc.

in vegas there is NOTHING. all these things im interested in, and theres nothing. when people grow up in vegas, they become work zombies. everyone here is sad or frustrated or angry.
or an addict of some sort.

and ive been telling my cousin i just need some sort of break, an oppurtunity, an opening, and then a week later, as sad as my friends grampa dying is, hes like well u can stay here rent free, we go fishing every weekend, i inherited so and so money, i bought a ninja, u want it or what? it aint free, i got a few acres

its a godsend. if i have to work a cashier job, but i can sit there and relax, surrounded by trees, knowing im pretty much FREE?

thats amazing.

i do know you guys are out for my best interest, for the most part :/
and i appreciate all the advice i recieve on this forum immensely, what i appreciate more is knowing theres people out there who arnt completely ******* retarded. but this is going down come hell or high water.

I like hearing you write like this. You seem determined to get yourself out of the shithole and that lifestyle. You are in an odd place and unsafe place. You are determined to make it SOMEHOW and that means that you're a survivor.

FWIW, I also went through a drastic change of lifestyle. I'm now 58 but was 52 when I made my big change. I also went through drastic lifesyle changes in my past, too. I'm an urban (Boston) sort of guy, but my current lifestyle is in dairy farm and orchard country in upstate NY. I think if I tried this as a 21-yr-old, I'd not have made it. However, my life and safety wasn't at stake.

My thought is that you're used to a "high-stimulus" lifestyle. This new lifestyle is different ... more on the "low stimulus" side. If your patient and persistent, you'll get used to that. But be prepared for this to take awhile to adjust to.

You can free yourself of this deadly lifestyle. I'm not exactly sure of all those other plans you're proposing, but where this is a strongwill, there's a way.

Hello Ogionik. Congratulations on your decision. Ohio will be quite different from Las Vegas. The first few weeks you will be awed at the difference....and if everything clicks into place, you might enjoy the different enviroment more then you imagine now.
I am one state above you. Visited Ohio many times. There is more there then cornfields. If you need a rundown on areas, attractions, and such, please feel free to inquire.
Only problem I forsee you having is that by taking residence in Ohio, you will become a Buckeye.

One more item. The Ohio State Police have zero tolerence for speeders, and enforce every law to the tee. Be careful.

Good luck.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday.

BTW, looking up stuff on Caldwell, it seems the median rent there is less than $350 a month.

It might be that you'll end up taking a low paying job, at least for a while. But hey, living is cheap there.

Seems like you could walk anywhere you needed to go.

Besides rent, food, and some other necessities, it doesn't cost a lot to live in a small place.

Word of advice about small towns, you will be the newcomer for years. Just get over it, and be friendly.

Older population, you need work....go to church.

I'm serious, church is a huge deal in small towns, especially among seniors. Hang around before and after, letting people know you're looking for work. Let them know you're not one of those glue sniffing troublemakers. Just play it real straight.

Do NOT let anyone hear you say anything critical about church or religion. Don't get me wrong, there are people there that couldn't care less, but they're not stupid enough to say so.

I'm not saying you can't be yourself after getting to know people, but they will be looking you over as the new stranger in town.

I thought Og IS one of those glue sniffing troublemakers....

well yeah....but he doesn't want THEM to know that!

About seven years ago I moved from Chicago, Illinois to Small Town, Alabama (I have since moved back). I moved from a place where there is stuff, to a place were there is no stuff whatsoever. By stuff I mean food from anywhere in Asia (we're talking about an entire continent, the largest one no less), stadium seating in movie theaters, and a bookstore whose shelves are not monitored by Christian fundamentalists.

Here's what happened.

I was really bored and unhappy for more than a year. But eventually I learned to accept some sage advice I was given by a random dude who bummed a cigarette from me at O'Hare when I was back in Chicago visiting: "In Chicago, you never know what's gonna happen. Anything can happen. In Alabama, ain't **** gonna happen, so you might was well sit back, roll a fatty, and smoke that ************." This gentleman then proceeded to spin some crazy yarns, one about the time he fisted a TSA agent on the baby-changing table in the women's restroom directly behind us.

Allow me to fine-tune his advice though. Weed and booze are too easy. And they don't fix anything long-term. So be careful.

Hold tight to things you can control. You can't control that there is no stuff in Ohio, particularly Southeast Ohio. You can't control that work diminishes one's quality of life by 25% (I just made that up, but it sounds about right, therefore it is true). In Alabama I enjoyed life via books, barbequed chicken, stars, horseshoes, Cosby reruns, and three friends. And now I am able to reflect on my time there with the misguided nostalgia I apply to all challenging but ultimately worthwhile life experiences.

Also, you have a dog. Who will, of course, give back at least 10% of the livelihood work takes from you.

Finally, I don't believe in giving advice.

No. We lived there for a while several years ago; we're back in Austin now.

Amen.

Breaking into the social scene (whatever social scene there may be) could be difficult. I know of a family that moved to a rural town and moved after two years of trying to make friends.

I remember visiting my grandparents' farm in Nebraska as a child. Great fun for a kid. Motorcycles, fishing, swimming, climbing trees, shooting BB guns, rinse and repeat.

(Just don't mention throwing fireworks in the hay barn, or climbing the rickety old windmill, or the visits to the emergency room to my mom.)

To be fair, that true of places that aren't rural also.

Whenever friends visit me from....well, from anywhere else really, they say at some point during their visit "God, everywhere we (I) go, people just start TALKING to us (me)!"

I forget that it's not like that everywhere.

I lived right outside of Milwaukee on 2 occassions, and I just couldn't seem to get more than 5 words out of anyone at any given time. I'm sure people who grew up there would tell me that's not true, but that's because they grew up there, or at least in that state. I remember saying to a friend on the phone that I couldn't figure out how people made friends there because any time I was standing/sitting next to someone and said "Oh, look at that", or something general like that, I'd get this blank gaze back, and that's about it.

Little segway...First time, I moved there in early November, from Fla. Having grown up in NJ, I knew I better get my car winterized.

Yeah, winterized. Tell me you don't know what that means if you've ever lived somewhere with a decent amount of snow or ice.

I drove to a small local garage, the guy there had obviously been a mechanic for at least 30 years, probably most of it at that little shop. I got out of my car with the Florida license plates still on them, and asked him if he had time right then/how much, etc. to winterize my car.

"Winterize?" he said with this half sneer, half "I'm talking to a retard" look on his face.

"Um....yeah...isn't that the word...winterize?" I'm thinking I couldn't have forgotten such a simple term, even though it'd been 10 years since I'd used it.

He basically told me he didn't know what I was talking about. So I was "you know, change the oil and put in a heavier grade, add anti-freeze, uh...you know, winterize"
I remember he kinda just shook his head and turned away, like "whoo boy, they let the weirdos out early this month."

The 2nd time I lived there, I drove by the same little shop, that had a big sign posted out front "Special!!! Winterize your car - now 30% off!!!"

I figured he was that way because he saw my Fla tags, and he was a bit more of an asshole than most people, but still, I don't remember anyone being all that friendly, or helpful.

People were very chatty in Lubbock. They'd tell you their life's story while you're checking out at the grocery store.

T would complain about it.

Then we came back to Austin for a weekend, went to the store, and T griped, "that checker was so rude! She didn't say a thing to us!"

I laughed.

Sometimes they're just being chatty to obtain classified information.

Later, they tell their friends "I just KNEW she didn't look like someone who loved Jesus"

arr

ohh

eff

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my friend tells me some of the males there might try to test my grit. try to exert some dominance or some ****.

im like bro,im from the slums of las vegas, i was the only white guy around, and im skinny as ****. i hope not, im gonna kick him straight in the motherfuckign balls, grab his head, slam my knee into his face as hard as possible then look for a bottle to break and stab him with while hes on the ground.

hes like hahaha, im like no dude, seriously.

hes like oh :/

im like, just kidding.

god i hate violence.

The point my friend is that when you move to the sticks you either find a way to fit in, or you are fucked. You have no clue what you are in for. You might as well be moving to a foreign country.

Explain how you know what you are talking about.

Thanks!

Yeah bro, if you think the Crips and the Bloods are evil- just wait until you meet the bad boys of Southern Ohio.
Check out the scary headlines in today's Caldwell Ohio paper
The Daily-Jeff. The local hardware store is setting out their stock of onion bulbs and potato tubers:

http://www.daily-jeff.com/

A hell of a town that Caldwell. Maybe you should stay in safe, cozy Las Vegas for the rest of your life- the world is a scary place.

Look at it this way, OG - read all the posts here, then think of the people behind the advice. Who seems to be happy, healthy, successful and sane? Now whose advice do you think you should follow?

Really, Hawkeye, do you ever leave your basement?

I'm 'bout ready to get deeper here, too Koolaid...

Hawkeye are you a city boy or a country boy, cuz obviously in your book it don't go both ways?

(kurious in kansas)