We looked at apartments in Stamford, Norwalk and Darien yesterday.  Some were really nice on the inside, but the neighborhoods were depressing.  We almost drove our car into Long Island Sound, on purpose. 

 No little coffeeshops (but there’s a Starbucks in the mall!), no cool stores (but there’s a Target 1 mile away!), no cute bookstores (but Barnes & Noble is right up the street!)…   

Stamford seemed to have some good ethnic restaurants catering to the “Southeast Asian financial community.”  (Our broker’s words)  Great.  So we can party with the “hedge fund crowd” in downtown Stamford on Friday and Saturday nights.  Perfect. 

People move to Connecticut because they have small children and they want to get into a good school system.  They’ve given up their youth, in exchange for the lives of their children.  They accept suburbia because smart mature parents before them have done the same.  They give up.  They conform.  They supress their dreams and wait out the years before their exciting mid-life crisis, when they might get a Corvette, or maybe a super duper rider lawnmower.

Or maybe they move out because they’ve saved up a down payment for a sweet house, and they want a yard and and a tool shed and a dining room and a pool.  I can see that, I guess.  It just doesn’t work too well with our net worth, which currently stands at -$134,124.31.  Yes, that’s a negative number.

I’m convinced that Fairfield County is where dreams go to die.   

We’re just not ready for that.