Lifestyles
LEXINGTON, KY.
BEST CITY FOR YOUNG SINGLES
Population: 410,876
Cost-of-Living Index: 96 (100 being national average)
Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class: 29.9%
Bohemian Indicator: 98
Creative-Class Salary Growth (2000-2005): 15.7%
“Lexington, although relatively small, offers young singles plenty of things to do: bars that cater to anyone from sports fans to gays to young socialites; live entertainment most nights of the week; art gallery hops; an opera house that brings in Broadway shows; and, of course, horse racing. Plus, the cost of living is a heck of a lot cheaper than in bigger cities.”
“LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY
The Lexington area has exactly what you’d expect to find in Kentucky: beautiful horse farms, bourbon distilleries and crazed University of Kentucky basketball fans.
But it also has a lot you wouldn’t expect in the middle of Bluegrass Country: a thriving underground art and music scene, an eccentric annual masquerade ball held in offbeat locales, a large gay community and a popular nude art show.
Surprised? Although the six-county Lexington metro area is on the small side (population about 411,000), it’s not provincial. The horse industry draws people from around the world, and the area’s 15 colleges and universities attract enlightened minds, making the population younger than the national average and among the most educated in the nation. Grads from those schools tend to stick around because of the range of job opportunities, from major employers, such as Toyota and printer maker Lexmark International, to small arts groups and nonprofit organizations.
For young singles, rental housing is relatively inexpensive. You can find a two-bedroom apartment in a stately house downtown for $650, or a one-bedroom for less than $500. Unfortunately, many of the urban lofts being developed in former tobacco-processing plants are pricey. Expect to pay up to $210,000 for one of these 1,200-square-foot condo units. — Cameron Huddleston”
Add this to our recent “Yellow Bike” program and Lexington just rocks even more!
Saturday we moved the chairs and shelves into the house with the marvelous use of our neighbor and his truck. Seriously. I only had to carry one chair and push the elevator buttons. Thanks, neighbor!
I spent some time working on my blog’s appearance, trying to get it practically perfect in every way. I know, it needs a ton o’ work, but it’s really getting hard for me to see some things these days, like the screen of my monitor. My eyes tire quickly.
We’re making an appointment for another check up—just had one a few months back—but something is wrong. And I’m worried it’s more than just bad lighting.
I had absolute and tight control of my diabetes until just less than two years ago. Since then my finger pricks and blood tests via the doctor’s office have just sucked. We changed meds, but it did little good. My exercising, how I was eating, and the drugs just don’t seem to cut it any more. So, yeah, I’m a bit worried about my eye sight giving me problems lately.
This surgery will be a big help towards regaining control of my diabetes—and could even bring on the end of it, but I’m not counting on it. My itty bitty teeny tiny gramma had diabetes, too. She got it her early sixties (and lived to 94—only the last 18 months of her life were in an assisted living home–she was that awesome). So, it’s in the family and my weight prolly just brought in on early—much like my arthritis. Gramma also carried scoliosis, but mine is not bad. You can really only see it on an x-ray.
Today we did some exterior caulking, not a lot…some. The laundry is all caught up now, too. This morning we sat on the front porch and had coffee with E from across the street. She brought her own bagel and cat.
I’m in the process of making some deviled eggs for a cookout we’re having with the O family across the alley. Idunno what else we’re having, but as long as there is plenty of protein to choose from I’ll be sated.
There will be no alcohol. The O’s don’t drink and I can’t. Dammit.
The pool is keeping their kids happy and I’ve got plenty of sunscreen and mosquito repellent to keep me happy.
Tomorrow is the big day with the surgeons!
Hubby and I are pulling into the driveway and I see my neighbor and her hubby working on setting up the pool in their yard. Tomorrow he and I have to pick up some chairs and a couple of shelves we recently acquired. Originally we were going to haul them home one at a time in our little red car, but hubby was crabbing about how that was gonna take SIX trips and ALL MORNING, so I gave in and told him our neighbor offered us their truck to use. He’s totally surprised, too. Neither one of us realized they even owned a truck! They keep it parked out front on the street while their drive way is in back off the alley like ours. So we didn’t know.
I cross the alley to visit and take them up on the offer and find out they’re trying to air up their pool with their vacuum, but it’s not being cooperative so I offer to get our shop vac and her hubby tells me they have one, but it’s in the back of shed and he doesn’t feel like going through all that to get it out, but I think ours is in the house and off I go to fetch it.
Hubby tells me ours is in the back of our shed, TOO! But then he tells me the little oreck can be used to blow and it’s right here.
Airing up the rim of the pool took well over an hour. We’re all sitting outside chatting as the rim airs up and then as the pool fills with water. For hours. Until it got dark. We’re just gabbing and laughing and having a really good time. And there wasn’t even any beer!
Then the mosquitoes came and it was time me to go in. I’m nothing but a great big buffet for mosquitoes, fleas, and biting flies.
And then I remembered I’d promised to write another mundane post for Michael C who is hosting Carnival of the Mundane and so, well, geez—-we watched a pool air up and fill with water.
It doesn’t get any more mundane.
I’ve already started drinking less coffee and using a smaller cup in anticipation of my surgery date announcement. I won’t be able to have caffeine for the first six months after surgery…I think…maybe it was three. Oh, well, I’m sure they’ll tell me again.
I’ve also been thinking about taking a week off from the internet and television to concentrate at working on my house—you know, all that cleaning and de-cluttering I’ve been posting about f..o..r..e..v..e..r. I’ve got friends I want to invite over and some of them have small children. I don’t want babies crawling about on my dirty floors or have a box of crap fall upon them and squash their diaper contents out onto my still dirty floors!
I picked up some small asian type bowls, 4 blue glasses that are the same size and shape as my others, but frosted on the outside (I need to get 2 more…I thought we only had 4 of each size…we have six.) these tiny wittle pigs with mine, hubby, and darling son’s name on them, and a little tool for my foodie friend. (Found this pic on the net.)
We got the whippets some Hill’s science diet food and cookies at Pet Smart and then stopped off at Home Depot for some caulk (getting ready to paint the exterior of the house this summer) before we finished up at Kroger’s for some groceries.
Hubby really enjoys shopping. I’m more a go in, get what you need, and get out kinda shopper. Hubby had a much better time than me going to all those places—except for when I found the wittle porcelain piggy banks barely big enough to hold a penny!
This morning I’m walking to work and across the street I hear this lady yelling (over my ipod, mind you) and I see her coming out of house and crossing the street she was on. I just keep on walking until I realize she is now on the sidewalk across the street from me and we’re both headed towards Main Street.
She’s wearing these black shorts with embellishments upon them, a smart little red jacket, and a wide brimmed straw hat. I mean she looked really nice, but the crap that was coming out of her mouth? O..M..G!
Another block or so and I’m waiting for the light to change so I can cross AND HERE SHE COMES across the street to my side. She just couldn’t keep her crazy on her side of the block. Oh, no she just had to bring it over to me!
She’s right in front of me now and emitting something unintelligible from her mouth. All I can muster is, “Good morning.”
“Leave me alone!” she answers.
Now I can really see what she looks like. She’s this tiny little old CRAZY lady who forgot to put her teeth in this morning!
She walks on a few paces, turns to mouth more sounds at me—TWICE—before the light changes and I can cross the street AWAY from the CRAZY lady.
I could hear her still carrying on as I kept my pace down the hill towards my office building.
Yesterday was a fine day.
I had a really good workout in the gym, managing to soak another bandanna with my own personal sweat.
I was dressed in my favorite seersucker shirt and my favorite sneakers with the sparkley threads running through the shoe strings.
I got a lot of paperwork out of my “in” box. My in box is just a folder in a drawer in my tiny little pretend desk at work. (The real desk is still a few weeks from coming.)
Dissertation Lady/Aidan’s Mom took me to lunch (actually her hubby treated us, thanks hubby) but we’d been planning the lunch for some time.
And she brought Aidan, too!
The lunch was to celebrate her milestone of giving her verbal proposal for her dissertation the day before (Can you smell Ph.D? We can!) and my upcoming surgery.
I love Aidan. He’s totally a child I could imagine stealing. Okay, I feel that way about a lot of kids I know (BUT I’VE NEVER DONE IT!). Aidan is just so darned cute, not just in appearance either, he’s total cuteness in every way. He also has the absolute best open mouth smile on a kid I’ve ever seen. I so wish I’d thought to take my camera!
We had dinner (also known as lunch) at Ramsey’s which is another place I hadn’t been. I know, I need to get out more.
Ramsey’s is well known about these parts for down home cookin’ and whatnot. When I first saw they had chicken livers on the menu I was very tempted, but I didn’t think they’d be the same barbecued chicken livers my mom would make so I opted for the veggie plate instead. Green beans, creamed corn, fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, and home style fries. The plate also came with two pieces of corn bread. I ate it all. It was complete starch heaven. Yummy. The corn bread was not up there with Moonlite’s back in the big O, but still worth every carb filled bite.
After work Hubby picked me up in the little red Volvo and we went to Kroger’s to pick up a few things which ended up including some toys for the whippets.
And an hour later evidence of abuse was already present:
Today we had a big round table event on campus. Lots of other pholks from the around the state and our campus coming together to get a coordinated effort between all and what we do to help entrepreneurs get the professional assistance and funding they need to get their business, concept, or invention up and running; providing high paying jobs and keeping them in Kentucky.
And it rained.
Still we only lost maybe 6 attendees due to the weather. Everything went smoothly and I gotta tell you, Number One is the absolute best at keeping an agenda moving and on time, even with our surprise addition the agenda (we had arranged a tour of the new UK basketball practice facility that turned out to be quite the hit).
The place was just so awesome and NEW. All the doors were EIGHT FOOT TALL—offices, custodial, I mean ALL of them. The fitness equipment totally rocked. Here I am thinking the stuff at the Y is top of the line, but WHO KNEW?! This stuff was totally industrial in size and quality. We saw it all. Two wonderful new and fresh smelling basketball courts. The men and women’s facilities were equal in every way imaginable, but I didn’t see any women’s shoes in the terrific and ROUND locker rooms as big as those that were in the men’s equipment room! (All of this was funded through private gifts – no state funds, no University funds.)
There were a few tall guys about on the men’s side and not being a UK fan like my hubby I didn’t recognize any of them, but oohs and awes were evident in the voices whispering “there’s ….” and “isn’t that …?”
Tubby Smith’s (OLD) office was smaller than I expected, but still quite large—and had it’s own private bathroom with a shower! There was plenty of speculation among our group as to who’s name might be put on the door next. And there were the trophy’s to be seen, too.
Most surprising was the reaction of our guests. I’d never imagined how excited they would be to taken on this tour! When people start pulling out cell phones and taking pictures you know you’ve got a winner. I’d even only gone along at the last minute due to the urging of a couple of colleagues and was so impressed by the group’s reaction and the facilities and I could hardly wait to get home and tell my hubby!
What impressed me the most (besides getting onto both basketball courts and making my shoes squeak like the players do during games!) was this computer program in the players’ lounges. After a game they could log onto these computers, type in their name and see every play they’d been involved in from the game. Replays of their plays, not just their stats and what not. I thought that was uber cool.
So…
Kentucky has all the professional assistance and plenty of public and private capital to invest in all start-up companies wanting to become Kentucky proud. We’re doing very well in getting these so very important services to our entrepreneurs. What to we need more of? CEOs! Some funding will not be given, granted, awarded or loaned with out the presence of a good CEO.
I logged in a lot of steps on ye ole pedometer today. More than I did yesterday—walking back and forth to work, to they gym, and working out WHICH I DID NOT DO TODAY. Whew! I’m tired.
Also, since this post was so centered on the whole UK basketball thing I’m thinking this is a good time to share what I snagged for my husband a couple of weeks ago (Thanks, girlfriend for totally hooking me up!):
Although I did go to the gym again this morning!
Last week, while I was getting my things from the desk clerk after my final equipment orientation, I was eavesdropping on a conversation going on in the lobby. Some pholks from the public Library were there giving away free books like manna from heaven and I stepped right over to get me one!
So this One Book One Lexington program is an annual event that began in 2005. The very spring I moved from the deelux apartment in the skyyy, which was right next to the library, to our Little House in the ‘hood. And so I never heard about it. *sigh*
When I’ve finished reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 (that I plan to read tonight) by Mr. Curtis I’m to either pass it on to another Lexingtonian or take it back to the library.
First to comment gets my copy!
I am just so tired.
Sunday was an adoption party. A neighbor has three foster children, one adopted (PARTY!), two to go. And three biological children. Now she’s a woman that really loves kids and being a mommy. She’s only a year older than me, too! I did my shopping at the very last minute—even waiting till then to decide who to get a gift for; the child or the parents? I chose the child as did everyone else who brought a gift.
Monday I finished my orientation on the weight machines at the Y. I’m not about “no pain/no gain” and I really didn’t think I was over doing anything, but I did get some sore places (which means I’m growing new muscle tissue sitting on my ass RIGHT NOW) so I’m pretty pleased that I will gets me a nice strong body at the YMCA!
Tuesday was lunch at Common Grounds with Ali and Allan. Yes, I actually met two real live blogmates-in person-how cool is that??! Ali even brought her camera. We had a nice luncheon and lots ‘o chatting. It was awkward, weird, and coolish to spend time with pholks you already kinda know, but never met. They both are hobbying hard at their photography, be sure to take a look at some of Ali’s pictures and the link over and see some of Allan’s, too. They are really good at this photography thing.
After work Hubby and I went to see Miss B. She was still looking for a ring she’d lost the week before. We didn’t find it either, but I had a double Maker’s Mark, straight up—5 to 6 pm is always toddy time at Miss B’s.
Today was the Venture Club meeting. Steve Mansfield of PreFound.com was our keynote speaker. He was a really good presenter. There was excellent attendance at this meeting, too.
We did our Monday trip to the grocery today.
Tomorrow I AM going to the gym. And I am going straight home after work.
Friday I have lunch with a co-worker and will finally get my external hard drive I think I ordered TWO WEEKS AGO. Number One and I just kept missing the IT clerk that had ordered it for me…and then they kinda lost it, too. I’ll be responsible for our IT purchases come July and we won’t have to do such a run-a-round to get our stuff.
Again I’m going straight home after work, but I’m gonna talk hubby into picking up some wine on his way home.
I’m trying to help a blogmate and and a chatmate (I’ve known for ten years now—wow!) with their sites. Milli has a blog, Kitt is a non-profit business type guy—and both are in CA. I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but it will be so much fun. I’m really loving this stuff.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my lips chapping lately. Anyone know what that is about?
Okay. Done. Going to bed now.
Update: 3-22-07. I do know another blogmate, but she was a personal friend first.
“Lexington, although relatively small, offers young singles plenty of things to do: bars that cater to anyone from sports fans to gays to young socialites; live entertainment most nights of the week; art gallery hops; an opera house that brings in Broadway shows; and, of course, horse racing. Plus, the cost of living is a heck of a lot cheaper than in bigger cities.”
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