Okay, hold it. All "eye" jokes aside (and bear in mind I had a roommate from What Cheer, IA)... are you really, REALLY thinking about moving to Sleepy Eye, MN?
A bunch of friends of mine hail from that area... one from Darfur, one from East Sveadahl, one from Windom, and another from between Comfrey and Butterfield, and it's as scary-rural as all hell out there. I mean it. Windom and Sleepy Eye are much of a type... your typical county seat with the local branches of McDonalds and Hardees and Pizza Hut, a few churches, a bunch of bars, a grain elevator, a shrivelling downtown and a Walmart. Drinking tends to happen at the VFW hall (I know the VFW hall in Redwood Falls intimately) or at very Midwestern bars where the tipple of choice is b33r and a shot.
The weather sucks. You live in Ohio, which has winter. Southwestern Minnesota has horrific winters, bury-your-car-in-four-feet-of-heavy-snow winters, wind-like-a-nightmare-from-Willa-Cather winters. Just be aware of that.
Yes, technically Sleepy Eye is an hour and a half from the outer reaches of the Cities, but that assumes it isn't raining, snowing, blowing snow, etc. It would be a real hardship to live in Sleepy Eye and commute even to Shakopee.
On the positive side of things, New Ulm has terrific b33r (it being the home of a brewery or three), and St. Peter has Gustavus Adolphus College, one of the Nordic Lutheran colleges (I went to Luther, in Decorah IA), where they have a terrific music program and some semblance of an arts scene. Mankato has a branch of the MSUS and is the local "big town" with a mall and a 24-hour grocery store.
I love the Twin Cities... Minneapolis has a terrific funky "uptown" section along University that's just got this great vibe, and downtown is still shoppable and walkable and parkable (just good luck trying to get out back to the highway).
Rural SW Minnesota has terrific fishing and great hunting, there's a community spirit that is missing in bigger cities.
I'm not trying to dissuade you... but I don't want you to have any illusions...
Honestly? Right now, I'm much more in favor of the Columbus job. It seems to have a lot more pros than cons, as opposed to Sleepy Eye, which does have some big pros, but some HUGE cons, and the cons come in truckloads.
My plan at the moment is to let both places take me through their interview process, get whatever offers come from that, in writing, and seriously compare. And if Sleepy Eye somehow gives a contract offer that looks way too good to pass up, I may. But otherwise, it will probably be Columbus.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
no subject
no subject
All you need is Ben Stein following you around with Visine.
no subject
no subject
Oh - never mind. Sound quality resolved it into ... blanking on title ... hypnotist of ladies?
no subject
Heeeeeeee's a hypnotist, hypnotist of laaaaaadies...
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
A bunch of friends of mine hail from that area... one from Darfur, one from East Sveadahl, one from Windom, and another from between Comfrey and Butterfield, and it's as scary-rural as all hell out there. I mean it. Windom and Sleepy Eye are much of a type... your typical county seat with the local branches of McDonalds and Hardees and Pizza Hut, a few churches, a bunch of bars, a grain elevator, a shrivelling downtown and a Walmart. Drinking tends to happen at the VFW hall (I know the VFW hall in Redwood Falls intimately) or at very Midwestern bars where the tipple of choice is b33r and a shot.
The weather sucks. You live in Ohio, which has winter. Southwestern Minnesota has horrific winters, bury-your-car-in-four-feet-of-heavy-snow winters, wind-like-a-nightmare-from-Willa-Cather winters. Just be aware of that.
Yes, technically Sleepy Eye is an hour and a half from the outer reaches of the Cities, but that assumes it isn't raining, snowing, blowing snow, etc. It would be a real hardship to live in Sleepy Eye and commute even to Shakopee.
On the positive side of things, New Ulm has terrific b33r (it being the home of a brewery or three), and St. Peter has Gustavus Adolphus College, one of the Nordic Lutheran colleges (I went to Luther, in Decorah IA), where they have a terrific music program and some semblance of an arts scene. Mankato has a branch of the MSUS and is the local "big town" with a mall and a 24-hour grocery store.
I love the Twin Cities... Minneapolis has a terrific funky "uptown" section along University that's just got this great vibe, and downtown is still shoppable and walkable and parkable (just good luck trying to get out back to the highway).
Rural SW Minnesota has terrific fishing and great hunting, there's a community spirit that is missing in bigger cities.
I'm not trying to dissuade you... but I don't want you to have any illusions...
no subject
My plan at the moment is to let both places take me through their interview process, get whatever offers come from that, in writing, and seriously compare. And if Sleepy Eye somehow gives a contract offer that looks way too good to pass up, I may. But otherwise, it will probably be Columbus.