Man, I really miss living in Minneapolis sometimes! Today I was sitting at work thinking how much I would like to get home, wander over to the bus stop and head down to Target Field for the Twins/Brewers game. Perhaps we would stop off for a beer at CC Club or Mortimer’s on the way home.

Of course, many things would be different than they were at this time in 2011. I wonder where we would be today if we had stuck around Minneapolis?

Well, we wouldn’t have stayed in our apartment in Uptown much longer, I know that. Location and cheap rent aside, it was a dump. We almost bought a house in 2010 in south Minneapolis, and we did buy a house in 2012 in Austin, so chances are we would have bought a house in the Twin Cities at some point in the past two years. Originally we had looked right in Minneapolis, but if we were to have searched again I would have strongly encouraged Lauren to look in the suburbs… most likely the southwest suburbs, but not too far out. I would guess we’d be in the Hopkins/Minnetonka area.

I know I wouldn’t be working at my old job still. I feel like I’ve been at my current job forever and it hasn’t even been two years yet. It’s astounding to me to look back and think that I stayed at MB for 5.5 years. Right before our move I had interviewed at a couple local businesses and was beaten out by other candidates. I’m sure if I had kept on the job search I would have landed something new before long. If I had found a new job, I may have struck the same deal with MB that I actually did, continuing on as a contractor. That would have also allowed me to quit DJing wedding dances and get my weekends back.

Lauren’s old job almost certainly would have ended along with most of her former co-workers with the recent layoffs at Supervalu. I’m not too sure what other grocery giants are in the Twin Cities. Maybe she could have latched on with General Mills.

We still would have gotten a dog, most likely still a beagle. And it too, perhaps, could have been named Baxter.

Family would still be a short distance away, friends would still be right there in town. Our favorite teams would be just down the street. Brian Gioielli and I may have started up some sort of funny video company and struck it rich.

Yes, life in Minneapolis in 2013 may have been nice.

But, especially after last winter, I know we would be itching to move somewhere without snow and try something new. “Why did we buy a house in a place where it snows six months a year?!” we’d be asking ourselves. I always knew I would regret it if we didn’t go have some sort of adventure while we could. And if my above predictions were true, we would be locked into a mortgage and would never have that chance until retirement.

FYI – I’ll be back twice in 2013, both centered around the Walshichetti wedding events. Very much looking forward to those visits.