Living in Sin (City)

I don't think I ever possibly imagined myself living in Las Vegas.  Before K or I moved here I had only visited a few times, and I was always underage and with my family, so it's not like I was going crazy.  The arcade at Circus Circus was the highlight of my trips here.  It never seemed like a place that people actually lived in.  But I had also never left the Strip, just like every other tourist.

Now that I've been here almost 2 years, I have grown very fond of this city, and also to dislike it in equal measure.  I love that it's a 24-hour city but I terribly miss trees, grass, and the ocean.  Here are some of the perks of being a Las Vegan:

1. Weather:  Yes, it's hot during the summer, but I can lay by the pool from April-September.  That's 6 months out of the year that can be spent working on your tan!  And during the winter the snow falls beautifully on the mountains where we can admire it from afar, instead of shoveling it from our driveways.

2. Location/Layout of the City:  When Vegas is clogged with tourists on holiday weekends, we can make a quick escape to someplace beautiful.  We have southern California, Arizona, Utah's ski resorts, Lake Mead, the Colorado River, and the Hoover Dam all within a few hours drive.  The city itself is built on a grid so if you have no idea how to get to your destination, all you need to know is the major cross-streets, and you'll get there eventually.  (And everything is based on cross-streets here).

3. It's A Melting Pot:  People come to Las Vegas from all over the country and the world, both tourists and locals.  There are people living here from just about everywhere and lots of diversity.
 
4. The Hospitality:  This one is obvious... it's Las Vegas.  Restaurants, concerts, shows, clubs... that's the whole reason people come here.  And it's a 24-hour city.  Stores don't shut down at 9pm and no matter what you want/need to do at 4 am, there will be someplace open   You can buy alcohol on Sundays and any other time of day and there's no such thing as 'last call'.

Now, even though all those things are great, there are some obvious downsides to living here.  So, just to be fair, here are some of the not-so-fun parts to being a Las Vegan:

1. Weather:  There are 2 seasons here: Hot and Cold.  Even I can't stay by the pool when it's 116 degrees out in the middle of summer.  And when the freezing cold, dry air hits you in the dead of winter, it's like a slap to the face.  Tinted car windows are mandatory, and if you have leather seats, your butt WILL get burnt.  And it is always windy here, no matter the time of year.  Like, really windy.

2. Location/Layout of the City:  We're in the middle of a desert, surrounded by more desert.  The produce is bad because nothing can be grown locally.  The only real water source for all those swimming pools and our drinking water is Lake Mead, which is rapidly losing in the supply/demand battle.  (And it's where the mob supposedly dumped all the bodies of people they had taken out... yuck.).  Vegas is also the definition of urban sprawl and it takes an hour or more to get from one side of the city to the other, even if you take the freeway and there's no traffic (but there's never no traffic). 

3. It's A Melting Pot:  Everyone in Vegas is from somewhere else.  The true Las Vegas local, someone who was born, raised, and settled here, is very rare.  It's a very transient city, and people are constantly coming and going.  Because of this, there's no real pride in being from Las Vegas, and there isn't much local culture.  Maybe the fact that I grew up in Sonoma County has spoiled me, but there's no real community vibe. 

4. The Hospitality:  Las Vegas consistently ranks at the top of every survey about hospitality.  We have some of the best restaurants and best service, but in surveys regarding quality of life, we are consistently at the bottom: people are unhappy here, we have terrible drinking water (um, hello dead bodies?) and our schools always rank low.

Despite some of the bad, I truly love living here.  Most people who come to Vegas will never leave Las Vegas Boulevard, but living here gives you a whole new perspective on this crazy city.  It's unlike anywhere else, and even though tourists get on my nerves and I actually avoid the Strip, I know that if I had to move, I would truly miss all of those neon lights.