A downside to living in Hot Springs Village versus Dallas (or any big city): there’s no convenient and nearby place to go for a middle-of-the-night-breakfast when sleep eludes me. I miss that, especially of late…especially when I awaken with nothing to do but surf the web or write or contemplate my navel. That’s just one of the things I miss about big city life. Mind you, I have access to little city life in the form of Little Rock, so it’s not a particularly significant thing, but it’s a thing. What else?
I miss how easy and convenient it was to join friends at the Flying Saucer to log a beer or three. I miss the convenience of having a food emporium nearby…whether Whole Foods or Central Market or Jimmy’s Foodstore. I miss access to Ethiopian food; a drive to Dallas is necessary for me to have a taste of gored-gored or kitfo.
I miss the availability of nightlife, though I’ve never been much of one to need or want much nightlife. But it would be nice to know there’s a quiet jazz club close by if I wanted to go chill over a nice martini or Manhattan. Or beer. Or whatever.
If HSV were truly rural, I would not miss my dream of having a plot of land to work, but HSV is not truly rural. It is only semi-rural. And it has big, serious rules about what a person can and cannot do with or on his or her land. My lifelong dream of living where I can work a plot of land with a small tractor is impossible here.
I settle, instead, for almost half an acre of steep, rocky ground with a very nice house and a very nice view, from the ridge upon which our house sits, of the valley below. I settle for a slower pace, a less expensive lifestyle, and—at least for the time-being—early retirement. I may want and need to get back to something productive and a bit more lucrative than interest-bearing accounts.
Despite missing some things about the big city, I feel right about the move to a more relaxing, less rushed environment. But at this very moment, I wish there were a place to go nearby to get a wildly exotic international breakfast. I miss that wherever I go. I wish IHOP would transform into Breakfast-Around-the-World; that would make a drive into Hot Springs at this hour a worthwhile endeavor.
