u/Grateful_Mendicant

40 M, single.

I'm moving to Minneapolis in 3 weeks. As far as apartments go, I have a few finalists but I need help thinking through what I might be missing. I've been to the city a bunch but mostly to the Chain of Lakes, Uptown, and North Loop areas.

Here are the three places that I'm considering.

1. Couple of places in the North Loop. Biggest advantage I see here is that almost all my favorite restaurants are here. And it would be really cool to walk less than 5 minutes to Whole Foods or to not have to worry about parking when I make a reservation at Spoon and Stable. The problem is that I don't actually know what it's like to live there. Like how noisy does it get? How safe Is it in the evenings? And what does the social life look like in the dead of winter, disconnected from the skywalk. It would be great to live a block or two away from the River trail, but running outside is probably going to be very unappealing for at least 3 months out of the year.

2. Downtown. There are some really good deals at Groove Lofts, well integrated into the skywalk. Not as connected to my favorite restaurant, but there are a number of solid options downtown. And I feel like I would get out of my apartment more in winter if I didn't have to breathe the cold all the time. I could also walk to the YMCA and run on their indoor track. But again I don't know how safe the area is. From what I understand, the building doesn't have its own parking and contracts with Northstar. Do people generally get their cars broken into if they park in a downtown parking ramp?

3. There's a nice renovated condo in the Loring Park area on Groveland avenue. Access to the park and the Metro would be the best features. I could get to the North Loop in 20 minutes if I wanted to. I could get to the park in less than 10 minutes for my runs. There doesn't seem to be a ton of restaurants or coffee shops nearby. It seems like a great place to BE at home but not a great place from which to walk to stuff. And I like being home as much as the next guy, but it would be to be able to walk to restaurants, grocery store, etc within 15 minutes.

My best prospects in the Lakes area are already taken or too expensive. And as much as I like a few restaurants in Uptown, I don't actually enjoy being there all that much. It looks really nice on paper but it just doesn't do it for me for whatever reason.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

I have no idea why but I feel really elated right now. Maybe it's just transitory euphoria. But I am having such a moment of such deep inner peace and contentment.

No kids. No wife. Not even a girlfriend right now. I do get laid every once in a while, and I guess that's enough for me? I wouldn't say no to more sex but I don't feel like putting any effort into it. I have several people who have liked me on a couple of dating apps but I don't feel like matching with any of them right this second. I open the app, decide that I could see myself going on a date with a few of them, then I close the app. I literally can't see how having an extra human around could enhance my life right now. It just seems like a lot of emotional effort for a low likelihood of great returns and a higher likelihood of grief. Maybe this is why birth rates are going down.

I have a great job but I'm off until Tuesday. In the process of selling my house and I saved a bit of money by posting on Craigslist and finding a really good Mexican to do the landscaping. Can we have more Mexicans? We should have more Mexicans. FDT.

I've invested a bit of money over the years. It's not enough to retire right now, but it's enough to know that I'm going to be okay when retirement comes.

I became more consistent at running and lost over 20 lb over the past year. I'm fitter at 40 than I was 10 years ago. Everything I am listing was also true yesterday. But for whatever reason right now I am filled with such unimaginable elation! That's all.

I hope every single one of you reading this has a wonderful day. I am certainly having a much better time than I deserve.

https://preview.redd.it/gupizncjemzg1.png?width=1264&format=png&auto=webp&s=9044da173f111e6c809aba1bf7fce1243dfec68b

It was a long and arduous road. For all my differences in foreign and domestic policy with my adoptive country, I am beyond grateful to be an American. This story would have been hard to replicate elsewhere. I made so many mistakes along the way. I played with options when I thought I was a genius who was going to find a shortcut to retirement and bypass all the plebs. It was some expensive tuition, but I learned some valuable lessons along the way. I switched to a slow and boring strategy, and one of the biggest bull rallies in history did the rest.