Why I Live in the City

A friend asked if I liked my neighborhood in the city. I am a city girl. I love being within 10 minutes of church, shopping, and restaurants. I grew up in southern California, where I could walk or ride the bus anywhere I wanted. The idea of living in the country with wild animals and no neighbor to hear me screaming is not appealing to me at all. (Okay, so most of the plots of scary movies I've seen happen in the woods, mountains, or country.)

The main reason I love the city: we do not have a septic tank in our yard. When we moved into our current house, the realtor asked for our needs/wants. We responded, "No basement, no septic tank." (Basements leak in my experience, and they're just plain creepy. Basements are another place where scary movies often take place.)

People tell me that septic tanks are no big deal. We have lived in two houses with septic tanks, and I beg to differ. Our first house was newly constructed and within two months of moving into our dream home, the septic tank overflowed all over the yard.

Our next house was a fixer-upper, but it was near the beach in Florida and had an in-ground pool in the backyard. It was stressful to rip out the entire kitchen when I was 8 months pregnant, but that was all behind us now. My husband, Scott, had to go out of town for a few days. I had a 5 month old to care for so I was excited to finally get to shower for the day. All of the sudden the toilet overflowed and somehow came into the shower! I know nothing about plumbing so I tried the other bathroom instead. The toilet was clogged and the shower wouldn't drain. This had to happen around dinnertime, of course, so no plumber was available that evening. I ended up bathing in the kitchen sink!

The next day a plumber had to come out and snake the pipes and do something to the tank . . . which, of course, required him to dig up my beautiful backyard.

Something snapped in me that day I was standing in human waste up to my ankles. Never again will I purchase a house that has a septic tank. No argument you have will change my mind. When I hear the words "septic tank," that memory will always pop into my head.

So when someone suggests that "it could be worse," think of me; maybe laughing at my misfortune will cheer you up.