Ode to Pasadena

I moved to Pasadena in 2005. We ended up here more because of a cool Craigslist post than anything else—it was the house we were renting more than its Pasadena location. Pasadena hasn’t much been our radar.

I had been to Pasadena before. I visited a few times in college including one especially fun night before what I think must have the school’s Monte Carlo formal. In 2004 I spent a couple of months in a consulting project working right in Old Town. I think that is when I first started to get hooked.

Our first Pasadena home wasn’t even technically in Pasadena. It was across the street in the City of Los Angeles, but we sure liked to pretend that we were in Pasadena.  There was much confusion among everyone’s favorite companies like Time Warner/Charter and the local taxis about what city we were in, but we did eventually get cable and I found a car service that was better than a cab.

Now, coming on eight years later, my life is virtually entirely Pasadena based. I own a home here, I work here, my kids go to school here and my wife works less than 1 mile outside city limits.  For those who say that LA is all a bunch of people driving everywhere: yes that is sometimes true, but not exclusively so.

I love Pasadena and its light traffic, amazing restaurants, shopping and culture. I love that it is a city of 100,000 with all the amenities you would expect, but I still run into people I know at the grocery store. For a boy born and raised in a city of 18,000 that simple fact is not to be understated. I love to know that this might happen. It makes me feel at home in a way the giant city of Los Angeles could not.

So here’s to many more years of Pasadena and its wonderful neighborhoods, people and businesses.