Thank you everyone! This is why I LOVE Piggington. I rarely write anymore, but I read it every day.
First of all – just to clarify – my girls were joking. With the excellent education they are getting in NY comes the frequent/incessant use of sarcasm. They said it with fake “bitchy” voices and a heavy Valley Girl accents.
Your suggestions are so helpful I will check them out. I especially like the Japanese thing. We lived in Japan as well and my girls went to Japanese preschool (yochien). We like lots of Asians around (I feel racist even writing that) because the work ethic in school is strong and there will absolutely be a youth orchestra nearby of the right caliber.
I do feel a little uncomfortable when a few of you write that there are areas of Torrance to avoid. It is so hard for someone “not in the know” to get led astray.
I also like the PV suggestions. I dont have a problem at all with “rich” people having grown up in RSF and SBeach/Del Mar. I think maybe what you are remembering me say negatively about Coronado folks was that our “friends” kept telling us we were “crazy” to leave and “crazy” not to jump into that real estate market. Lots of suggestions to get ARM’s etc. It was annoying. Now the tables have turned though and I feel sorry for many of those same friends and hope they can climb out of their financial quick-sand. it is really awful for a few of them in particular.
That said – I dont think we can afford to live in a neighborhood of million+ dollar homes anyway. We do not have all the pieces to the puzzle yet – job $$s, sale of this house etc. We are just as happy to go out and rent for a while and figure it all out for ourselves. But with a daughter in 10th grade we want to make a semi-good decision from the get-go.
