HOME SWEET HOME!!!

I am up in Batavia, NY - referenced on Summer Catch starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. also mentioned several times on the Simpsons. Batavia, NY is where I grew up and lived (except for 4 years in Elmira, NY and 3 months in Nassau, Bahamas) until 2003 when I moved to Fairfax, VA.

Batavia, NY has a population of approzimately 16,000 people last time I counted. We have a baseball team called The Batavia Muckdogs, The City was named in honor of the short-lived Dutch republic at the turn of the nineteenth century: The Batavian Republic. That Republic took its name from the Batavii, a tribe that lived in the Netherlands in Roman times and was considered to be the ancestor of the Dutch nation.
The First Business Incubator in the United States, the Batavia Industrial Center, was started in Batavia.
John Elway, quarterback of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, hit his first professional home run at Dwyer Stadium while playing minor league baseball.
In March 1926, over 1,000 people turned out to hear Helen Keller speak in the City.
The first union Soldier to enlist in the Civil War was from Batavia.

So other than that, there isn't too much going on here. When I go to the Irish pub in town, O'Lacy's, it is the same scene I left here 2 years ago. The cops, firemen, doctors all in there getting drunk. We also have a horse race track. They have recently added slot machines to the mess and now you can only imagine what it looks like in there. Also, there used to be a Christian book store called Lions Den and much to my suprise it is now a Tatoo parlor. AWESOME!!!

Batavia has 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school and 1 high school. We have a state run School for the Blind - which exposed us as kids to severally handicapped children being pushed in wheel chairs or walked through town.

We have one newspaper which usually boasts a picture of a fallen tree or what not on the front page. There is some sort of Home Land Security prison in town - a few of the Lackawanna 6 were held here for some time. Maybe they are still there who knows??

There is a mental health house which houses CRAZY people. Through the years, these men have been given names by the locals. There is Cue Ball - a bald guy with down syndrome. There is Bird Man - who dresses in fatiques and although he has a room at this house he carries around all his belongings. There is Brother John - who apparently was too smart for his own good and went crazy one day. Now he walks around with his guitar and plays on the street or at carnivals.

Batavia is a great "city" for raising children. However, for "young"(I use this term loosely), single people like myself - it does nothing for me. There are very few jobs, which means that there are very few single men with good jobs. Before I moved from Batavia, I was dating a guy that had attempted to open a steak house in town, but that failed and then he became a bouncer at a night club in Rochester. After him, I dated a Fix-It guy who hardly spoke. So the shift to Virginia is amazing.

Well, I think it's about time to go check out the Muck Dogs Game from the "Beer Garden" of course.

So my question is this: Should one settle for what's around or look what's out there before you settle??

I am also guest blogging for What the Bleep Was I thinking (WEEEEEE!!!!!) this week. So check me out on both sites.