It's apparently official; we are becoming part of the Greater Dallas Area.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Gunslinger decided he wanted to finish up his degree at Texas A&M-Commerce, so we are moving to Greenville effective July 31. We we’re putting an application in for a very, very nice apartment; I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get it. We went to check out the apartment on Monday, and while we were there we accidentally drove to Grand Prairie at rush hour, proving that as long as I stay on the interstate I can deal with Dallas driving, but lord help me if I get off I-30. It also showed me that Dallas is about 45 minutes from our future home.

I would appreciate any of the following:

  • tips, hints, tricks pertaining to living in the Great Dallas Area
  • ideas for Stuff To Do and Places To Go
  • prospects for a Welcome To DFW dopefest
  • job tips
2

Welcome!

Maybe we can have a welcome party for you and a going away party for me!

DFW Dopers? How about it?

I’m leaving on the 13th of August and I’ll be out of town for the last week of July (I think), but I’m open any other time. <hint hint>

Mike

3

I lived in Greenville, TX for 2 years (while working at Raytheon, left in 99). I hated Greenville with a passion, but adored Dallas. What apartments are you guys looking at? We lived at Southridge, they were clean and quiet and Paula (the person who worked in the office) was incredibly sweet.

I don’t know if you guys are drinkers, but that area is absolutely bizarre with spotty dry areas. Greenville itself is dry. The closest place to get beer is the “Chilli Mart” on 30. Dallas City is wet, but Dallas Country is dry (or the other way around) so it gets really weird trying to find a place to buy booze in Dallas.

I can recommend absolutely nothing about Greenville itself (some decent local Mexican places). The library sucks, there are no decent bookstores or grocery stores. No shopping and the two local movie theatres were terrible.

While we lived in Greenville, we drove to Dallas every Saturday. Dallas has WONDERFUL restaurants, great shopping and tons of great movie theatres, get used to BIG theatres :slight_smile: You have to check out the Mesquite 30, that’s right, a 30 plex.

Fun stuff to do in Dallas:

Arboreteum - great
Music Hall at Fair Park - I saw the King and I with Lou Diamond Phillips and Haley Mills!
Dallas Aquarium
Dallas Zoo
Dallas Public Library (you actually have to live in Dallas to use this Library. Since the Greenville library was so pathetic, we used to hit the Garland Library which was pretty decent)
Museum of Art
Ft Worth has some great museums too, not to mention the outdoor water fountain where they filmed parts of Logan’s Run!
Connemara - fabulous outdoor art, it generally goes up around March and it stays up until June, it’s in Plano.
Farmer’s Market
Six Flags and the Water Park
Thai Taste on the corner of Fitzhugh and 75

I’m still homesick for Dallas :slight_smile:

4

We’re looking at Solarium. We got a pretty good offer, too (a month’s free rent that we can prorate to get $$ off our monthly rent instead of one lump sum). Now we just have to get approved.

Greenville seemed like a pretty nice city, and the old downtown is full of gorgeously crumbling buildings for us to photograph (Gun’s a photographer, and he has been doing art centering on architectural details). The bloom was brushed off a little when I discovered that the official city slogan used to be “The Blackest Land, The Whitest People…”

I’m really looking forward to going to one of the zoos or aquariums in Dallas that has penguins.

We’re going to be going back to the area tomorrow - Gun has an appointment in Commerce at 10:00 am - and I’m in charge of deciding what we’ll do in the afternoon, whether it be a trip to the Kinko’s in Mesquite to suck up to the manager, or a trip into Dallas to find an amusement. Any ideas?

5

Solarium is nice, I think we didn’t go there because they didn’t allow cats (IIRC).

Fun in Dallas on July 2…I’d recommend something indoors :slight_smile: The aquarium is fun. There are actually 2: a small one in Fair Park (which also has the concert hall, science center - with IMAX theatre, planetarium) and a bigger one in downtown Dallas. I like the one in downtown Dallas, it has an aquarium arch that you can walk through and watch all the fish swim over your head.

Speaking of Fair Park, you’re going to have to check out the Texas State Fair in the fall.

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Oh, here’s a link for the downtown aquarium:

http://www.dwazoo.com/default.html

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Ooh, they have penguins! And a sloth!

8

Heeeyyyy… you wouldn’t just happen to have a washer and dryer that you don’t want to take with you when you move, would you?

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Tips for the Dallas Area…Hmm…
A few things

It helps to think of Dallas city government and the school board as proffesional wrasslin…as long as you pretend its not real and its just staged for your entertainment your ok. As long as you don’t have kids in the Dallas school district.
The Dallas Cowboys arent actually in Dallas…yet…but they do go there to comit crimes.
There is a section of town called Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum started as a racial slur…the street name is Elm, and it was a predominately black neighborhood, so people pronounced it ellum…anyway…Some guy started a theater/art gallary there, cuz it was cheap, then figured out that he could rent it out to the punk rockers and make more money, so Deep Ellum became the punk center of the universe, and then it became trendy, and now its…well…trendy and artsy.

Grand Prairie is pretty much a seperate third world country.

The crime rate in dallas is the highest in the country. Mainly because the city government is run like the WWF.

Fort Worth and dallas have a rivalry that dates back to the old west days. Settlers heading for fort worth would be told in Dallas that they would get scalped by indians if they went to fort worth. So fort worth would send guides to the outskirts of dallas and meet settlers on the way in and escort them around dallas to fort worth. A dallas newspaper writer said that he went to fort worth and found a panther sleeping in the middle of main street. Fort Worth still has the panther on the police badges.

I live in Fort Worth, so I’m biased…Honest, but biased.

Arlington sits between fort worth and dallas. Arlington doesnt have any poor people in it…just ask the city council who wont approve public transport because they say it will attract poor people. The Texas Rangers are in Arlington…as is six flags…

There are a plethora of Frys Electronics in Dallas

Live music is big in dallas, but it doesnt pay anything if your a musician.

there are no IT jobs in Dallas. I’ve been looking for work for over a year.

Dallas has a commuter train that I hear is pretty cool and it goes all the way to fort worth. I plan to ride it if I am ever employed again.

I will never be employeed again.

The predominant motorcycle club in Dallas is the scorpians.

Jack Rubys old club, the long horn ballroom stills stand. they have motorcycle swap meets there.

Dallas Fort Worth Airport is not really in Dallas or Fort Worth…although legally it is some how.

Dfw Dopers are really cool…except for me cuz I mostly just sulk a lot these days and gripe about republicans.

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No kids. No plans for kids. No interest whatsoever in the happenings in any school district anywhere ever under any circumstances other than possibly “school district has somehow obtained WMD and is pointing them at my house.”

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Oh, then I suggest watching the school district happenings as a spectator sport. Its quite entertaining.

12

Just wanted to pipe in. I too am moving to Dallas as well, this Wednesday actually.

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We need to have a Dallas dopefest. And it should involve riding the DART train somehow. Public transportation intrigues me as I am a country girl from the world where You Have To Own A Car.

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Well, you definately still have to own a car in Dallas. But they are making progress. Fort Worth used to have a subway up until last year or so.