Most of my co-workers live in Fairfax County, Virginia. For those of you not familiar with the DC metro area, Fairfax is the richest county in the area and one of the richest counties in the country. There’s a certain snobbery that most of these people have about Fairfax County, as if it were a perfect Valhalla with no crime and dirt and trash and everybody’s happy and perfect and so on. (Compared to the rest of the DC area, which is apparently a gigantic crack house.)

Sure, Fairfax County is clean and safe - but it’s also incredibly antiseptic and dull. It’s like a gigantic outdoor mall. It doesn’t feel lived in or have any sort of character. Give me suburban pseudo-cities like Bethesda or Alexandria, or the somewhat sleazy charm of PG or Montgomery County.

I was filling up my car in Beltsville the other day. I was surrounded on all sides by the staples of lower class suburbia - a porn shop, a liquor store, a run-down gas station/beer/sub shop, one of those late night cash-your-checks places. Some guy pulled up next to me and offered me a free stereo. If you live in a place as boring as Fairfax County, you miss out on wonderful experiences like that.