Madison is awesome. I can't imagine anyone regretting that decision. Although it's about as opposite from Vegas as you can get - I don't understand your list-making process.

i've been wanting to check out Madison for a while now.

"it's about as opposite from Vegas as you can get"

I would say you understand my list making quite well.

You might have some MeCha company there.

I love Madison. And it's only a couple hours from Chicago, so maybe you could come down for a visit occasionally!

O sure, just as I leave Madison, more interesting people arrive :)

Madison has a lot going for it, not the least of which is the university.

If you have any questions, mischief, I lived there for almost 12 years and just moved back to Portland in July.

me3dia: Its proximity to Milwaukee, Chicago and several other places is one of the big reasons I want to give the place a chance.

Thanks, Sil, I will most likely shoot you an email or two in the near future.

BP: The last time I experienced a real northern winter was over twenty years ago. Maryland is too far south to qualify. Northern winters, though, are one of the things I miss most.

Congrats, mischief! I suspect you will love Mad-Town. I certainly enjoyed my time there. My college years there were fantastic, and I wouldn't trade them for anything (I highly recommend living on the east side, more specifically, the East Johnson area). If it were not for the weather, I would have moved back there when I returned to the States last year. There is an amazing payoff if you can tolerate the winters. I am just too much of a wimp to deal with it again.

Please do! Happy to help!

If you like winters, Madison is probably a really good place for you. There are really pretty places in winter - Tenney Park, with all of the ice skaters go and drink hot chocolate by the bridges, and Kites on Ice on Lake Monona.

Me, on the other hand, as much as I miss my friends in Madison, I'm enjoying calling them and finding out that it's 16 degrees, while here it is in the 40s. Much more my speed :)

Wow. Now there's a change of scenery for ya.

I'm in Janesville. Madison is probably my favorite small city and I can't imagine anyone regretting it unless they really need a more urban setting, they're annoyed by the concentration of liberals, or they really need a career outside of the university, state government, or insurance.

The only reason I never moved there was, well, liking Chicago even better. (I'm back home due to a variety of reasons including parental health.)

Winters, schminters, I say -- but I grew up here. Actually climate change is evident and they are not as harsh or as extended as they used to be. Last winter I felt like I might as well be living in Kentucky. This year we're getting a nice wallop of an ice storm to start things off but it will probably half melt away by the end of the week. Me, it's summers (or at least humidity) I can't handle -- I got that from my Swedish mom. So the climate generally agrees with me.

Madison is wonderful. I almost moved there myself (from Boston) a few years ago. Cheap, walkable, culturally enriching. Go to Ella's Deli for hearty Jewish food and Michelangelo's for coffee and cute boys and B-Side for hours of music scouring and god-help-us hopefully Avol's Books is still there down in the guts of town, because it was threatening to close every time I went back there a few years ago.

(...realizing in retrospect that you might not actually go in for cute boys. But they have cute everybody in Madison!)

I love Madison, and I only left because I sort of had to, which is a long and nasty story. I probably never would have left if certain personal things hadn't happened.

My girlfriend and I are strongly leaning toward moving there, and with any luck, we'll be there within a year or so. It's one of the greatest places in the world: beautiful in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Has great bookstores. And then there's the cheese. Get ready to realize that you've never really had cheese before--everything else is just cow-milk polymer in comparison.

I had a feeling this was the right choice.

Y'all are making me want to move to Madison.