I live in the suburbs. It's quite nice actually.

I work pretty much whatever hours I want and can walk to most things I use on a daily or weekly basis: groceries (including fresh meats and veggies from the local farmers), eat out at restaurants from fast food to 3-star (two in my neighborhood actually), get dry cleaning done if I need to, take care of shipping stuff, take in a movie, see a doctor, dentist, chiropractor or orthodontist. I can also walk to a pretty nice neighborhood park only the folks in my development can use without crossing any major roads. It's about 40 acres, with a water fall, a pond, two tennis courts, exercise equipment, playgrounds for kids, jogging trail and miscellaneous other sundry -- mostly covered in trees and greenery. We have three swimming pools in my neighborhood, one where no kids are allowed. Twice a month we have a farmer's market in the parking lot of the bank I walk to in 5 minutes. On the 4th of July my neighborhood puts on a private fireworks show.

Every home in my neighborhood has fiber optic internet, phone and television. We had it before FiOS was even a term.

I'm 5 minutes from a reservoir and nature preserve. On any given night I can spend maybe 5-10 minutes of travel time to see live music, take in a play, see a concert or get on a 45 mile long dedicated bike trail. 10-15 minutes from my house I can buy pretty much anything a person can buy, from a Porsche to discount socks, can play golf at at least 6 golf courses, have a world class indoor swimming facility inside of a nature preserve and park, and my eating venues and choices expand by a magnitude of 10 including everything from budget priced French Cuisine to Korean bar food. I have half a dozen ethnic groceries within 20 minutes travel time from my house, two world class performance venues, a college campus (soon to be two more), ample jobs and industry in everything from hi-tech to agriculture (I live in Wine Country). I'm close enough to a major international airport that If I travel someplace, I can call my wife when I land to come pick me up at the airport, and she'll be there by the time I collect my baggage.

And in 3 years or so I'll have a mass transit stop 5 minutes from my house.

My house is not terribly big, but I and several family members can live there very comfortably and rarely bump elbows, and I spend less than 25% of my income to live there (I'm not rich by any stretch of the term). In the warm months I, get home from work and walk to the grocery and buy and grill lamb, fresh salmon, steaks, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, garlic and other such great things, and eat out on my property every day with a bottle of wine (I'm partial to Chilean Cabs) I brought back from the same grocery. I usually finish up dinner by finishing the wine with some imported cheeses or fresh fruit from the last farmer's market and a cigar.

If I want to enjoy pure nature, it's literally 10 minutes away, and if I want to enjoy an urban environment, I'm 30-40 minutes from the local city center. However, I find myself not going much into the city because there's really not much draw outside of the occasional comedy show or museum. I literally have everything I could ever need at my finger tips, plus I pay less for the privilege than living in the city, and I have 10x the room.

I get 3 weeks vacation per year, I usually split it into two trips. In the last two years I've vacationed literally around the world 3 times. But the rest of the time, I don't really have to take a vacation, because the environment I live in is literally better than any resort I've ever been to except I have to mix my own drinks.

Maybe you call that having a mediocre life. Perhaps, but maybe I'm just satisfied with mediocrity then?