A move is in the air

I've moved around...a lot.  You know that stat that says each person moves on average once every 6 years?  For me it's more like every 1.5 years.  In the past 15 years I have had 11 different addresses in 4 different states. No, I haven't been running from creditors or in witness protection.  I just like to move. Some moves have been well thought out and carefully planned. A few have been thought of one night and put in play the next day. I have liked many of the places I have lived but I have moved because I thought I might like another place better.  Sometimes I have been right...sometimes I have been wrong. When I decided to move to Washington State, I found this cute little town called Silverdale, on the Kitsap Peninsula, west across the Sound from Seattle.  Nice apartment, wonderful local shops, a nice mall and tons of trees.  So I happily moved, only to find that most of the good jobs were across the Sound because, well, Seattle.  So I moved across the Sound to Issaquah only to find that too many people + too much traffic = too many memories of Southern California. Still liking Washington State, I moved to Gig Harbor to a spacious apartment ringed with rhododendrons growing higher than my head, a view of the Tacoma Narrow Bridge and fresh breezes blowing across the Sound. Sadly the rats that wanted to occupy the same apartment were a deal breaker. Clearly Washington was not for me. I once moved to Texas lured by wide open spaces and low home prices only to realize in a sort of DUH moment, that Texas is hot.  Really HOT.  I don't like hot.  I barely like warm.  I prefer pleasantly cool.  Two years ago I moved back to Southern California for family reasons, and while I don't regret the move or the time spent here, I am ready to move. The last time I lived here was in 1988 when I dragged my family to the fresh air and beautiful big sky of Montana.  Coming back here has reminded me of why I left in the first place. Make no mistake, there are lots of wonderful things about Southern California and the members of my family who live here cannot imagine living anywhere else.  Southern California has great weather, great beaches, great mountains, world class shopping...and lots and lots of people.  Too many people sharing too little space with too little patience with the other people sharing the space. Everyone rushes around as though they are the only ones going anywhere important and when you live here, you learn to rush with the rest of them.  I don't like rushing...almost as much as I don't like hot.

You'd think I might be depressed, having moved so many times.  But I like to move. I like the exciting possibilities that a move brings you.  New favorite shops, new scenery, new friends. And for every place I have lived and consequently moved away from, there is something wonderful I have taken away with me.  Issaquah?  Portable job that I still have and that allows me to move around.  Texas?  My daughter met her husband there.  Southern California, this go 'round?  Time to reconnect with my brother and help my mom sell her house.  

So where do I want to live now?  Somewhere not hot, not crowded, with a coffee stand around the corner and a great downtown.  Someplace where people say hello back and smile at you.  Somewhere I, as a single gal, feel safe but not cocooned.  Someplace pretty with fresh air and a great view.  Someplace I have a family of friends already in place.  Someplace I know as well as the back of my hand. Someplace like Montana...someplace like home.