In early 2006, I went to a few seminars in California. For as many times as I wanted to go there over the years, it was the first time I actually made it. After having been there twice in the space of a couple of months, I one day decided to see how much it would cost to live there.
By July of that year, I had discovered that the cost wouldn't be much more than what I could have expected in New York, and by the fall, I had visited twice with the intention to find a place to live.
By November, I knew I was moving.
And on January 5, I started my trek cross country with a friend of mine.
We were going to do the trip in 4 days.
Except for a hiccup in Flagstaff, Arizona, where I paid $80 to find out the meaning of a code in my car that had no helpful meaning, the trip was mostly uneventful. We had a bit of rain, but for the most part, the weather was mild. It turned out to be one of the mildest winters on record.
When I got to my apartment, it had been newly renovated. It had new carpeting and new paint. The walls were very plain, and dull. I had the option to have them paint a wall for highlight in a room, but the colors were so pastel. Nothing wrong with pastel. But why pay for something that I thought would be barely noticeable?
I am not sure if I got the idea from TV, or where I got it from, but I decided to put curtains up on the wall in one of the rooms (you can see it above). Everyone who saw it complimented the way it looked. I was quite pleased, myself.
I was also pleased with the way the apartment turned out. When I moved, I moved with only boxes. I was essentially starting from scratch. I had to buy all of my furniture. The table and chairs I had seen on one of my visits, and was one of my first purchases. It took a while to have everything come together. But I had a lot of fun, and was very creative.
In the above image you can see the switch plate and the images on the right wall. I painted that plate to match the frames of the images that I also painted. In addition, I created the middle turntable piece on the table below. It was something I had never done before, and I was so proud of how it had come out. It was the top of a table that was no longer being used that I used grout and tiles with. I then found a turntable for a few bucks at IKEA for the base. It was and still is (although still packed) awesome.
I had had a dream of a home with a southwest style and theme. I had this idea, and I didn't quite know how I was going to make it happen. But little by little, it came together.
I had wanted to really make it work. I had the thought that I would not move until either found someone to be with, or was going to buy a place.
I always seem to know when I am getting to the end of being somewhere. Suddenly I know that I am not going to stay. It makes little sense to do much more than what I have done. The thing is, though, I never know what is going to happen next. So it makes little logical sense to me, too. But I get itchy. I get really itchy.
In the fall of 2010, I went to visit a friend on the east coast for the month of October. I could work anywhere, and I could get to enjoy the fall that I missed so much on the west coast. While I was visiting, I got the idea that maybe I could move in with my friend. I wasn't sure how he would take to the idea, but I still decided to ask.
He didn't give me an answer, at first.
But by the time I was set to go home,
I knew I was going to move.
I walked into the beautiful home I had made, that was no longer comfortable to me, and stood there for a moment before I started to move things around and start to pack.
In January 2011, I was back in my car,
this time headed east, and by myself.
The plan was to take 4-5 days.
It took over a week. I also stayed in a Bates-like motel in Texas for several days, waiting for the weather to clear. It was one of the coldest winters on record. The whole US was freakin' cold and dealing with weather issues, and I got caught in it.
It was interesting having to hang out in the hotel, trapped - in Texas. Because of snow!
Eventually I made my way out of there, and the energy stored from not travelling for a few days got me to the east coast in just 2 days.
There are several things that are interesting about this skeletoned story, not the least of which was the urgency I felt to leave California. I now wonder if I somehow knew what was coming down the road, and somehow knew that I couldn't make it on my own out there with what was about to happen.
It is also intriguing to me that I have lived something of a life of a nomad. It seems the maximum amount of time I am anywhere (and pretty much the average amount of time, too) is about 4 years. How things knitted together is fascinating to me. Some things couldn't have worked out more seamlessly. Others, well...not so much.
I am guessing my intuition has led me to these places, and I am guessing it is a good thing I listened - especially in this case. I truly have no idea what would have happened if I had been in California when the diagnosis hit.
I guess it is a good thing I never had to find out.
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