Travels

I haven't written much in a while.  Between Anissa's wedding, a vacation in Cape Cod, house sitting in two houses, entertaining an out of state guest, visiting my grandparents, tending my garden, an earthquake, and a hurricane, I've really not had time for much of my "extra-curricular" stuff like blogging.

But I have had a lot of time opportunity to reflect on things in my life and heart.  I have known for a while that my current city is not the right place for me to live.  It is a wonderful town and has been a great place for me to grow up, but beyond that there is no future for me here.  I have been pondering what kind of place I could move to, and what kind of adventure it would be, but have not taken great steps in leaving just yet.  I thought I would share a few ideas.

Last year, I thought about the possibility of moving closer to my grandparents (which would include most of my mom's side of the family).  They are all in Michigan.  But last summer, I went out to visit -don't get me wrong, I had a great time- and returned home feeling that it was not a place I could ever live permanently.

I have had invitations from people offering to open their homes long enough for me to find a job and a place to live in their areas.  This includes San Francisco, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Maryland.  I had even briefly considered moving closer to my grandparents via their winter location of coastal Alabama.  I have visited San Francisco, and enjoyed the weather, the people, and the youthful, athletic atmosphere.  However, I am pretty certain that a state like California is not for me.  Atlanta and Alabama I have never visited, so I can't rule them out completely, but they don't grip my imagination the way other places do.  They do not seem like adventuresome places to live.  Las Vegas has a lot of cons.  I've never been there, but I've been to its retarded little cousin, Reno.  (Yes, I used the "r" word.  It would be an insult to handicapped and disabled people if I were to use the politically correct term to describe Reno.)  Here's what's wrong with Las Vegas.  1) I dislike large cities.  2) I live in a humid coastal state and am always dehydrated because I forget to drink.  If I moved to the arid steppes of Nevada, I'd probably have headaches constantly from the dehydration.  If I died there, the embalmers would probably give a steep discount because half their job would already be done.  3) I do not want to be surrounded by people who have lost their children's inheritance in a casino.  It seems like a depressing place to live.  Lastly, Maryland.  Like I said, I dislike large cities, but a proximity to both Washington DC and Baltimore would be a plus for me.  I have been to both cities and would love to live near them (not in them).  I cannot rule Maryland out.

Finally, I vacationed in Cape Cod this year, and while walking along the pier with my family, wind whipping the salt through my hair, making the rigging of the fishing boats whistle and clang, and thinking about the rich colonial history surrounding the eastern seaboard, I had a sudden realization strike me.  You know how you just "know" things, in a way that makes you wonder whether the thought came from you or some ethereal "something" from beyond?  Maybe not, but that is how I get sometimes; perhaps it is just me being weird and/or dramatic.  This thought came to me, "Meg, you are a coastal girl through and through."  I knew what that meant without a need for an explanation.  I grew up in the rural mountains of NJ not 20 minutes from real farm country, true.  But even there, the ocean breeze permeates things and that air has got me.  I'm in love with it.  I can never go very far from it.

So on to the last thought.  My parents plan to retire in Virginia.  Although I don't want to live too close to them (in the same town in Virginia), I could feasibly see myself living somewhere else in the state.  After all, it is a big state, with coastal areas, mountains, farmland.  Not unlike NJ.  And a state that has a catch phrase like "Virginia is for lovers" is not a bad place to be.

So what have I been getting at all this time?  I am not sure.  It basically boils down to, "Maybe I'll stay in NJ, maybe I'll go to Maryland or Virginia, or maybe I'll go somewhere random, like Portugal."

But what triggered this?  There are two places I want to live which I have not mentioned, because I believe that they are greater in my head than they are in real life.  In my mind, there is some sort of romantic mysticism about them, probably some silly whim I got from a novel somewhere.  But I am afraid to visit them "to see" because I know that they are better in my imagination, and I do not want my bubble burst.  Oh to be able to create reality from my imagination.  But, I am not God, so I live in fear of seeing the place on earth that I really want to live, fear that it is not what i imagine it to be.

I suppose the omnipotence of imagination is why some people write books.