The lyrics from the Talking Heads song keep going through my mind “how did I get here”?

I’m currently living on the West Coast in WA, which is about as far away as possible from where I grew up, in New England.  I grew up in a small town just North of Boston, where most of my friends came from many generations of New Englanders – my parents both came from Ohio, so even though I was born in New England, our family was “not from there”.  Maybe that’s what started it all – I never really felt like I belonged there.  I loved the East Coast for its 4 seasons, it’s history and it’s beauty, but unlike most of my friends there, I felt that there was something I was missing.

Because of my love of the outdoors and skiing in particular, after college I went to visit a friend who had moved to Vail, Colorado for a winter – I fell in love with the area immediately.  I had gone to school for Hotel/Restaurant management, so being a ski resort, there were plenty of jobs to choose from in my field of hospitality.  I too decided to stay for the winter season and after 3 years there, I purchased a small condo and got a dog – I was home.  I ended up living there for 9 years, way longer than I had anticipated, but I was happy there – until I got that feeling again, that I was missing out on something.  I loved the area and took full advantage of every outdoor sport available, I was happy with my little condo and my job for all of those years –  and then I wasn’t.  The one thing that I could say for sure that I missed by living in the mountains of Colorado was the ocean, so I went in search of that.

I ended up living in Tahoe for a few months and then moved to the Monterey Peninsula, and stayed there for about 5 years.  Once again, I loved the area and my dog and I were at the beach a lot – I explored up and down the coast, whenever possible – but I worked a lot.  I had since sold my condo in CO and purchased a little stucco house with a great yard and grew herbs and vegetables for the first time, along with a few small fruit trees – but once again, I felt that something was missing.

I moved from California to Portland Oregon because one of my brothers was there and the other brother was now in Seattle.  I was getting older and even though I had spent most of my adult life living nowhere near my family and not really caring, I felt that it was time to change that.  I sold my home in CA and purchased a 3 story home that was built in 1883 – it needed some work, but the bones were good.  I’m drawn to older homes because I grew up in one in Massachusetts and I love the history and charm that comes with older homes.  Once again, I had a great job, another great dog and home – but I was working a lot and I missed my friends and my lifestyle that Colorado had afforded me, and so I moved back.

This time I lived in the Vail Valley for about 12 years before moving to Washington State.  I was feeling a bit itchy to move again, but I was looking to move from the mountains down to the Denver or Boulder area, not out of state.  I realized that I could always get my ocean fix on a vacation, so overall, Colorado was the place for me.  Then I got a call that my mom wasn’t doing well and at this point in her life, she too had left the East Coast to move West and lived in WA, now near both of my brothers – I was the only one who didn’t live in WA.

Still not ready to give up my townhouse in Colorado, I rented it out and moved to the Seattle area to help my mom.  It’s now been over 2 years that I’ve been living in Washington.  I was renting in West Seattle, but desperately wanted my own place again, so I could get back to having a garden and a yard for my now 2 lab mix dogs.  I decided to find a small home in a small town because that’s where I always seem the happiest.  I had to go pretty far away from the Seattle area to find something that I could afford and that gave me everything I wanted, but I finally found it.  I live just outside of Bellingham, WA and I’m close to the ocean and the mountains.  I have almost 1/2 acre, so plenty of room for gardening and for my dogs (and now kitten) to run.  I’m no longer in the hotel and restaurant business, I just needed to slow things down a bit.  I can’t say that “this is it” for me as a place to stay for the rest of my life, considering my many moves, but it does give me a lot – a small town, access to the outdoors, closeness to family, short drive to the water and the mountains.  So until I get that feeling again of restlessness, I’ll be here…