On Moving

Shelley has an entry on BurningBird about moving, enumerating all of the times she's moved -- 36 of them. So, I thought I'd make my own list...

1. House in Durham
2. House in D.C.
3. House in Durham
4. House in Seattle
5. Another house in Seattle
6. House in Kansas City (actually Merriam, a suburb in KS)
7. Apartment in Portland
8. Room in a house in Boston (walking distance from Harvard Square -- cool; psycho Harvard pre-Law students -- not so cool)
9. Another apartment in Portland
10. Garage in Portland
11. Room in a house in Portland (S.E. 52nd and Woodstock)
12. Apartment in L.A. (Fairfax at Pico, West L.A. -- ouch)
13. Youth Hostle in Amsterdam (the Sleepin)
14. Attic room in a house in Amsterdam
15. Illegal attic apartment in Amsterdam (psycho Australian landlord)
16. Attic room in a house in Amsterdam (again)
17. Apartment in Amsterdam (oost; illegal sublet)
18. Another (tiny) apartment in Amsterdam (zuid)
19. A thrid apartment in Amsterdam (near Olympic stadium)
20. Back to the second apartment in Amsterdam
21. Back to the third apartment in Amsterdam
22. Room in a house in Milwaukee (after a short stay in Disneyland -- no really)
23. Couch in a house in Fairfax (Marin County, CA)
24. Room in a house with psycho drug-addicted roommates in San Francisco (30th and Mission)
25. Room in another house in SF with psycho chronically-depressed roommates (Bernal Heights)
26. Room in a thrid house in SF with one absent landlord/roommate (Bernal Heights again)
27. Apartment in SF (one bedroom, 3rd floor, Noe Valley)

Though I've thought about finding a (cheaper) place with more green around it in recent years, there are many things tying me to my current abode, not the least of which is my work, and related technical issues. I must have DSL, and static IP addresses with no port-blockage from my ISP. That rules out most really rural areas, which while inexpensive, aren't really wired yet.

Maybe Berkeley would make a good alternative. Another place I've considered -- Olympia Washington. My brother is there, and my mom is considering retiring in that neighborhood in a few years. My dad has property in Oregon that he and his wife plan to retire to. Real estate is cheap (for what I pay in rent here, I could pay the mortgage on a three bedroom house), and they're wired.

But who wants to move again. Not me, I tell you. And San Francisco is, as far as I can tell, the center of the Wired World.

I do know this though: The next time I move, I'm going to write a check to some big people with their own truck to take all of my stuff from one place to another. There's no way I'm carrying all this stuff down three flights of stairs for loading onto a U-Haul. I had enough moving of heavy things for three lifetimes, when touring with the band in Europe.

The only question is this: Do I pack the boxes myself?