In which we’ve decided to move!

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of the weather out here. There’s no spring or fall, just sweltering, muggy summer, and blizzard season.

Living in Uptown is kinda cool in that there are art stores and coffee shops and diners and bars and bookstores all within a few blocks, but it’s also very loud, never dark, and pretty expensive. We’ve had two bikes stolen from inside our locked apartment building. And there was that episode with the goddamned fire extinguisher, too. I mean, it’s city living.

But we’re not really city people. We don’t take advantage of concerts or museums. We don’t bar crawl or see shows. We barely even go out to eat. We’ve been to two Twins games in five years.

We haven’t put down any roots or made any friends. We’re just here for his job, and that’s it. Nothing else ties us to Minneapolis. I’ve been getting Meetup emails for years, but everything I’d like to go to is always when I’m at work. I never did find a band.

They, his job, sent him to Illinois for half a month, and when he got back he said he hadn’t gotten pissed off at all driving around Springfield (pop. 115k), but since being back in Minneapolis he’s just been aggravated. Hates his commute. Said he’d like to go live in a smaller town. Didn’t much have a preference of which smaller town, isn’t really interested in moving back to Michigan, knows I’d like to go back to Washington state.

So. We’re moving across the country when our lease is up at the end of next month. I’m so fucking happy I could scream!

Plan right now is to get rid of/sell our furniture because none of it is particularly fine or worth hauling (except, hopefully, the microwave cart, which is really cool, and the bedroom mirror, which is also really cool), box up the remaining stuff (clothes, quilts, towels, hobbies, kitchen, and a prodigious amount of electronics: I’m estimating about 800 pounds/40 boxes), and either tow it or have it shipped, and drive to Walla Walla. Crash at the ancestral pile for the time it takes to get jobs. Live in the Pac NW again!

Well, “again” for me. He’s always lived in the Midwest, being from here.

Have a social life again! Have family force us to show up for Easter brunches or whatever! Go to open mics. Rent a house with a porch (I mean, on the one hand I’d love to live with G’ma forever, but on the other, one does like having her own kitchen, and S. definitely likes his privacy). Buy a bicycle. Find a new couch!

Truth be told, I want to live in the side apartment, with the tiny gas stove and the patio with the steel furniture, but my brother’s still living in it, though he does speak constantly of wanting to leave.

I want to get a part-time job in a tasting room. If I can sell cheese, I can certainly sell wine. I want him to find a nice job in Walla Walla (fingers crossed we don’t end up in Pasco or Spokane) with banker’s hours and holidays off and the easiest commute ever.

Suddenly my To Do list is MASSIVE. Move across the country in two months! Egad!

We’ll be taking a lot of trips to Goodwill in the next eight weeks.

I need to go post some furniture on Craig’s List.