Recently in Life_Lessons Category

I started writing this post a few weeks ago, but am only now getting back to it. After getting a good outline going, I simply couldn't bring myself to write it. Part of my resistance, I think, comes in the pain of self-realization. At the same time, I'm sometimes loathe to share these personal revelations as I'm never sure how people will take them. My hope is that you'll read this and think "lessons learned" and not "what a dope." Anyway...

I've moved a lot over the years. Cross-country twice this year already for starters, plus the move to NoVA from MT in 2003, the move to Central PA from MT, and then back, in 2002, down to Chicago in '98, up to the the Twin Cities in '99, and the move to MT in '01 in the first place. On top of all these home moves, we've also done a ton of driving vacations, driving through the vast majority of continental states in the last 10 years (I've driven through or in every state except SC, OR, and NE). Suffice to say, my life is about being in-motion, or so it seems.

Given this experience, I thought it only appropriate to sit back and reflect a bit on the moves of the last 10 years. There are lots of interesting lessons to learn, and I hope that you'll find these interesting and, perhaps, a wee bit amusing.

In case you didn't catch the news in September and October, our little experiment with moving to the desert southwest ended abruptly, returning us to Northern Virginia (NoVA), and right quickly at that. Overall, things are working out for the best (despite the recent hospital visit by our li'l boo). It only seemed appropriate, then, to reflect a bit on this experiment and some of the things I'm slowly learning.

Overall, our Arizona experience wasn't the greatest. We had a hard time finding food that we liked (so many bad Mexican places, so little time). Making friends was very challenging (we're neither retired nor heavily tattooed, unlike the majority of the population, or so it seemed). The area seemed to be teeming with shysters, whether it be scam movers, lousy car service, lousy car wash service, expensive insurance, or whatever. Following are some various reflections on the life we tried to make.