The Crush and Los Angeles
Alexis and I have admitted that we both have a crush on this house.
It's in Dedham, a town bordering Boston on the south, that happens to be the town where my mother was born. It was built in 1920, of stone and concrete, and recently expanded and fixed up by a retired schoolteacher whose hobby is restoring charm to small unique houses. It is smaller inside than most houses on the market we've looked at (1300 square feet) but sits on almost a half acre of land. That doesn't sound like much to you country folk, but it's practically unheard of for a house this close to Boston. We're looking forward to having our families look at it (especially Alexis' mom, who has a very critical eye and lots of experience buying and building houses) to talk some sense into us. We expect that even after that process we will buy this house. I've already started several projects in my imagination: named the beer I will brew in the basement, started decorating the yard and have begun removing invasives. My imagination is really tired now.
I asked about Los Angeles because I applied for a job at the Natural History Museum there. The position was something like "coordinator of live animal programs" and sounded essentially like 1/2 zookeeper 1/2 teacher with a role in an outdoor exhibit space they are developing centered on urban nature. They are currently surveying their property for lizard species (discovering in the process species that were unknown to occur in LA county) and there would be a future projects in citizen science as well. The place has a live animal collection including birds and reptiles, as well as an insect zoo and a spider pavilion. Unusual word combination: SPIDER PAVILION. That alone makes me want to move.
I interviewed via Skype, and my interview involved a seven minute educational presentation. I did fairly well in the interview, but my presentation was not "thematic" enough. I understand and agree with the criticism. So I didn't get the job, which saved us from having to make a really hard decision about leaving our families and friends (although I do have more friends in LA than in any other city besides Boston and maybe San Francisco) in order to move to a place with no snow and a dream job for me and a big question mark for Alexis. I would have had to move first, leaving her to tie up a million loose ends, deal with our home, dogs, her job etc. On some level I was terrified that it would be my second disastrous attempt to move to California in a little over ten years--bad juju.
In any case, the experience has made me want to visit LA and develop my own impressions of it and see my friends who live there. I noticed that on both LJ and FB, the strongest negative opinions of LA seem to be held by people who have never been there. I guess we all feel entitled to those opinions, since the city has made itself such a strong presence in our culture. Like the celebrities who live there: we feel like we know them even though we've never met them.
Two friends from Texas have already said it: "I'm pretty sure it snows in Dedham." True enough. If we make this move (and we will--even if we can't get the house we are smitten with we will get something pretty soon) we will get to experience winter without an enormous sidewalk to shovel (just some steps up to the front door) and with the ability to let the dogs out into the yard to do their thing if it's too wretched out to go for a walk. I'm very excited to have land to steward, beyond trimming the hedges and picking up trash from the parking area. It looks like way too much work but it looks like the kind of way too much work we'll enjoy.
Southern California will still be there, and so will the Pacific Northwest. I feel like "the moving saga" is over for the next five years at least, but of course it hasn't even started. But a big change has happened in our decision making process--not overnight, but this is my first opportunity to express something that's been developing gradually. A bit of an anti-climax I suppose, but this feels more real than any of our plans up until now. I'll let you know if we still are infatuated in a few weeks!
*I didn't say this anywhere, and can't quite figure out where to put it, so it's a footnote: I'm quite content at my current job, despite many challenges. Staying five more years there makes perfect sense. I refuse to plan anything past five years.