sort of failblog crossed with dan savage?

[pauraque_bk]

_hannelore! Lookity look look!

State of Vermont Pure Maple Syrup

I am, at some point in the non-remote future, moving to the G R E A T S T A T E of Vermont, because my girlfriend lives there. It took a while for me to conclude that this would be an okay thing to do, because I like the bay area very much and have never really wanted to move somewhere else, except sometimes I've wanted to move to Vancouver because it's exactly like the bay area.

Though I've visited many places enough to get some sense of what they're like, I've never actually lived anywhere else.

Bay area pros:

-the weather is nice
-transit system is effective and driving is unnecessary <-- I hate cars
-queer people proximity
-bleeding heart liberal proximity (though I'm actually a moderate, but I enjoy them)
-brother proximity

It took a long time to even come around to the possibility that I COULD leave, let alone that given our situation it is the only reasonable choice. _hannelore has a young child in school, and shares custody with an ex-husband who has no desire to move anywhere. So I can either begin some process of moving there, or carry on a long-distance relationship indefinitely.

Though we have successfully carried on a long-distance friendship for... eh 5 years, followed by a long-distance ~romance~ for somewhat under a year. We are lucky to live in an age of interwebs and cheap phones. I have no doubt that we CAN, I think we just kind of don't want to.

Vermont offers:

-_hannelore proximity
-_hannelore's son proximity
-lack of dad proximity <------ that would be nice.
-um. fall colors?

I'm scared of cold weather and snow. Snow should be in the Sierras where it belongs. You should have to drive several hours to go to the snow. Snow should not come to your house. (eta: AND I hate maple syrup.)

I suppose it's possible that I could move there and regret it, but I think it's worth the risk. I had a friend once who would kinda move back and forth across the country just to get away from problems, but I don't think I'm doing that.

Plus, someone I know moved from the US to Australia to be with his boyfriend that he met online, and he is now very happy except that he's in a weird time zone. Vermont's time zone is less weird. Thus... success guaranteed? *bites nails*

Aside from fear, the main impediment to moving is owning a house with my brother. My brother is high-functioning autistic and although he is in college (Cal school of engineering), and is relatively independent of me, he's never lived anywhere but this house, which belonged to our mom. Even assuming he could financially buy out my half of the house, I don't think he could take care of the house by himself. The thought of him living in a dorm or apartment makes me bite my nails in anxiety, but I guess that's the most logical answer.

Going further down the list of worries, I have a mean, old cat. I wouldn't trust my brother to take care of her in any case, let alone that if he was moving, having a cat would be problematic. My dad is allergic to cats, and anyone around here that I would have trusted to give a pet to has moved away. (I actually have almost no friends left in the bay area, why does everyone keep moving? Do they know something I don't?) Since she bites, giving her to a shelter would likely be a death sentence.

_hannelore's apartment doesn't allow cats, and she doesn't want cats, and **I** don't want cats. I inherited this one against my will. But I do care what happens to her. I don't know what to do about this.

A more minor difficulty is that I have a lot of junk to get rid of. Though I have not always lived here, I have always had a lot of stuff stored here, and I tend to accumulate more stuff all the time.

If you can't bring yourself to get rid of things, I have advice that will work: While cleaning up, ask yourself, "Would I take this with me if I moved across the country?" If you wouldn't, throw it (or give it) away.