I moved to D.C. at the end of December after swearing for 32 years that I'd never live in a big city. However, when my husband chose his field of work he informed me that most of the job opportunities were located in major cities. I put on my happy and supportive face while secretly panicking at the thought of living in a city. After the initial shock of needing to relocate and some extensive research, I was overjoyed at the opportunity to move to my nation's capital city for a number of reasons...
1. I am a history buff
2. During my 8th grade field trip I spent most of my photo opportunities on my crush at the time (it was a waste, we never even dated) and I wanted the opportunity to get real photos
3.I had the illusion that I could find a really important job
4. I thought my brother could get me into the Pentagon (what a disappointment that was)
5. I thought that I could get used to the traffic (still a work in progress)
6. I have family on the east coast (if this list was in any particular order then this would have to be near the top)
7. D.C was more appealing than our other options
Examples:
A. San Francisco: My husband was pushing for California but I effectively argued that the cost of living was too high. However, it appears that I may have been wrong. According to the following website http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/san-francisco/washington-d-c
DC is actually 13% more expensive than San Francisco. Thankfully my husband didn't do his research and I had back up arguments. The first was I feared that California was a hotbed for natural disasters. I based my argument on the fact that as a child I was told that California may break off the US and sink into the Pacific. While I could probably find some support for this statement on the internet, most likely I could find more theories against my natural disaster argument.& My next argument was that we shouldn't move to the state with the highest debt. I know my arguments are weak, especially since I refused to move to the state with the highest debt, yet was willing to head to DC, no debt there right?! My strongest argument went something like this "<i>I don't want to live in California because my family lives on the east coast and I'd be miserable. I'm willing to move almost anywhere else so suck it up and cross California off the list. As I was saying that, I most likely crossed my arms and put my determined face on. I won...no California
B. Memphis: Originally I was kinda excited about the prospect of Memphis. There was affordable housing, less than 5 inches of snow each year, and Tennessee seemed like a cool place. That was before I read all the statistics about the crime rate. Thankfully the firm in D.C. offered my husband a job before the firm in Memphis because I was already running statistics in my mind about the possibility of me living there for 10 years without being a victim of theft.
So at Thanksgiving time my husband and I packed up everything in our two bedroom apartment and he moved to DC while I tied up loose ends at my job. He left me with very little. I had a queen size air mattress which I couldn't seem to blow up. This was embarrassing to admit to my husband, and I eventually realized I wasn't pulling the plug out far enough. Sadly this insight didn't come until I'd spent two nights holding the air pump to the mattress for over an hour desperately hoping that I was inflating it just a little. He also left me with a patio set so that I had something to eat meals on. He took all the creature comforts and even took my cats.& Poor things they had to be tranq'd for the long car ride. That is a funny story but for another day...
The day before Christmas, with very few items left in our old apartment, I packed up my little new Corolla and headed for my new life in DC!
