All a little too real...

I spent the latter part of last week in San Jose - or rather, San Jose, then Folsom Friday with a quick hop of a flight over Mt Hamilton (?) and then a day's instruction to a group of senior developers at the company's site there. Flew back on the return hop, caught up on a few things at the office, and then headed back to my friends' condo for dinner.

After dinner we went on a little walk - down a few flights of stairs, around the pool, up several more flights of stairs, and down to the very end of the hall. We stopped at the last door on the right, a door I'll be seeing a lot more of in just a few weeks.

Home.

Or at least what will pass for "home" for the next year. I've been thinking a lot recently about that concept - "home" - and what it's meant to me, and how my unsettled relationship with that concept informs this upcoming move.

I don't know how many times I've moved. I know the longest I've lived anywhere in my life was the house in NW PDX where we were prior to moving to this one. We lived there from June 2000 - March 2006, even though it was under serious construction much of the time and wasn't really fit for human habitation. It'll be beautiful when it's done, but it was never fully "liveable" - and as such, was never 'home' - just a place to try to sleep, and to try to keep this crazy-@ss juggling match going. Much easier where we are now

The first house I've owned - this one - just over three years. And now we're packing up to go to California. There's no way we'll stay in the place there longer than a year; even if things change and we're not back up here next summer, I can't see living there indefinitely. In fact, I can't even wrap my brain around the idea that in just over a week, we'll be set there for a year. Unreal.

The past several days have been spent with much packing and some scheming, interspersed with the usual doses of work and such. Still haven't figured out if we'll do the professional movers thing or just pile it all into a u-haul. I'm blessed with friends here who want to help with packing and even transport, and friends in SJ who're ready to receive it - and me+kid+cats. A couple of the latter will fly up to help take care of last minute stuff, and to ease me out of town.

It helps too to have a mental image of where the condo's located. Getting the keys will be the next step, one currently scheduled for early next week. (Yes, I'm taking Yet Another Trip south.) I'm still not at the point of being able to really say yes, I'm going to be a Californian - but I'll have an address. It's a start.