Places I've wanted to live

My favorite place to live, when it all comes down to it, is Minneapolis.  But.

I change my mind often about where I want to escape someday.  When I was 10 or 12 or so, for some reason I got it in my head that not only would I live in New York City someday when I was older (I wanted to be an actress then), but we could probably make it happen now.  I brought my plan to my mom, who kindly explained, laughing a little, that that just was not going to happen.  I bawled.  She called my uncle, her brother, who escaped to Manhattan years prior, and told him about my little sobfest.

Then I got over it and wanted to move to Arizona.  I became obsessed with Arizona.

My love for Arizona was a mixture of a natural inclination toward heat and a sheer hatred for Minnesota winters.  I always thought the desert was beautiful after a few road trips through the West as a kid, and I really loved Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, who constantly sing about Arizona.  I know it sounds silly, but the idea of Arizona was always so romantic-sounding to me as a kid.  I still think so in a lot of ways, even if Arizona itself is forever tainted in my mind from their recent politics.  There's always New Mexico.

In high school, it was the South.  I was on a family trip to North Carolina and Alabama, where we went to visit my friend and our cousins, respectively, and I thought I had found myself in the most beautiful place on earth.  It was pretty down there... they had red dirt... people talked with classy drawls.

Basically, I fall in love with the last place I just came back from, not including places I went to regularly as a kid (Minnesota, Missouri, or Michigan, including all of the states between all of them).  I also get ideas about where else I want to live from TV shows.  I want to live in Miami every time we watch Dexter, of course, and sometimes even considered that maybe LA wasn't so bad after all when we went on Six Feet Under binges.  

Now we've been having Ally McBeal marathons, so I obviously want to live in Boston.

I don't really know anything about Boston.  I've also, when not busy obsessing over Arizona, had a little fascinationg with the East coast.  I didn't care so much about the West coast, but the fishing culture and all the docks and everything else that happens out on the eastern seaboard was always very intiguing.  There was just something so charming-sounding about a seaside community in the Northeast. Oh yeah, Cape Cod was another one.  When I left Madison after going to the rally this past March, I even wanted to move there, temporarily forgetting that college towns aren't any fun unless you go to the college, in that town.

Ten or so years ago, I just decided that, instead of moving somewhere else, I actually really loved Minneapolis, where I lived.  I loved it more as I became more integrated in the city where I grew up-- when I finally not only lived there, but also worked there, and used public transportation there.  I still love it, and I miss it, being out here in the 'burbs for the time being.  But I want to go somewhere.  I'm 28 and feeling like I haven't done a damn thing so far.  And that's because it's true.  I just want to get out of here for a while!  Someplace totally different.  I'm tired of the whacky seasons and the same accents and the familiar political representatives and license plates.  I want a driver's license from a new state!  Just for fun!  Maybe before I turn 40, I can try and get a passport, while I'm at it!  Jesus, why don't I have a passport?  I wanted to travel so much as a kid and teenager, and always planned to far more often than I have.  I never manage to get around to it.  

In other news, I'm listening to a newish song called Pumped Up Kicks, by Fostering the People.  Pretty catchy song.

*click on the photos above for credit information.