Moving and Changing Friday Five

Sally has moving on her mind, and wants to know:

1. A big move is looming, name one thing you cannot possibly part with, it must be packed?
Since Amie is not a thing to be packed, I would have to say, family photos. Some of our oldest photos, from the 1920's and before, disappeared in one of my parents' last moves...since then I've carefully packed and moved photos myself, so that I always knew where they were.

2. Name one thing that you would gladly leave behind...
Useless, outdated paperwork and files. Last November I moved from my office of nearly ten years to a smaller office, which I will be closing at the end of June. I have not really enjoyed private practice and am not sorry to leave it behind. I did a thorough purge of my file cabinet last fall, so there won't be much to shred this time around.

3. How do you prepare for a move
a. practically?
Cleaning out junk and things we no longer want. My mother-in-law will be moving to a nearby retirement community in a few weeks, and the process of cleaning out, giving away, or selling all the stuff that neither she nor her children want, has been going on for months. Condensing a three-bedroom house into a one-bedroom apartment is never easy.

b. spiritually/emotionally?
Entrusting the people and places I love into God's hands, and looking forward to a new adventure. Praying and trusting God to continue leading me as I move forward along the path that appears to be the right one.

4. What is the first thing you look for in a new place?
The Scientist and I have not moved in seventeen years, so I had to reminisce a bit while considering this question. In a new community, initially I just try to get the lay of the land, locating the nearby supermarket, drug store, dry cleaners, etc. In a new home, I'm most interested in the size and convenience of the kitchen.

5. Do you settle in easily, or does it take time for you to find your feet in a new location?
It depends on whether I'm already a bit familiar with the location and whether I already know people there. Moving from Memphis to San Antonio right after college was difficult, and I needed more than a year to really feel at home there. That's the only time I've ever moved to a place where I knew no one, and it was probably the toughest move I've ever made. (Having my first apartment burglarized when I'd only been there a couple of months didn't help.) When I moved to Houston to take my first job, it was with the encouragement of two friends, native Houstonians who were returning home. And when the Scientist and I moved to California a few years later, we found a whole new world--but we had each other there, and the pleasure of exploring together.

The bonus for today: a new opportunity has come up for you to spend 5 years in a new area, where would you go and why?
Five years is a long time. If it were only for a year or two, I'd say Boston, San Francisco, or New Orleans, three cities I would love to get to know as more than a tourist. Or perhaps beautiful Portland, Oregon, or Seattle, where we already have many friends. Maybe Asheville, NC; it's beautiful country, it's in the South, there are lots of Presbyterians around, and I have some lifelong friends there. But five years...I probably wouldn't go any farther from here than Austin, or the adjacent hill country. Come to think of it, five years in Austin sounds great!