Seriously, what possessed us?

The idea about moving to California wasn't something that was dreamed up on a whim and contrary to popular belief it wasn't 100% about being close to Disneyland, although that is one of the main perks I will admit.  There were a host of reasons that lead to our decision to uproot out lives and head west.

It had been a dream of ours since the day we met 11 years ago.  Steven had a chance to live in Northern California for a few years, so he had a taste of what it was like. I grew up  going on family vacations to California  almost yearly, so my love for California and all things west coast started early on. Disneyland of course, became something ingrained in me and that love of all things Disney, started early on as well.  It wasn't until later in my life did that passion for Disney reach nerd/dork/obsessed levels. 

(You have to love a kid in a stupid hat with a 3 foot feather, wearing platform shoes at the age of 10)

Fast forward, and you get to last year and the big event.  The past three years hadn't been that great for me health wise.  Both hips replaced, neck fusion surgery, quadruple bypass surgery and just for shits and grins, a last minute appendectomy.  But it all got me to the point of thinking to myself, if we're going to make a drastic change and live out our dream to move to Southern California, we need to do it now.  Nothing like bypass surgery to wake you up, make you feel vulnerable, stir up lots of emotions, feel like your time is limited.  You name the emotion, I was feeling it.  It was also something that not only I had to go through, but my husband went through so much emotional turmoil during that time as well.  It was just as hard on him, as it was on me. 

You combine the life changing health event, our love for all things California, Steven spending most of his entire life in Texas and me spending the past 25 years there, drastic changes to the political climate and the ridiculously hot weather, we were starting to produce a list of reasons why we wanted to move, and fewer reasons why we should stay.  Throw in moving to somewhere where the weather is near perfect year around and living close to the most beautiful beaches, the ocean and of course being an hour away from Disneyland, it became an easy decision.  Let's see if we can make this happen.  To me, it was now or never.

Then I started asking myself, "What had we gotten ourselves into?"

I'm 51 years old now.  I don't like change.  I'm stuck in my ways.  I get very comfortable and complacent.  I needed to throw out my old ways. Now was the time to take advantage of the situation, when I get the notion to move.

After a really bad week at work back in January, I felt tired and fed up.  I made a random call to someone I worked with while working at Bank of America and asked if they were hiring.  Before you know it, I was having phone conversations with various people, including the president of the company.  I let Steven know and the same thing happened.  Within a few days, he had contacts and options.  Few weeks later, I was flying out for interviews and we were planning on a trip back for Steven to interview as well.

That's when things got a little crazy.  He got a job offer and I'm sitting there waiting on mine.  Bigger corporations take longer on these things.  Within a two month period, we interviewed, got confirmations of intent to hire, put our house on the market and was looking for a place to live.  Was this really happening?

I look back and that entire time was a blur.  My mind tends to shut down in times of high anxiety and stress and this whole experience was one of the most stressful times of my life.  Before we knew it our house was sold, we were packing and we had to leave for California on July 1st and settle into our new temporary home on the 2nd.  Life was getting real and changing fast.

I felt like we left in such a hurry.  Having dinner with a few friends and spending time with family as much as we could.  Hardest part of moving away, was leaving family behind.  Still makes us both homesick.

Our friend Stacie graciously offered to come with us as we drove across country, to help keep us company and drive one of our cars.  We spent our first night in a hotel close to the ocean, ate some amazing Mexican food (which has become our weekly spot where management knows our name) and drank a handful of margarita's.  We ended the night with hanging out on the beach.  It was a perfect start to our new life here. 

Some say the ocean has healing properties. The ocean calms my soul, relaxes my senses and transports me away from all of life's problems.

Kind of like the salt smelling, wet, sandy version of Disneyland.

We found home.