Summer is gone. The high hasn’t broken 60 degrees in a few days and while the trees out my window are still as green as can be, leaves are starting to turn and find their way into my yard. Those creepy plants are still doing creepy plant things but these cold nights are sure to remind them where their place is this time of year.
While it’s still October, we’re getting pretty close to November… my birthday month… my 40th birthday month. How am I supposed to feel about that these days? Is 40 the new 30? Is that even a thing? I remember 35 bothering me… one year closer to 40 than 30… but 40 isn’t bothering me in the same way.
Not yet, anyways.
Maybe it’s because it’s the start of a new decade. Still 10 away from 50. Well, typing that is all it took. Now I’m wishing I was looking back to 35. This was a tough year. Certainly not the year leading up to 40 I thought I’d be having. We have no real plans for a big celebration. I mean, we’re not even allowed to have big plans right now. It will pass on Black Friday like it’s done a few times since I was born. The real celebration taking place the day before when we all fill our bellies with turkey, sweet potatoes and pie. Some celebration will need to happen, otherwise, it’s just another birthday I suppose.
Maybe we’ll make 41 the big celebration. Things are surely going to be somewhat normal then.
I received a comment on a blog post today asking about where my “new to me” locations might be if we were to move. I’ve been thinking a lot about these. Doing my best to get excited about the potential to explore new places… doing my best not to be sad we’d be leaving this behind. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s bound to. I think my answer to that is “pull out a map and throw a dart at it… see where it lands”. That’s where I am at this point. Be it a job that takes us there… or a fantastic house that just hit the market at a stellar price… who knows where we’ll be when I turn 41. I do know I have a list of amenities that will need to be near by – having lived in some pretty great places, I refuse to settle.
If you have a community to suggest or know of that fantastic house I referenced above, I’m taking submissions in the comments.
IdyllHands 
What amenities should I be looking out for before making a suggestion?
The million dollar question! As with any list, the right place can make us forget that we even wanted to live near a Target in the first place 🙂 One of my favorite hobbies is cooking elaborate meals – so a good grocery store with a fantastic cheese counter, access to outdoor activities (and not a concrete trail in a park – but good, get lost in nature type activities, preferably with access to elevation changes), some place with seasons so the desert and Florida need not apply, reasonably priced housing (being in the Portland area now, we’re used to high housing costs, but some areas are off the charts), and a good enough job market where my husband and I could find a job. Is this so much to ask? 🙂
Although I’d love to have you move closer to where I live so we could possibly meet and hang out some time, have you ever thought about moving abroad? Sometimes I think about just taking that big step and start an entirely new adventure in another country. Just give up my job and try to start the next part of my life somewhere totally new and fresh. Somewhere in Europe might fit those amenities and requests you’re looking for!
I think the idea to just drop everything and move falls in line with the idea to start totally new and fresh. It probably won’t be abroad. My husband and I toyed with that a bit initially, but the paperwork and visas and hoops to jump through for that didn’t sound like something I wanted to tackle during COVID! However, if it was abroad, I would jump at the opportunity to move to British Columbia. Places like Europe sound dreamy, but as independent as my husband and I are, I do like being near some familiar things.