Did you think about going back to Philly when things started going left?

No.

I was asked a similar question from a different person in 2019, was I considering going back to Philly when things in Maryland were tenuous. I promised myself a year in Maryland and I did just about that, and I emerged from it a different human being. Smarter, faster, more humble in some aspects and bodacious in others. Just about NOTHING went the way I thought it might or planned for in Maryland, but it wasn’t until I needed to regroup and plan for the move West that I considered going back to Philly.

Yes Philly is ‘home’ but I’d basically already said good bye to her. My return to Philly was not made from nostalgia but necessity.

I have not once since arriving here in California considered going back East to PA. Is the East Coast still a possibility? Shit just about anything is possible if I am being honest but a return to PA is unlikely.

Why? Things like this:

That right there is a view of the San Francisco Bay, taken while in the city of Sausalito. My first visit there was in 2021, the most recent..well let’s say much more recent.

In some ways the town reminds me of one of those smallish Jersey Shore locations I would find in my youth. In others, its too ‘rich’ for my blood. Not that it’s a ‘rich’ town but like many places out here it thinks it is so it behaves as such. There is absolutely nothing in Philly which looks like this, and the adventures the day this photo was taken cannot be duplicated in Philly.

No. Once I crossed that border in Nevada and through that produce check point it was a wrap. This was where I would be for the immediate future. There are things I do not like here, like any location this is not perfect, but for today and tomorrow this is home.

My particular home town was essentially chosen for me, but it’s in a pretty good location. I don’t like that everything is a 30 minute drive, but that is the city girl in me complaining. The asphalt and concrete in me wishing for 24 hour stores, neighbors and culture. The town, and yes it is a town, is large enough that we have many of the big named franchises, yet it’s small enough that big city perils aren’t present. There are also no fucking police, but considering the reputation of the VPD? I am ok with it.

My specific location in the town is one of the better. I have access to the highway and the best back roads when that highway is congested. I have a grocery that I can walk to, and the CheeseSteak shop. Within 2 miles is the movie theater and ‘mall’ where I can get the things I need. My complex, more specifically my location in the complex gives me access to both the quiet of the suburbs with the hint of activity along the main street I am next to. I also have access to one of the least used pools and hot tub.

I don’t have the view of the water that was promised to me, but I don’t need it today and when I want it tomorrow I know how to get it.

Giving this up is not in the To Do list at the moment.

Will I live here 20 years? Well that is unlikely, if for no other reason I will need to expand eventually. I don’t see myself buying another home, but more space will be needed eventually. For today though, my 700 SqFt works and for that I am thankful.

It feels like the events last year were designed to send me back East yet a couple of things weren’t considered. First, I was fucking BROKE. Any relocation, even if it meant from this apartment to another required $$ and I didn’t have it a year ago. I could not move if I wanted to, to Philly or anywhere else which is a part of why I had to fight so hard to keep the lease. The other forgotten item? I am just as stubborn as I am resilient and if you’ve read 3% of the last 13 years recorded here I resilient is one of my super powers.

Once I landed and saw this:

I knew this was going to be where I rebuilt, and I am still building.

By my birthday certification will be done and that will open other streams of revenue. The Bay Area is best for said revenue, but it will be nationwide before it’s all over. I mean, its sort of there at the moment as all my clients are not local to me, but I mean nationwide as in being able to pull off the Arizona retreat I’ve kept within my vizion. I don’t know if that is a year away or 5 years away, but it is coming.

In the interim. I am still exploring the surrounding cities for where to next land. What I am not considering is landing in PA again. Visits yes. Living. No.