Where We Belong?

I didn't realize how much I'd miss Washington until now. During our final months in Washington, I was anxious to leave. Once your spouse receives orders somewhere else and that clock is ticking, you just want to go and get the move over with because it's so unsettling and stressful. Also, we were living in a tiny temporary apartment in Tacoma and both of those things are awful. We also had a storage unit broken into while we were living in the stinky armpit that is Tacoma so the memories tied to that place taint the entire last five months we were in the region. 

Add that to having to close my business and my mom relocating, our chapter in Washington was closing. We seemed to be done there and onto (I won't say bigger and better because how do you top a food truck in Seattle?) other things. 

Now we are in Virginia with normal, non-exciting lives just trying to work and find time to relax and do fun things. I no longer make my own schedule, answer emails to clients, or roll up in my beautiful truck with tasty things for people. I no longer bake amazing things or crawl underneath food trucks on the 405 to tie up exhaust pipes after catering for Google. Yes, that happened and I miss it. I had so much, we worked so hard, and now it's gone. 

The move has been good in some ways though. Russ has a less stressful job being off of a ship that was in the yards with terrible, terrible hours. We can afford a larger place on this side of the country (we pay about $200 more for an extra bedroom, bathroom, backyard, storage shed, and roughly 600 more square feet). I have a job and will be getting trained soon to move up and get paid more, hopefully. 

The reason all these feelings came flooding back recently is because I was on my way to work a few days ago and I popped in a CD and listened to a song that I played on our last drive out of Seattle (on that very freeway pictured) to Tacoma. I wanted to play something that would remind me of driving through the city and to remember that exact feeling. I felt some relief, relief that I could finally let go of my feelings of the food truck business and relief that we could move onto a new place and life. I felt sadness that we were leaving such an amazing place that has so many great things to do, see, and experience. I knew I'd miss the ferries, mountains and beautiful city but I didn't anticipate how much until I got here and things aren't as, for lack of a better word, cool.

Sure, the vegans, hipsters and potheads could be super annoying but Washington was such an exciting and progressive place. I remember being shocked when I first got there at the number of marijuana dispensaries and what is a bikini barista?!

And now we are here. I'm going to try and enjoy our lives here and see where the wind can take us next. I've been longing for the feeling of being somewhat settled because I've lived a nomadic existence for the last six years (we are now in our fifth house). But is the place we are supposed to settle here?