When you reshape a dream, how do you keep from berating yourself? It feels like settling, like you're compromising a chunk of that dream...even if the reshape of said dream totally makes sense.
I think I'd like us to eventually live in or around the Asheville, NC, area...its location high in the hills, seriously temperate climate, and slightly heathen bent to the local culture definitely appeal to me.
But I look at our families and I look at us. I recognize what an uphill battle an out-of-state move will be. I recognize that even if the cancer doesn't kill my father-in-law, it could significantly shorten his life. I recognize how important it is that we live closer to them.
I also recognize how tired I am of living in a city, how even though the cities have the jobs, they don't have all the jobs, and I'm just not a big city person. Not sure I ever was; more likely a convenience thing, us staying here as long as we have. Plenty of towns have convenience items without the crush of big city life.
Don't have a clue why the idea of Spartanburg came into my head. We haven't passed through there yet, I don't think. Actually, I came to the town by accident...I was half jokingly thinking that in my next career, I wouldn't mind running a Chipotle restaurant. But since Asheville doesn't have a Chipotle yet (sacrilege!!), I went looking for the surrounding towns in NC and SC that do have it....Greensboro, Winston-Salem...too far away, even though the artyness of W-S appeals to me too....the Triangle has a bunch, but we won't live there, because Husby lived there before and doesn't want to go back.....but Spartanburg.....hmm.....
• 2.25 hours from Aiken, 1.5 hours from Charlotte
• Not as small as Aiken, not as big as Columbia
• Still not cold enough, but an improvement
• Close enough for lots of mountain day trips
Then I got down to brass tacks. I have several things I look for in a town...like I used to joke that if we moved to Charlotte, I'd have to escape to Spartanburg occasionally for a Publix sub. So...
• Publix—check!
• Barnes & Noble—check!
• Chipotle—check!
• Starbucks—only 1?! good enough—check!
• Yarn shops.....gasp! Their sole yarn store ditched the yarn about a year ago. However there are yarn shops in Greenville and an alpaca farm with corresponding store up the road in Inman. Close enough.
• UU church—check!
You can take the city out of the girl, but let's not go crazy here. I've lived in metropolitan areas since I was 16. There are certain comfort items I require.
So now the lists can really start. I want to get us up there in the next 6 months for a look-around. I sent away for the area's relocation guides and I'm trolling the web. I don't think we can realistically move before end of next year, so that gives us plenty of time to really do it right. I'm chipping away at our credit issues, and budgeting to save, maybe even before the holidays.
I may not be crazy about SC summers, but something about this feels right. Now to make it happen.
