Ahem.
Anyhow, you know how I've been telling you how I think I'm having a mid-life crisis and how that's causing me to walk down memory lane? Well, I did some driving down memory lane this weekend.
I've been wanting to do this for a long time, LONG time, so I can't even blame the mid-life crisis, but well my blog. My rules.
If you know me at all, you know I move, or used to, a lot. I had friends who used to joke that they needed an address book for just W's for all my addresses. I am a military brat - the early years. And then Boeing moved us a couple of places. By the time I was 40, I had figured out I had lived in 27 different places.
My life after college graduation is almost half of those moves. 12! 13 really, but one I didn't count because it was moving home for 3 months and well, it didn't count. We'll just pretend it didn't happen.
So 12 places. All in the Seattle area and all were a direct by-product of what I could afford. Interesting how your salary increases and so does your living environment. Weird.
This weekend I decided to drive around the area and check out the old stomping grounds. What an experience that was! Some places I drove right to. Others I drove in circles. Still others I wasn't 100% sure it was the place because it looked so different. But I guess a lot can happen in 23 years.
When I graduated from college, I lived with the folks. The DadUnit was adamant that we find a job and find a place to live. It just so happened that they had a house they wanted to rent. So Blueberry, another family member and myself moved into what I call "The Yellow House."
I wish I would have had my act together to buy the house from the parents, but just out of college making next to nothing at Boeing, a house payment seemed too out there for me.
I loved the Yellow House - which isn't yellow any more (top left corner). It had a great location in Bellevue and was a nice layout. But it wasn't enough for me. No I felt like it was time to spread my wings even more and so moved to Chandler Bay in Kent to live with someone we'll call The Terror.
She, and later her good for nothing boyfriend, lived in a small apartment in Chandler's Bay. We worked together and so carpooled together, mostly. The place wasn't a bad location and wasn't a bad complex. It totally looks different now and I wasn't able to even find the unit we lived in. Which is probably better.
Having to deal with her insane BF and her lack of ability to pay rent (he didn't pay rent you see), I decided it was time to move out on my own. A guy I was working with had built this lovely house and was renting the rooms. So I moved into Ivan's house.
We worked together, so we carpooled together too. He had 4 rooms upstairs that he rented and the other roommates and I got along - mostly. One guy just stayed in his room. And when he moved out Ivan said he was going to have to dynamite that room and start over. It was disgusting. Bottles of urine left, black marks on the wall where his head used to lean against. It was gross.
Then we got a roommate that we later found out was wanted from the FBI. We were at work one day when the FBI called Ivan and said he needed to come home and turn off the alarm and answer questions about Greg. Turned out he was wanted in 4 states for fraud. Nothing he told us was true. He had left all his illegal paperwork and seals and what not behind. They had been looking for him and his father for years. When he scrambled away from the house, he only took things that wasn't his like my rent $$, some checks from all of us roommates, and a coin collection. Crazy I tell ya.
Eventually Blueberry moved in with us into Ivan's house. Then eventually we moved into a short stint with the folks. Dad gave us 3 months to get out. Didn't take a photo of this cuz I'd rather forget we moved home.
After that Blueberry and I shared an apartment in what's now Newcastle. It was a nice little place. We both had cats, we both had jobs and we both seemed to be doing well. But again, I was ready to be on my own, so I opted to move out.
I moved to a complex called Country Hills in Redmond. Crappy little apartments at the time. Today their called The Berkshire Apartment Homes. Here is where I started realizing that each year they'd raise my rent. And I figured if they raised my rent I could move to some place a bit nicer. So each year I moved.
Following Country Hills I moved to Brighton Ridge - also in Renton. Blueberry hated to move so she stayed put. Nothing exciting happened in Brighton Ridge other than that's where my cat Chuck snuck out and got hit by a car. First time I had to put a cat down. Hated it.
After my year in Brighton Ridge, I moved into a condo in Kirkland. I loved living in downtown Kirkland. The rent was cheap for the place we had. My roommate at the time was a former boss of mine and we got along - ok. Eventually she bought a house and moved out. Blueberry moved in.
We probably would have stayed in Kirkland had our landlady not been completely insane and lost her house and had to move back into the apartment we were in. Then she wouldn't return our security deposit and so we sued her. Ended up only getting half the deposit back, but it was about the principle of the matter.
From there, Blueberry and I moved to Sammamish View in Eastgate. We were there for a total of 6 years, 3 living together and 3 living separate. After 3 years of living together, it was me, again, who wanted to live on my own. I realized I could afford a one bedroom in that complex so we moved. In fact, our move date was two days AFTER Blueberry had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Such timing.
So after 3 years in this place, and the parents visiting on a fairly regular basis, I decided I needed a 2 bedroom place. The only place I could afford happened to be in Lynnwood - aka the Hood. So Pookie and I moved up north. I really liked that place for the most part. The commute to Bellevue sucked and I knew I'd move eventually. Still I lived there for 3 years until Mr. & Mrs. Landlord's place in Redmond came available.
And here I've been for the new record of 5 years. Either my gypsy blood (if I have any of that) has worked it's way out, or I'm too old to want to move anymore.
In all this moving, I only considered a couple of times buying a place. Then I realized that owning a home wasn't something I felt like I wanted or needed to do. Besides, when you own you can't leave as easily. And this Wroaming Wraspir might need to wroam again...eventually....maybe...
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