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| Silver City Sunrise from La Capilla Chapel Hill |
It’s official. I signed a one-year lease for my fabulous
apartment. As many of my closest friends and family have figured out (or I told
them), I have decided to stay in Silver City for an extended time, and
actually make it my home base. I am happy about this, but it still comes with
a price – the price of not having the daily face to face contact with my dear
friends in Portland, especially with my soul sister Melanie. I don’t know why this small high desert town has appealed to
me so deeply. Consider these things: 1) I can’t take heat, intense sun, and
lack of humidity. It’s so dry here, even my ass is chapped. I could soak in a
vat of organic food grade coconut oil every day and my skin would still be dry.
2) They don’t have a movie theater. 3) Most restaurants, according to quirky and expensive New Mexico liquor license rules, only serve beer and wine; not booze. I have to go miles to get
a marguerita! And speaking of restaurants, NO THAI FOOD! How am I supposed to
survive that? 4) Stumptown coffee?
Forget it. I have to have it shipped to me (thanks Melanie!) 5) I haven’t found
a gang to play pinochle with 6) As with most small towns, everybody knows
everybody’s business – at least their version of it. The list could go on, but
you get the idea.
But I think this blog has pretty clearly laid out why I want
to stay. And there is one other thing. For the first time in my life, I don’t
feel lonely. Since I was a little
kid, and we moved, I always felt lonely. Funny thing is, I was the one in the
family that looked forward to moving, and most easily
navigated the new social dynamics. That followed me into adulthood, moving to
Canada to attend the University of Guelph, where my future/former husband
played basketball. Then to San Diego, then to Portland. In San Diego, the joke
was that only 100 of my closest friends knew where I hid the key to my house.
But there were also times of intense loneliness in the nearly 25 years I lived
there. And then it took me two years to feel a sense of belonging in Portland.
That’s a long time to feel lonely.
I don’t have that here. I don’t know why. Is it because I’m
maturing? Stop laughing. Or that another of my soul sisters, Carmon, is here?
The people that I’ve met immediately think I belong here. When I met my landlady
for the first time, she hugged me and pronounced that I would be staying. She
and others have said that this town has of way of taking you in or spitting you
out. It looks like I’m being taken in…
Being a researcher by nature, I did all the stuff I normally
do. I checked out health insurance plans (I will not go uninsured), tax rates,
insurance rates, housing costs and re-negotiating my apartment lease, car
registration and licensing, etc. I couldn’t find a single show-stopper.
My head and heart lined up on this one. So I’m staying.
There you have it.
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| Silver City Sunset from Mountain View Rd |
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