no place like home?

lorenzo and i recently went to see crazy heart over at the moreland theater (one of my favorites). i really loved the movie, especially the scenery of the southwest which left me wondering, can you ever really leave home?

there were so many scenes of the big, blue new mexico sky and it left me yearning for my home state. i know, i know, this blog is about my love of portland so why am i writing about the place i left behind many years ago? well, i'll tell you...

when i was two, my family moved from albuquerque, where i was born, to prescott, arizona. we lived in prescott for ten years before moving up to southern oregon for a new beginning. we lived there two years and then moved back to new mexico where i finished junior high, high school and then college. even though we had gone back to new mexico when i was young, we still visited the northwest every opportunity we had and i had grown to love it here, too.

after i graduated from high school, my parents moved back to the northwest (olympia) and i figured eventually i would join them up here after i finished college. well, after i finished, i worked in albuquerque a few years and when the time presented it's self to move to portland, i took it. however,by the time this happened, my parents had moved back down to arizona.

i think it was due to all of these moves that created this yin and yang in me that causes me to feel a little unsettled when i'm in one place and not the other. i don't think i could entirely live back in new mexico again and i love portland so much, i can't imagine permanently leaving here either. i have a family here and friends and a job that i really believe i couldn't have found there.

part of my original plan of moving to portland (which i still think was the best thing for me) was to eventually spend part of the year in new mexico. i still have a lot of family and friends there that i love dearly and miss very much. i even work for a company that does the majority of their business in the southwest so it should be a perfect fit. i haven't quite figured out a way to implement this plan but i just have to believe that when it is meant to work out, it will.

still, it leaves me thinking, is it possible to have more than one home? is this what it feels like to be an expat living in another country? well at least it's a lot closer for me to go home than taking an international flight!

well, i'm happy to say that i will be heading down south at the end of the month. i will have a wonderful time there soaking up the beautiful sunny skies and being with the ones i love, and then i will come home to you, portland, and take in the soothing rains and be with the ones that i love.

and p.s. go see the movie, it's really great!