Chrononautic Log: Where’s my sense of adventure?

Where’s my sense of adventure?

1 o'clock, October 28, 2005

Seriously. I seem to have misplaced it somewhere. A couple of months ago I was blithely talking about how I was getting tired of Seattle and how for my next trick I’d probably be moving to “either Shanghai or Switzerland.” Then this week while I was home with a mild case of stomach flu, and poking around on Monster.com, I found myself thinking about looking for jobs in Portland. Portland.

Not that there’s anything wrong with Portland, as such. A smaller, less screwed-up version of Seattle, from what I can tell. The downtown’s nice. It’s got bookstores and stuff. But it’s nothing special, either. There’s no reason for me to move to Portland.

Moving to Portland would be a really safe choice.

Yeah.

I did look at jobs in Shanghai. (Didn’t find much.) I looked at jobs in Sydney. (Pay cut.) I looked at jobs in Switzerland. I even applied for one job in Surrey (UK, not BC), though I’m not really expecting to hear back. (Just because I found it in Monster’s “work abroad” section, doesn’t mean the company that posted it is actually interested in hiring expatriates.) And I thought a bit about Singapore, and Seoul, and even some places that didn’t start with S.

And I just couldn’t get excited about it.

After I graduated from high school I moved, like, five times in ten years. Now I’ve been in the same place for five and, God help me, it’s easier to just keep rolling along. When did this happen?

if it helps, everytime I mention moving to someone (only because I've lived in the same 50-75 sq. miles my entire life) people look at me like I grew horns out of my forehead...cuz, you know, I live in paradise. Or something.

i think that moving for the sake of moving gets old. And if you're moving due to issues that follow you from place to place...well, that realization's gonna catch up to you sometime.

but, fuck, it gets boring in the same place without something different.

I’m pretty clear on the inescapability of the things that follow me around. But I could stand to have them follow me somewhere a little more stimulating.

(Side note: Moving for the sake of moving is more likely to get old if it’s all within a 50-mile radius, don’t you think? :) )

no doubt. :) and should be "older" for me than for you. but I'd imagine that there's usually an point at which it no longer appeals for most.

I imagine a sort of Borghesian adventure in which I gradually reduce the number of books on my shelves by taking them down to Powell’s for store credit, box by box, and returning with ever fewer books (yet books that, somehow, would be more refined) . . . which in turn are eventually boxed up and taken down to Powell’s . . . culminating, eventually, in a single, perfect book . . .

You know, I'm sort of the opposite. I didn't take a gap year, and after I graduated I pretty quickly set up home and well, four years later here I am. I think I'm too cautious--I couldn't have just gone away without knowing there was something to come back to, if I wanted to come back. So it's only *now* I'm occasionally getting the urge to do something dramatic, like travel around the world, or emigrate to Japan, or something.

Here's a reason to move to Portland: so many ley lines! It's on a volcano, a fault line, and a flood plain. If it were in hurricane territory, all four elements would be actively trying to kill you. Talk about an exciting place to live!

I finally had to leave...

Oh, and Powell's is great :)

Heh. Tim and I are considering moving to Portland. I like it b/c the other option we've discussed is Asheville, North Carolina, and I didn't move across the country (from Indiana) just to move back again. Or maybe I just don't want to drive a moving truck that far.

I hadn't considered the ley lines, though. Hm..

Chrononautic Log

Where’s my sense of adventure?

1 o'clock, October 28, 2005

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