Remote Outpost

It's another day, and another missive on the subject of moving. Now that I am living in Glendale for this short stretch of time, I've been in four different places around town. Three out of the four of them were not exactly where I wanted to be. Had I known much about the city's geography, the fourth might well have not been either. The primary reason, as any realtor will telp you, is location. I just seem to keep winding up in distant, unfashionable parts of town- emphasis for my present purposes on distant.

I don't enjoy moving, so it tends to happen only out of dire necessity. Previously I only moved when my building was foreclosed on and each return home raised the question of whether the lights would still be on. That being said, I do try to make the most of the opportunity that presents itself, however unwelcome the means by which it does so. Every time I move, it's with the intention of getting nearer to the city center, but like the protagonist of Quantum Leap, my hopes are invariably dashed. From Koreatown I moved to Highland Park. From there I went to North Hollywood, which has proved to be my longest stop at two years.

What's interesting is how my center has shifted as things have happened in my life. It had seemed at the outset that I might as well have moved to the moon as to North Hollywood. The only thing I could cling to was a tolerably nearby subway station, which offered a lifeline to civilization the same way the trans-American railway did to denizens of the untamed West. Later, Leaving North Hollywood felt like leaving the heart of the universe, so many friends do I have there now. It's a similar thing with Highland Park. It started out feeling remote, then ideally central, and now I couldn't imagine being back there and so far from almost everyone.

And then there was Glendale. I doubt whether it will make that transition in my mind of going from far to near, but it might go from tolerated to dear if there's enough time. In a way, I hope it doesn't. As I've said before, my heart is reserved for the places I go to stay. I hope to remain a good friend of my roommate, but if I lose whatever else I gain from the place, I don't expect to be hurt. Expectations are often confounded, though. Such has been the case in the past. I'm prepared for it to be again. We'll just see about it all.