We left the Bay Area a year ago today. Just loaded ourselves and the beagle into the Jeep, drove, and by the end of the afternoon, we were over the Nevada border.

Hard to believe it’s been that long. I still miss aspects of SF and the Bay Area, but it’s all essentially memory and history to me now, which is something, to be honest, I never thought I’d say. I lived there off an on for almost 20 years, and it all gets wiped away in less than a year of living somewhere else. Such is life.

It speaks well of Ann Arbor as well, despite all of the various complaints I make about it to fill blog space. I can’t imagine myself having had a smooth time of letting go (and doing all of the other mental tricks you do more or less automatically when you adjust to a new phase of your life) if Ann Arbor hadn’t been a good place to do it in.

Ann Arbor is home to us now. I don’t know how long that will last; I graduate (with luck) in April, and Steve may resume his own program in June, which would keep us here at least another year. I won’t be unhappy if that is the case. There are some annoying and irritating aspects to living here, but they are nothing (so far) that rises above the level of inconvenience.

I consider myself and Steve to be very lucky to have that kind of life here. It could be so much more unpleasant in so many other ways. I am reserved in my sentiments only because I don’t think anyplace else will ever feel like California to me, which is not to say California is perfect, but only to say it’s where I spent most of my life up till a year ago.