Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Places I have lived, in no particular order.

1. Hutchinson, Minnesota. I grew up in south central Minnesota, an hour from Minneapolis. We went into the Twin Cities a lot. I love the Twin Cities.
2. Oklahoma. yuck. I didn't like Oklahoma at all. (Sorry, Oklahomans. I'm sure it's a wonderful state. But I still don't want to live there.)
3. Fort Lewis, Washington. Okay. I love western Washington state. I love being so close to the Pacific -- I love the Pacific Ocean. But damn, I cannot take the endless gray and rain all winter. I need sunshine, not just a lessening of the gloom. Thor was born here, at Madigan Army Medical Center.
   
4. Virginia. For six or eight months. It was hot, and Zach was a naked baby in the wading pool in the backyard. I toured the White House, but really don't remember it. I do remember the Vietnam Memorial and Arlington, though.
   
5. Wisconsin, for a couple months as a newborn, until my parents wised up and moved to Minnesota. Yes, you Cheeseheads, I just dissed your state.
6. West Germany. We lived there in the late eighties. Remember the Cold War? We couldn't go within a kilometer of the border between East and West Germany. Then they reunified, and suddenly there were Trabants on the autobahn. Trabants were East Bloc cars. Not sexy West German cars like BMW's or Mercedes. More like a Yugo. I know. I am so old. Trabants, West Germany, the Cold War, Yugos. It's like I am speaking a foreign language. An old foreign language. Try Google. It is your friend.
   
7. Illinios. North of Chicago, close to the Wisconsin border. We lived on Fort Sheridan, so we were this little pocket of regular in the middle of serious affluence. Major wealth. Giant houses, enormous estates. Oprah and Michael Jordan lived around there. It was normal to see a limo every time we left Fort Sheridan. Tess was born in the Lake Forest Hospital.
   
8. Lacey, Washington. We lived in a tiny house when Zach was a toddler. This is the place where I destroyed Thanksgiving. My MIL and my sister and her family were there for Thanksgiving. Maybe an hour and a half after we put the turkey in, the power went out. And didn't come back on until 11 pm. The turkey was not salvageable. We had cold cuts for Thanksgiving dinner.
9. Germany. I know, you are thinking I already said Germany. But I didn't -- I said WEST Germany. We lived in four different apartments in three cities in Germany and West Germany -- we lived on the top floor of a house, then moved to the bottom floor, then on post in Mannheim. After a couple years, we moved to Baumholder, and the country became Germany -- Bundesrepublik Deutchland, or the Federal Republic of Germany. I liked living in Germany and traveling around Europe. Zachary was born in Germany.
   
10. Bemidji, Minnesota. I went to Bemidji State University. Northern Minnesota, isolated, ridiculously cold.
11. The Netherlands. I loved living in the Netherlands. We lived in the Limburg Province, ten minutes from Belgium (where they have amazing chocolate and really good french fries, and oh, yeah, Belgium is a gorgeous country. Gorgeous.), and twenty minutes from Germany. We used to go to this really good restaurant in Germany and then drive all the way across the Netherlands to go to a movie theater in Belgium. We did lots of traveling, we were with NATO so we were part of an international community, which was super, and the kids went to an international school with kids from 27 different countries. It was an awesome experience for the kids.
12. Tucson, Arizona. That's where I live now. I really like Tucson, except for the part where it's in the desert. I don't do well with hot, and it's really hot here in the summer. And it's just so crazy to have so many people live in the desert and ignore the fact that water is scarce. Tucson isn't so bad about that, although there are way too many golf courses here, wasting insane amounts of water. But when you look at the bigger picture, Vegas and Phoenix and all the smaller towns, it's truly insane. There is not enough water to support the people and environment, and there are more people moving here all the time. Something's gotta give, and I hope they figure it out before they do irreparable damage to the environment.
13. Next -- Anchorage, Alaska. Yeah, the desert to the almost arctic in one giant step. We move in June, and I am really looking forward to a new place and the new adventures in living. Although I am definitely not looking forward to driving to Anchorage. Three kids, the Suburban towing a trailer, the car, two big dogs, the guinea pigs, a canoe, nine days or so of driving. Yeah. That's gonna be a blast and a half. Or not.

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