On Moving Back to Minnesota

Long time no talk, huh? I'm so excited to be back to blogging! As you may remember I've spent the last few weeks since we talked moving across the country, spending time with family in New York and visiting London (I'll do a whole post on our trip later) so I've had a bit going on ;) This post is a little belated as I technically left California on June 8th but it still doesn't really feel like I've moved. I'm staying with my mom and Mark is back in California so it just feels like I'm visiting. I do start my new job today though (!!!) so I'm sure that will wake me up to the real world verrrry quickly.

In case you missed that news, you can catch up on our move here. 

While California wasn't my first choice for a place to live I will always be grateful that I took the leap and moved there. I'm proud of the fact that I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried somewhere new. Eventually I settled in and made a few good friends and got a pretty great first job out of college there. Despite feeling like I hadn't made many friends I found that there were a lot of people I wanted to make sure that I said goodbye to and that I knew I'd be sad to leave. That was heartening, but I'm sad I didn't really realize that until I was leaving! 

I'm definitely the type of person who can get nostalgic about pretty much anything so I know that I will always look back on our years in California with fondness. No, I wasn't always happy being so far away from home, but it was also nice to have so much time to ourselves and it definitely brought us closer. We joke that we'll have to readjust to having social lives in Minnesota since we were such big homebodies in California. So, what will I miss about California? Let me count the things:

1. The weather. If you've been reading for a while you probably know that I don't actually love the year-round sunshine, but hear me out. I love having all four seasons and found it very disorienting to have the same weather all year long in CA, but usually after January I was so happy to finish out winter in a milder place while seeing my friends and family digging their cars out of the snow well into April. Fall and Christmastime are my absolute favorite so it was depressing to not have a true fall or a snowy winter around Christmas. However, after Christmas I was usually happy with the temps we had :) so that is a long winded way of me saying that I didn't hate the weather as much as I may have led on. #dramatic

2. All of the wonderful places just a drive away. We didn't take advantage of all California had to offer nearly enough but knowing we could hop in the car and be at the beach or a winery in an hour was quite nice. 

3. The diversity. I have never lived in such a diverse place and I really appreciated that. I got to meet and work with people from all over the world and that was pretty incredible. 

4. The landscape. Mark and I always joke that we didn't realize quite how flat Minnesota was until we lived surrounded by mountains. I remember being kind of in awe of them when we first moved but I'd like to think I didn't take the views for granted. 

5. My coworkers. I had my ups and downs at my job like most people but what always kept me going was my awesome coworkers. I'll really miss all of them! I should also shout out Google's free food and shuttle to and from work. I'll miss those too!

And now for a list of reasons why I'm excited to be back in Minnesota:

1. Our families. It was pretty isolating being away from them so I know we're both excited to see much more of our families.

2. Having all four seasons! I cannot wait for fall and winter here!

3. The food scene. Restaurants in San Jose are quite lackluster, so I'm excited for all of the great restaurants in the Twin Cities.

4. Everything is SO MUCH CHEAPER. Man, I cannot reiterate this enough. The Bay Area prices are nuts and so I'm a teeny tiny bit excited that our money will go further here. Also, no sales tax on clothes? Here for it!

5. Less people. Silicon Valley is a popular place to be and most people can't afford to own a home so everyone is packed into these cities in apartment complexes. Cue the insane traffic and lack of parking spaces and just overall crowded-ness. Excited to have some space!

California will always be the first place we lived together, where we got engaged, where we got our first jobs and where we got Louie so there are a lot of amazing memories associated with it. We're so excited for this next chapter in our lives and I can't wait to share it with you! Thank you so much for following along, especially if you've been here since the first time I lived in MN! If you want to reminisce with me you can find some past posts about moving here:

On Moving
What I Learned from Moving Across the Country
California: One Month Update
California: Six Month Update
California: One Year Update

xo Catherine