Tuesday, November 11, 2014

We LIVED in L.A.

One month. It does not sound like a lot of time. But it is enough time, it turns out, to uproot one's entire life and, for better or for worse, to create a strange, new reality.

Akhil responded to a cryptic email from a big-name company one day in late September, and flew out for an interview less than two weeks later. Within four days of that, he had a job offer to consider. Two weeks later, the deed was done. He accepted, and the relocation wheels were suddenly in motion.

It's his job, but the kids and I are just as committed as he is. We are all about to re-create our life in another town, another part of the country. Sure, it's still California, but the San Francisco Bay Area - and by that I mean, Silicon Valley, couldn't be more different.

You can't necessarily know how content you are in a place, or how much you truly, deeply love it, until you are forced to leave. I have been feeling the way I would expect to feel were I in mourning, reliving memories of the moments over the last 15 years where Los Angeles slowly revealed itself as the welcoming, exotically beautiful, richly diverse, exciting and in many ways, "small-town" community, that it is.

Our new home will never be what Los Angeles, particularly Pasadena has been to us. We were young here. We married here in Malibu and planned our wedding and home search here. We survived cancer here, bought and renovated our beautiful, charming home here, spent 4 years of chasing baby dreams here and finally, found the right team to help us bring Liv & Wyatt into the world. We have raised the world's most spectacular set of twins here, who, at age 4, will be spending most of their formative years, most likely, in a place different from where they were born. Our friends are here, and at the moment, our life is here. This is our home, my home, and for me, that will not change.

The weliveinla blog will go on hiatus soon, but weliveinthebay is just getting started. I said I wanted an adventure. I hope this is it. Follow us at weliveinthebay!