So, yeah. This is happening.

Where “this” is a leave of absence from NYC.

In December, I’m packing up self, cats, and a limited (!) number of books, and hauling cross-country to Seattle, where I will take up residence for a year (or two).

No, I’m not abandoning NYC. I still own my apartment – a friend is subletting, a time-honored NYC tradition, and I can only do that for two years before the co-op board starts making unhappy noises at me. I’ll be back.

But then why? various people have been asking since I first mentioned this scheme.

Well…. mainly because I never intended to be a person who lived her entire life in the same place. And for the past 4 decades, although I’ve moved about, it’s always been within the NY-CT-NJ axis. Mind, I love this area, and my soul belongs to NYC (I can show you the paperwork), but…. I’m not a person for sameness-all-my-life. It makes me itch. And travel only scratches so far.  So it felt like it was time for a (temporary) shakeup.

And why Seattle? I like it. I like the Pacific Northwest. I like the combination of city life and waterfront and easy access to mountains, and the sense of flipping everything I know about being on one coast and looking at it from another. I like the fact that new states will now be within driving/exploring distance. And, yep, I like the people there. Well, most of them. Okay, a lot of them.

And there are work-relevant reasons for this location, too.  But more on that later, maybe.

So that’s what’s been in the planning for the past few months, and this week I signed a lease for my apartment there.  I’m kinda excited, more than a little stressed, and probably more freaked out than I’m realizing.

But I’m really looking forward to seeing the sun rise and set from a slightly different angle, and hanging with the west coast for a while.

But I’m still not going to root for the Seahawks*.

Related New Household Rule: If I haven’t used a reference book in 5+ years, I really didn’t need it.  No, really.  No, don’t put it back on the shelf….

*I may be not be on speaking terms with the NFL like whoa right now, but Jersey Blue forevah.