ain't nothing stopping me now but the leaving of it all.

get me out of here.
not really.
but kind of really.

let me clear that up. i grew up in a small town. i've done a fair amount of traveling. i've tasted the smog-soaked fruit that grows in the greener pastures of The City. said fruit was delicious, especially the loquats. except it probably gave me cancer. anyways, fruit-based analogies illustrating the pros and cons of living in a big city aside, i am catching the whole "time to move on" bug once again. and it's for real this time. seriously. no, not even kidding.

yes, the past few years i've been known to be the boy who cried "i'm moving!" only to stay put right where i am. los angeles, germany, italy, kansas city, yosemite, just to name a few of my for sure destinations. "just six more months, man, and i'm there." if you'll notice, i'm painting $700,000 houses for asshole doctors instead of roughing it at 10,000' in the tuolumne high country, slapping a mule on the ass to keep him moving with his load of supplies for the asshole doctors who are "camping" in the high sierra "campgrounds," all the while courting some tanned goddess who can flash a 5.13, run half marathons on trails at altitude without breaking a sweat and who thinks my propensity to write in runon sentences is charming.

when considering a big change of environment, i believe the whole "get me the hell outta here" mentality is horribly dangerous. everyone i've ever known who's left a place with that mindset has inevitably ended up right back where they started - dissatisfied with their circumstances, albeit in a new location. plus, i have a lot going for me here, so there's a very large part of me that thinks getting outta here, no matter what my mindset is, is a pretty bad idea. but that part of me has always had and will always have something to say to get me to keep from taking risks and making choices that may make life tough for a time, but will in the end help make me the type of person i want to be. so from now on, i will be politely asking the powers that be to "get me out of here, please, kind sirs. i believe i will benefit greatly from it, and your assistance would be much appreciated."

seriously, i can't even take the time to list everything that would be amazing about a big change for me right now. but here are a few of the biggest ones.
1) an easy escape from a black hole career in painting.
2) the ability to date someone and NOT have 10 friends who already know everything about her. come on, isn't this one of the best parts of getting into a relationship? finding out about the person slowly, then introducing them and showing them off to all your friends?
3) point number 3 is entirely contingent upon los angeles being my destination, which is uncertain at this point, but here it is. LAKERS. and easy access to kickass tacos at all times. also i have family there. but they come after the lakers and tacos.
4) uh, carpools? i don't know. it seems like that's something that city folk should be into, so i'm just practicing.

and obviously, there are plenty of things that would kill me about being away. the biggies.
1) a small, core group of friends, old and new, whom i adore and get so much strength from, would be greatly missed.
2) ditto for family.
3) i recently got puked on my a 9 month-old. this didn't gross me out. that's pretty cool. i think if i was around, baby sol could teach me a whole lot of things that would be quite beneficial in my later years when i'll potentially be creating spawn of my own. plus he and his parents are just fantastic.
4) autumn in iowa = heaven on earth.

so there it is. i'm ready and i'm not. now it all comes down to which voice inside me wins the argument. get ready, somewhere, i may be heading your way soon. and if you live in one of those somewheres, do me a favor and hook me up with some cheap rent for my broke ass.