Cheating on Austin

I moved to Los Angeles on December 30th, 2006. I had flirted with the idea of moving to L.A. on and off since 2002, but instead I bought property in Austin and landed a dream job (not an easy thing to do there), so I stayed on. Austin is a beautiful, fun city, a great place to be young, and a pleasant, affordable place to raise a family. Eventually I was neither particularly young nor raising a family, and I couldn't deny the need for new challenges after eight years in one place. L.A., that seductive vixen, called me again.

Several of my thirtysomething female friends also moved away from Austin after having lived there for 8-10 years. It seems to be a common trajectory.

It took about a year for me to get from Austin to L.A. My New Year's Resolution was to decide whether to go or to stay. Had to visit L.A. to check it out (had never been here and had no friends in L.A.). Got completely intimidated by the cost of living and decided not to make the move. Reconsidered again after several months. Decided I could keep my place in Austin and find a manager to rent it out, giving me something to fall back on. Five months before making the actual move I had to book one last visit to get another impression of the city (scheduled three months before moving) and to check out the feasibility of finding a roommate out here. Finding that roommate through Craigslist almost did me in, but after driving around checking out one "interesting" living situation after another, I finally found a good one. Since everyone on Craigslist wants a roommate starting immediately (or almost), I had to start paying rent in L.A. before I was 100% sure about the move. I wasn't on a lease so I had the option of backing out. Came back to Austin and started tying things up there. Worked up until Christmas Day, celebrated the holiday, hit the road on the 27th with a friend, travelled through Marfa and Tucson, arrived in L.A. on 12/3o. It took the full month of January to get completely moved in, including taking care of my car registration and getting a California license.

My main reason for moving to L.A. was to experience a really large urban area. A lot of people have asked why I didn't move to New York. I guess because it seemed too cold, and I couldn't get enthusiastic about living in a closet. L.A. seemed like less of a drastic lifestyle change, coming from Austin and having grown up in Houston. In many ways L.A. is a hybrid of those two cities: the endless driving, international diversity, and materialism of Houston, with the natural beauty and hipness (or hippy-drippiness, depending on your viewpoint) of Austin.

One thing about L.A. is that there's a lot of regard for New York-- if someone here has ever lived there, he/ she is sure to let you know it. People are very anxious to affiliate themselves with an East Coast sensibility. Note that these are the only two cities on people's radar here: L.A. and New York.