Despite the Resplendent Color of Oz Dorothy Longed for Kansas
Los Angeles, like Oz, is good in small doses. As Dorothy said, “some good parts and some bad parts.” Actually, she said, “It has some wonderful parts and some bad parts, but mostly wonderful parts,” despite nearly dying there twice. But she was a glass-half-full kinda gal. The friends she made and the lessons she learned far outweighed the horrors.
Yet, I’ve lived in L.A. for 18 years. Life lessons take what they take, and I’m finally ready to move on. I realized yesterday that I’ve been saying goodbye to this city in slow motion since my ex-husband left over a year ago. I still can’t believe I’m leaving without him. Somedays, I can’t believe the life I’m in. That’s why I must leave this sad apartment and city. I was waiting to know where to go, and finally, I knew.
It’s been a tough week as I planned my trip to visit a new city in April, finished my taxes, started seeing new doctors, and various other extremely demanding life tasks I’ve not had to address in nearly 14 years since being with my ex-husband. I even started deep cleaning my apartment. I wanted to enjoy it clean for my last breaths here. It’s so old, with fixtures from the ’90s, cracked linoleum, and holes all over the cheap threadbare carpet, that it barely looks clean. But I can tell, and…
