Is the Grass Greener?

I read an article in the paper about a couple in New York City who decided they wanted to move to a new place, but they couldn't decide where. In the spirit of reality TV, they decided to let America choose. They created a website and listed about 200 cities where they would consider moving to, and asked people to go to the website to vote. The city that garnered 1 million votes first would win. It became quite a heated competition, with Denver ultimately winning. They moved to Denver sometime in January, I believe. This interesting story has got me thinking about whether the grass really is greener somewhere else. I've never been content to stay in the same place for very long. Not because I'm unhappy, but because life is short - too short to be confined to one city, one state, one country, one continent even. There is always the thought that moving somewhere new will bring with it new adventures, new friends, perhaps new romantic interests. Most of all for me, it's been a great learning experience and has allowed me to broaden my horizons exponentially. I've been thinking a little bit about other cities where I'd like to live. Sacramento is nice enough, but I'm kind of over California. Real estate and therefore the cost of living here is so high, and it would be nice to buy a house or a condo, but what I could get for my (hard-earned) money is not very impressive. So - looking outside of CA, there are several factors that are important to me. I am somewhat of a West Coast snob. Since my family and a lot of my friends live in CA, I wouldn't want to live too many time zones or airmiles away. Weather is also key. Growing up in Nor Cal, where (in my opinion) we have one of the best climates in the world, it would be tough to move to a place where it snows or is below freezing a lot of the time. I know, because I've done that twice. This basically narrows it down to cities in Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Hawaii. Denver (or as my friend Lyric calls it "Menver") sounds great, but - snow. No thank you. AZ sounds too hot. Hawaii - too expensive and too far away. Although, if a good enough job offer came my way, it would be hard to pass up. I am a big fan of Oregon and Washington, both places that aren't very welcoming to erstwhile Californians. Hmm. I really like Portland and from what I've seen of Seattle, it's a great city. I know it's rainy there, and that's definitely a consideration. But, I'll take rain over snow any day. It doesn't really matter because I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but I'm always looking ahead, wondering where I'll end up next. And I do plan to visit my friend Natalie in Denver, when the weather's better.