Where we ended up

Today is our anniversary. On June 1, 1983, Walt and I moved in together. We rented a floor-through apartment — I guess that's called a flat — on Capitol hill in Washington DC. We lived there, just a short walk from the U.S. Capitol building, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court. We both had found jobs that were within walking distance of our apartment. We stayed there until October 1986, when we decided to re-locate to California. I had a federal government security clearance, and I dreaded the prospect of having FBI agents investigate and pass judgment on our so-called "lifestyle." Walt wanted to finish his studies and get an advanced degree from a California university (he ended up getting a bachelor's degree and two masters degrees at UC Berkeley).

Tomorrow is another anniversary. We arrived in France on June 2, 2003. We had sold our house in San Francisco and bought a house in the Loire Valley in central France. After living in California for more than 15 years, we had had it with stressful jobs, traffic jams, long commutes, earthquakes, and chilly summertime fog. We were suffering from burn-out. I quit my job in Silicon Valley. France beckoned; Walt and I had met and become friends in Paris in 1981. We had spent many vacations in Paris and other parts of France in the 1990s. We spoke the language and loved the food. A house in France cost only a fraction of what we sold the San Francisco house for.

After living the big city life in DC and SF, we settled down in a little village near Saint-Aignan.
We have lived here for 22 years now.

We celebrate other anniversaries too. On May 10, 2012, we were finally able to get married. We flew to Albany, New York, where Walt had grown up, and took advantage of New York's new law legalizing same-sex marriage. France would legalize what was called Mariage pour tous with a similar law a year later. We had no plan or urge to move back to the U.S. We were established in France, and we still are. It's been quite a ride over the past 42 years.