Where are YOU from?

Where are you from?

This should be a relatively easy question to answer.  For most people, I imagine it is.  For me it is an endless source of confusion.  I grew up in Arizona, lived in Texas for 8 years, Virginia for 1.5 and Colorado for 5.  So when people ask me where I'm from, I typically say Arizona, but since I haven't lived there for nearly 15 years, I feel like a tourist every time I visit.  Colorado is more recent and so it feels more home-ish, especially as we still tend to feel like we're living in a hotel here in Virginia.

This question has become even more relevant as we are preparing to move overseas.  We don't have a "home base" anywhere, so most of our decisions are based on the people we want to see on home leave and where we might possibly want to eventually retire to.  David's parents are in Southern Utah and mine are in Northern Arizona.  Las Vegas has interested us for a long time as a possible retirement spot, due to the large airport, military base, VA hospital, proximity to family and financial benefits (read: NO STATE TAXES!!)  

So with all this in mind we decided to make Nevada our "home".  My mom said this makes us Las Vegans or Vegans for short.  It was a crazy adventure in which we learned a couple of things.

1.  Never fly Spirit Airlines, at least not for long trips.  I don't care how cheap the ticket is, if I have to sit upright for 5 solid hours because the airline is too cheap to have reclining seats then I'll gladly spring for the more expensive ticket.

2.  Getting a drivers license in Las Vegas was bar-none the most pleasant experience I've ever had in a government office.  We arrived at 7:45am (15 min before opening) on a Saturday and were horrified to see a line of 300 people waiting to go inside.  The DMV was so efficient (yes, I used the word "efficient") that when they opened the doors at 7:50 (10 minutes early!), we had our ticket and a seat within 5 minutes and were sitting in front of one of their 37 windows by 8:10am, taking an eye test and getting our pictures taken.  We were out of there in under an hour.  It was unbelievable :-D

This was only one half of the building. Crazy!

3.  We stayed in the coolest hotel on the strip.  The Vdara was gorgeous and had the most amazing staff.  There isn't a casino inside, so no smoking or weird smells, no noise in the lobby and yet it was just steps from the Cosmopolitan that had all those things and more.  All the best things and none of the gross things, plus we even got a pretty decent view of the Bellagio fountains.

Home Sweet Home!