Twelve here, so far. I'd have a hard time picking a favorite, because it sort of splits into Great Place to Live and Not So Great Place to Live. It's hard to break it down beyond that place.

I suppose I'd have to pick my Real World Ish, Multi-Cultural and Cross-School, grad student group house. Group house like student house, not loony tunes. The people were so cool, the time in my life was cool, we went through a tragedy together, and came out the other side.

I'm 20 and my family has moved 6 times around the same city in that time since I was six. For the most part changes have been every 2 years but I'm sure that's not intentional.

Hrm. 3 places in the same town growing up. 4 places in college and grad school. 2 places in Baltimore and two in New York. That makes 11.

11 here too.

In my whole life... 12.

The majority of these moves were when I was a kid... when I went from 6th grade to 7th grade, it was the first time I'd ever gone to the same school two years in a row.

My favorite place I ever lived was the home we were in when I was around 1st and 2nd grade. It was a COOL old house, built in the 1940s, I think. We were in a small town, just two blocks from the town square, so it was "city life" in that we could walk to restaurants, we lived next door to the library (I went every day), the town's Christmas parade passed our house, and best of all Halloween trick-or-treating was just like you see it in the movies... pranks, kids and parents roaming around by jack-o-lantern light, the whole nine yards.

That was in 1972-73 or so... the house is still there, but the town square has died and the library next door is a storage facility for the city. I never go there (the town) anymore, and don't want to.

house in Littleton, CO
house in Lake Villa, IL
apartment in a mansion in Lake Villa, IL
house in Waukegan, IL
condo in Antioch, IL
house in Waukegan, IL
apartment in Waukegan, IL
apartment in Chicago, IL

Living an an old mansion that had been broken into smaller apartments was neat. There was still a large front room and dining room with a HUGE staircase, elaborate wood everywhere and sparkly chandeliers. We got to use this area once for dinner before our homecoming dance. There were about eight of us girls that got together to make dinner for our dates. It was wonderful! We also got to dig a mud wrestling pit in the old pool (it had been filled in) and have bonfires.

I've outgrown school dances and mudwrestling (for the most part, I suppose) so Chicago is the place for me.

Hmm.... this depends, I suppose. My parents moved while I was at school, and I never really considered their new residence my "home", so excepting that I would say 6.

My two favorite places have been in the Boston area. Lived in Lynn while on an internship and fell in love with the area. I vowed to come back and, well... here I am. I like my new apartment in the city.

23 so far, now building #24.

BoPo, that was beautifully put.

Oh, my favourite is the next one ;-)

This is the GREATEST question, BTW.

Also, my partner who (like me) has always lived in one region (the southeastern US) says 20. I had no idea. Many of his involved being a hippie in the 70s (his words).

One place.

19. My favorite is the house I live in right now (number 20 I guess). It's big and spread out, has the perfect bathroom for me and a pool in the backyard. It's where my husband's bachelor party was held, my bridal shower and my baby shower were held here as well. It's felt like home since before we ever moved in. It belonged to a friend of my husband's who sold it to us when he built a new house-we sold our house that never felt like "home" even though we lived there 8 years.

LoriFLA, seriously? The same house your whole life?

I think I've lived 11 places in three states, unless I'm forgetting somewhere. The apartment and town I live in now are by far my favorite.

LoriFLA, seriously? The same house your whole life?

Well duh, I should have read the question more carefully! My brain is mush. (Residences, could be in the same area.)

I've lived in the same town my entire life. 5 different houses.

I'm not sure what my favourite residence has been. Probably the apartment I shared with a bunch of my friends in grad school. "They" say never share with friends, but I did throughout college and grad school, and it always worked out well. "They" also say don't share with a couple, and once there was me and another guy and two couples, and that was probably the best place I ever lived. (I had been friends with the couples for a long time, and the guy was a random dude we advertised for, and he was awesome and is still a close friend).

Why was it my favourite? We were such a functional group. I was in grad school, There were 2 med students, a marine biology grad student, a law student and a snowboard instructor :) We cooked for each other every night, had a garden, never fought. Damn, it was like being in a great marriage.

2 houses in my hometown. A dorm room, rooming house, and apartment in Bloomington, IN. A dorm at NYU for a summer.

- house in Kensington, Md
- house in Darnestown (oh sorry, North Potomac) Md
- dorm in College Park, Md (gag)
- house in Bethesda, Md (*favorite* with qualifications)
- apartment in Silver Spring, Md
- house in Rockville, Md
- house in Naples, Fl
- apartment in Tampa, Fl (ghetto)
- condo in Bonita Springs, Fl

I guess that makes 9.

Three places, and one of them for only one year. The big old house I grew up was fabulous - with big rooms that had so much character. We had a pocket door between the living room and dining room that I thought was so cool. We also had a couple of acres too so lots of room to roam. (wistful sigh)

I recently counted, and I think I found that in the 23 years since I left my parents house for college, I had lived in over 30 places. Since 1990, I have lived in:

Playa del Rey, CA
El Segundo, CA
Hermosa Beach, CA
Redondo Beach, CA
Santa Monica, CA
Rockville, MD
Washington, DC
College Park, MD
Rockville, MD
Kensington, MD
Silver Spring, MD
Montpelier, VT
Tunbridge, VT

In college I averaged a place per semester and I was in school for 6 years.

My favorite place, by far, is the one I am in now. Tunbridge and Vermont are awesome.

Cheektwowaga,
Troy,
Troy,
Playa del Rey,
Culver City,
Fort Worth,
Troy,
Auburn Hills,
Dearborn,
Fort Worth

10.

Oops... the first Fort Worth should have been there twice (apartment, then house), so... 11.

Oops.... the correct spelling is "Cheektowaga".

Looks like Contessa and I had roamed similar grounds for a period of time... but not necessarily the same times.

terrapin- what years were you in Southern Cal? I was there from 84 to 87; maybe we were neighbors!

At least thirty, I think. Many before the age of nine, when I still lived with my birth mother. Relatives, neighbors, public housing, foster care, various apartments (the last two across the street from each other). Six different schools in one year once. Then from nine to nineteen, I lived with my father and his wife in a quiet suburban ranch house with two crab apple trees in the backyard, until I went away to college. Three college dorms, three apartments in two states with my first husband, five apartments in three states with Jon. No wonder I'm tired. All that packing.

I have two favorites. One was the third floor of a mint green, three family house on East Main Street in Bridgeport, CT. It was the next to last apartment I lived in with my birth mother. Our last real fresh start. My other favorite is the apartment Jon and I have now, with a view of the top of the Empire State building from our back porch and the sound of heels clicking on the sidewalk below our window late at night.

Oh... favorite too, huh? I guess my hometown of Cheektowaga would be number 1, but Mrs. Doohickie can't take the cold Buffalo winters, so Fort Worth is second.

Was I supposed to be keeping track?

terrapin: in Maryland up to mid-1997, in College Park specifically in 1988-1990.

and Doohickie and I have established we lived in the same area of Playa del Rey, CA, but about 5 years apart :)

Me too, terrapin and contessa.

rainbaby, when were you in MD/DC? I'll have been in Florida 10 years this May. I feel very far removed from civilization.

in College Park specifically in 1988-1990.

My last 2 years of attending the University of Maryland :)

a view of the top of the Empire State building from our back porch and the sound of heels clicking on the sidewalk below our window late at night

Sounds wonderful, Pips.

Honestly, I've lost count. My best guess is somewhere between 16 and 20. Due to an on-again/off-again relationship, I moved a lot while I was living in Sacramento.

My fave... well, probably where I am now. I become more disenchanted by Seattle with each new condo building or hideous quad/"townhome" that goes up, but our own house, a Tudor built in the late 20s, is pretty cool.

CA:
Costa Mesa
Newport Beach
Atascadero
Santa Ana
Midway City
Orange
Sun City
Thousand Oaks
Newbury Park

WA:
Seattle

BC:
Surrey
Langley
Chilliwack
Rosedale
Abbotsford

I lived in several places in some of those cities, especially California.

The house we bought is my 25th domicile; I may have missed one or two from when I was a child. It's my favourite, in part because it's my house - I own 99% of it*. I have the POWAH!

*Due to me being a first time home owner, the sales tax was reduced if we put most of the ownership in my name.

This was an interesting exercise.

Chile, Santiago, Las Condes
US., New York, the Bronx.
US., Ithaca, NY.
Guatemala, Guatemala City.
Chile, Santiago, Las Condes
Chile, Santiago, La Reina
Chile, Santiago, Las Condes
Chile, Santiago, Providencia
US., Napa, CA.
US., Berkeley, CA.
Chile, Santiago, Providencia

+ a month working in Hannover, Germany and another month on an exchange in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Favorite: right here, right now.

Eight places total: 2 in London, 6 in New York.

parent's house, Baltimore County, MD
dad's apt., Baltimore City, MD
dad's country house #1, Baltimore County, MD
dad's country house #2, Baltimore County, MD
dad's suburban house, Baltimore County, MD
Ellicott Hall (all boy's dorm), College Park, MD
Hagerstown Hall (co-ed dorm), College Park, MD
Allegany (I think) Hall (apt. style dorm), College Park, MD
rented house w/ roomies, College Park, MD
own studio apt, Bethesda, MD
mom's new house, Ellicott City, MD
various hotels, Los Angeles, CA
Co-op (weird hippie dorm type thing), Westwood, Los Angeles, CA
subletted apt. with roomies, Westwood, Los Angeles, CA
another apt. with roomies, Westwood, Los Angeles, CA
own apt., Westwood, Los Angeles, CA
apt. with roomie, West LA, CA
own apt./bungalow, Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA


I think current is my fave although I've only been here a month.

6 places total, the first being the upstairs apartment of the store my parents owned until I was about 9 in Toronto. We then moved to the 'burbs where I've been living now for the last 21 years, save for the 4 years I was away at school in Waterloo and lived in, in order: a student residence, a house on Lester, a co-op apartment and a house off Westmount.

My favourite to date is the house I live in now, particularly since we finished an all-over reno (no more 70s wood panelling in the family room! or in the basement! granite counters in the kitchen! actual COLOUR on the walls besides white! (my mother is afraid of colour) and no more icky wall-to-wall carpet!!)

I'm moving out next year as soon as my condo is built and that will surely be my favourite since the floorplan is one that I love and I can decorate it exactly as I wish.

I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Wow....I'm surprised how many times so many people have moved. Recently I applied for a volunteer job and I had to list all my past places of residence. I discovered that I moved 13 times in 17 years, and I was blown away by that number!
I would have to say my favourite place was when I moved from White Rock to Vancouver into my very own condo. I lived there for 7 years...it was by far the longest period of time I lived anywhere in my adult life. It was also a beautiful place, and it was all mine!!

hmm. i've lived in 14 difference apartments/houses that I can remember. I'll be moving into #15 in a couple of months.

my favorite...hmm. i haven't lived in place i've ever considered 'home' yet so, i dunno. i guess i'll wait and see.

* apartment in Hyde Park, Chicago (first six months)
* apartment in Janesville, Wisconsin (moving out is one of my first clear memories)
* house in Janesville (cute Dutch Revival with a gorgeous sunroom I used to love to play in)
* house in Janesville (1858 Greek Revival, it was falling apart, had never (!) been insulated, we got it 25% restored and lived in it, but that's when restoration stopped and my parents still live there and my mom is now, 35 years later, plenty pissed over it)
* college dorms
* shared part of a Manhattan apartment with college buddies, very nearly nuked that friendship
* my uncle's couch in New Jersey
* SRO near Columbia University (enormous cockroach story, fake friend with fake coke story)
* shared apartment in Jersey City (roommate died of AIDS six weeks after being diagnosed story)
* shared coach house by lake in Evanston, IL with my dad
* my own apartment in Evanston
* not-quite-finished apartment in Janesville

Favorite city: Evanston
Favorite "place": Coach house by lake, easily, despite many drawbacks

Not that I don't dearly wish I had my old apartment back.

I've been to a lot of cities and states and Chicago is my favorite big city, Minneapolis after that, perhaps Toronto after that, perhaps Atlanta after that. (I swear no other city has so many good-looking women walking around. They glow, or something.)

Eventually, I will live in Baltar's house on Howe Sound near Vancouver. I've decided.

15 places:
4 in Morristown, NJ: Growing up (all within three blocks)
2 in Mont Alto, PA: School (including a trailer on a cow farm)
4 in State College, PA: More School
3 in Pittsburgh, PA: First marriage
2 in the Pittsburgh suburbs: Second marriage

My favorite is my current townhouse, I'm not really in love with the house or its location but my life here has better than I deserve.

We're moving again this summer, back into the city. We went and looked at a little Victorian townhouse from the 1840s this past Sunday. It was all fixed up though, we're looking for something that needs some work.

3 countries (U.S., England, Austria), 10 states (Wisconsin, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Connecticut, New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, Illinois, California), 14 cities, 23 separate residences (including 3 cities where I have had 3 residences: St. Louis, Chicago, and L.A.).

Fave: grandparents' house in Laramie, Wyoming, which is now the office of student parking for the University of Wyoming. I also loved my first apartment in Chicago, but hated the neighborhood, and loved my second apartment here in L.A., but couldn't afford it (and was driven out by the loud chick downstairs). I like my current apartment a lot, though, so no (well, very few) complaints currently. I hope my next move will be into a little bungalow of some sort.

25 in all. My favourite house would have to be my grandad's, where I lived for a while when I was in university, and where I visited him every other year as a child. It was built as somebody's dream home in the 60s, but they had to sell and my grandparents bought it from the original owners. Thanks to Grandad, it served as a sanctuary for various members of the family over the years--we were always welcome, no matter what and for as long as we needed. The only rule was that any fighting had to be taken outside the house. It had a massive living room with a vaulted ceiling and a huge stone fireplace, a beautiful dining room, and an amazing kitchen (my grandmother liked to have parties, so her kitchen was state-of-the-art for its time). My grandmother also had many artist friends and was a painter herself, so there was incredible art everywhere. The main room in the basement was done up like a western saloon, complete with swinging doors, log walls, a fireplace, and a saddle over the railing by the bar--a kid's dream. When I got sick of the family I used to hide down there and read my uncle's old comic books. There were all kinds of neat hiding places (okay, storage areas), especially in the basement. I still dream that I'm there and have found a whole 'nother room that no-one knew about, filled with my grandmother's paintings.

I loved living in Toronto and Vancouver, and am very fond of my little island. I don't think that I could choose a favourite from the three.

Childhood: 2 in Cleveland, 2 in Los Angeles (moved into the second the DAY JFK was assasinated... my parents were very reluctant to move after that; in fact, right after they put that house up for sale were the attempts on Pres. Ford)

College: 4 different dorms at 2 different universities and changed rooms mid-term once; summers back with parents at home #4 and their newer place... that makes a total of 10 so far.

After college, a year running a little radio station in Visalia, CA and living in a triplex in Tulare, followed by a brief return to parents in 2nd new place (where I had the basement!); two more apartments in (West L.A and North Torrance), then moved in with my future Ex (Bellflower, her place was bigger than mine); after marriage moved three times (all in Van Nuys), then had three different places (2 apartments and a shared mini-house) on same property in North Hollywood with same landlord; the last one was where her psychoses really bloomed and my depression developed. Another move to Studio City to attempt to get a fresh start didn't work; she moved into an institution while I moved in with my aging father in Van Nuys, finally moving OUT of L.A. area to current motel-room-sized place on outskirts of San Luis Obispo.

I think that makes 24. Despite small size and recent mold attack, current place is in running for favorite.

8, I guess

3 in Tulsa, OK
2 in Waco, TX (assuming freshman year dorm counts)
3 in Dallas, TX

make it 9 if you count 5 weeks in London during study abroad.

24, 25 on the way and I can expect an additional 3 in the next 2 years.

No favorite although there are some I would rather not ever revisit.

16. I only counted places of 6 months or more. Less is just a tourist visit. Also I have spent years where I spent 4 days a week at my work residence and 3 at home and I counted them as one place.

I did not count homeless time as a place.

Favs? I have a few. The Edwardian home my sons and I lived in that had 10 foot ceilings and 7 foot windows and had been built 90 years earlier by a single man with two sons. A bricklayer from Scotland who had come to build the new steel mill.

The first house I bought.

Our first house with my wife and our two children.

This place where my girlfriend and I have been for almost 8 years.

House in the Valley Village part of North Hollywood
Dorm in Bradford, MA
Dingbat apartment in North Hollywood
Dorm in Bridgeport, CT
Six weeks in dorm in Kensington/Chelsea part of London
Dorm in Back Bay part of Boston
Apartment on Beacon Hill, Boston
Apartment in Back Bay, Boston
Dingbat apartment in Iowa City
Shitty rented condo in Denver
Dingbat apartment in North Hollywood which was worse than the first one
Prewar apartment on Central Park South where the only nice thing was the view
Condo across from Carnegie Hall which will be wonderful once the management company leaves and I can fix the building owner's mistakes and the damage caused by the spoiled prince upstairs

My favorite place was the second one in Boston, although the management wasn't that great there.

About nineteen. A couple of favourites:

+ 1989-90 Denmark Avenue: Pleasant, if chilly top-floor apartment, shared with Anglo-Milanese geologist, in three-storey Wimbledon house. Featured a very long and comfortable sofa, and an elegant antique bar cabinet, which alas was only ever filled with empty bottles.

+ 1997 Via Modena, Rome: Quaintly labyrinthine parquet-floored attic apartment in the eaves of a risorgimento-era building between via Nazionale and the Quirinale hill. Shared with camp TV-scheduling executive whose orientation was the subject of much speculation, never satisfactorily resolved. The place was 'serviced' by Miguel, the Peruvian houseboy.

My current abode isn't bad, either...

Least favourites:

- 1988-9 Ongar Road, Fulham: nasty ground-floor apartment in converted four-storey Fulham (London) house. Four of us shared two bedrooms. I cannot forget the grotesquely tiny, ugly and dank bathroom, with the black wall-tiles and pink fixtures. Its kitchen was in a corridor…

- 1993 Colum Road, Cardiff: poky first-floor room at back of poorly-insulated Victorian house in the Cathays area of the city, suffused with a nightmarish bedsitland loneliness and populated by hollow-eyed geeks-without-girlfriends, whose number—I feel sure—I would have permanently joined had I stayed there too long.

Let’s see… there were the two apartments that we stayed in that I was too young to remember very clearly, and then there was the one bedroom flat that we were crammed into that I do remember, and then the final apartment where we lived until we made the move to India and settled down in our very own house, so that makes it… 5 in total!
My favourite though has to be that one bedroom dump which I had no idea how much I’d miss after we’d moved out of it. Not that I’d trade in the house that I’m living in right now for it, but it was different there—sort of cozier, since we all practically slept in the same bed… ah, the memories!

This is going to be long - I started last night and kept losing count. We moved about every year to 18 months my whole life and even though I really meant to stay in one place as an adult, the genes were too strong or something. Keep in mind that my daughter was born when I was 18 in Boulder, and she was along for the rest of the ride as well.
Starting from birth:
NYC
Fairfield, CT
NYC
Dorset, VT
NYC
New Canaan, CT
Darien, CT
Darien, CT (different house)
Heidelburg, Germany
Lincoln, MA
Concord, MA (boarding school)
Charleston, SC
Deia, Mallorca, Spain - my aunt's house
Charleston, SC
Deia (uh, 3 different places? I think?)
Portals Nous, Mallorca (boarding school)
Charleston, house
Charleston, apt with orange walls
Boulder, CO, furnished apt with eggplant purple naugahyde sofa: arrival of child #1.
Boulder, CO, nicer apt.
Charleston, apt upstairs
Charleston, apt with a ghost and nice landlord
Charleston, apt on Broad St. - that was a beautiful apartment, but the crazy lady upstairs got us evicted. Okay we did grow pot on the porch and have about 11 constant couch surfers and set off fireworks and egg the Christmas parade for being fascist and have reggae bands over to stay but hell, what an uptight bitch! ;-)
Baltimore, MD - another gorgeous old apt in Bolton Hill that I got kicked out of because the All Mighty Senators moved in with me when their pipes froze and also my bed caught on fire one night and we dragged it down the steps.
Baltimore, MD - house in Waverly where we found 1970s Swedish porn in the drop ceiling; that was another Wendy in the Land of the Lost Boys House where I lived with a whole bunch of completely insane guys.
Monkton, MD - commune in the country with 10 artists & 13 dogs.
NYC, Forest Hills, too far away from anything, also hot.
NYC, East Village, rat infested shithole on 13th St.
NYC, East Village, great apt on 10th St. across from the theatre for the New City. Had a yard!
Baltimore, MD - gorgeous decaying mansion in Waverly where the kids had to sleep in a tent because the roof leaked so bad. Still, crystal chandeliers! Child number two was born here.
Baltimore, MD - Highlandtown, the only house I ever actually owned.
Monkton, MD - back to the country & another decaying old house.
Asheville, NC - horrible suburban tract home yuck.
Asheville, NC - the house I'm living in now, where I've been for 6 years, which is, I think, the longest I have ever, ever lived in one place. I love my house and my garden and yard and neighborhood but I can't deny that I'm beginning to get kind of antsy. Plus, the amount of stuff has reached critical mass. I've always just moved before and thrown everything away.

San Jose, CA: rented house.
San Jose, CA: Rose Garden district.
Redding, CA: 3 different houses, although two of them were during college breaks only.
Claremont, CA: 3 different college dorms
San Antonio, TX: 2 different apartments (the first one was a dump that I just moved in to while I got settles).

So 4 cities, 10 separate residences.

I'm 45 and only twice in my entire life have I lived in the same residence for more than 3 consecutive calendar years. The total's somewhere short of 30, but I'd have to think carefully.

...thought carefully: 29, although I remembered a third residence I was in for three whole years. Eight different states, umpteen different cities/towns.

Oh, snap...Favorite: None, really.

Would've said Columbia, SC, but it represents too much pain and failure to really enjoy anymore.

I'm probably forgetting a few, but, in my whole life, about 20 or so. Longest time in one place: about six years, as a child, in Pittsburgh, PA. Favorite place: falling-down old shack, monks for neighbors, on the shore of the Ohio and Erie Canal, Akron, OH.

Birth - Cincinnati
2-5 - Cleveland
5-18 - Minnetonka, MN
18-22 - Oxford, OH
22-24 - Minneapolis
24-25 - Auckland, NZ
25-26 - Los Angeles
26-27 - Minneapolis
27 - Woburn, MA
28-29 - Minneapolis
29-30 - Chicago
30-present NYC

Nothing has been too bad -- maybe Woburn but I was madly in love so it didn't matter. Still, I hate moving, have lost a lot of books over the years and have learned to travel light.

Thirteen. My favorite was the room I shared in Israel with a Canadian wildman; built on a bluff in the middle of Kibbutz Regavim (12 klicks due west of Caesaria, nearest city was Netanya, nearest town was Binyamina, nearest village was Givat Ada), nearby holes in the ground confirmed that the building our room was in (intended for moshav workers, but since we were both volunteers who had long overstayed our three-month tourist visas, our seniority and recalcitrance earned us the primo digs) was in fact built atop the graveyard that once adjoined the Arab village that was abandoned and leveled to make room for the Kibbutz pioneers.

It was haunted. Before us, nobody had lived in the room for long. Built on a sunny hill, it was always dark, cold, and clammy. Black mold grew overnight. Strange noises and rattles would keep residents awake at night. Water would turn on and off intermittently in the adjoining bathroom. The moshavnik who lived there before us had left the kibbutz and the country after waking up one night to the feeling of a person sitting on his chest, bouncing up and down.

So we moved up there with a little trepidation, but it was a nice situation up on that bluff, by the road from the chicken farm and the disco to the post office and the kitchens. The first night we spent there was creepy. Bad dreams, crazy noises, cold wet air (in the summer, when the temperature at night was 78°F and dry), water turning on and off. The next day was Saturday, our day off work, and instead of going to the beach, we got our heads together and decided to clean the place up and repaint.

Our rationalization was that if we were living where we could see a gravestone, and there was a haint about, we would clean and weed the gravesite and lay flowers to appease the ghost. Since we were clearly living in a building on top of the grave, our housecleaning took on a similar spiritual purpose. We scrubbed everything, and painted the walls a light blue (said to be calming for spirits). I sewed some bright curtains and we hung a few trinkets here and there: a dreamcatcher my friend had brought from the reservation, the framed picture of Ganpati I take everywhere with me, and an orange studded with cloves as an air freshener.

That night we each had similar dreams, featuring a similar man. My friend dreamed that he was fireside, preparing a pipe for an old man with a long white beard to smoke. The old man smoked, prepared a pipe for my friend, and passed it back.

I dreamed that I was in a Japanese teahouse in a traditional garden, practicing tea ceremony with an old man with a long white beard. I prepared tea for him, turning the cup and handing it to him with respect. He did the same for me in turn.

The next day we woke up with light flooding into the room. The air was clear and dry, and we talked about our dreams. Over the next week we noticed that the rattles and water problems had ceased, and we figured our cleanliness and good intentions had done the trick.

That room was great; we used to have awesome parties in there, mad cribbage games, impromptu concerts. My friend and I weathered dysentary in there together, the sick ministering to the sick. In other, healthier times, we would drag a couple extra beds in there so we had a huge sleeping platform and have a socks-off sleepover with four or five of our closest friends. Good times.

There was a giant aloe plant growing outside our door, and a shower of bougainvillea blossoms across the way.

I cried when I left.

Family house in Hermosa Beach CA
House w/college roomates in Redondo Beach CA
House in Port Orford, OR.
Back to Fam. house.
Apt in Hermosa Beach.
Room in the back of a house in Redondo Beach (was kicked out of this by Charles Bukowski who was dating my landlady at the time)
Back to Fam. house.
Room in Ojai.
GF's studio apt. in Santa Barbara
Cabin east of Chiloquin, OR.
Duplex in Eugene, OR.
Rented house in Eugene, OR.
Apt. in Eugene, OR.
House I own and currently reside in, Eugene, OR.

doohickie: regardless of spelling it is pronounced "cHick-a-towa-ga."

I spent the first 17 years of my life in Buffalo (north side)-never went any further than a family trip to Boston.
And then,
I moved all these placed in the space of about 7 years
Saratoga Springs,
Ithaca (one of the best places)
New York City (a necessary evil, but i say but I do love it)
Boston
Dayton ugh
San fran.
--move to East Bay...Pleasanton, San Ramon on the whole. great
L.A.
--N. Hollywood,
--Hancock park
Denver
Seattle (Everett)
Dayton
Nashville
Ft. lauederdale (the worst!)
and then back to New York City (actually queens)
for the last 14 years

some day, though i think I will end up back in my home town. ..you can take the boy out of Buffalo...but. you can't make good chicken wings anywhere else

Let's see ...

New Bendford, MA - 2 places
Swansea, MA
Somerset, MA
Warren, RI
Kingston, RI
Middletown, RI
Newport, RI
Kingston, RI - 2 more places
West Warwick, RI
NYC - 10 places
Ithaca, NY - 4 places
Portsmouth, RI
Providence, RI - 2 places

So, that's 28 different homes in 27 years. Woo!
My favourite would have to be ... uhm ... the place in West Warwick. It was super-cheap, and I was living with a very dear friend who did not fuck me over when I moved out, completely unlike many of the places in NYC. Also, if you count Thompkins Square Park, the total is up to 29. That was a hellish month-and-a-half, though, by far, not the worst place I've lived.

All in Europe...
two family houses in medium south-east town (age 0-18)
three student rooms in lovely university city interspersed with family house as before (age 18-22)
vast flat with no furniture attached to a school in France (age 19)
poky house in lovely university city, as before (age 22)
lovely flat in London which was sold from under us (age 23)
horrible but posh new-build house in London with tiny bedroom for me (age 24)
two different rooms in student residences in London (age 24)
ramshackle yet lovely house in London (age 25-27)
flat in midlands town, jam-packed with stuff and boyfriend (age 27-28)
Victorian house in same midlands town, jointly owned with boyfriend, plenty of space and not mortgaged to the max as it's not in London (age 28-now).

So that's 14 in 28 years, and 12 in the last 10 years. Eek. The last is easily my favourite. At the time, ramshackle London place was also my favourite, as were all the student rooms and my first London flat. I guess I'm usually pretty happy where I am at the moment.

Oh, Lordy, Lordy.

-low brick bungalow in East TX
-little house in East TX
-half of a duplex in Long Branch, NJ
-half of an awesome 1890s duplex in Ocean Grove, NJ. That place had great mystique, with features like a turn-key doorbell, pocket doors, a dusty attic filled with old things, and a basement with coal shovels and old bottles
-a single-family six-room 30s mill house in Red Bank, NJ. That one's the one I think of when defining 'home.'
-various cabins while working at summer camp in Medford, NJ
-dorms at summer arts school, Trenton, NJ
-dorms at college, New Brunswick, NJ
-dorms at college, New London, CT
-community-living staff house in the woods at outdoor education school in Charlton, MA
-community-living staff house in the woods at outdoor education school in Ivoryton, CT
-set of community living mini-cabins on the shore of a lake in the woods at outdoor school in Groton, MA
-a house full of housemates in East Lansing, MI
-a spacious, wonderful half of a duplex in Mt. Airy, Phila, PA
-a community-living staff house in Mystic, CT
-a shared apartment in Mystic, CT, which I later took on my own when housie moved out
-a downtown apartment in Portsmouth, NH
-a beautiful compact little apartment in a 1930s Cape Cottage across the river in Maine.

Eighteen, looks like. My favorite is now, although there were some wonderful times in all these spots, especially the outdoor schools and Mystic.

I wonder if I can remember where all 10 places I've lived in NYC were ... let's see.

The first was on the upper west side.
Then, there were three places just off of Montrose Ave on the L line.
After that, a brief stint in Thomkins Square Park (which I'm not counting).
Uhm ... then there was an apartment in Park Slope, followed by two apartments off the Halsey stop on the L train. Okay, that's seven, so far.
Then, there was an apartment on Ave P.
An apartment in Astoria.
And, finally, a place in Kensington Village.

Yup, that's 10. 10 apartments in a four year span. I'm kinda surprised I remember them all. Though I think I spent more time in Nancy Whiskey Pub (which is just a block south of Canal St.) than any of those places.

Dude, I've spent some good times playing shuffleboard in Nancy's.

Long Branch, New Jersey: The first six months or so of my life.

Red Bank, New Jersey, #1: Half of a duplex. I remember the stone lions out front. We moved when I was nineteen months old. (Years later, my younger brother and his fiancee rented the same place, not knowing my parents and I had lived there previously)

Red Bank, #2: On Harrison Ave., for over 18 years. It was an historice house (once owned by John Scott Harrison, the son of Pres. William Henry Harrison and the father of Pres. Benjamin Harrison). I loved that house. We had a huge yard (actually, a large, unbuildable swath of land behind the neighborhood) a park across the street, an attic to play in. It still shows up in my dreams, despite the fact that it was torn down two years ago.

Red Bank, #3: We moved out of #2 because my mom's fiancee was African-American, which offended the landlord, who forced us out. We moved to an upstairs apartment.

Red Bank, #4: The first time I ever lived with a guy.

Red Bank, #5: By now, Mom and Stepdad moved from the apartment to the house next door. They were only renting, but it was a gorgeous place. I moved back home after the relationship ended.

Highlands, N.J.: I wanted it to be my first place of my own, but I didn't know how to tell my new boyfriend that I didn't want him to move in. He became Husband #1.

Highlands, #2: Loved this apartment!! Second story above a Chinese food restaurant, bright, two bedroom, lots of space, and back steps to the yard. It burned down six years later.

Keansburg #1: Our first house that we owned. Brought both sons home here. Then everything went bad, and I took the kids and left. House was taken in foreclosure.

Keansburg #2: My first place alone - well, I had the kids but I was solely responsible. It was tiny, a former summer place, but it had a good sized yard, pocket windows (I adored them), a laundromat across the street, and a park across the other street. We lived there for five years, and Husband #2 moved in with us there.

Jackson, New Jersey: We own this one. It's a manufactured home, but it's big, three bedrooms and two baths, we have a corner lot so we have more room than some, and we're happy here. Here is where we got custody of my two stepkids and where life is a real rollercoaster. But I wouldn't change a thing.

In case anyone is paying attention, Miko and I are hometown girls! We connected here just by chance. I think that's neat.