Did you move to Maine because of the September 11 attacks?

Who's asking: Someone at the University of Maine, who reached this blog by Googling "Move to Maine September 11;" also, indirectly, my brother James

The short answer to this question is "No." The long answer to this question is, "Well, maybe -- a little -- not really."

The truth is that the events of September 11, 2001 have affected everything any American has done for the past five years, whether consciously or unconsciously. Off the top of my head, I can think of one couple who got divorced, one couple who got married, and one couple who decided to have a second child because September 11 showed them just how short and random life could be. So yeah, I probably moved to Maine in part because of September 11, in the same way that I've done everything else since then in partial response to that morning's horror and grief.

More immediately, I moved to Maine because I'd had enough of Los Angeles (I loved L.A., but five years was enough), and I had a good friend here who had an apartment I could rent. I'd never lived in a small town, and I'd never lived in the real north, and I wanted those experiences. It was more than a whim and less than a plan, as I like to say, and it's turned out better than I could have imagined. Although I will always be From Away, something about Maine's granite heart feels like home.

The day started well, with a bald eagle sighting along the Cobbossee Stream -- appropriate for the day -- and the news that Dad's recovering so well he might be able to leave the hospital tomorrow. Then I went to my tutoring appointment and got into a stupid fender-bender; no one was hurt, thank God, and the damage was minor, but it means getting back on the phone to the insurance company and starting that whole process again. Sigh.