I’ve been around some places in this life.  I moved out of the house I shared with my parents on Milton Avenue in Westminster CA in July, 1973 at the tender age of 17.  Moved into an apartment on Magnolia Avenue in Garden Grove with a neighborhood pal.  I had two girlfriends at the time, Gail and Karen.  Karen lived down San Diego way so it wasn’t too difficult to make sure they were never in the same place at the same time.

A few months later I moved further down (up?) Magnolia to Huntington Beach and shared an apartment with my brother Keith.  I was living there when I had the misfortune of bringing Karen home with me from San Diego while Gail was amongst the friends having an impromptu party at my place.  So shortly thereafter I found myself with zero girlfriends.

About a year later I was dating Bridget and knocked her up.  So we took an apartment in Midway City during her pregnancy with the intention of giving the baby up for adoption. Turns out once I saw my baby girl I wanted to keep her, so I married Bridget.

We rented a nice little house on 22nd Street in Westminster from my parents and engaged in the family life.  Before long my son Kevin came along and we started dreaming of raising our kids somewhere other than Southern California. I managed to secure a transfer of my letter carrier job to the mile high city of Prescott, AZ.

Rented a nice little house on Western Avenue sight unseen, this was before the internet, I found it advertised in the Prescott Courier.  I don’t recall where I managed to get my hands on a copy though.

Anyway, Prescott might just be the best place I ever did live.  Back then it was a bustling little metropolis of 25,000 souls nestled in the Bradshaw Mountains.  It seemed like a place I could spend a lifetime in, so I became a first time homeowner in a sweet little house on San Carlos Road.

We were living there when the marriage fell apart, so I rented a place on the other side of town on Shadow Valley Road.  It was one of those modified A-frame cabin-like things, and I shared it with two random roommates.  I fell in love with a Phoenix gal whom I met in Flagstaff and was attending graduate school in Pocatello, Idaho.  I only got to see her on the occasional weekend when I’d make the drive up north and during school breaks when she’d come home.  Thought she was going to marry me but then she wound up pregnant. With another man’s baby.

That was a pretty devastating blow and I felt the need to change my life.  So I took a job in Fort Smith, AR and rented me an apartment in the illogically named El Conquistador complex.  At least I was close to my kids again who had been staying with my mom and dad on their little 80 acre ranch across the border in Monroe, OK.

I experienced a rather lonely year before the locals determined I was “all right” despite my odd accent.  I had some success with the ladies and eventually started staying with Pamela in her apartment in Poteau, OK.  Got bored after awhile so I moved back into Fort Smith and commenced to dating Iris and Darla.  Iris was seven years older than me and Darla was 7 years younger.  I fantasized about putting Iris’ brain in Darla’s body.  Failing that, i settled for Beckie and moved into her fine house back in Poteau.  We got married and I got promoted and we moved to ourselves and the kids off to Columbia, SC where we rented a house on Greengate street.

Of course, the kids had grown accustomed to having horses, so we bought a house in Lexington on 2/12 acres that was zoned for horses.  In fact, all the streets were named after horses.  We lived on Shetland Lane.

As testament to my selfishness and degenerate character I fell in love with another woman.  Beckie moved out and Carol moved in.  Not long afterwards I got promoted to a job in Arlington, VA.  I lived a few months in an apartment in Crystal City before purchasing a house in Stafford where Carol joined me.

A few years later my misbehavior led me to rent an apartment in Arlington, but eventually I returned home to my house and wife.

In January 2005 I took a job in Seoul and had a government paid for villa in Hannam-dong. Carol was supposed to join me there but got cold feet and backed out.  I chose to stay in Korea rather than return to my American life.

I made several trips to the Philippines where the young women were more than willing to assuage my loneliness.  Then I met Se Hwa through a Korean dating site and she moved in with me for a year and a half.  She left me to move to the USA for a Masters Degree.  And there she remains as far as I know.

Not long after Se Hwa left I met Jee Yeun and we’ve been together ever since.  When I retired I bought us a house on Lockleven Drive in Columbia.  When we stayed in Seoul we lived in an apartment in Gireum-dong.

And now it has come to pass that I’m living in cozy villa in Itaewon.

By my reckoning, during the 43 years of my adult life I’ve spent roughly three years on my own.  It takes some getting used to.