My ready answer is Tucson -- I like the desert, and the desert heat, and culturally there's a lot of compatible cool stuff going on there. But I also liked Vermont a whole lot the times I've been up there, so if you wave a wand and give me fundage, I'll spend winter/spring in AZ and summer/fall in VT.

Waves welcomingly from 300 miles south.

Right now I'm kinda working within the constraints of "anywhere my office has a location with jobs I actually want to do." I'm not sure where I'd end up if was all pie in the sky and didn't need to make monies.

Melbourne is actually pretty damn close to my ideal. There are good reasons it keeps topping livability lists. If I didn't have to work in the city, maybe I'd move out to the Dandenongs so we'd have more wildlife nearby.

There's also Canberra, but right now it's overly fraught with family drama.

If money was no object, I'd split my time between SF and Toronto. Near water, diverse culture, theater & film opportunities, excellent food, and near family.

M & I have a pipe dream of opening up a Mexican place in TO, drawing heavily on our connections here. He says we'd make a mint.

Rassenfrassen CSC upgrades messing up my computer. Try to replicate timed out, erased post...

Right now I'm kinda working within the constraints of "anywhere my office has a location with jobs I actually want to do." I'm not sure where I'd end up if was all pie in the sky and didn't need to make monies.

Rather more than 300 miles away, but you'd certainly be welcome! And while I don't believe we have a branch of your particular Evil Empire, we do have several other EE's between Downtown, North County, and Sorrento Valley, etc.

Boston's the city I like the most, but I'd have to give up on the idea of driving and probably live in a studio apartment smaller than my current bedroom to make ends meet. Also, the distance from family would really suck.

The essay turned out to be an essay for the Advanced Placement English test, if I understood it right. The student is Nepali, so she was struggling with the grammar on top of the usual mistakes young writers make. Nothing wrong with her ideas or the structure of her arguments, though. She seemed to think I'd been helpful (all that workshopping and betaing fan fiction may have taught me something) and asked if I was going to be available most Fridays, so I think I passed.

Oh, London, for sure. And I'd winter in California.

Cobble Hill, about 5 blocks south of where I live now, or Red Hook, about 25 blocks south.

HA. I would love to live in Cobble Hill again. Or Windsor Terrace. (I lived in Windsor Terrace before it got cool, and now I just want to go back in time and kick my younger self until she buys a townhouse on my old block. That skeevy laundromat will one day be an awesome little cafe! The skeevy liquor store is going to turn into a GREAT liquor store! The great bodega will change owners but essentially stay the same great bodega! THE SCHOOL DISTRICT YOU ARE IN IS THE BEST IN BROOKLYN YOU IDIOT. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE GIVING UP, 2002 JESS.)

M and I still hope to move back to the Northeast someday, and I think that's my ideal. Boston or environs would be great, if we could afford to live somewhere with a decent school system, or else beautiful Western Mass (which will always be my spiritual home). But southern Maine, Vermont, upstate New York, or the Philly area would all be just dandy.

Boston's the city I like the most, but I'd have to give up on the idea of driving and probably live in a studio apartment smaller than my current bedroom to make ends meet.

I hear you on the affordability issue, but I would be SO EXCITED to live someplace where I didn't need a car to get around. My commute isn't even that bad (15-30 minutes, depending on traffic), but I hate it so much. What I wouldn't give for decent public transit!