You get used to it. I've never lived in a place with palm trees. Not to mention it cost a fortune to live in those places. I'd love to move to LA for business purposes. Especially since Chicago only has a handful of shows filming here and I'm working as a background extra while I'm laid off. But so far, I can find what I need in Chicago. Besides, everywhere but the big cities are the pretty parts of America. There's nothing like driving through Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia when the leaves are changing.

I live is Southern California in the beach cities. I go to Palm Springs often an in the winter the surrounding mountains have snow with a palm in the foreground. You can literally ski in the morning and tan by the pool afternoon. I have. I have worked and lived all over the world and states and call here home. It's tight but worth the extra. I also work in the film industry, which is becoming global so I am looking at (warm) options. The amount of HIV clinics and care in CA is immense but also support, like housing and rent assistance, disability etc...as needed. I have access to many HIV social and athletic or activity groups and they are quite large. Keep in mind my friend , here we don't have seasons, just hot summer and cold summer-unless you venture up the mountain to a ski resort. The cost of living here is preventative to most, rents can be 2-3x as high as the rest of the country and mortgages are a joke, a small house where I live can be $700k-6 million (West Hollywood/San Francisco...)depending on location here. Lower in rural CA areas. My parents have a 2 bedroom house on a hill, near the beach. 1400 sq ft, valued now at 1.3 million. So if your income doesn't keep up it can be very tough. xo

@A myHIVteam Member. Growing up my parents moved the family 4 times before I graduated college. I was born in Ohio but have no memory of it. I remember living in NJ, MI, PA and MO. I joined the Navy and have been as far east as Bahrain, south as Columbia and Venezuela, by accident as far north as Thule AFB north of the Arctic Circle, and as far west as Los Angeles and San Diego. I returned to the St.Louis area but in Illinois because of the benefits they offer to veterans as far as owning property. But to get to your question; I grew up in areas where the changing of the seasons was common place. I did enjoy life in Southern California but the cost of living there is 3X that of where I live now. I got home sick for the weather and I wanted to save some money instead of living paycheck to paycheck. In the time since I contracted HIV, the only change I noticed as far as the care was actually in the better medications. I tested poz in 1991 and started on AZT. I was near death by 1996 with only a CD4 count of 6. With the change in medications about that same time, along with changes I made in my life, my last CD4 count was over 1100 and I am undetectable. My older brother calls me selfish, but then he's always been a toxic person. If I am selfish for living life the way I want to, doing the things that make me happy and align with who I am (and never hurting ANYBODY!), then maybe I am. But he'll never know because he makes no effort to get to know me anymore. Too bad for him. I just bought me a house and me and my boyfriend will be moving in together. But why don't I go to warmer climates? Everybody wants to, but it's always the money. It's very costly to live in those "ideal" climate areas. I don't mind the change in weather because I'm used to it. However, that being said as an adult that has to drive in snowy weather in the winter; I love the winter weather up until Jan 2. Then I hate it.

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