[quote name='exceed19']I sooooo want to leave PA and move to california......
Mind if I ask how you did it? The reason I ask is I am 32 - great job, beautiful house, nice vehicles ect. ect.
I am trying to figure out how to get a job lined up out there first (I am in Insurance, 12 years experience).
Looking at SF/Bay Area or anywhere in the vicinity of Mendocino (ahem..)
I am just trying to figure out how to do it.. (I know it sounds dumb, but there is a LOT involved in moving 2000 miles away or more). IE: How to move ALL my stuff, vehicles (3) ect. I need to sell my house first, which selling homes is NEVER fun.. I may start trying to sell all my "extra" stuff this spring (furniture, clothes, electronics, a motorcycle ect.). I really really hate Pennsylvania (I grew up in Maryland) and want to get my MMJ card , and start tapping some of those fine, fake california babes with 'dem big fake bewbs.
And yes, I am pretty serious about moving. Looking to do it in the next year or earlier. Best thing is, my best friend wants to come with me, but only if I have the house and job lined up first.... He is in electronics, so i am sure we both could get good ($50k+) jobs there. I am pulling down $45k here in PA, and I am sure Cali pays better than this hell-hole.[/QUOTE]
Well in SF, you'd want to swap the babes with hot gay men

Seriously though, the temperature is quite moderate most of the year in the city (it can get to be absolutely chilly during the summer). It is also NOT CHEAP to live out here-- real estate (both renting and buying) is expensive and it's even worse than the NYC metro area is as far as eating out, groceries, etc. goes. There's a lot more Trader Joe's out here, though, plus the usual chain stores like Target, so there's definitely ways to shop on a reasonable budget.
My husband's a systems administrator and programmer so... enough said, really; San Francisco's really the place to be for those fields. After getting his (first) job in SF, he worked remotely from the East Coast before we moved (the company covered most of the relocation expenses). I worked as an animator in NYC, mostly freelance, but the jobs eventually stopped being as frequent and (nowhere near) as good as they used to be, so I had no real problems with moving.
We have two pets-- a cat and a rabbit-- and since the latter could've died if we flew him out there, we drove cross-country to our new apartment. It took a little over a week and almost drove my husband bonkers, but we survived; saw the Grand Canyon on the way, too.
We've always been renters, so there's been no worries about us selling a house. That must be a whole 'nother headache.