Stress a ‘moving’ experience that can be worth it

More than two decades after they left for St. Louis, the Rams are moving back to Los Angeles.

Bazillionaire owner Stan Kroenke plans to build them a stadium that ranks somewhere between Jerry’s World in Dallas, where the Cowboys play, and Buckingham Palace in terms of pizzazz.

But the new stadium won’t be finished until 2019, and in the meantime, the Rams will have to make do with the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, which might have qualified as the eighth wonder of the 20th century world when it was built for the 1932 Olympics. The Rams played there for 34 years, but left in 1979 because the owner wanted a more modern stadium. Flash forward another 34 years (plus two), and the Rams are right back there again, willing to play in this same stadium for three more years while waiting for their new digs.

All of us who have tried to move have an idea of what that’s like — without the multibillion-dollar budget, that is. Instead of hanging out in a stadium built for Olympians, we cram ourselves into hotel rooms, couch surf with friends or try to find a short-term rental that isn’t infested with cockroaches but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

We pay movers to haul our histories around — if we can afford them; we put down deposits, down payments, what have you.

We have to pack everything into boxes, then hope we’ll have the energy and motivation to unpack it all again on the other end. (Some of my treasured belongings remain confined by cardboard four years after my move to the Central Coast.) We may have to endure separations from our loved ones while we find a place to stay or wait for our old home to sell — if we’re lucky enough to own one. If one of us in a two-income family has found a better job outside the area, will our co-breadwinner be able to find a rewarding position? All too often, the answer is “no.”

Ah, moving, that glorious “life event” that brings with it one big mess and a whole lot of stress.

One widely used gauge, the Holmes-Rahe Stress Scale, ranks “change in residence” 32^nd on the list of life’s most stressful events. Not so bad, you might think. But others rank it higher.

Some psychologists have ranked moving a family as the third most stressful experience in life, behind death of a loved one and divorce. And in a survey of 2,000 British nationals last year, respondents voted it the most stressful situation they’ve ever dealt with, ahead of divorce and starting a new job.

I moved to the Central Coast in early 2012; I was fortunate enough to find a nice townhouse to rent in Arroyo Grande, about 20 minutes away from the Tribune’s office in Arroyo Grande. We packed everyone up and moved from Fresno to A.G. almost without a hitch.

It’s not usually that easy. Last September, The Cambrian pulled up stakes after more than two decades at the east end of town and moved to a more central location. The new office next to Goldsmith’s is a little smaller but a whole lot nicer, and the move itself was relatively painless. Unfortunately, it took more than four months to iron out Internet issues that kept us from accessing our central server from the new site. In the meantime, I could write stories and send email from Cambria, but I had to design the newspaper from The Tribune’s offices in San Luis Obispo. As a result, I was only actually up in the North County for a day and a half each week.

Thankfully, that’s all over now, and I was able to return to Cambria four days a week as of Jan. 18.

But although I’m working more on the North Coast these days, I’ve spent more than a year commuting from Arroyo Grande. It’s not that I didn’t want to live in Cambria. Quite the opposite — I’d hoped to move here from the moment I got the job; it had a lot more to do with the fact that everyone else wants to live here, too, so it hasn’t been easy to find a place to rent in (or near) Cambria that would work for my family at a price that fit our budget. There’s the building moratorium for starters, and because the Central Coast is such a popular destination, many landlords prefer to offer vacation rentals, not long-term leases.

I haven’t been alone in this: The whole county is affected. According to United Way report, 46 percent of San Luis Obispo County residents are paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. And 29 percent of county residents don’t have enough income to cover their basic costs of living. Homeless encampments, two- or three-job households, skimping on health care and multifamily homes are some symptoms of this.

Moving might be stressful, but a lot of us actually want to move. My little family just hadn’t been able to make it work in the housing climate. We didn’t have Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s bazillion dollars, but then again, we didn’t want Buckingham Palace, either.

Fortunately, that’s all about to change. Just this past week, my wife and I found a wonderful rental situation in Cambria that, for my taste, puts Buckingham Palace to shame, and we’re looking forward to moving within the next month or two. Yes, you read that right: We’re looking forward to it, even with all the stress and strain, boxing up and clearing out that’s ahead.

I’m not complaining about the team’s move back to SoCal, either. I was an L.A. Rams fan for years, dating all the way back to the “blue and white” years of Roman Gabriel, Deacon Jones and Merlin Olsen.

Welcome back home, Rams. I’m excited about moving home myself.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Stress a ‘moving’ experience that can be worth it."