As for the Topic of the Day...
Well, each fall that I returned to school at VCU, I more or less moved away from home. Again. And again. And again. And that pattern sort of continued for a few years after I graduated since whenever I worked in the DC area, I stayed with my parents, and whenever I was on the road, my parents' house was basically my "permanent address".
The big move happened when I was 29 and decided to move back to Richmond. I was visiting some friends for the weekend, found out that the music store there was looking for a manager for their sheet music room... And after being interviewed and hired in the same afternoon, well... At first, I stayed in the spare room of one of my college professors, and then found an apartment on the Northside of town. Then I met Steve that September, and then I moved in with him that October.
I guess I didn't really have my own place until a few years later, "after Steve", but I stayed in Richmond, and moved in with my friend, Christopher. I needed a room, and he had an open room in his apartment. Since I was still working on shows that time up in DC, I was able to gradually furnish my room - and the kitchen - with regular stops at IKEA on the way back down to Richmond: bed, shelving, tables, chairs, lamps, etc. -And managing to walk into Williams-Sonoma just as they had set up a new table of clearance items also helped.