One more year ...
We signed our lease yesterday or maybe it was Thursday, lately days have been blending together. If it weren't for my speech class on Tuesday and Thursday night I could lose weeks and not even know it.
I have lost weeks though, last summer and fall as Feargal was working and I was waiting to see if I was going to have something done about the hernia and GERD. Turns out, I can have something done, I just either have to wait until we have better insurance or I will have to song and dance my way through the HMO circus that we did before Feargal was laid off.
We talked about moving out of California. We talked about it a lot. We had hoped things would turn out differently and we would be packing our bags and getting ready to move to another apartment or better yet, another state. We were looking at a couple of places Phoenix or Minneapolis or maybe somewhere up north or east of us. Nothing and I mean it would take a really good amount of money for us to consider anything east of the Mississippi.
I could whine and complain about the whole matter. I know I can because I have. I literally looked at my husband a few weeks ago and said, why not move back to Minnesota. We could be around our chosen family and the job market is better. In my cluttered mind at the time, I thought this would be a better than what we have right now. I have had times, where I have hated everything about California.
There are too many people. This has not changed. When F and I took L to LAX to return her home in MN, we drove through parts of LA and then back to Orange County. We looked at houses that are millions of dollars because they are "near the beach". If there is ever a fire in any of these million dollar neighborhoods, there would be no way to stop the fire storm that would occur. You see, the houses are so close. I can tell you, without exaggerating, you can sit in your kitchen. Say you are out of sugar and want some with your coffee, just open your kitchen window, and knock on your neighbors. That 3 x 3 patch of grass you want to call a front yard will cost you extra. There is an even smaller back yard.
We looked at new construction, homes in Irvine start at 899,900. They were very small and very close together. There is not privacy. There is no room to breath. They were not free standing homes. They are town homes. You are sharing a wall with someone else. These are not big homes. They are about 950 square feet. Our apartment is just a bit smaller. Our apartment is not big enough for us. We are paying a lot more than we ever paid in MN and the smallest apartment we have lived in, in 16 years of living together. This is the place we are have been the longest. We will be here 7 years in May.
So, why if we did we sign another year lease. Well, first of all we can't afford to move. Even moving across town, there is a great deal of cost associated with moving. Boxes and packing materials. Movers... lets face it we are not 25 years old anymore and we don't have friends who will gladly move heavy furniture for a few pizzas and beer. Plus there is the cleaning (we are not dirty people) and a long laundry list of things we need to get done before we can move. All cost money and well since we are both not working right now, it is hard to get excited about moving. Plus in the big picture, it is cheaper to stay here one more year and then see when things are from there. I am hoping in one year, I will be working full time, F will be working full time, and we will be able to start looking at different places to live.
Of course we could win the lottery. The Powerball. It would be nice. We have it all planned out. But for now... we are here one more year.