The Move to Kingston
About to finish packing all but the few things I'll need for the next few days...
For those of you who don't know already, I'm moving to Kingston, at least for 6-8 months. The primary reason: Money. I had three choices:
1) Stay in Toronto, where the cheapest decent place to live costs about $200 more than what disability gives me, where along with the last of my debt from when I was working, my student loan, and other expenses, would leave me with about $0 for food, let alone having money for transit or entertainment. I'd have to resort to somewhat extreme measures to survive, let alone thrive.
2) Stay in Toronto, and find a roommate. Since I don't know anyone that I know I could live with, this would mean becoming roommates with a complete stranger, and hope to hell that we're able to get along.
2) Move to Kingston, into my parents' house, pay them what disability gives me for rent, and live there while my parents are on their six month stay in Florida. Spend the time paying off the last of my debt (7.2 payments left on the pre-disability debt) and be able to live, if not with extravagance, at least without struggling, or worse, starving.
The secondary reason I'm moving there is because it's an opportunity for me to restructure my life a bit, find a 1-2 shift/wk part time job, and work towards, if not full time, at least 20hr/wk by the time my folks get back. If I can manage that, then I can afford to live on my own again, and without worrying about paying for my next meal. And since I'm able to live without the job, I don't have the extra pressure for the job to work out, and I can progress at the pace I should, and not at the pace I feel I have to. Also, I've been looking forward to having a place to myself again... My parents will be here 'til the end of October, but after that I'll have the place to myself. For some reason, it's always been easier for me to keep a clean place, keep myself on schedule, and otherwise just structure my life when I'm on my own, even if the people I'm living with are also on the same schedule. Don't know why that is.
And I must state for the record that Kat & Kim have been wonderful during the whole moving process, and they've been good roommates in general. They helped me with my house hunting before I came to this decision to move to K, they've helped me with my packing, and have been supportive in general... despite the fact that I haven't exactly been the best of roommates.
The girls have found a 2br down by the lake... It's a slight bit over their rent limit, but being a 2br means that they'll have growing room. I've decided to loan them my old computer and my microwave... The former because if I kept it it'd just be used to tinker with Linux or to use on a dos boot as a game machine ;-) The latter because I won't be needing it, and while they suspect a new one might find its way into their xmas stocking this year, that doesn't do much about the next three months ;-D
As much as we've had our arguments and occasional problems, they've been good friends, and I hope we get a chance to spend some time together soon. I'd like to invite them down to Kingston, but that'll have to wait until I have a job, since it'd be a bit much to ask them to pay for the bus fare... A bit out of their budget, I'd suspect.
I also still plan to develop a databasing system for the girls' website, since it'd make their life easier updating and adding new content. Unfortunately I realized several minor but important problems with the structure I set up, so I'll have to rework it a bit. That, and I've packed my docs on PHP and mySQL, which are kind of important, as Dreamweaver only lets you do the very basics through automation, and my PHP has never been used enough for me to even consider my hiatus from it being rusty.
ANYWAY, I'll be back in town, at least for a day, at the end of November, and depending on what the girls plans are, I may suggest me bringing by a boardgame or something, and we can catch up. I am looking forward to having a place to myself, but I will still miss them. They're so cute together, and even though they're both extremely weird, so am I, so it works out well ;-)
Ultimately the biggest disappointment with moving to Kingston is that I've grown accustomed to seeing (and playing wargames with) my brother, pretty much on a weekly basis, and he tends to be my favorite opponent. And while there is gaming to be had in Kingston, and I know quite a few people there, it's still an adjustment, and I don't think they play the two games I've been playing the most here. And, they're not my brother ;-) The other thing is that I'm not sure when I'll next be on high-speed, so I've been madly downloading everything I can think of so I've got a good stock of things to read/watch/play. My folks have been toying with switching to high speed for a while, so I think it'll be relatively easy to convince them, especially since I'll be footing the bill while they're away, but I'm hardly counting on it. We'll see.
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to catching up on my miniature painting, which has been neglected for quite a while. Also, there's been some modeling I've been wanting to do, but my current apartment really doesn't have the space... I mean, I could spread plaster, wood, paints, glue, tools, and herbs (used for grass, dirt, and other ground cover) but I don't think that'd be very fair to the girls, do you? My dad does model railroads, so he's got the space already set up for the type of work I'll be doing. I've got the beginnings of a 12x8" ruined temple that I'll be setting into the side of a hill; I've got a few buildings I've got half-finished, and some other misc. bits. I'd like to return to Toronto with a substantial contribution to our gaming space ;-) Not to mention that I really enjoy the modeling. I never worked with plaster until about a year or so ago, and I'm amazed at how easily I can make convincing stonework, textured walls, and several other things... I haven't tried anything truly "artistic" yet, but I'd like to; I just have never been much of an artist.
ANYWAY, I think I've rambled on long enough... As much as I'm going to miss the girls and my brother, I'm truly looking forward to the move, as I think it'll really help me take my life in a positive direction.
For those of you who don't know already, I'm moving to Kingston, at least for 6-8 months. The primary reason: Money. I had three choices:
1) Stay in Toronto, where the cheapest decent place to live costs about $200 more than what disability gives me, where along with the last of my debt from when I was working, my student loan, and other expenses, would leave me with about $0 for food, let alone having money for transit or entertainment. I'd have to resort to somewhat extreme measures to survive, let alone thrive.
2) Stay in Toronto, and find a roommate. Since I don't know anyone that I know I could live with, this would mean becoming roommates with a complete stranger, and hope to hell that we're able to get along.
2) Move to Kingston, into my parents' house, pay them what disability gives me for rent, and live there while my parents are on their six month stay in Florida. Spend the time paying off the last of my debt (7.2 payments left on the pre-disability debt) and be able to live, if not with extravagance, at least without struggling, or worse, starving.
The secondary reason I'm moving there is because it's an opportunity for me to restructure my life a bit, find a 1-2 shift/wk part time job, and work towards, if not full time, at least 20hr/wk by the time my folks get back. If I can manage that, then I can afford to live on my own again, and without worrying about paying for my next meal. And since I'm able to live without the job, I don't have the extra pressure for the job to work out, and I can progress at the pace I should, and not at the pace I feel I have to. Also, I've been looking forward to having a place to myself again... My parents will be here 'til the end of October, but after that I'll have the place to myself. For some reason, it's always been easier for me to keep a clean place, keep myself on schedule, and otherwise just structure my life when I'm on my own, even if the people I'm living with are also on the same schedule. Don't know why that is.
And I must state for the record that Kat & Kim have been wonderful during the whole moving process, and they've been good roommates in general. They helped me with my house hunting before I came to this decision to move to K, they've helped me with my packing, and have been supportive in general... despite the fact that I haven't exactly been the best of roommates.
The girls have found a 2br down by the lake... It's a slight bit over their rent limit, but being a 2br means that they'll have growing room. I've decided to loan them my old computer and my microwave... The former because if I kept it it'd just be used to tinker with Linux or to use on a dos boot as a game machine ;-) The latter because I won't be needing it, and while they suspect a new one might find its way into their xmas stocking this year, that doesn't do much about the next three months ;-D
As much as we've had our arguments and occasional problems, they've been good friends, and I hope we get a chance to spend some time together soon. I'd like to invite them down to Kingston, but that'll have to wait until I have a job, since it'd be a bit much to ask them to pay for the bus fare... A bit out of their budget, I'd suspect.
I also still plan to develop a databasing system for the girls' website, since it'd make their life easier updating and adding new content. Unfortunately I realized several minor but important problems with the structure I set up, so I'll have to rework it a bit. That, and I've packed my docs on PHP and mySQL, which are kind of important, as Dreamweaver only lets you do the very basics through automation, and my PHP has never been used enough for me to even consider my hiatus from it being rusty.
ANYWAY, I'll be back in town, at least for a day, at the end of November, and depending on what the girls plans are, I may suggest me bringing by a boardgame or something, and we can catch up. I am looking forward to having a place to myself, but I will still miss them. They're so cute together, and even though they're both extremely weird, so am I, so it works out well ;-)
Ultimately the biggest disappointment with moving to Kingston is that I've grown accustomed to seeing (and playing wargames with) my brother, pretty much on a weekly basis, and he tends to be my favorite opponent. And while there is gaming to be had in Kingston, and I know quite a few people there, it's still an adjustment, and I don't think they play the two games I've been playing the most here. And, they're not my brother ;-) The other thing is that I'm not sure when I'll next be on high-speed, so I've been madly downloading everything I can think of so I've got a good stock of things to read/watch/play. My folks have been toying with switching to high speed for a while, so I think it'll be relatively easy to convince them, especially since I'll be footing the bill while they're away, but I'm hardly counting on it. We'll see.
On the other hand, I'm looking forward to catching up on my miniature painting, which has been neglected for quite a while. Also, there's been some modeling I've been wanting to do, but my current apartment really doesn't have the space... I mean, I could spread plaster, wood, paints, glue, tools, and herbs (used for grass, dirt, and other ground cover) but I don't think that'd be very fair to the girls, do you? My dad does model railroads, so he's got the space already set up for the type of work I'll be doing. I've got the beginnings of a 12x8" ruined temple that I'll be setting into the side of a hill; I've got a few buildings I've got half-finished, and some other misc. bits. I'd like to return to Toronto with a substantial contribution to our gaming space ;-) Not to mention that I really enjoy the modeling. I never worked with plaster until about a year or so ago, and I'm amazed at how easily I can make convincing stonework, textured walls, and several other things... I haven't tried anything truly "artistic" yet, but I'd like to; I just have never been much of an artist.
ANYWAY, I think I've rambled on long enough... As much as I'm going to miss the girls and my brother, I'm truly looking forward to the move, as I think it'll really help me take my life in a positive direction.