(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

I have checked into the hotel where the women of my clan and I are staying this weekend. Everything's sort of...not quiiiite as nice as I'd hoped it would be, but hopefully we won't be in the room much.

Someday I will live in a flat that is up to my mother's standards, and we won't have to do this hotel thing anymore. It's not that her standards are especially high, it's just that they're different from mine; I like to be able to pay the rent and don't care about trains, whereas she can't sleep if there are trains in the general vicinity and has a drastically off-target view of housing prices in Chicago. She pays about the same in mortgage on a four-bedroom house as I pay in rent on a one-bedroom apartment. But then, she has to live in Texas, and there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas.

I probably won't be on much this weekend, but I'll try to send photos occasionally if possible.

If you read about any matricides in Chicago this weekend, I was with you guys the whole time, okay?

Comments

[kit-maxel.livejournal.com]

She pays about the same in mortgage on a four-bedroom house as I pay in rent on a one-bedroom apartment. But then, she has to live in Texas, and there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas.

Substitute my dad for your mom, Georgia for Texas, and San Diego for Chicago and yes. My dad loves to talk about how I'm wasting so much money and time living in a place I love.

[luxanebulis.livejournal.com]

I was surprised when I learned my rent is equal to my mom's mortgage because my income is so much smaller! But I live in the Great Snowy North now and everything is expensive. And I hate living with people...

[chicleeblair.livejournal.com]

once I move out of the dorms I will, pretty much definitely, pay more in rent than my parents pay on their four-bedroom house in North Florida.

[snufflesdbear.livejournal.com]

Saw you the whole time.
and there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas.
I loved living in Texas, if I could have just not had to live THERE. The RenFaires were nice. I'd rather have Chicago. Then again, I have a 3 bedroom, PARLOR, bookroom, double garage, shed (mice were free) 1890's home in nowhere Ohio on a decent lot for less than you pay in rent for a year. For the whole house. It's crazy. I hate it. Would rather be in Texas.
Would rather be in Gary, Indiana. yeesh.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

If money wasn't a concern, I'd so love to live in the big city.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

... there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas.

Yes there is – it is roughly equivalent to the amount I pay NOT to live in Utah (which I do gladly). :)

My parents seem to exist in a constant state of shock at how much houses cost outside of Utah ... I try to tell them they're paying for more than the materials the house is made from, but I don't think it's getting through.

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Substitute Boston for Chicago, and Alabama for Texas and that's me. I find the sound of train pretty comforting, actually.

[daizy2k2.livejournal.com]

Same here, I actually get nervous if I haven't heard the train recently.

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Awww.

Trains are barely a thing in Alabama (anymore, Birmingham used to be a pretty big hub back in its glory days of steel production) but I grew up close to a railroad crossing on a commercial line that's still running. Not close enough to hear the wheels on tracks unless the wind was just right, but on a quiet night you could always hear the whistle. Sounds of a train while I fell asleep meant all was right in my little world.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

There is nothing more comforting when you can't sleep at 3AM than hearing a lonely train whistle and knowing that someone is out there, more alone than you.

[daizy2k2.livejournal.com]

I live about 50 yards from the track, so I hear wheels and everything. I barely notice until I don't hear it, then I want to know where the train is.

[ineptshieldmaid.livejournal.com]

I don't like living away from the flightpath. I've done it - and actually my parents' place is no longer under the flightpath - for a while, but it feels WEIRD. Jets, commercial planes, rescue helicopters, i don't care, as long as i can hear them.

[daizy2k2.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things where I don't really notice the train until I can't hear it anymore, an then I miss it.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I miss the one apartment I had that was by the busy highway. The whooosh-woooosh was so comforting.

[daizy2k2.livejournal.com]

After 17 years here, I am mostly accustomed to Texas. Some days I even like it! But I still think about how someday, maybe, I will leave this godforsaken hell-state.

[kaesa.livejournal.com]

If you read about any matricides in Chicago this weekend, I was with you guys the whole time, okay?
I'll help with your alibi if you help with mine?

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Throw Momma From The High Rise.

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas

I was just having that conversation. I liked visiting well enough, but I'd rather live anywhere else.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

Being in middle of nowhere Australia would be a damn good alibi. Might be better as a hiding place from civilisation. I warn you though - your phone won't get any signal, we're getting hard frosts, and dogs will lick your face in the mornings. So you might be better sticking with the city life, conviction or no.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I warn you though - your phone won't get any signal, we're getting hard frosts, and dogs will lick your face in the mornings.

Are these supposed to be bad things?

I'm confused.

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm told that some people aren't as enthusiastic or accepting of them as myself.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Middle of nowhere Australia, though, and he'd be implicated in fratricide ...

(Because all middle-of-nowhere-Australias are as one middle-of-nowhere-Australia.)

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, housing price disparities. The only reason I can live on the salary I get is because I live in goddamn Vermont, where housing prices are pretty reasonable. I see what friends of mine are paying for places - apartments - in Boston and New York and Chicago and I just cry.

And then I see what people pay for fucking MANSIONS in, say, Texas and North Carolina, and I cry some more, because mansions do not have a right to be that cheap.

[slice254.livejournal.com]

I miss trains. Actually, I miss living in a city-city. I'm technically within the city limits in Baton Rouge, and I'm right outside LSU's campus, but it feels like suburbia. I really should just give in and move to a more urban area, but though thought of packing and moving from my 450 square foot hell hole makes me want to cry more than living there does.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Go over to the alt.callahans newsgroup and ask them for Spider Robinson's patented moving techniques. It's pretty friggin' awesome.

[schnoogle.livejournal.com]

NOT having to live with my parents rationalises a lot of my rent, too. I live about 30-40min away, and the only reason my mother understands for paying to live here when I could live at home for free is that it's closer to the hospital I'm placed at.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same boat. I had an argument with my mom because apparently I cleaned things she didn't mention ... I know, I know.

[mamarosebud.livejournal.com]

"and there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas."

THAT. YES.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

I like reading about your mother, but I just wish I had a mother.

My middle class mother abandoned me when I was fifteen. I was in the street, because the guy she married (a Jew for Jesus) wouldn't pay to feed another man's child. And yes, I, a middle class nerd, experienced all that you can imagine, as an unprotected 15 year old.

I bless your mother. I send kisses to your mother. Sometimes, as hardened as I am, I experience an illness or something really bad, and I just feel the impulse to call my mother, even though I never had one. It's an impulse that betrays me and never goes away.

I love to hear about your mother's cracky care packages. I love to read about your weird Chicago trips.

It's not easy to be a good mother. It's NOT in the DNA. It takes character. It takes work.

Bless you all, and happy Mothers Day.

[stasia]

... this makes me wish I could be your mom.

I'm so sorry that you had such a hard time, but you sound like you're doing well now. You sound strong and good.

I'm going to, I hope, start the nursing class half of my BSN in fall 2012. I've been working towards it since 2006 (and yes, it's taking forever), so it's nice to meet another person in the same field as I am.

*zen hugs*

Happy Mother's Day, from a mom to you. You're the reason we're moms.

Stasia

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

My BSN is taking forever, too. It seems hopeless.

But I have at least the sense of agency, you know?

Best to you, you good mom.

:)

[stasia]

I have a sense of agency, except when I'm told that I have to take another Critical Thinking course and then finding out that instead of teaching an interesting Logic class, the teacher is using the class to grow his cult-of-personality.

*sigh*

Regardless, I've jumped through that hoop. There are only a few hoops left for either of us and then we're out there, Nurses!

Good luck to you, great kiddo!

Stasia

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had such a hard time with yours :( I'm glad my stories of mine can buoy your spirits a bit.

[jwaneeta.livejournal.com]

They always make me smile. :)

[ellabianca.livejournal.com]

But then, she has to live in Texas, and there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas.

While I love Austin, San Antonio and a few other Texas cities, I completely relate to this sentiment as far as West Texas goes. I'm living there right now and let me tell you, I would pay CASH MONIES to not be living here. Recently had a job interview in Boston, and while the rent prices hurt my soul, it would totally be worth it.

[honoria.livejournal.com]

I hears ya. For what I pay in rent on my East Village(NYC) apartment, I could be paying the mortgage on a whole house in Memphis.
But then I'd have to live in Memphis.

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

"...there's no real substitute in cash dollars for NOT having to live in Texas" made me snort my coffee. I hope you're happy. :P
Also, I find the sound of trains comforting. Trains, people outside, the occasional siren - they all say 'living in the city' and that I find immensely worth it.

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

You're never going to murder someone, or commit a serious crime, because not being able to blog about it would kill you.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

There was, in fact, something that happened to me about three months ago that I couldn't blog about even in code. I spent the whole afternoon feeling anxious and unsettled :D