cblj_backup | (no subject)

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?

Threaded | Flat

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.

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.

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.

... 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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

THAT. YES.

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.

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.

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.

"...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.

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