Real life. And also The 100

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 
The 100
Okay, 7+ hours till a new episode of The 100. My mantra last week worked well for me. Expect little or nothing, and if they do bad stuff to your OTP, just pretend Season 6 was the last one. This is just fanfic or a dream or something.

Real life
Doris actually said yes, she'd move to Santa Cruz, CA. I have no idea if this can ever actually happen and there a million downsides. I want to do it though!! A few notes.

1. Glancing at listings, we'd likely have to go from our 4 bedroom/2 bathroom house to a 1 bed/1 bath condo. It is so grossly expensive there. (Doris and I had a long discussion over "what if we have to use the bathroom at the same time??" she did point out that she grew up in a house with 5 people and 1 bathroom)

2. Doris said basically her parents would move, if we go. They'd love the warmer climate and they'd be close to Doris's sis, her husband, and their other grandkid. (And yes, she confirmed her parents would get their own place)

3. Moving always sucks. Moving halfway across the country sounds like a nightmare.

4. Needless to say I'd miss my friends, and my parents wouldn't be too happy.

5. Uh, my job? I give it a 20% chance at best that my boss will agree to permanent work from home. Even if she does, I likely will have to fly on my own dime to Chicago at least 4-5 times/year. So that'd be an hour-plus drive to San Jose and then a 4 hour flight to Chicago. And if my boss doesn't agree, I don't have any idea how I'd get another job with such good benefits and pay

6. Doris said she could practice dentistry in CA - she'd just basically need to take a test. So that could work.

7. Climate change means that Santa Cruz's climate will...change. But it might still be ok; I mean it's not going to turn into Alabama in 20 years either. Or will it?

8. I LOVE Santa Cruz so much for so many reasons, not just climate. I love college towns. It's funky, local, cool, very liberal.

9. Oh yeah, but that local political activism I enjoy? The part where I can drive 30 minutes or so to campaign in swing districts? Or get on a bus to a swing state? Forget about that. I will not be near any swing districts or swing states. (Then I'm like, but I could donate more to campaigns instead. And then I remembered that living in Santa Cruz will render me broke)

Still my head is swimming. Could we actually do this??

Comments

[nytshd3]

Well it would break my heart to have you living so far away and never being able to see you, but you have to do what's right for you. And I can't blame you for wanting to live somewhere with beautiful weather all year (assuming, as you say, that climate change doesn't change it completely). I assume it would take some time to pull this together (e.g. not something you can get done in the next few months) - Doris would need to close/dissolve her businesses, her mom probably would too? Plus figuring out where to go, finding a place to live, making sure that Doris's folks had their own place to live, etc etc. But you could start taking steps, right? Also, though it would suck to have to do that much flying... even if it was once every other month, wouldn't that be worth it to keep your job/benefits/etc, plus you could visit your folks and friends while you were in town. Or you could make a longer-term plan to do this - maybe this is your retirement plan? You're planning on retiring early anyway, right, so it's not like we're talking 25 years from now. What about buying a condo there and renting it out until you're ready to move there? If you were charging your renters more than your mortgage payment you could be on your way to paying the place off before you even moved. Maybe this is something you could talk to your financial advisor about? Hell, maybe you could be semi-retired and teach a class or two at the local college?

Wait, what am I saying. Um. California is going to fall into the ocean, so you can't go there! Earthquakes! Wildfires! Traffic is terrible and there's no public transportation (ok, that might just be Los Angeles, I don't know)! Umm. Surfer dudes? Sand in your buttcrack?

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

It would totally suck to be apart from you! I'd miss you like crazy. I truly doubt this will ever happen; it's probably just a pipe dream. The biggest obstacle is that I just can't see my boss agreeing to this. And the job market in Santa Cruz sucks.

Chris came over to do some plumbing work for us and we discussed it too. He pointed out that CA has tons of problems (water, earthquakes, the stuff you list, etc. I will say that traffic in Santa Cruz is not bad though). Of course we agreed that Chicago has tons of problems too! But CA's problems are nothing to sneeze at.

We looked at some listings online. For a 1 BR/1 bath, you're pretty much looking at paying at least 400K. Crazy. Some such condos are inside senior areas where one resident of the condo has to be at least 55 or 60! (Doris is 55 now, gotta smile). The square footage is abysmal in any of the places we could possibly afford, like 500-700 sq feet. Chris pointed out that I'm kinda a homebody and asked how comfy I'd be in such small places.

And as you said, flying back and forth would suck. If this ever actually happens, I would try to turn work trips into family/friend visit trips tho.

Chris also asked 'Are you really gonna leave Pasquale and Hilary?' :)

I do like your idea - see about buying and renting a place now. My hope is to retire in 12 years. We could retire there, but a big part of me just doesn't want to wait so long.

This really is likely just all a pipe dream.

I do love Santa Fe, NM too though. That's another dream. The climate isn't as great as Santa Cruz, but it's nice and it's way way cheaper. A pain to get to through from Chicago. 4 hour flight to Albuquerque and then 1 hour drive to Santa Fe. Plus if I ever fall for another drag queen or ever have 'fun' reasons to travel, it'd just be such a pain.