i've been looking for a new job since august. AUGUST for fuck's sake. recently, the company has had some financial trouble (worse than usual even), so obviously it would help if they had one less person on the insurance plan. makes sense, especially since they've been anticipating my eventual absence for 9 months. but let me tell you, it doesn't build confidence in my job performance when my boss pulls me aside to ask if i've found other employment yet. and the third time he asks...sigh. i know i shouldn't take it personally, but that's what i do. i'm so good at taking things personally.
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zoe's been sick. she's been doing this weird reverse-cough thing and sneezing a lot. we took her to the vet a few weeks ago, but of course she didn't cough the whole time she was there. then things got worse, so we brought her back yesterday & left her there for a couple hours. the doctor ran her around outside (since she seems to have these attacks when she's a bit winded) and was able to observe the cough. they did some x-rays and it looks like she has allergic bronchitis. this'll probably mean we'll have to adjust some of her allergy meds, which sucks cuz we thought we finally had this thing figured out. but still, i'm relieved that it's not something more serious. i relaxed a lot when the vet said zoe's lungs & heart are very healthy. ever since jazz died, we've been really nervous about potential problems that we can't see.
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we're giving some serious thought to relocating. the tentative plan is to move next summer when our lease is up again. we've pretty much decided on north carolina (most likely the chapel hill area) but ithaca is still in the running. there's always the possibility that we'll stay here, but one of us would have to get some really kick-ass job for that to happen. i will miss this place, despite how lonely i was in the beginning. even though we moved here for steve to go to UMD, i'm now strangely more invested in this area than he is. but i'm also more invested in NC. so i keep making these little pro-con lists in my mind. i think i've been through this before. oh well, one more time from the top...
MARYLAND
Pros:
great movie theaters
lots of vegan/vegetarian restaurants
lots of shit to do (every band/movie/show/exhibit comes through dc at some point)
blue state (generally)
you can register Green here
ice tea in restaurants is unsweetened by default
pangea & pangea employees (past & present, with a few exceptions)
my poker group
dr. @
tommy
Cons:
missing my friends
missing my parents
WAY too expensive to ever buy a house here
BGE rate hikes
ubiquitous commuter/businessman mentality, characterized by heightened impatience with day-to-day annoyances ("i need to get where i'm going as fast as humanly possible & anything that prohibits that is contemptable.")
one of the big "cons" is the fear that if i stay here, i might never leave pangea. so the pro/con of maryland is basically MOM (My Organic Market) vs. MOM (Mail Order Manager), while one of the pros of nc is, well, mom. which brings us to...
NORTH CAROLINA
Pros:
closer to parents
closer to friends
lower cost of living
Sundrop
my old haunts, like Bagel Station, runneymede & Sampan
Cons:
moving sucks balls
horribly hot in summer, minimal snow in winter
sweet tea
farther from cape cod
red state
not too veg-friendly (my searches have yet to find an asian restaurant that serves fake meat)
finding a new therapist
there's a lot of crazy in (and from) north carolina
believe it or not, the 1st three items in the NC pros column easily outweigh all the cons. in a couple of years, we're going to want to have kids. i'd like to be able to think about this without breaking out in hives over how expensive it will be. we will want to own a house by then & i will definitely want to be near my parents. in the more immediate future, i just want to stop feeling so left out of my friends' lives. you guys have no idea how much i miss you and wish i could hang out with you without having to plan weeks in advance.
besides, if more wacky leftists move south to breed, maybe we can tip the scales.
9 comments:
I have to beg to differ with many of your cons. There is plenty of great vegetarian cuisine in the Chapel Hill area. See
http://www.trianglevegsociety.org/resources/
A couple of my favorites are Sage (Asian/American) and Margaret's Cantina (Mexican).
Weaver Street is awesome for organic shopping.
Being in a red state is great because I feel like I'm actually having some sort of influence on elections and when I put bumper stickers on my car, not just that I'm shouting out to the like-minded.
And I just peed a little with excitement when I read that Chapel Hill is what you're considering. We would have a FRIGGIN AMAZING time together!! OMFG.
(And we have awesome movie theaters as well--see http://www.chelseavarsity.com/
http://www.mygalaxycinema.com/Aboutus.asp)
Okay, one more thing and then I'll shut up--one word--traffic.
That'd be rad if we're both in North Carolina! OK, so we wouldn't be all that close geographically, but it's a nice thought all the same...
--Jules
yep, we're considering chapel hill. you see, a couple weeks ago, we had dinner at Banditos with two members of the Chapel Hill Tourism Board & Civic Expansion Committee and they were very convincing. :)
no need to get defensive. restaurants & movie theaters certainly aren't deal breakers, they're just dc perks. and i know eating vegetarian wouldn't be hard in chapel hill (easier than greensboro & i did that for 4 years). but eating vegan would be harder. between weaver st. & whole foods, cooking should be fine, but i'm so spoiled by the restaurants up here. i have five local all-vegetarian restaurants that i frequent & three of them are all-vegan. it's not that the triangle is lacking. it just seems that way in comparison. i imagine a vegan from NYC would have the same reaction upon moving to DC (since the NYC Vegan Guide is a 75 page book). anyway, i just wanted to clarify. but i'm touched that you're so adamant about this. it's nice to know that we're wanted.
julie-
any update on your possible move?
you better not leave without telling us. :)
Well, I'd like to chime in. I'm not about to move to N. Carolina...not without a fight. I mean the NC tourism board we met with last visit didn't even get me laid or drunk or tattooed. How am I supposed to consider moving somewhere so wholesome. What about Dunkin Donuts.......represent D&D!
Look a few years ago, me Barry and Dick determined that books, movies, music, these things matter. Call me fucking shallow, they matter. So yeah. What? Oh yeah, Go Whalers!
wow. someone's as bored at work as i am.
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