Trumwill, Future Homeless Man

Will Truman 38 Comments

A few months ago, Clancy gave 1-year (or so) notice at work (I may write more on this at some point). We will be leaving next summer. We don’t know what comes next. We will also be dealing with a little one at around this time. Uncertainty abounds.

Today another wrench was thrown into everything. As a good faith gesture, we’d let our landlords know that we would be leaving next summer. Today they informed us that they want us out in April, three or four months before we plan to leave Callie.

So now we have to figure out what to do. Most likely, we put our stuff in storage and live thin for that period. Well, as thin as you can with a little one. I can’t imagine that we will want to actually pack/unpack twice. Fortunately, there is a storage place two blocks away. But it’s a suboptimal arrangement in so many ways. Among other things, the rental market around here is terrible.

The other option is that Clancy leaves sooner than announced. She will be going on maternity leave when the peanut is born and that will last twelve weeks. Coming back for a couple months after and then leaving again isn’t optimal (if her employer goes for it), and I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t a part of us that wanted her out of that job as soon as possible, but nine months of unemployment is a lot to shoulder.

We have some money saved up, but per Paragraph #1 we are looking at some real financial uncertainty in the days that lay ahead. Unpaid maternity leave followed by a couple months in between jobs and what may be a rigid employment schedule if everything goes right.

Basically, she is looking at going through another fellowship, which eliminates the possibility of just finding a new job and moving there. The fellowship may or may not happen, but we can’t plan over it. So taking this opportunity to just leave means a financial strain or a foregone opportunity.

The other vague possibility is a return to the southwest and the Indian reservation she worked on before. She loved it there and they loved her. We’d considered moving down there for the indefinite future, but they’re changing the job description away from what she wants to do (which is, in essence, exactly what happened in Arapaho). It could serve as a holdover, with our stuff in storage back in Callie.

I haven’t seen Clancy in about four days due to her call schedule and a constant influx of patients, though she is due home tonight. So it’ll be great that our first conversation is going to be “What the crap are we going to do?!” And, of course, the more we talk about it, the less we’re spending on more pleasant topics and the less time she has to work on the notes and charts that have been accumulating during her work rally.

Also, the in-laws arrive late tomorrow.

Will Truman

Will Truman is the Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. He is also on Twitter.

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38 Comments

  2. Dum de dum de dum… New England. Deedle deedle dee… I have numbers. Pom tiddly pom… it’s lovely this time of year. Dum de dum de dum.

    • I will say this: I was pretty stunned to read that the cost of living in the place in question is actually comparable to the cost of living here.

  3. I’ve got a fully furnished basement with a 55″ flat screen and workout equipment. If you can scoop the kitty litter, it’s yours.

      • We have a big backyard. With plenty of rabbits for him to chase. And should he eat a cat… no skin of my back.

  4. You’re probably going to say you can’t afford to live in the Bay Area, but, hey, that doesn’t stop the rest of us.

    • Well, given that I think Portland is too expensive, I think the Bay Area is out.

      (Los Angeles is vaguely on our radar for 2013-14, but as a very temporary thing.)

        • I’ll let you know if it becomes serious. Mostly the next stopover (if there is one) will depend largely on the such-and-such program rather than a destination of choice. There are a couple of possibilities in that area, which kind of surprised us.

          (I actually should have added to MikeS that when we landed in the southwest way back when, there was a program in the Bay Area. We looked at it, trying to figure out how we’d be able to live there on less than 60% of the median household income.)

          • Lemme know if you want more infos on LA. Depending upon the gig, it’s possible to train commute here now, which opens up some things that weren’t open before, especially if you bike.

  5. Louisville is lovely in April. And the Derby will be just around the corner…

      • The cost of living here is pretty nice. $250,000 will get you a palace of a house. Walkable neighborhoods, good arts community, world-class museums, growing tech sector, excellent hospitals, amazing restaurants, more churches than you can shake a stick at, tons of parks and of course, UofL basketball.

        • I’ll vouch for Louisville’s surprising awesomeness. Except Mr. Dwyer, who unconscionably disdains The World’s Most Excellent Spirit, has neglected to mention the critical factoid that Louisville also has the World’s Easiest Access To Bourbon. If one so desires, one can even readily obtain that true Spirit of the Gods, Pappy Van Winkle 18. Just sayin’.

          • Awesome, Mike.

            So New Jersey has, I think, 12 liquor stores that actually carry Pappy. I figured out last year that the liquor store around the corner from my friend’s house was one of them, and last September, a few weeks before I understood the fall shipment of Pappy to be going out, I called and put my name on the waiting list at said store.

            I never received a call that fall. I never received a call for the spring shipments. I stopped back at the store this past Saturday, and asked to be put on the list, thinking that they must have just screwed up the list last year. They wouldn’t let me put my name on the list this time – it was already several years’ of shipments long, and presumably I’m still on it from last year, even though it wasn’t so long at the time. They said their allotment for this fall is just 5 bottles; their allotment for last spring was, IIRC, 2.

            Doing the math, this means that in a given year, the entire state of New Jersey, with its roughly 9 million people, gets an allotment of roughly 80 bottles of Pappy per year. And that’s all vintages of Pappy combined.

  7. I’d invite you as eagerly as the others, but I can’t encourage anyone to move to Michigan without feeling kind of dishonest.

    More seriously, though, that does sound really stressful, and just a very awkward time to have to start talking about the issue. The best of luck to you both. And I totally second Tod’s suggestion of Portland. The U.S. has no more beautiful city.

    • Porlanders are their own breed of cat. I have friends that live in a “rural suburb”.

      Come to think of it, Will would probably get along very well with Andy.

  10. Jersey! Jersey has, uhh, well, ok not much. Though where we live there are at least still some farms. But we’re only an hour away from New York, Philly, and the beach! Less than that to the Poconos! And we’ve got the pharmaceutical industry, like the whole pharmaceutical industry [looks at news releases]….well, ok, we had the pharmaceutical industry!

    But The Wife and I have a lovely spare bedroom! And a four year old (well, she’ll be five by then) who would love nothing more than a real baby to take care of (okay, maybe not the best selling point)! And a dog that could be your dog’s twin!

    • Dude. Almost most pathetic sales job ever. Good save on the dog and kid at the end.

      I suppose when you’re trying to sell “Jersey”…

      • I suppose when you’re trying to sell “Jersey”…

        Oh, it’s on now! No one makes fun of Jersey except people from Jersey. Ya hear?!? NO ONE! Don’t think for one second you’ll get away with this, Cahalan! DO NOT FISH WITH NEW JERSEY!

        • DO NOT FISH WITH NEW JERSEY!

          Or if you do, stick to catch and release, because mercury poisoning’s a bitch.

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