Sass: My village is too expensive....

I'm trying hard to ignore and not stress out on the mondo-mess that is my apartment right now. I can't believe how badly 1,000 +/- square feet can get thrashed under the creative and capable hands of four children.

So I approach life and housecleaning this morning like a 12-stepper, one room at a time. But first, I need coffee. I make the coffee and grab a cig and head outside with the paper. The San Jose Mercury New's Real Estate section. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I even look? Well, because I thrive on the thought that someday I'll have a home of my own again. But I should just look at the pictures....but I haven't mastered the control to keep from looking at the listing price. This is what followed, "799,000 oh shit...1.2 million...oh shit.....oh wait, this one is only 569,000 but wait...I can't afford anything above 100,000." Ugh.

So move...start over someplace else right? Wrong. We did that in Ashland. Apparently any place that has even remotely low prices has a job market to match.

And more importantly, this is where our village is...you know...our parents and some of our siblings. They aren't in Ashland, unfortunately, because Lord knows I'd rather scrape by in Ashland than in California.

I feel like writing an angry letter to the newspaper. Maybe I should write subscription services and tell them I don't want the real estate section included in my paper, instruct paperboy to take it out.

And the shitty thing is our only chance to own a home out here is by inheriting it. So that comes down to this equation: own home=not having as many family members OR not owning home=having lots of family.

Obviously, we'd rather have our family.