Why, You Ask?

to answer Michele's question about why we decided to move to Minneapolis, there are three major reasons:

1) the housing market in boston and massachusetts is unreal. right now, phillip and i live in a "upscale" neighborhood (that's a laugh) and pay $1,100 a month for a 200 square foot studio. ok, let's be generous and say it's 250 square feet. i think you get my point - it's teeny. unless you want to have three or four roommates, what we pay is pretty cheap. and they are raising the rent $50 in february, and some jackass will pay it, too! when i lived in allston i paid what i'm paying now ($550/my half) and i lived with three other guys. our rent was $2,600 split 4 ways, depending on the size of the room we had, with no utilities included. it wasn't a bad situation because the guys i lived with were cool, but many times people aren't so lucky. if you don't believe me about apartment prices, just click here. my boston friends say "why don't you just live in (enter suburb name here)?" and my answer is ALWAYS "no way. we're not suburb people." plus, we don't own a car and there's very little (if any) public transportation out those parts. but let's say for the sake of argument there is. that factors in an enormous commute with bus and train passes costing upwards of $35 a month, which leads me to my next point.

2) quality of life. life in boston is no longer fun, stress free, or bearable for us. everything is too expensive. rent is too much, food is too much, and entertainment (what's left of it) is too costly. yes, there are MANY free things to do in boston, but to be honest, we've either done them or we're not interested (read: fun family and kid friendly crap). the scene we used to love has gone down the toilet. the clubs we used to frequent have closed and there's not many other choices for "our type" of people. yes, we can go out and see live bands every day of the week, but that's $10-15 a person. it's just no fun when you have to shell out $50 a night to have some drinks and see a show. i know that it will be cheaper in other parts of the country, namely Mpls because boston is the most expensive city in the US at this point. and we're just falling deeper into the debt hole every day that we live here. this makes us depressed and stressed and our quality of life takes a big, fat, nosedive.

3) the job market and opportunities are in the toilet. at my job, there's a wage, hiring, and promotion freeze. that means that i will not be advancing in my position anytime soon, if ever. so why stay with a company (that happens to be run by the government) if i'm going to be making the same (tiny) wage in 5 years that i'm making now, all while the cost of EVERYTHING rises? no way. i can't do it. sure, you're saying i can just find another job that pays more in boston and make that move. i suggest you go back and read the first sentence. and then read it again. and check statistics if you're still not sure if i'm being truthful. the job market in the twin cities is flourishing and i'm looking forward to taking advantage of it. that will allow me to save more money to do the things that we would like to do. seriously, i get all excited thinking about how i'll be able to afford my rent even if i have a retail job! here in boston, i can barely pay my rent and i make "good money". hell, i was contemplating about picking up a retail job just to make ends meet. instead, i opted to work 7 days a week at my regular job. and that is sucking the life right out of me. it's a catch 22. and i can't win.

so in summary, the reason to move to Minneapolis is simple. there are jobs that allows career advancement and a paycheck that will allow us to save for the future. with this job and a city that has reasonable rents, we will be pretty much guaranteed a higher quality of life than we have in boston right now. and that, my friends, is what's most important. if we stay in boston one more year we'll be in financial ruin and probably divorced. and neither of us want that.

i'm sure you don't want that for us either.