Y'all will get Youse to it

Being broke is kind of liberating if you think about it, but also really shitty if you think about it for a second more.

After what can only be described as a transcendent trip to Louisiana this summer to see my in-laws, Seth and I decided we would leave Philly, where we are having a hard time making ends meet, to move to New Orleans this May where he would finish writing his dissertation over the course of the next couple of years.  Since Seth's family is it's own population spike (he is one of 11 siblings), we were really hoping to take advantage of that whole "it takes a village" thing.  If we played our cards right, we'd only have to interact with our children every few days whilst we danced and drank our cares away on Frenchman Street.  I had even planned to jump back into the movie biz to boost our income from pitiful, to slightly less pitiful.

As it turns out, our logic was about as sound as this:
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We had the high-flying, carefree part of the move all settled...the cost?  Not so much.  So when we went to Buffalo, NY (my hometown) for the holidays we were sharing our good news with everyone who would listen- but all the while I had this creeping feeling in the back of my mind.  It was somewhat reminiscent of the time in 6th grade when I decided mid-day, that I wanted to have a sleepover at my house and told everyone to be there around 7.  I had not shared this fabulous idea with my Mom, who was LIVING in the midst of a slumber party every damn day with 4 girls (born in a row within 5 years).  I had to make a series of embarrassing phone calls to everyone explaining that there would be no party.  WELL...you see where this is going.  There will be no New Orleans.  We simply cannot afford it no matter how creative we get with our sum total of 800 dollars...that will all go to bills shortly.  We leave behind us a trail of shattered Aunties, Uncles, cousins, Grandparents, and friends...never mind our own broken hearts.  But we got the cart before the horse, and I guess we needed a reality check.

So wherever shall we go, whatever shall we do???  Well, my parent's have the retirement life they dreamed of.  They shuffle from their home where my Mom grew up (and where I grew up as well) in Clarence, NY, to their summer home on Lake Erie, and then spend the winter months in Florida.  That means they always have a house that is not in use in the WNY area (enter their adult-lescent child, Katie and her never ending pit of need).  They are renting us their empty home(s) while we knock out this dissertation in what I hope will be record time.  No dancing on Frenchman Street, and it's usually too cold for daiquiris- but I did grow up I good old B-lo and have lots of friends and family there- just not the kind that are pining to watch our kids all the time because they have kids of their own.  Movie job?  Well, it'll likely be a desk job or retail for me as the movie business is not as booming as it is in New Orleans.  This move just got a hell of a lot less sexy, but it also got a whole lot cheaper, and easier.  Don't get me wrong, I love my hometown, and I am happy to be going- it's just not under the circumstances that I would have liked.  We are literally beggars that cannot be choosers.

Poor us though, huh?  I mean we have TWO houses to live in, and lots of friends and family around, and a great city to rediscover, and a cool accent to hand down to my kids (if you are not familiar with the dulcet tones of the Buffalo accent, simply listen to a flock of geese- it might not be for everybody- but I love it).  So, while our dreams are in the Crescent City, our home will be in the Nickel City for the next two years.  Being broke sort of forces your hand to make decisions in the realm of reality, and sometimes reality is in Buffalo.  Hope to see youse guys there.