New Chapter

Those of you who are my Facebook friends got the news yesterday, but I thought I'd tell the rest of you today. M and I have decided to move to Philadelphia when he's done with his art degree in June!

What prompted this move? Well, a lot of things.

Before what people are calling the "economic crisis" (but really should be called the Second Great Depression), we were pretty set on living in Long Beach forever. Then we watched housing prices go up and up until a two bedroom bungalow in our neighborhood (with no backyard to speak of) was almost $900k. M got laid off, I got a 10% pay cut. It started to look gloomy here in southern California.

I know that in my field, budget cuts here will have repercussions lasting well into the next decade. Academic departments whose budgets got slashed will be cautious about adding new positions. And those that are already in tenure-track positions nearing retirement will be less likely to do so because their pensions were affected by the crisis as well. It's a nation-wide problem, of course, but many people know that California was hit very hard. So we started thinking.

I have considerable student loan debt. We want to have a family one day. We'd prefer to have a house or condo that we can call our own in the next 5 years. That's going to be very tough here. We needed some place where there is a big concentration of universities and colleges, a decent publishing industry (M plans on putting his graphic design degree to use in publishing layout and design), and the real possibility of home ownership. Also, we wanted to have a decent support system. I think we could go it alone if we really wanted to, but both of us would be much happier if we moved somewhere we already had some friends. So Philadelphia seemed to me to be the logical choice. I brought it up to M and he'd already been thinking about it.

We'd have the big city we've always wanted to settle down in, the support structure of friends and family, and probably the biggest concentration of universities and colleges in a big city in the country. I'm not saying I'll get a tenure-track position there, but I'll at least be able to adjunct or work in other capacities on a campus.

We've been researching the situation in Philly for a few weeks. How much it costs to live there, what home ownership is like, how much it would cost to relocate. When we realized that we were totally in love with the idea, we decided to tell the parents. My mom first, since we're leaving here. She completely understood why we needed to move and what prompted it. She said she is sad that we're leaving, but knowing we'll be around M's family makes it something she can completely get behind. I think her exact words were, "because I don't trust any strangers to watch your babies. If it isn't going to be me, the only other people I'd trust would be R and J (Ms parents)." We called them last night, at the end of their Rosh Hashana dinner, so that the whole family could hear the news at once. Of course everyone's delighted.

So we're totally doing it! I'm gonna miss you California. And these next 8 months are going to be filled with visiting places I thought I couldn't live without, and places I should have seen (Griffith Observatory, I'm looking at you), people I'm going to miss. But I'm actually looking forward to wearing scarves and coats (I have cute ones I never wear). Having seasons. Living in the oldest big city in the country. Walking instead of driving. Being close to some friends I don't see too often. White Chrismukkahs. Fireflies.

I can't wait.