April 19, 2008

Yes, the rumors are true. Due to employment and financial concerns I can't discuss here, I am moving back (at least temporarily) to New York. I won't be leaving before May 20, though, unless that NYRA application gets approved in record time. In 2006, NYRA was having mass layoffs, due in no small part to the actions of then-attorney general Eliot "Job Killer" Spitzer. Now that Spitzer is unemployed and NYRA's contract to operate the racetracks has been renewed, they are hiring again.

Overall, the experience in my hometown of Colorado Springs was not what I was expecting. I never was able to afford my own apartment. The neighbor experiences I had with Pato Loco last year were as bad as having drug addicts for neighbors and (in one case 8 years ago) having a bipolar drug addict as a building superintendent. The combination of rent and car and (especially) food expenses vastly exceeded my New York expenses in rent and groceries and Metrocards. I spent 4 of 11 months on unemployment and got laid off by a very good job twice. I also got fired and blacklisted by the Colorado Springs chapter of Goodwill. I am still on the national Goodwill's "Member For Life" program, but I won't be able to use their services until I leave Colorado. I still miss my friends in New York, and hope to see them in just over a month.

I have a nice running car, but I may not be able to take it with me to New York. If that happens, I won't be able to do any Port Washington warehouse jobs (which pay 25-40% more than similar warehouse jobs here in the Springs). But presently, I can barely afford road trips to North Cheyenne Canon Park and Paint Mines Park and Manitou Springs- and those areas are far closer to Briargate than Bash Bish Falls, Montauk, the Hamptons, Port Jervis, and Greenwich are to New York City.

Too bad I can't go to New York this weekend; I would have liked to have seen Pope Benedict XVI in person.

Pictures of what I will be missing (top 2) and will be coming home to (bottom 3):