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morrigirlHeather wrote me an email the other day in which she commented on what a great group of friends we fell in with a college. She proceeded to rattle off a few names, and I realized that I did not consider some of the people she listed as being part of my group. They were definitely part of hers, but not mine and not ours. Made me realize that, while I definitely had a core group of friends at Knox made up primarily of the people I lived with first year, (Heather, Tina, Gayle, Lindsey, Mary, Dave. Depending on which of us you asked, we might throw in Bryce, Angie, Clark, Gemma, Katie, Sarah, Norman), I was also a member of other social groups that did not include anyone from my core. For instance, I got really friendly with the GIN and LARP crowd, thanks to Gemma and LJ. Also, during my super senior year, I fell in with the theatre crowd. Differing interests and activities gave all of us our own unique social circles. You can see it in our MySpace and Facebook profiles. Tina fell in with the art majors, Heather always seemed to like the pot-smoking hippie types, and though I was and still am friends with people from both of those groups, I never associated with them as heavily as Heather and T. So, "our" crowd is not uniform across the board, especially since most of our core disintegrated senior year. Since Mary, Lindsey, and Dave all sort of fell off (for me at least. Other people may still keep in touch with them, I don't know,) the core has become smaller; it isn't the same core that existed in 2001. I find this diversity of social groups fascinating; how a simple choice of, say, extra-curriculars changed the composition of what each of us considers "our" group.
On a completely unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot about domesticity over the last few weeks. One of my greatest aspirations in life is to make enough money to afford a real apartment; one with a kitchen and a bathtub. A living room would be nice, but is not entirely necessary. At present, you can find places like that in the Bronx for $850 a month and up. Right now I couldn't possibly afford more than $700 a month, and even that total would have to include all utilities. I figure if I keep my job and they continue to give me a 3% raise every year, I'll be 32 before I can afford an $850 apartment. And by then the cost of real estate in the Bronx will have increased and I still might not be able to afford such a place on my own.
It's really depressing to imagine living in my current place at the age of 32. It lacks so many basic necessities like a kitchen, and reliable heat, and enough room to invite more than one person over at a time. I really want to live in a place that I'm proud of, a place that doesn't require I move back in with my mother during the winter months. But, I just don't see that happening any time in the near future. In all honesty, I can't even imagine earning the amount of money required to shoulder that kind of rent. And it's not like I'm oppose to living with roommates, I just don't know anyone who needs or wants one, and I don't want to live with a stranger. This has gotten me kind of down recently. I'm an adult yet I lack the resources to actually live like one.
*snorts* I never thought I'd aspire to be domestic. I hate how cost of living, cost of college, and lack of job stability have lead to this extended adolescence that can stretch well into your thirties. Employed adults still have to mooch off their parents, live with five roommates, and work two jobs just to get by. There've been a lot of articles written over the last couple of years about how women are waiting later in life to have children and why they are doing so. The media usually points the finger at the women's movement saying it made women believe they could have everything they wanted when they wanted it when they really can't. That's bullshit. The truth is society does not currently offer people in their twenties and thirties enough financial security to sustain a family. I firmly believe that if life in general were more affordable to more people at a younger age, we wouldn't see as many women past their reproductive peak trying to conceive. That's just my take.
These days I dream of having a nice roomy house or apartment to call my own. I fantasize about it. I see myself lounging on the sofa in the living room and heating up pasta on the stove. I imagine soaking in the bath tub, and running down the hall to answer the phone before the person on the other end hangs up. I think of dusting furniture I don't own. I think of all this, sigh, and tell myself "One day. One day."
On a completely unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot about domesticity over the last few weeks. One of my greatest aspirations in life is to make enough money to afford a real apartment; one with a kitchen and a bathtub. A living room would be nice, but is not entirely necessary. At present, you can find places like that in the Bronx for $850 a month and up. Right now I couldn't possibly afford more than $700 a month, and even that total would have to include all utilities. I figure if I keep my job and they continue to give me a 3% raise every year, I'll be 32 before I can afford an $850 apartment. And by then the cost of real estate in the Bronx will have increased and I still might not be able to afford such a place on my own.
It's really depressing to imagine living in my current place at the age of 32. It lacks so many basic necessities like a kitchen, and reliable heat, and enough room to invite more than one person over at a time. I really want to live in a place that I'm proud of, a place that doesn't require I move back in with my mother during the winter months. But, I just don't see that happening any time in the near future. In all honesty, I can't even imagine earning the amount of money required to shoulder that kind of rent. And it's not like I'm oppose to living with roommates, I just don't know anyone who needs or wants one, and I don't want to live with a stranger. This has gotten me kind of down recently. I'm an adult yet I lack the resources to actually live like one.
*snorts* I never thought I'd aspire to be domestic. I hate how cost of living, cost of college, and lack of job stability have lead to this extended adolescence that can stretch well into your thirties. Employed adults still have to mooch off their parents, live with five roommates, and work two jobs just to get by. There've been a lot of articles written over the last couple of years about how women are waiting later in life to have children and why they are doing so. The media usually points the finger at the women's movement saying it made women believe they could have everything they wanted when they wanted it when they really can't. That's bullshit. The truth is society does not currently offer people in their twenties and thirties enough financial security to sustain a family. I firmly believe that if life in general were more affordable to more people at a younger age, we wouldn't see as many women past their reproductive peak trying to conceive. That's just my take.
These days I dream of having a nice roomy house or apartment to call my own. I fantasize about it. I see myself lounging on the sofa in the living room and heating up pasta on the stove. I imagine soaking in the bath tub, and running down the hall to answer the phone before the person on the other end hangs up. I think of dusting furniture I don't own. I think of all this, sigh, and tell myself "One day. One day."
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Date: 2007-09-29 01:40 pm (UTC)That's NYC in a nutshell. Even the Bronx is getting ridiculous. Good luck finding a nice 1-bedroom in a safe neighborhood for less than $900 these days. Although you could probably get a swell 2-bedroom and share for $1,200-1,400. I'm paying $700 with everything included now. I was dead-set on moving but I saw I could barely afford to do so at this point. I was hoping to move this year, but I'll most likely be 30 when it happens.
You could probably get a nice large studio for $700-800 near me, and that usually includes everything. I'll let you know if I hear of something.