Thirteen Hours in the Future!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

"Dog is good, cats are good. Life is good. Don't move to Pittsburgh!"

The question on everybody's fingertips, or so I'd like to think, is when am I coming home. Someday, I know, I will leave Japan. I'm thinking maybe around November. The real problem comes with finding out exactly where home is now.

Option A: Boston

-I have friends there
-something like a network for finding a job; I'm pretty much set to start teaching high school in Boston; I just don't know if that's my future.
-Boston loves beer
Downside: I know Boston. I lived there and I love it. In other words: been there and it was really expensive.

Option B: NYC

-Center of the known universe. The heart of the creative world in which I someday hope to florish.
-Fascinating people and a flatout beautiful city. Everytime I visit it's harder to leave.

Downside: Expensive is no longer the word. I hear the new Webster includes "New York" as an adjective meaning ridiculous to even imagine affording. ex. "a New York apartment"

Option C: Pittsburgh

-Make the folks happy. They ain't getting younger, and I do miss them.
-Affordable. I could have a huge one-bedroom in a nice part of town for the price of my old Brighton share.
-I assume a good community for poets (Pitt's there after all). But I'm guessing if your not a student, you're a townie.

Downside: I'll likely want to kill myself after the first six-months of not having any luck finding a decent job and basically struggling just as much as I did in Boston, likely shelling out coffee again too. Not to mention I'll live less than an hour from my parents. An hour!

Option X: Unknown U.S. City

-Fascinating arts and music scene
-Low rents because the Matrix-esque yuppies haven't found this Eden yet.
-I'll be able to find a decent job or at least get by on my savings and have plenty of time to write and study up in the 12-story local library.

Downside: it's an unknown city, likely (if at all existent) to be found in a parallel dimension.

So that's your homework my fans in cyberspace. Tell me what the hell I should do. I want New York so bad I can taste it, but I don't want to work my ass off for $12 an hour anymore just so I can barely make rent.

Teach me oh wise friends.

Peace and Love from the Far East. Japan is still great. I've been writing and I have a poem coming out pretty soon in Word Riot. I'll keep you posted.

-Steve