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Oy… what a week. Yeah, so I’m typing this from a client’s office while I wait for some updates to download. It’s about the only free time I’ve got these days. It’s been a hell of a week, but I’m looking forward to some semblance of normality returning around Monday.. although not for very long, since I’m moving before the end of this next month.

So what’s been up? Well, as I suppose many of you know, Natalie’s mom had a fairly major operation this week, and has been in the hospital since Monday. This has meant a lot fo car-juggling, since I’m depending on the car for work, and Natalie needs it to deal with her mom. Normally we’d be able to count on Natalie’s mom’s car to even things out, but in a particularly poor example of planning ahead, we hadn’t counted on that car having its license expired since last month, so no one’s willing to drive it for any real use, especially not between here and Dorado. That should be fixed early next week, though. In the meantime, if I thought it was a hassle having to juggle the car while we were all here in the Metro area, it’s gonna be 10 times worse juggling the single car between here and Dorado.

Still, Natalie’s mom finally got out of the hospital today, so that’s a good thing, Natalie’s taking her home tonight to rest and start recuperating. Apparently the operation went off without a hithc and she’s recovering very well. Thanks to everyone who sent their nice thoughts and goodwill during this past week.

In the meantime, the week for me’s been hellishly busy with work and everything, and to top it off I came down with a really nasty cold that kept me useless all of yesterday (though I got a much needed break from work). I’m feeling much better today, though.

Finally, we’re still working on moving out. We’ve found a few apartments that look pretty nice, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that just switching to another apartment won’t fix anything, really. Our main problem is still the lack of money. I do earn a decent amount, but due to my bills, I end up broke at the end of every month. I don’t get to save so much as a single red cent in between every month, it *all* goes to paying bills, rent, and keeping us fed and sane. Moving to another apartment would possibly ease some of the stress we’ve been having with this apartment lately, but it wouldn’t do squat to solve the money problems. If I could get a raise or maybe a higher paying job, that might help, but in order to do that, I need to get some more certifications, and the tests for those certs run in the $100-$200 range, money which I simply don’t have right now.

So, what are we going to do? Well… as much as it pains me to even consider it, since its something I really, really didn’t want to have to do, I think we might end up moving in with Natalie’s mom in Dorado. It’s really only a 20-25 minute drive away, pretty manageable (hell, I did that drive practically twice daily when I first started dating Natalie, and didn’t think twice about it), and the house there has room for all of us. Of course, finding where to put our current furniture from the apartment (especially our big bed) would be one hell of a hassle. And I know Natalie’s mom is not too fond of the ratsies. But she’s allready said that she’d be thrilled to have us stay with her, and I did the math, we’d be saving anywhere from $400 to $600 a month by doing this.. money that we can use to pay off at least one of my debts completely in just 2-3 months, as well as money I can use to pay for the tests for my certifications, so I can be in a much stronger position for demanding a raise or looking for a better paying job. And once that debt’s out of the way and I have my certs, that’s money that can be put away in the bank monthly, to save for getting us the hell off the island. There’s really no future for Natalie here on the island, they don’t teach what she wants to learn, there’s no job opportunities in her chosen field, and even if she were to stick around and study Graphic Design, her fall-back option, it would take her nearly three years to finish those studies, only to maybe qualify for a job that pays $7/hour if she’s lucky. No, I prefer to swallow my pride, I think, and go to Dorado and save that money so we can move to NYC, which should take us maybe a year, possibly less if I get a raise. There, she has a really good chance of getting into John Jay, and there’s bound to be much better job opportunities for her. And hopefully, with my new certifications, there should be slightly better job opportunities for me as well. Plus, if she does do the John Jay thing and gets a decent paying job, maybe finally we’ll be able to afford for *me* to go back to school and get a BA.

Our only other option is to either stick it out at the apartment or find another apartment and keep living like now, barely paying the bills from month to month, with no funds left over to pay for anything, be it extra certs so I can advance my career a bit, or even to pay for any studies Natalie might want to settle for here. I know some of you absolutely love Puerto Rico, and think that NYC is the hellhole from which all human evil spews forth, but, frankly, the more I look at it, the more I see that there’s no real future for me or Natalie here on the island. Our only shot to make something of ourselves lies in being able to get out of here and going to the one place where they teach what Natalie’s always wanted to learn, and that’s NYC. If that requires me swallowing my pride and moving in with her and her mom in Dorado for a year or so, it’s a sacrifice I’m perfectly willing to make.