It's easier to be poor by yourself. I spent a year mostly eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cereal and I enjoyed it. It was 2005 and a few months earlier I had just moved to unsavory but livable for the starving artists of our time, Bushwick but now I was moving out of my sublet with a fellow subletter and we were both poor. We moved further into the ghetto and 9 months later when we were robbed I would find that this new neighborhood came with a slogan of it's own "Bed Stuy, do or die." The police officers who came to investigate the break-in advised me to get the hell out and move to Queens.
Being robbed made me even more poor, because I ended up losing the only thing of any value I owned at the time, my Mac, which as a student needed replacing, and then because the reality of the fact that my neighborhood was unsafe moving became necessary. But, I didn't move to Queens, I moved to hipsterville and spent the next year wondering how I ever could have lived anywhere else!
Today I had to withdraw money for the first time since I got here. I wasn't exactly sure how much I had originally withdrawn but it had lasted about 3 weeks. I have three expenses here- groceries, wine, and cortados. I am hoping to stretch this withdrawal out for a month. Since my major expenses are groceries I think the days of $8 jamon serrano are over (it wasn't labeled so I didn't know). And lets face it, the wine budget probably needs to be tightened a little too.
I don't mind being poor this time, after all I'm safe, and I'm quite happy, but I started to think about being back in New York in January and I had been thinking of visiting Cambridge to visit friends and primarily to nosh at my favorite restaurant the East Coast Grill, but the reality is, I'd have to pay for the bus, and lets face it, at least 2 or 3 meals out at at least $25 bucks a pop- I probably couldn't afford to spend that kind of money. As a single teacher in New York I was making enough money not to have to think about a weekend away or occasional frivolous spending; my reality has changed considerably. Still the truth is, I'm far happier now than I ever was with money to spare. I was considering this and I figured, there is something to be said for living consciously- considering how you spend your time and money. I know my parents didn't have a lot when they first got married and had me, but I also think those were times when we shared the best memories. Maybe that's nostalgia talking, but we didn't spend our time shopping, in front of the tv or eating out, it was at the cottage trying to stand up on inner tubes and play air guitar or roasting marshmallows on the grill or the bonfire, or in someone's backyard at a bbq celebrating a birthday or holiday. My cousin Joey and I really knew how to have fun for cheap, we rummaged through his parents garage and found repair work that needed to be done - we painted the dog kennel, we put on carnivals for the neighborhood kid with big ears, and made flower arrangements with his mother's supplies selling them like hotcakes to the neighbors- our entrepreneurship never ceases to amaze me, I'm shocked neither of us have made our millions yet.
I guess my point is, in the 3 weeks I have lived in Valpo I've made more lasting memories than a lot of the time I spent in New York eating out and buying dresses. That isn't to say I didn't have a great 5 years in New York, because I did, spend an afternoon with my friend Jon and he'll end up dislodging a tooth during brunch and making a scene on the slip and slide when McCarren Park Pool was still a great way to spend your Sunday afternoon... but somehow everything is a conscious choice here and not a conveyor belt moving you forward without your expressed consent.
No comments:
Post a Comment