Well, it's done and over with, but I am no longer living in Springfield. I'm also no longer living with Chris. And Pink and Chloe have been separated. It kind of sounds unpleasant, but it's not really that bad.
It all started in May, when Hector, our landlord, gives me a letter saying that he would be selling the townhouse that we were living in. He said that he would give us the first chance to purchase it if we were interested. Well, since I absolutely HATE moving (more on that later), it was really in our best interests to try and buy that townhouse.
Well, firstly, Hector's timing was perfect! Perfectly timed at the wrong time. His letter came in mid-May, just when my work is the busiest! I really did not have much time to even worry about that house because I had to put in so many hours at work. I mean, between all of the school-year-end picnics, dinners, and graduation itself (don't even get me talking about Reunion the following week), I barely had time to breathe. So, I basically just took the information in stride and decided to deal with it when work had slowed down.
Part of the problem was that Hector wanted us out of the house by the end of June. So, about mid June, Hector gives us a letter saying that according to his market research, he was advised to sell his townhouse for $ 230K. Well, I decide to do a little market research on my own, and pretty much decide that, according to sales in the neighborhood, the house wouldn't sell/appraise for much more than $ 200K. We call Hector over to discuss that, and he basically balks.
See, $ 200K was probably all I would want to afford on my own. I certainly was not going to go into some sort of partnership ownership with Chris. I'm not sure what he would qualify for anyway, but taking a chance to fuck up my credit was simply not going to happen. So, since $ 230K just wasn't going to happen, we had to look elsewhere.
I had mentioned to Chris several times over the past 5 years that I would be willing to relocate anywhere half way between my work and his work. And I'm not sure he even looked in that area. But, he did say that he had signed up to rent a room at a townhouse in Centerville, and that I should consider moving out there.
Now, when I dated Kim, way back when, I frequently visited her in Centerville. It was at least a 20 minute trip from our old house. And that would have made at least a 40 minute trip to work each way. I just wasn't going to submit myself to that. So, I let Chris go. It was an amicable split -- we're still friends (albeit a strained friendship right now -- more on that later). But we had to separate the girls. Yep, for the first time in their lives, Pink and Chloe were going to be apart from each other.
There's a potential amount of Kitty Stress that's just going to have to happen in this situation.
