GPT

 CHAT Getting a Place Together (lol)

   I have a nice place, already.   It’s in Berkeley, and there are x factors, at the least, in favor of it.   One, the weather.   Two, it’s only $750, with wifi and including utilities.    Three, it’s rent controlled.   Four, I have free dental in Berkeley.   Five, my family lives in the Bay Area.   Six, I have nearby dogs I walk  (Snoopy, Shelby, and sometimes Kaleb, Rover, Junie, and Duke).   Seven, I use Kaiser here, and libraries, and Cal, and KALX, and restaurants, and Bart, and….  Eight, there’s a lot of Bay Area possibility I haven’t tapped yet.  And Nine, I’m happy here and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.   

That said, K needs a new place by the 20th (9 days: within a week, basically).    

  1.  Edgar said she could stay with me for a week (what I asked for;  maybe, she could stay longer, if necessary).    Edgar gets back 8/28th, and can negotiate rent with K (if she wants to stay here with me) then.  She was paying $300.    She offered $600, this time (a month).  So HERE is a temporary solution, and can become a longer term one, at the end of next month.  But we would prefer our own place to a shared house. 

  2. If K and I move somewhere new together, we can both pay rent, defray each other’s costs, and help each other out, in an economic partnership of sorts.   I get $412 SSI and $790 SSA,  (total: 1202 monthly, or 14,424 yearly), and she has a full-time, minimum wage, job as a checker at Grocery Outlet, in Napa, that she can get a referral and transfer from (but have to start at the bottom all over again :-(.   So either I would need to move to Napa, or she would need to move someplace she has a job lined up (probably Grocery Outlet), such as in San Leandro.   Grocery Outlet has a website that lists all their locations.   I have RENT.com and craigslist.com that can make targeted housing searches, based on location, budget, number of bedrooms, etc.  OR, K could live near me, here in Berkeley.  But the commute to Napa isn’t TOO prohibitive, thank God (at least, not as bad as most people imagine).  K lives near the bus stop, and I live near Bart.  My 1200 and her 2300 (say) means we have a budget of a $1800 unit, maybe.

   3. “Out of State” : Because California is so blessed, the powers of evil are angry, and so a cloud of doom and gloom hangs over the sunshine state, and God is telling people to go North, according to one version of the story.  My ex and her family moved to Portland (Oregon).  K wants to go to Washington (state).  I read a book where the North is lush and the south becomes a wasteland (with a mysterious well…you know it?  Can’t recall title, author...oh, Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer).  Anyway, Tacoma? is a possibility, K likes.  I’ve never been to Washington.   Another version of the story is there are bad people in California we need to be safe and get away from.  I prefer the carrot to the stick.   She wants to live by the shoreline, and the beauty of living on a beach far outweighs (in my mind) a possible threat from unknown dangerous criminal types.  In any case, I don’t want to move into danger zones, like paths of Hurricanes, or forests that could burn, or what have you.   I don’t mind living in an earthquake zone like SF, though.  I can’t stand heat and have no experience in blizzards, either.   I’m an Eagle Scout, but that doesn’t mean I should move someplace more difficult!   Davis or Sacramento Summers?  f that.

   4.   Until we (both) get our finances figured out, we can support each other and live in a temporary situation, “For A Minute,” as K says.  It could turn out to be a long minute, lol.   But I’m happy being around Kelli, so let’s see what happens.  Motivated, dedicated, ooh rah.