A half-million dollar condo

There's changes in the wind...

Sue and I were out this weekend looking for apartments in Boston. We get so despondent. Sue found what looked like an apartment in Washington Square so we headed up into Coolidge Corner to look around. (The apartment was taken, anyway.) I don't know what I ever saw in that part of the city. We were grabbing a bite to eat, watching people go by on the sidewalk and I thought to myself, these are going to be be my neighbors. I've done the young, urban couple thing. I've done the push the baby carriage around. You get older, you change. Hopefully for the better, right? But I couldn't see myself having anything in common with most of the people we saw.

We walekd. And talked. And sat. And talked.

We saw a sign for an open house and went in. A condo for a half-million dollars. Good God. Just a normal abode in Brookline. Nothing that special. And what I thought about, as we trudged down the stairs was that, yes, it was a nice place, but I know what happens--if you have that kind of money to begin with.

At some point something happens. Something changes. Someone loses their job. Or a change happens at work. Or you change. And you not only have this monster mortgage, but you have condo fees and other bills including credit cards to furnish the condo in the manner in which it is used to being decorated because you can't just put some cheap fouton in the living room. And so you have to give up something really important in your life to pay those bills.

You compromise your dreams, your hopes, your values. And it gets to the point where you don't even know you're doing it. Or if you do you just get mad, or depressed, but you just do whatever it takes to keep that condo. You don't see your kids. Don't see your spouse. Work so hard under so much pressure that the love you once had in your marriage or your relationship just whithers.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Some people can deal with this, no problem. I can't. I couldn't. Didn't want any part of it then, don't now.