Worcester's Yo-Yo

This weekend I shall move back to Worcester for the 2nd time since I have turned 18. I've managed to run screaming away from that city so often, yet still maintain a strange nostalgia about it my entire life. My family lives there and it's cost of living is considerably less than Boston. This time around should be better than the last time I moved back. I'll be staying in an apartment that my grandfather owns with my younger cousin. The commute sucks pretty bad, but the rent and utilities will save me hundreds of dollars a month which is what I need right now. I've been scraping and biting for so long trying to make ends meet in Boston, all the while making an okay salary in several fields I have no interest in pursuing as a long-term career. So, it's time to get my life and priorities in order. Money and cost of living need to be addressed, and next my career path will need to be addressed. More on that later.

As of now, my plans are to:

1) Live in the apartment for at least the rest of 2008.
2) Save the difference in money of what I'm paying now and allocate some of that savings toward lingering bills
3) Localize my freelance work and try to get some more writing gigs in the Worcester area
4) Weigh my options of relocation versus buying a condominium. Either of those will hopefully happen by next summer.

I do hope to start re-visiting some of my old haunts. Particularly the Java Hut and Coney Island hot dogs. I think the Java Hut may be closed due to poor management, but it usually gets bought and re-opened so I'll hold out hope. As far as my occasional junk food treat, who wants to meet up for a hot dog or cup of joe? I need re-integration.

Liberal Chicken, Conservative Egg Head

Which came first? On my commute today I pondered the statements made by several wealthy uncles of mine who are positive that all liberals eventually evolve into conservatives after the age of 30. Clearly taxes, gays and abortion takes on a new meaning once you've seen one third of a century. Clearly they've never been to Cambridge, Newton. I do understand they're observations of the many wealth middle-agers who may have marched in a demonstration or two in their earlier years and maybe even smoked some pot in the process. Those examples surely must be the Jones' down the street who are extremely concerned about and lose sleep over sex education in the class room and the terrorists poisoning their suburban water supply.

But, what is the human material that converted liberals are made of? Those are liberal chickens in my mind. They're the types that probably were so dewy eyed in their youth that any handsome or loudmouthed organizer that fed them chunks of liberal propaganda was suddenly the next Jesus Christ. I know that exact type when I think hard. I've met so many young men and women who go off to college and are caught up in the excitement of politics or social issues. The problem is their relatively sheltered existences before college have left their psyche's relatively fragile and pliable. This can lead to major self-discovery or an absolute burn out when that individual wants nothing to do with "the movement."

Maybe I am a liberal chicken. Maybe I'll cower and shrink from the liberal ideologues. I'm just concerned how I'll socialize as a new conservative. I definitely cannot afford to go to their gatherings at high end restaurants and gentleman's clubs. Maybe the conservatives can start a social welfare program helping liberal chickens to integrate into their new found political beliefs.
Of course illegal conservative immigrants would not get this benefit, because they cannot vote.

Just kidding. F*ck the man. I'm going to listen to the new Nas album :-)