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Overwhelmed
Feb. 24th, 2026 02:26 pmI spent the last couple of weeks actively pursuing finding a new place to live aggressively enough that I got preapproved for a mortgage and twice went on property tours with John's mom, who conveniently enough is a real estate agent.
Unfortunately, most of what I learned is:
Burlington is expensive.
I'd have to move at least 30 minutes away for the prices to drop appreciably.
I don't have any idea where else I'd want to live.
My parents are willing to put up some money to help me with a mortgage.
Even the most expensive place I looked at that I -might- be able to afford was a fixer-upper...that I might not be able to afford.
This left me feeling very busy and stressed basically all the time, and I hated it.
I've since found a place across the river that's renting out apartments. They have a waiting list, but I'm not in a rush. So I think I may apply to that. I feel a bit bad that I'm kind of shutting John's mom out after all the help and education she gave me (she doesn't handle rentals), but it basically doesn't seem as though anything I could definitely afford would be a place where I'd want to live.
A couple of weeks ago work announced that starting sometime in Q2 they're going to require hybrid employees to go into the office four days a week. This announcement provoked over 500 comments in under 24 hours, most of which went the way you can probably anticipate. The comments that didn't go in that way tended to prompt strong responses from others. This morning they did a livestream where corporate explained their reasoning, and it felt a lot like total bullshit. They mentioned conducting surveys and focus groups for months, but I suspect none of those involved (gasp) talking with the employees who will actually be impacted by this.
After knowing him for years and more recently getting fed-up with his inability or unwillingness to ask me how I was doing without diving into talking about his new job ad nauseum, Alex blocked me when I told him I needed some space from him until he could find it within himself to take an active interest in me. He claimed I was dictating to him and that he'd planned to ask me how I was doing, which is a little hard to believe given that he hadn't asked me that since at least December. Anyway, we hadn't been close in a long time, so if he's going to throw a shit-fit over that request, then...adios, amigo.
Unfortunately, most of what I learned is:
Burlington is expensive.
I'd have to move at least 30 minutes away for the prices to drop appreciably.
I don't have any idea where else I'd want to live.
My parents are willing to put up some money to help me with a mortgage.
Even the most expensive place I looked at that I -might- be able to afford was a fixer-upper...that I might not be able to afford.
This left me feeling very busy and stressed basically all the time, and I hated it.
I've since found a place across the river that's renting out apartments. They have a waiting list, but I'm not in a rush. So I think I may apply to that. I feel a bit bad that I'm kind of shutting John's mom out after all the help and education she gave me (she doesn't handle rentals), but it basically doesn't seem as though anything I could definitely afford would be a place where I'd want to live.
A couple of weeks ago work announced that starting sometime in Q2 they're going to require hybrid employees to go into the office four days a week. This announcement provoked over 500 comments in under 24 hours, most of which went the way you can probably anticipate. The comments that didn't go in that way tended to prompt strong responses from others. This morning they did a livestream where corporate explained their reasoning, and it felt a lot like total bullshit. They mentioned conducting surveys and focus groups for months, but I suspect none of those involved (gasp) talking with the employees who will actually be impacted by this.
After knowing him for years and more recently getting fed-up with his inability or unwillingness to ask me how I was doing without diving into talking about his new job ad nauseum, Alex blocked me when I told him I needed some space from him until he could find it within himself to take an active interest in me. He claimed I was dictating to him and that he'd planned to ask me how I was doing, which is a little hard to believe given that he hadn't asked me that since at least December. Anyway, we hadn't been close in a long time, so if he's going to throw a shit-fit over that request, then...adios, amigo.
