Yup, it's $1300/2bdrm apt. in most neighborhoods that I've checked out in and around the Boston area.

BigBobby - sounds like you have the ideal situation worked out. I'd talk about where I was planning to move to but am being cautious because I'm not sure if he'd find this and make something out of it during the trial. He is involved (somewhat) we're up to 6 hrs/week with 3rd party adult supervision after one year of DSS supervised visits. Yuck, a big ugly mess.

Anyway, I'm just trying to do my research upfront in case I do not get relocation and have to return to work in the Boston area. I'm also looking at going back to school again and getting another degree to go with my Chemistry degree that would make me more marketable after being out of the workforce for 4.5 years.

pooker - SAHM = stay at home mom and DD = dear daughter. Sounds like you have a good situation going for you.

I'm mainly concerned about the cost of living here. I keep paying taxes to drive over the same potholes every year?

Well I'd better get going and finish up some things tonight so I can be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the morning.

just testing image size. Lost the kid's feet? Darn. Oh well, I'll try again.

quote:

Originally posted by supplied01:
[qb] Yup, it's $1300/2bdrm apt. in most neighborhoods that I've checked out in and around the Boston area.

BigBobby - sounds like you have the ideal situation worked out.[/qb]

Well, if you did go back to school for a couple years, your child would be of school age when you graduated. Have you looked at federal student aid before? It might be worthwhile to find out how much they're willing to give you, and then decide if you can live on that amount.

Heh...if this was 6 months ago, I could have offered an $800/month apartment across the street from a college, but I have it rented now. Really, the average rent in Lowell is $800 for a 2br. It's far from Boston (30min), and it's less safe, but that's why you save $500/month

Jeez, when I went to school in Virginia, my rent was $300 for a 3 br...and that included heat!

Yeah, back when I went to school rent was $125/month on a 1 bdrm. But that was many, many years ago. lol

My mortgage is currently $1340/month and I live on the beach on the North Shore (not Revere) so you can imagine that I'm not going to leave this arrangement to move to an apt unless the stbx demands that the house be sold and I'm not allowed to relocate.

I'm figuring on a certificate course for upgrading skills since I already have a BS. I guess I'm trying to figure out what I want to do that is mentally stimulating but also have it be flexible enough to be there for my daughter. I'm hoping that that is not a pipe dream.

My confidence levels in myself and returning to the workplace have not returned completely. I've been isolated for the last 4.5 years with my daughter and made the one true terrible mistake of listening to the stbx when I should have been packing.

Too many variables. This is like trying to run an experiment with your hands tied behind your back.

I'm thinking of schilling out some bucks for a career counselor - but not sure if that's the route to take because I could probably do the same testing and analysis they'd do by just surfing the web.

BigBobby thanks for your imput.

http://www.careerplanner.com/

I just found this, google up some career counseling books/sites and I bet you can find something helpful. I remember long ago reading a book, it involved some worksheets and such and was quite helpful. Can't hurt, right?

Thanks Sue for the URL. I definitely check it out.

What a day today - how much snow did you guys get?

Anyway gotta go do the dinner thing again. I'll pm you later.

supplied, why not look at the programming side of the house? You probably already know enough about it from writing shell scripts and so forth. Tack on some programming skills to your sysadmin stuff and you'd expand possibilities exponentially I'd think.

We got closer to 10 inches than the 2-4 that were predicted!

From the looks outside, we got around 10 inches too. I can't believe they sent the kids to school this morning to close them at 12:30.

binarian: 1000posts = wow! You've been busy since the last time I was here...

Mine got sent home, too...........

Binarian - I've been eyeing those C and C++ books on my shelves and thinking the same thing. I should give it another wack and maybe try it again. Wish my confidence levels in myself were higher (I'm running on fear right now).

The first time around I wasn't too successful. I just couldn't wrap my brain around the programming - meaning I was never good at it so I let it go by the wayside and used shell scripting for everything.

I keep laughing at myself because I have a brother who is a PhD in mechanical engineering and was a PI at Sandia National Labs doing computational fluid dynamics who kept telling me I was being a silly girl for not catching on to programming easier. Do brothers ever give you a break? lol

Seems I've got every excuse in the book already formulated. Need to drop them and get me back in prime form to carry on the next set of instructions in life.

Sue and BigBobby - what the heck was up with that storm today? Snow, shoveling, rain and then some more shoveling. I'm beat. Going to bed, good book and sweet dreams.

C and C++ eh?? Jeez, that's too much like torture. Seriously, I had courses in those 2 languages in school (required) and they're excellent for teaching Object Oriented programming theory at least but I've always felt it took too long to get anything done, given today's business environment (light speed, get-it-done-yesterday). Because your skill set is grounded in Unix maybe take a look at Python, PHP or Perl. Or even (Gasp) look at the Microsoft .NET development. Graft some See-Spot-Run (read: very very basic) database access / XML skills on and voila, new career. I know I'm making it sound easy, and it probably wouldn't be, but it may be a good way to build on what you already know rather than start a-fresh in a new field. JMHO....

could be worse, you could have to use fortran like I did. lol, we used a UNIX to compile it. man that was a long time ago.

Torture is a nice word for C and C++. I looked into XML because I was thinking Technical Writer but then was talked out of it by someone who is a web goddess in every sense of the word.

I've done some PHP - mainly to run/maintain MySQL servers. Maybe I'll go back and check that out.

Love Unix hate MS (my sparc station was named IH8MS). Though MS .NET is a good idea. I think I'm going to stick with the 16 years of experience in scientific research. It was my one true love before I had my daughter (oops just dissed the stbx).

Paul - Fortran - memories of nightmares from college with that one. Instructor was an ESL (english second language) person. I actually prefer Unix compilers to MS GUI based ones just because I could follow the compilation progress and troubleshoot it easier.

Thank you both for your input. Wish I had the brains and confidence in myself to get back into the IT field but I don't right now. The scientific research I can do in my sleep so that would require less stress and confidence to go back into.

Gosh, Microsoft isn't all that bad, really...come over to the Dark Side, Luke...

Less stress is always good, especially when you're dealing with the Judicial System. I'm just coming out of that particualar dark tunnel myself, divorce is final Feb. 2 and it's movin' on time. Good luck with your stuff.

Paul, programming with Fortran is like programming with a hammer and chisel. Just too much work.