I dunno, it sounds like a hassle, but...you want to be in Cali long term, right Omnis? It sounds like it's more a place for you than Texas, from what you've said. And if this job has more place for advancement AND is paying more (even if only a little tiny bit to start)...

Having lived in CA and Texas, don't know if the costs will be as much higher as you think. Yeah rents and insurance and gas and taxes higher. But food costs lower and fresher. You won't have the air conditioning bills. (More than when I lived there but still less than Texas.) Not saying it won't be more expensive net. Just not only the cost changes will be one way, so the NET difference, though still substantial may be less than you think. On the other hand, deadlock is producing a meltdown in social infrastructure since you can't raise taxes to pay for any freakin thing in California right now, thanks to stupid supermajority requirements imposed over the years. Though I seem to remember Texas not being big on taxes either.

When I moved here from CA, my car insurance went from about $1800 to less than $900. I dropped the deductible to $250, beefed up the coverage, and added renters insurance for under $1,000. My rent is $400 cheaper per month for 125sq ft more. My gas expense went from $40/wk to $30/month.

My electric bill average about $30 a month in CA, here it's about $80.

Didn't notice a huge difference one way or the other with food. About the only thing was more time here to make lunch, and at old SoCal job, ate out all the time.

Over all, ya, saved money here in Texas.

I don't really know enough about CA and TX prices to help with that.

Should I ask my officemate if he can give me a ride out to the kosher supermarket so that I can buy Passover food? I need a ride, and he has a car and will probably be willing to drive me, but I'm not sure I can deal with having to explain what every item in the store is. I could take a Zipcar, but I'm a wimp about driving unfamiliar places without GPS. (Well, I'm a justifiable wimp about that -- I have no sense of direction, and once I'm off the grid system, if I turn onto an unfamiliar road, I pretty much just have to keep making random turns until I find a street I recognize. There are way too many roads between here and there for me to memorize the map.)

Hil, that's a tough choice. Do you think he will embarrass you in the shoppe? But then again, food is food. Does your phone have GPS? Or a laptop that is 3g enabled?

Oh man, Hil, that's tough. Because it would be a total field trip. Like the vampire tours in New Orleans. Washington Passover Tour! Would it help if you printed out google maps directions?

Heh. We seem to have run into a cultural miscommunication. Wallybee's father wanted to have a serious talk with her this morning. He's concerned about the amount of beer she's been drinking lately. He noticed there were several bottles in the recycling bin lately.

After she stopped laughing, she explained to him the concept of 'ginger beer'. Later that day, she found an empty bottle on his desk, along with an English-Chinese dictionary. She's still laughing about it.

Ask the officemate. Consider it as an anthropological experiment, only with him as the expermintee.

omnis, love, I have no idea what to say. In your shoes, I'd just wait for a sign or something, telling me to move.

I'm hungry and want to have lunch, but it's hot and there's stupid haze outside which makes it hard to breath. But I've been hungry for 20 minutes now, so I think I'll suck it up and go the 10 minutes back and forth to get myself sushied (following brilliant officemate suggestion).

And now, in the English Isn't My Native Tongue corner:

I currently have *no* in-roads

I have no idea what that means.

I think he means that he doesn't currently have any connections that would make it possible to break into academia, so this position would at least give him that access if he decides to go that route. But I'm sure Omnis will explain at a more reasonable hour.

I thought that's what he meant. But I have no idea what "in-roads" means.