Not happy in Florida -- any advice? (little long, sorry)

[JW10631]

Well, I’m really late to this thread…
Things are *not *perfect in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I live five minutes from the health club where the nut killed three women. The G-20 is coming and the city will have to shut down almost completely…of course, the lunatic protesters will be out and about. Governor $pendell wants a tax increase and vetoes each budget he receives without one. (I really dislike Philadelphia and their pols…a lot). As usual, property taxes are a contentious issue in Allegheny County and our dufus of a County Executive, who wants to be governor, is making it worse.

On the bright side, the Steelers kick off the NFL season in less than two weeks and training camp begins for the Penguins very soon. The new arena will open next year.

If I had to leave here, it would be to Florida, Georgia or Texas. I like Pennsylvania but I hate its politics. I’m almost 46 and I really dislike winter anymore. I can live without it.

Oregon is even farther from Pittsburgh than Florida. If you go there, a trip home will be more costly and less possible.

Could you come back here? Sure. I did. I left when I was 1 and came back when I was 32. I live where I was born and where my parents were born and raised. I grew up near Cleveland and I have no desire to ever live there again for a multitude of reasons.

My brother lives near Tampa. He has had some very bad times but now he has a decent job and enjoys living where he does.

Every place has its faults.

I could handle living around Miami-Ft. Lauderdale because I know my way around and my wife has a lot of friends there. As long as I could get DirecTV, I would be okay.

Thomas Wolfe said you can never go home again. BS. You can do what you want.

 

[whatevergirl]

Well, I’m really late to this thread…
Things are *not *perfect in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I live five minutes from the health club where the nut killed three women. The G-20 is coming and the city will have to shut down almost completely…of course, the lunatic protesters will be out and about. Governor $pendell wants a tax increase and vetoes each budget he receives without one. (I really dislike Philadelphia and their pols…a lot). As usual, property taxes are a contentious issue in Allegheny County and our dufus of a County Executive, who wants to be governor, is making it worse.

On the bright side, the Steelers kick off the NFL season in less than two weeks and training camp begins for the Penguins very soon. The new arena will open next year.

If I had to leave here, it would be to Florida, Georgia or Texas. I like Pennsylvania but I hate its politics. I’m almost 46 and I really dislike winter anymore. I can live without it.

Oregon is even farther from Pittsburgh than Florida. If you go there, a trip home will be more costly and less possible.

Could you come back here? Sure. I did. I left when I was 1 and came back when I was 32. I live where I was born and where my parents were born and raised. I grew up near Cleveland and I have no desire to ever live there again for a multitude of reasons.

My brother lives near Tampa. He has had some very bad times but now he has a decent job and enjoys living where he does.

Every place has its faults.

I could handle living around Miami-Ft. Lauderdale because I know my way around and my wife has a lot of friends there. As long as I could get DirecTV, I would be okay.

Thomas Wolfe said you can never go home again. BS. You can do what you want.

*haha Your post brought a smile to my face…I actually have been feeling better about things lately. My kids started school, and they are very happy with their teachers…my son wants to take Japanese tutoring lessons, and literally the tutor just sort of fell in our laps…my dd loves her guitar teacher…hubby is doing well at work…so am I…and most importantly, we have found a parish that we really love. Not just a parish that sits second rate to the one we belonged to in PA (we belonged to SS Simon & Jude in Greentree, I’m sure you’re familiar if you live that close to LA Fitness, we lived in Greentree/Bethel Park area, by the way) we actually feel just as home there, as we did in PA. It sounds maybe bizarre to place so much importance on that, but my family’s parish life is important to me. People wave to each other as they leave mass here…it is not a common occurence in Florida, needless to say. That might seem trite to some, but with my daughter’s confirmation upon us, I really need to belong to a parish that cares about its members…and this one, wow, I really don’t think God wants us to move back, is the message I’ve been getting. Ever since I posted this, random things have been falling into place…but with God, nothing is really random.

Soooo…it’s growing on me, I’m feeling more settled. I don’t think we’ll remain here for 10 years, but I could see ourselves here until our daughter finishes high school, we’ll see. I sometimes still miss Pittsburgh…it’s a hometown, and yes with its politics, it still brings a warm feeling to me when I think about the memories there. Ironically, I prayed recently about this…I said…Lord, if You wish us to move back to Pittburgh, please give me a sign. So…a few days passed, and my boss who I am close to…who I missed not working around, is moving from Pittsburgh to Nashville. He and his wife decided to put their house up for sale after living there their whole lives! How ironic? So, what would we be going back for? My husband’s mom, we really miss her…but what else? We don’t miss the weather, except I DO miss a nice fall day, raking leaves…but it’s so shortlived, right? lol Don’t miss the freezing rain and slush. Our old parish’s priest left I heard when we visited up there last month. So, it’s funny…things always seem to change. And no place is perfect. No job is perfect. But, we are building a life here, I’d say. I think my kids also take note of how I react to things…my husband commented on that to me. So, I don’t voice every thought I have…if it’s negative. But, as I have grown more positive here, they seem to follow suit…it’s interesting.

CHANGE, It’s the one thing that is a certainty. lol Thanks for your message here. GO STEELERS! *

 

[JW10631]

SS. Simon & Jude!

The pastor there was transferred to our former parish in Bridgeville last August. My wife asked him if she could put some EWTN television brochures in the brochure rack, as she had done with the permission of the previous two priests. She received a snippy “No! Absolutely Not!” So, we left the parish where I went for nearly ten years.

We also go to St. Regis in Oakland, where Dan Marino was an altar boy. They have the Mass in Spanish. My wife is from Colombia and we are raising our son to be bilingual. Padre Daniele welcomes the brochures.

We transferred to Holy Child. The 5PM Mass on Saturday and the 11:30 AM Mass on Sunday work better for us. Mike Aquilina, who works at Franciscan University and EWTN, is a parishoner there.

When my parents left Western Pennsylvania, my dad was homesick for years. My mother never was, or so she says. Eventually my dad grew tired of even going back to visit, as his extended family tended to annoy him on the few occasions he saw them. Many of them annoy me. My mother made many more trips to visit in PA than her brothers (both of them) have ever made to come visit her. She’s 69, her mother has been gone for 14 years and she really doesn’t care to make the trip anymore. I bring my family and my brother, who is divorced, brings his two kids to visit at her house.

Home is where you hang your hat and make the best of it. Sometimes you move to a place you don’t want to live in. I despised Washington DC, even though I made more friends there than anywhere else I lived, mostly because of distance from home and the cost of housing, which is terrible.

I’m glad things are going better for you in Florida. Summers can be brutally hot. There are bugs. Every few years, hurricanes hit somewhere in the state. I have cousins in Melbourne Beach whose home was damaged in one of the 2004 hurricanes and I don’t know if it has been completely repaired yet. People drive nuts there (they do in DC, too)
It sounds like things are getting better.

Just remember this…wherever you live, or go…you can take the guy/girl out of Pittsburgh, but you can never take Pittsburgh out of the girl/guy. Only a “yunzer” would understand.

You always have that.

**Here we go, Steelers! Here we go!
Let’s Go Pens!
**