Adapting to Springfield

After four years living in the Puget Sound area north of Seattle and moving back to Springfield, I had a whole new appreciation for the sparse population of the area, the clean air and light traffic. That was in October of 2016.

Now it's the end of April, 2019 and I find myself once again talking out loud (not yet yelling) to other drivers on Wabash, MacArthur and around town, as they linger too long at green lights, fail to use their turn signals, decide to turn left from a parking lots onto busy four-lane streets with no traffic lights, hesitate to merge into my lane in front of me until I'm forced to almost stop even though they have plenty of space, and so on. It seems my memories of near-death experiences and traffic jams on Interstate 5 along Puget Sound and through downtown Seattle are fading from memory.

Why am I back in Springfield?

Downtown Seattle from the
top of the Space Needle.

How long has it been since I was back from Washington State? One week or two? Every day here in Springfield washes into the next. It's the same routine. I've been looking at jobs here and out west still.

I had a Hell of a time trying to find an affordable apartment in the Pacific Northwest. I looked on the Internet and used apps on my iPad to find well-recommended and affordable studio apartments, but after finally flying out and spending a week visiting those places, none of them had the affordable units available. The people I spoke to said those units were occupied and then they offered me a more expensive unit. I was very disappointed.

The lessors I visited all said that they rent to people who have been employed steadily for six months. They all quoted me rates of $730 to $750 per month and then told me that monthly income must be at least three times rent. If that's the case here in Springfield with my previous job, I would only be able to afford rent of about $330.00 which is one-third of my net income from the state of Illinois' minimum wage after deductions, and that's if I am allowed to work a full forty hours per week! Most minimum wage work is part-time. I just don't understand business owners are so callus about the lives of their employees. They appear to only see payroll expenses.

I also spent several days applying for jobs in the Pacific Northwest. Most of the prospects replied that they would keep my application, but to contact them once I get settled out there. So, there's that catch-22 situation. Lessors want tenants who are already employed and employers want local tenants. I could get a cosigner, but there is no guarantee that my job prospects will come to fruition before my cosigner is slapped with debt. I refuse to put family at risk. It sickens me that some people are so eager for tenants to risk the financial health of their families.

So I come back to Springfield and sit here in my room day after day, continuing to apply online for jobs. I'm beginning to think that job boards like Careerbuilder.com, Monster,com and other job sites don't get solicited by employers, but instead these job boards go fishing around employer websites for open positions and then post them on their own boards. I received automated responses that appear to be from the employers, but I think they are fake, because I think I heard from one original employer in the last month and had only one interview.