June 10, 2004.
That will be my last day working for The Dispatch.
How bittersweet.
June 10, 2004.
That will be my last day working for The Dispatch.
How bittersweet.
It’s bitter because I’m leaving a town and a workplace that I’ve grown to love.
It’s sweet because my wife and I are packing up and headed for Boise, Idaho – a place we believe will fulfill some dreams.
Dreams. Remember those? Often we get so bogged down in our everyday grind, we forget we had them. I’m dead set on living mine.
So before anyone thinks I’m off to work for The San Jose Mercury News, or The Pinnacle, let me end the rumors here. I’m going to let you in on a dream:
My wife and I met in Tokyo, Japan, where we both taught English for a handful of years. She was from eastern Canada. I was born and raised in Southern California.
To make a long story short, soonafter we met, we fell in love and decided we would wed and take up residence in my neck of the woods. Since her teenage years, Christine had always been California dreaming.
So ours felt like a great idea.
I would pursue a writing career, she would get work as a teacher and we would buy a house. Nothing extravagant, just a cute little house.
Unfortunately, when we were busy falling in love in Japan, the economy skyrocketed in America. What was a $250,000 home when I left the U.S. became a half-a-million-dollar starter home upon my return.
Reality let loose and crushed our dream.
In Boise, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom, 1,800-square-foot homes run between $150,000 and $250,000. Not a drop in the bucket, but certainly affordable.
We tried to make our dream happen in Gilroy. We looked into a beautifully designed affordable housing project at Church Street and Trimble Court.
However, “affordable” right now means $450,000 with $170 per month homeowners association fees.
OK, I’m exaggerating, the house would cost only $448,000. But even after thousands of dollars of no interest down payment loans, our monthly mortgage would have been close to $3,000.
For a teacher and a reporter, that steep a “rent” could only be paid by taking in a boarder – not part of the dream.
“Welcome home honey, what would you and the renter like to have this evening for dinner?”
No thanks.
So now my plan is to find work with a reputable newspaper in or around Boise. My wife has already found work with the Boise school district. Our deposit on the affordable, adorable yellow house in Gilroy has been pulled.
Gilroy loses a reporter and a teacher to another state. The reporter and the teacher lose one very hospitable community with a whole lot of good cooking going on.
But I leave Garlic Town with renewed dreams, having enjoyed one heck of an everyday grind.
Thanks, Gilroy.
