Our Year in Vestal, NY

So after all that had happened, with the fire capping things off (see previous post) we decided to move.  My first and foremost goal was to find a place that felt safe.  We found a reasonable apartment in a very nice area right near Binghamton University in the town of Vestal - I still remember the name of the complex - it was Holly Brook Apartments.  Luckily by now I had a somewhat decent job and so we could afford a place that was a little more expensive.  I believe the rent was $420 but it didn't include utilities.  (The heat and hot water were electric - oh little did we know how expensive those would turn out to be!)

Now when I say a "somewhat decent job" what I mean is that I had a job in a secretarial pool, at a company called Keith Clark that was an HOUR commute from where we lived, and the pay was about $10/hour (minus the innumerable quarts of oil I had to put in my putt-putt car each week to keep from blowing the engine).  On top of it all, here I was with my new college degree in graphic design working as a secretary.  I certainly wasn't looking into administrative careers, but through an interesting chain of events, I wound up getting hired for the secretarial pool, which in life, ended up working out better in the long run I think.  And it was better than the crappy job I had, so I took it.  (Previous to this I had first worked for Artistic Greetings doing endless hours of data entry typing people's addresses in off little mail in forms.  Then I worked for a publishing company called Haworth Press where they paid insultingly low salaries with crappy, unaffordable benefits.)
 
Believe it or not, somehow we managed to pay all of our expenses out of this, plus what we owed on DH's education as well.  Can you see why we lived on bread sandwiches and Hamburger Helper?  If we were really lucky, sometimes we had $10 left over at the end of the week and we'd get a pizza, or, go to Ground Round and get an order of chicken wings and glasses of water. 
  
We also really could hardly afford to use the heat or hot water - if any of you have had any experience with electric heat/hot water you know it is EXPENSIVE!  The power company used to offer a few cents off for electric usage after 11pm and before 7am, so we used to run our dishwasher late at night and I'd try to take my shower before 7am to save a few pennies.  DH used to type his computer assignments wearing gloves to keep his hands warm.  On the weekends in the winter it was too expensive to turn the heat up (we used to keep it at 55) and too cold to be out, so we would literally spend the weekend in bed, under the covers, watching tv.  For Christmas that year, my MIL gave us as our Christmas present, the money to subscribe to the "Gold" cable package so at least we'd have good movies to watch all winter, wasn't that sweet?  My parents would come to visit and my Mom would bring meat (like roasts and stuff!) and toilet paper.  She'd always say something like, "Oh I got these great deals I couldn't pass up, but I have no room for any of this, so I thought maybe you could use it..."  But we knew they were trying to help us, and we sure did appreciate it!
 
Finally DH graduated his degree in Computer Science and got a job in Tarrytown, NY.  So we moved back to our hometown area and started a new chapter in our lives - saving for a house and then having a baby.  I was very glad to be on to the new chapter.  We had some good times and learned some good life's lessons in Binghamton, but those were some tough years.  I wasn't too sad to see them go. 
  
In fact after that, I couldn't eat Hamburger Helper for years, after eating it so much.
 
However, we definitely still remember each time we say grace how appreciative we are to not HAVE to eat Hamburger Helper and that we have the money to buy the food we'd like to eat, and the money for heat and A/C and basic stuff many take for granted.  We are very, very thankful to have what we have.
 
The end.