Hoping for a miracle. When dreams meet reality.  

My post about Washington D.C. was, in many ways, a foolish rush for advice. I don't think I can even afford to go to Washington D.C. to live. Working in politics doesn't pay well. Doesn't matter which campaign, which party, which job, when you are just starting out, you go through the campaign life with a trial by fire. The fire is the long hours that you will always work and the pay that is atrocious but gets higher and higher as you obtain more experience.

Last night I spent most of the night worrying, crying, and a bit freaked out about what I would do if I can't go to Washington D.C. There goes my job. There goes my plans until November. There goes my finances that allow me to pay all of my bills currently.

And finally there goes a dream I have been able to grasp, sometimes painfully grasp, since late June when I sold all of my furniture, packed 75% of my things into a storage unit, packed my car with essentials (and some non-essentials, ok, LOTS of non-essentials!), and moved to a city I had only experienced through a short layover in its airport.

I was called crazy, but usually in an envious sortof way. I mean who just ups and leaves their life, their friends, their city, nearly everything to them, for a short-term job that pays $400/week in one of the hottest places in this country? Me, that's who. It will remain one of the greatest decisions in my entire life.

Since I made that decision, a monumental decision, I have driven across this great country of ours. I believe I've been in 36 out of 50 states, most of the 14 remaining are here in the south (Alaska, which I would die to see, Wisconsin, and the Dakota's are the only non-southern states besides Connecticut and Delaware up in the northeast). I was going to cross two more off when I returned to NEW HAMPSHIRE to get my car to make the drive to Washington D.C. But that might be a drive I won't ever make.

I have a rather large car payment, a student loan payment that I just started making in November (around $330/month), cell phone bills, and other 26 year old types of bills. But my car payment and insurance are almost $500/month (I overpay my car payment by around $30/month) and have a ridiculously high interest rate-ahhh the joys of being young. I haven't had to pay rent since June and that has been my lifesaver. A $500+ rent payment, not including utilities, plus a Metro pass, plus a possible bus pass would leave me with basically no money.

No rent allows me to have some extra money to spend (such as a one day pass to Disney World). Most importantly, it allows me to have a cushion that I haven't ever really had. I remember the days of $1.00 account balances and overdraft charges and calling mom for money. I hated doing that, but it was nice knowing I would never find myself in a financial bind my parents couldn't help release me from.

I was naive and stupid to think I could survive off of my income for more than a few months and most certainly without free rent. I guess all dreams must end, I just thought I could make mine last a lot longer, hell, even a lifetime.