Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The [Redacted] Plan

A few months ago I talked about my Chicago Plan, which, due to many factors, is on hold. However, two Fridays ago, while Harley was out sick, I received the following phone call:

Annie: Hello, this is Annie speaking, may I help you?
Dr. F: Hi, Annie, this is Dr. F from [former place of work], and I am calling to let you know that we have a position coming open. What is your current work situation?
Annie: Well, I currently have a job in New York, but I would consider moving.
Dr. F: Ok, it is doing [dream job] in [former place of work], I'll email you when the official job posting goes up, but we'd like you to apply.
Annie: Alright, thanks so much. (air punch)

So, [redacted location] is very close to my parents and my (newly-engaged, hooray!) brother. It is cheaper, the job is amazing, I could go to grad school and procure for myself some saleable skills.

The cons? CJ is in New York. There is not so much young, Orthodox Jewish life in [redacted location], ONE kosher restaurant that is accessible without a car, and ONE Orthodox shul located near very expensive real estate. Additionally, as I am shomer shabbat, it becomes difficult to maintain a long-distance relationship. My elder brother did the [redacted location] to New York thing, as his fiancee was in school here (I just like saying fiancee), but they aren't shomer shabbat, so they could travel on Friday afternoon after work, making visitation easier.

I blame this predicament entirely on Orthodox Judaism. Reasons:

1) I need saleable skills so that I can make over $100k a year to: pay for Jewish Day school, save for retirement, save for college for my children, be able to live near a shul (always expensive), afford kosher food

2)The aforementioned difficulty of travelling between places if you are Shabbat observant.

3)One of CJ's problems with relocating to [redacted location] is the lack of Jewish life/kosher food.

Basically, Orthodox Judaism=LAME.

Update: Apparently art does immitate life, in both Gilmore Girls, and 30 Rock, the (female) lead has to contend with the issue of taking a significant other into account when making job-related location decisions.

Update again: A friend just told me that a group of people in [redacted location] are trying to start a "darkhei-type" minyan.

7 comments:

Diana said...

There are at least two jobs that wouldn't even interview me because I am Shomer Shabbos!

Jack Steiner said...

Live by your principles and things will fall into place.

Anonymous said...

Saleable? Interesting diction.

Anonymous said...

I was going to comment that if you're worried about Jewish education and kosher food you should move to [redacted], because the pursuit of big wads of money is somewhat [redacted], and often [redacted], but then I thought that might be [redacted] of me. I think my meaning is [redacted], though.

Annie said...

Diana- I am pretty sure that that is employment discrimination, and illegal.

Jack- thanks. That is just like what Anderson Cooper's mother (Gloria Vanderbilt) told him. Maybe one day I could be Anderson Cooper.

Anon- I am pretty sure that my word useage, although strange, is correct. I often pick up the speech patterns of whatever I've been reading most recently.

Michael- point taken. But, for fairness sake, I'd like to point out that you live in Israel, and therefore don't have to worry about paying for the Jewish education of your hypothetical offspring. I never though that I'd be the type of person who made career decisions based on how much money I could make, but I find that while I don't want the money for money's sake, it seems selfish to stay in low-paying, if fulfilling jobs that would deprive my hypothetical children of the option of day school.

orieyenta said...

I say forget about [redacted location] and move to Miami. We'll adopt you as a member of our Orieyenta family. (And CJ and Harley too.)

Tamar said...

It kinda sounds like [redacted] is Nashville, which would be awesome. I will introduce you to rockin' Jewish banjo players and funky cool rabbis and you can help start a havurah! Yay!

If it's not Nashville, then stay in NY so you don't have to suffer through a long-distance thing. They really do suck.