There are more and more people in Canada like me. No, not mentally challenged people. According to a Bank of Montreal study, more young adults are staying or returning to live with their parents. Nearly a third of people between the ages 21 to 34 are still living with or have returned to ma and pa.
It's easy to see why. Home prices have skyrocketed in the last five years. Also, it now requires a significant amount of education sometimes to get a decent paying job. That education can means lots of debt. Between the debt and high real estate costs, it's causing some major suckage when it comes to living situations.
The study shows young people on average in Vancouver put away only 13.3% of their pre-tax income. I've exceeded that amount significantly while paying off debt at the same time. Still, I'm massively far away from what I would need to make a healthy downpayment on a condo. I'd probably have to live with my parents until I was 40 if I wanted a decent amount of cash in the bank.
I'm fully prepared to rent for the rest of my life. Or, I could move to a small town and buy a tiny house there. I'd change careers and be a short-order cook at a truck stop outside of Lytton. I'd meet a single mother, Marla, with two kids, Martin and Josephine, 5 and 2. Josie would love me almost immediately but Marty would need some convincing. He'd come around though and call me Dad about a year later. Marla and I would have one more child named Ben. When it would be time for Marty to go to UBC, Marla and I would drive him down to the Vancouver campus to move his stuff into rez. Before we'd leave, Marty would give me a hug and say that he was really lucky I became his Dad. Of course, I'd start to cry a little bit and but recover enough to tell him to use condoms. It would be a wonderful life and all because I couldn't afford a condo in Vancouver. What the hell was in that muffin I just ate?
Well, as one can predict when you tape together a watch strap, I managed to lose my watch on the weekend. The plastic strap on my Swatch Chrono Skin watch broke about three months ago. Rather than go to Metrotown to get a replacement strap, I decided I could tape together the strap. Indeed, that did work for about three months. I'd have to retape about every five days or so but it did the job. I'm pretty sure I lost my watch at work or on my way back from work on Saturday because I sure didn't have it on my wrist when I came home on Saturday night.
I really liked my watch. My parents got it for me for my birthday about three years ago. At 6.6mm in thickness, it was the lightest watch I've had in a while, if not ever. This watch kicked ass. I've only had to replace the battery once in three years and the cliche about accurate Swiss timing is no joke. My Chrono Skin did not lose a single minute in months of operation. I'd set it to match an online atomic clock and she'd keep pace right with those Cesium atoms.
I feel weird not having something on my left wrist. I like knowing what time it is at well... all times. Actually, more than anything it's the missing weight on my wrist. I don't know how people can not wear a watch. I got my first watch in grade three I believe. I worn a watch nearly every day of my life since then. It started off as cheap digital watches you'd get from places like Wal-Mart (Woolworth's back then). They'd cost less than $10 each. The timing was so bad, it'd almost be five minutes off by the end of the day. There was a button for illumination. It'd power on a lamp that'd drain your battery dry if you held it longer than two seconds. Those watches also seemed to be water-absorbent rather than water-resistant.
As you can imagine, a kid can go through several of these a year and I did. Sometimes just washing my hands would do in a watch. Around when I was 14 or 15, my parents took the family to Hong Kong for the first time. When we were there, they bought me my first Swatch. It was water-resistant which meant I could wash my hands and get water on it. It was also shock-resistant which meant I could drop it on the floor and not break it. It also kept precise time which meant I only had to adjust the time for DST.
I think I wore that watch for about three years, only to start wearing another Swatch. Since then, I've had a few more. The only reason I stopped wearing one was because I just wanted a new model or that the material holding the strap pin broke off. The internal mechanisms were all still working.
This has been an excellent commerical for Swatch. I hope I find my watch or Swatch sends me a new one.
In an previous post, I mentioned how I cautiously made a Facebook account. I wasn't sure if it was just another MySpace clone or if it was at all fun or useful to have. After spending just a few days playing around with the site, I've decided Facebook is indeed way better than MySpace.
I was up until 4am last night just looking for people I knew and what they had put on their profiles. Sometimes, I just wanted to see what other people were doing. Adam wrote something on Frank's wall? I gotta see that! Carly joined a group. Hey, it's the ex-SJCers group. I must join as well! Who's that hot girl that Zoe knows? Let's look at her pictures.
