U-Pick: The Six-Month Plan*

Tiffany and I don't fight about money. We both generally agree that we should save more than we spend; better yet, that's something--for the most part--we are capable of doing. We don't fight about kids because we don't have any. We don't fight about old girlfriends because we don't have any of those either.

But of all the things Tiffany and I don't fight about, where we're going to move is the biggest and most controversial.

For the last four years, Tiffany and I have been planning to move. Go ahead, ask any of our friends. They know because they're always asking us.

"So when's the big move date?" they asked us four years ago.

"Oh, in six months or so," we answered.

"So when's the big move date?" they asked us three-and-a-half years ago.

"Oh, in six months or so," we answered.

"So when's the big move date..."

And on and on and on. Tiffany and I are on what we call a rolling- six-month plan. We know we want to live somewhere else eventually. The problem? We can't decide where.

I want to live near my family, and Austin, Texas is the best place to do that. Tiffany wants to live near her family, and Boston, Massachusetts (where we met and went to college) is the best place to do that. But I also want to live near Tiffany's family and Tiffany also wants to live near mine. You can see our dilemma.

It's a delicate subject, and so we tiptoe around it. We make a point of not fighting about it. That is not to say we don't discuss it. In fact, we do. All. The. Time. But we talk about it carefully, politely and with our listening ears. In other words, we talk and talk and talk and never decide anything. Or we decide that we're moving one place and then talk and talk and talk some more and decide we really still can't decide.

We've polled our couple-friends (who, lucky dogs, mostly live near both their families). We've made pro-and-con lists on Southwest Airlines napkins after family visits and on the inside covers of paperback books (which we've then--accidentally--loaned to members of our family--whoops!).

We've flipped and re-flipped coins. We've played paper-scissors-rock. We've looked for--and found--signs. There are literal signs, like the Austin St. sign that's not too far from our apartment. There are funny signs, like when we're talking about moving to Boston in the car and "Dirty Water" comes on the radio. Then there are more ambiguous signs, like the time we sat down to watch back-to-back episodes of "Property Virgins" and the episodes were set in... yep, Austin and Boston.

It's a little running joke between us that when we do finally decide where we're going to settle down and buy all the things on our Someday List, we'll call our families and say,

"Guess what? We're moving to 'stin!"

or

"Guess what? We're moving to 'ston!"

and they won't be able to hear whether it's an "i" or an "o," and we'll hang up and just appear in whichever place we chose.

Other times, when we're really feeling stuck between a great place and a great place, we consider splitting the difference. In our road atlas, there are 11 inches between Austin and Boston.

Five-and-a-half inches puts us in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Look for us there... in about six months.

*This U-Pick post brought to you on a suggestion by John, who thinks we should live in Boston, even though he didn't post his suggestion as a comment on my blog the way he was supposed to :). To find out how you can suggest a post topic, click here.