Get-Out-of-This-Hellhole 101

There are some times when a momma bird (In this case, a vulture) won't give a baby bird his or her wings.  She's defunct in the brain and instead of teaching her child how to fly, ends up coddling the poor little shit instead.  The baby bird thusly becomes fat, falls out of its nest and dies because it either was too overindulged or was eaten by a wild coyote because it didn't know how to fend for itself.

I don't want this to happen to me.

When I was little, my mother once predicted that I would be the "independent" one.  I can see it in effect right now.  My brother, with his wife and 1.5 kids and big suburban house, is thirty and still has to ask my mother for help and/or advice.  I understand that with this economy, people need to seek help where it is given, but at this point my brother should have been able to pay for his own wedding.  He shouldn't have to ask my mother to help him pay his mortgage, or his bills, ESPECIALLY his phone bills.

But it goes farther back than that.  The roots of this family tree are permanently soiled, diseased and rotting and dying hellish deaths.  I'm serious -- my grandparents are so far in debt that they can barely see, and yet, none of my family realizes that once they're gone, all that debt will be pushed onto their shoulders.  They don't seem to get that all those credit card bills, all those missed insurance payments, all those electric bills have got to go somewhere, and that they are where they're going to go.

It's already tried to pull me down twice: I haven't been able to pay for college, pay for ANYTHING, really, because I already have 18k of debt on my shoulders.  You can thank my mother for that, and her inability to follow through when it comes to, oh, say, PUTTING HER DAUGHTER THROUGH A COMPLETE EDUCATION.  I went to Columbia.  I even stooped so low as to go to Triton, and even that didn't work.  I'm still in debt.  Debt that I'm going to have to pay off 'til I'm forty or fifty and well past the prime age for working.  This is why I need to get out of here.

Of course, my first step is getting a job.  Any job.  In fact, since most of the job offers out there are part time ones, maybe it would be smarter for me to nab two just in case.  After that I'm going to need to save.  It's recommended that you save at least two thousand ($2000) for emergency expenses and/or deposit before you move away from home, but in this case I'm thinking I'm just gonna save as much as I can before February 2012.  And we'll see where it goes from there.

Come February 2012, I'm going to have (Hopefully) already transfered the title on my car to...  Myself.  Since it's in my grandfather's name, he can legally send someone out to steal it from me if he really wanted to.  To be fair, I'm going to be hurting them pretty badly by moving out like this, but I really need that car, and it's supposed to be mine, anyway.  This also means I'm going to be paying off the rest of the car, which started at somewhere around 19k.

February 2012 is also my goal for moving house.  Cross your fingers -- I really hope I get out of here by then, and I hope to Dis it doesn't snow like it has this year.  Moving house means I need storage.  I need to throw shit away.  I need to pack up my boxes.  And I need to do all of this without them noticing.  If they notice, they're going to wonder WTF I'm doing, and then all of my efforts will be shot to hell.  When I'm already out, I can turn away the police officer that turns up at my door.  But before that?  I'm an adult, but there's no question they'd send my brother to tail me as long as they aren't satisfied I'm not being a good little house slave.

There's more to this.  So much more.  Kinda like: Should I take Geisha with me or not?  I don't want to see her abused, but I probably won't be able to afford her either.  Am I gonna be able to afford capoeira?  Probably not.  As a matter of fact, I probably wont' be able to afford most ANYTHING those first couple of months, as long as I have to pay for that car.

Even foregoing all that: Where will I go?  Will I be able to stay in the less expensive suburbs, or will I be made to return to Chicago?  I'd love to, but I don't know where.  I guess I should dust off those old research skills...

Actually, before we get into all that, how about the issue of my birth certificate?  I know who has it.  They rooted through my car when they took it into the shop, and now all I can do is either look for it or get a new one.  I'm thinking I'm gonna get a passport, too.  After all, the more identification I have, the better.

On subject of the car, I really love this:

Illinois Title Transfers
What to Do if I don't Have the TItle

I need to get all of these things in motion...  I guess that means, since it's the only thing I can do right now, I need to procure some cardboard boxes and start storing all my shit somewhere else.