So. We're broke. Well, we're not AS broke as we were maybe a month ago. But a settlement over a downloaded movie means we're staying outside Portland for now. Be careful what/how you download, folks, it'll cost you upwards of $4,000. We have to come up with almost half of it by the 15th.

Also, rent is steadily going up. When we were looking at apartments a couple of months ago (still not even in Portland), the range for rent in a 1-bedroom with washer/dryer in unit was between $900 and $1050. Now it's over $1,100. Just in a couple months. I'm month-to-month in this place, and I'm amazed they haven't raised rent.

In March, I'll be able to shop around the company and apply to other positions. Theoretically, I might get a raise, too, but nothing large enough to actually help our finances. So I'm learning .NET. I want back in IT, and there are a bunch of open .NET positions even now, which will hopefully be there when I need them. There are a couple help desk positions, which would definitely suffice and get my foot in the door for programming. I'll either have to wait for a position to come up that I'm qualified for, or just get into whatever is open. But whatever I choose, I'm expected to stay at least a year, so I want to choose carefully.

There's also the option of applying outside the company. I feel like I would have to be extremely confident in my abilities to do that, since they won't have direct access to my performance reviews and shadowing sessions. But my ex works in .NET, so maybe he would know of someplace hiring and recommend me.

I don't know. All I know is my current income just isn't cutting it.

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