Why Do I Live Here?

Why do I live here? That's a great question. It's also multifaceted. Why do I live in Lisbon, CT? Why do I live in this particular duplex? Why do I live with my sister? All of these are different, but still part of the grander question of "why do I live here?"

The best way to answer this is to break it down. First, why do I live with my sister? I've already talked about this a little in my very first post, here. But I want to go into a bit more detail. I've lived with someone, be it my parents or a sibling, my entire life. At the end of October 2012 I moved in with Amanda for the first time. We lived in a three bedroom apartment that the landlord had just lost to the bank. We were given a sum of money to move out in January 2013 and we moved into a four bedroom. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we didn't have the money to keep the apartment. Bear in mind, it was $1250 a month and we were living off my income of less than $14 an hour.

We moved to another three bedroom apartment up the road from where my mom still lives in January or February of 2014. I lost my job in October of 2014, and decided to move in with another sister, Maggie. We had plans to move to Florida with her next stipend check in February. I moved in with her in January, and things were fine. We took a trip to Sioux Falls, a video you can watch here, and when we got home she started feeling a bit ill. After a week of the hospital telling her she had "heartburn" she had a full-blown heart attack in March. We decided to stay in Connecticut for a little while longer, so she could heal. 

In April she moved one of her male friends in without discussing it with me first. It wasn't a huge deal, and I actually felt a little relieved because he helped take some of the burden from me. At this point I started looking for jobs because it was clear we weren't moving any time soon. Then in May she moved another friend in and they immediately started dating. This is when the problems began.

Maggie was sleeping on the pull-out sofa, by her own choice, and her new boyfriend wasn't happy about it. They did more and more to make my life hell, including harming my cat, Lucy. When I fell ill and was admitted to the hospital in June, things got worse than ever. I healed and had a new job at Dunkin Donuts, but things at home just kept getting worse by the day. At one point while I was at work, Maggie's friend went into my bedroom without permission, hit Lucy, and got attacked as retaliation. They called animal control and tried to get her taken away. Lucy is my world, and her being taken away would have been devastating to me. 

I explained what happened to animal control and they put Lucy in "quarantine" at my moms house. I didn't feel safe with her at my sisters house anymore. It was at this same time that my sister officially kicked me out. I had nowhere to go, and I was left essentially homeless. I slept in my mom's bed with her and Amanda and I started looking for apartments. That is why I'm living with Amanda.

That is also partially why I am living in this particular duplex in Lisbon. We had been driving around after a particularly shitty day and saw a "for rent" sign on the lawn. We called the landlord, saw the house, and signed the lease. We moved in officially in the last week of July 2015. 

We didn't choose it because it was the best place in the world. We did want to get out of Norwich, but even that wasn't our main objective. I also love the location. We are far enough away from the city that you can look up and see hundreds, if not thousands, of stars at night. As a city girl, that is not normal for me. But we're also close enough to the city that we're less than a 25 minute drive from everything we need. We each have our own bedroom, our own space for ourselves. It's not perfect, and I do want to move out on my own eventually, but it's home.

Why do you live where you do? Let's chat in the comments!