Single men in Alaska

[steflou64]

I get so depressed about not being married I was seriously considering moving to Alaska-I would not mind the cold as much as wild animals such as bears and moose attacking/maiming/killing! Have any of you single ladies considered this ?

 

[dayhiker]

Stef ... Moose aren't much interested in hurting people.

 

[exitstageright]

I get so depressed about not being married I was seriously considering moving to Alaska-I would not mind the cold as much as wild animals such as bears and moose attacking/maiming/killing! Have any of you single ladies considered this ?

If you can stand the cold, I say go for it. After I was Honorably Discharged from the U.S. Navy ,I stayed in the Medical Field. Because, I knew that,in the civilian world, that most of the employees in the Medical Labs are women.

As a matter of fact, my first wife and I are CLS's. There was one reason and one reason only why I dated my co-worker. She could not tell me those four dreaded words that I did not want to hear. Those four dreaded words were.........I......don't.......know.......you!".

 

[blackribbon]

It would be easier to lower your standards here....maybe drop that ridiculous minimum income requirement.

Could you make the same high income in Alaska as you make here? Is your job transferable?

I couldn't live in the dark that many months and the cold would get to me. I'd love to visit Alaska...but in August and only for a week or so.

 

[dayhiker]

I spent two weeks in AK a couple of years back. It was great in Fairbanks around the 4th of July. Don't know that I'd want to live there, I also find the dark not much fun ... ie emotions feel darker then than when there is more light.

 

[exitstageright]

It would be easier to lower your standards here....maybe drop that ridiculous minimum income requirement.

Could you make the same high income in Alaska as you make here? Is your job transferable?

I couldn't live in the dark that many months and the cold would get to me. I'd love to visit Alaska...but in August and only for a week or so.

I always wondered,in the hospitals in Alaska,do they have night shift differentials. Most people do not want to work nights. In the wintertime,everybody work nights.

 

[blackribbon]

I always wondered,in the hospitals in Alaska,do they have night shift differentials. Most people do not want to work nights. In the wintertime,everybody work nights.

I don't think the differentials have to do with the amount of sun in the sky but rather the fact we work opposite to the hours that most people live their lives in. Personally, I prefer the night shift and have to keep fighting them from trying to move me to day shift.

Do lab techs work 12 hour shifts like the nurses? I don't think they do in our hospital but I am most likely to just interact with whoever is working between 2am and 6am when we are sending down all our blood cultures.

 

[exitstageright]

I don't think the differentials have to do with the amount of sun in the sky but rather the fact we work opposite to the hours that most people live their lives in. Personally, I prefer the night shift and have to keep fighting them from trying to move me to day shift.

Do lab techs work 12 hour shifts like the nurses? I don't think they do in our hospital but I am most likely to just interact with whoever is working between 2am and 6am when we are sending down all our blood cultures.

In a hospital lab,we usually work one of three 8 hour shifts. Day shifts are usually from 7:00 am until 3:30 PM. Evening shifts are usually from 3:00 PM until 11:30 PM. Night shifts are usually from 11:00 PM until 7:30 AM.

At Stanford Medical Center Laboratory, the evening shift differential was 10% of one's hourly wage. The night shift differential was 16% of one's hourly wage.

Therefore, if I was still working nights at Stanford, my hourly wage would be $51.82 per hour or $107,787.68 per year.

Now , can you understand why I cannot relocate out of California? If I told an interviewer, in Iowa, for example, what I now make in California , my salary would scare the interviewer.

The average wage for a CLS/Medical Tech in the United States is only $57,000 per year. Therefore ,if I moved out of California ,I would take a 48% drop in my pay. I ...don't....think....so!

 

[blackribbon]

Exit your higher salary is based on a higher cost of living. Using a cost of living calculator, you could move someplace like Houston, Texas (and using a very nice neighborhood like The Woodlands, Conroe, TX)....your comparison salary could be $29,000 without having to change your lifestyle. Cost of Living comparison calculator

An $880,000 house in Redwood City could be bought for $250,000 in The Woodlands, TX (a neighborhood of executive type people). Rent for an equivalent apartment is $3000 in SF to $1000 in TX.

And just so you can see what a typical $250,000 house in The Woodlands looks like: 199 Dreamweaver Cir N, The Woodlands, Tx in Woodlands Village Grogans Mill - Luxury Home for Sale on 199 Dreamweaver Cir N for $249,500 (realize that there are million dollar plus homes in the same area...it is a premier area).

Oh...and there is no state income tax in Texas either. You only fill out the federal forms...nothing goes to the state.

 

[blackribbon]

for giggles and grins, I looked to see what the going price for a medical lab tech was in the Houston area and it appears to be $30,000-$50,000

(Which translates to a range of $52,000 - 89,000 in San Fransisco dollars)

I assume that more experienced techs make more....and if you add in an off-shift differential, it will go up even more.

.... so after you figure in the cost of living differential, you would be making more spendable money in TX even with a lower salary.

 

[dayhiker]

I remember being at a company that got a resume from a guy who lived an inexpensive place and using a calculator the cost of living and put it into his resume when it came to salary requirements. Nope he didn't even get invited for a job interview!

 

[blackribbon]

I doubt that was the primary reason he didn't get the interview...even the military recognizes the cost of living adjustments necessary to live in California or NYC. It is common knowledge.

I would expect to get paid much more for the same job if I moved to California...it wouldn't mean I really got a raise though.

 

[exitstageright]

for giggles and grins, I looked to see what the going price for a medical lab tech was in the Houston area and it appears to be $30,000-$50,000

(Which translates to a range of $52,000 - 89,000 in San Fransisco dollars)

I assume that more experienced techs make more....and if you add in an off-shift differential, it will go up even more.

.... so after you figure in the cost of living differential, you would be making more spendable money in TX even with a lower salary.

Thank you,Blackribbion, alot for the info! After further review of the facts,I would still rather live in California,than in Texas. Socially,my lifestyle in California is acceptable. I do not think that my dating life, my choice of dating partners, in Texas, would be acceptable to most of the men in Texas. In other words,I do not want to have to get into many fights. I am too old for that anyway.

 

[blackribbon]

Thank you,Blackribbion, alot for the info! After further review of the facts,I would still rather live in California,than in Texas. Socially,my lifestyle in California is acceptable. I do not think that my dating life, my choice of dating partners, in Texas, would be acceptable to most of the men in Texas. In other words,I do not want to have to get into many fights. I am too old for that anyway.

You don't have to live in Texas but to make that stereotype about the men in Texas makes as much sense as to say ALL men in SF are gay. Actually, I bet statistically there are more gay men in SF than men fighting in Houston on any given night.

Believe it or not, Houston is a major international urban center and most people do not wear cowboy boots or cowboy hats except for special occasions like a rodeo. I have seen multiple Broadway productions touring through Houston, all the major museum exhibits hit Houston or Dallas, and there is both a Symphony Orchestra and Grand Opera. Caribbean cruises set sail out of Galveston just a few miles away.

I compared the cost of living in many other popular places to live and most compare closer to Houston ... with NYC and California being the freakishly high costs of living extremes.

However, it is your choice to live there...for whatever reason....but you aren't any richer in real money.

 

[Messy]

I get so depressed about not being married I was seriously considering moving to Alaska-I would not mind the cold as much as wild animals such as bears and moose attacking/maiming/killing! Have any of you single ladies considered this ?

No, why? Is there an overload of single eskimo's or something?

 

[miss-a]

It's true the moose wouldn't pay you much mind. The bears on the other hand, yikes!

When I was doing the online dating thing, I had a man from Alaska contact me. And honestly, the thought of sixty below zero is a bit much even for this northern girl. That wasn't the reason we didn't hit it off, but it was the thing that got me to look into what it was actually like up there, and yes, sixty below is common. For the right guy I might be able to do it, but I'm guessing if there is a right guy he's as put off by the low temps as I am.

 

[blackribbon]

My college roomie lived in Alaska a bit. They'd close the school playground because of moose. She said they were violent animals.

 

[miss-a]

My college roomie lived in Alaska a bit. They'd close the school playground because of moose. She said they were violent animals.

Well, yes, when they're in rut they can be testy. That's true.

 

[~Beauty_from_Pain~]

What do you hope to find in Alaska that you don't have where you live?