May 2041. The Tuesday after Memorial Day, the director of addiction rehab meets with her personally in his office for his end-of-year evaluation. And the Kansas State Team is fresh off the Top-1000 Tournament, one of the highlights of their ChGK season, in which they finished 43rd. Which renews the faith the team has in her and in how they feel they would perform at Worlds, either this year or the next.

"I really think it should have been said before, but here we conduct yearly personnel evaluations based on when employees start working. And, while you have some input in the evaluation process of the medical personnel, as well as the other staff, part of it is from the peers, too. I commend you on the items you implemented, but unfortunately, the full impact of these things, especially screening for educational issues, won't be felt until much later. For now, as a bonus, we will pay six thousand dollars towards your student loans. Please be advised that specific bonus is taxable, just like any raise" the director of addiction rehab explains to Patricia.

Yay! I planned on paying back my student debt in 3 years' time, but this bonus for paying down $6k of it will be a boon. Anything to pay it back faster or spend less on it if it can't otherwise be paid back faster, is better than nothing, but I have the feeling my boss will tell me how much of a raise I will then get. Loan payments have been my biggest recurring expense for now, and I need to revise my budget once I'll know how much of a raise I'll be getting, a happy Patricia starts thinking of the financial implications of the bonus. And, of course, the fiscal implications.

"Speaking of raise, you're getting a raise of six percent. Now, keep it up!" Patricia's boss tells her.

"Thank you"

6% extra means that, after tax, I'll have a little over $400 per month more to budget. But I mustn't be rash. Currently, I feel like my parents' home in Olathe is too far away from work so maybe moving to Kansas City proper, on either side of the city, well, technically, it's two cities because of the state border, but it's really one city for livability purposes. That said, ChGK is the main reason why I want to stay on the Kansas side of the region, Patricia muses, while she feels like she needs to make another step in her life. Moving away from the parents' home.

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However, after a Congressional session on Tuesday, she doesn't feel like she can talk about her plans of moving out and live on her own in KC proper that night. She needs to wait the following night to do so:

"Dad, I feel like I live too far away from my workplace. Or maybe the whole family lives too far away from our own workplaces" Patricia comments in front of her father.

"Mom works in Kansas City proper, like you. But my realty office is in Olathe. You know by now that location, location, location is critical in realty. And, when you work as a realtor, your workplace is tied to it as well. It would make no sense for me to move into KC itself because of the realities of my work" Patricia's father explains to her.

"Even if I wanted to move out from home, ChGK forces my hand into staying in-state. Missouri's ChGK scene is in tatters, and I doubt I could find or form a team in Missouri at the same strength as my current team. To be fair, Kansas' is not a very healthy ChGK state either"

"Why is state residency so important to ChGK?" Patricia's mother asks her daughter, completely oblivious to the ChGK world other than her daughter plays the game.

"It has to do with the state championship. Proof of residency is required of all players at the ChGK state championship, doesn't matter if you're talking about Kansas or Missouri. The ChGK state championship is otherwise open entry in both states" Patricia answers her mom.

Missouri is one of the worst states with an actual ChGK state championship, along with Ohio. Even without me, Kansas routinely defeated both at Nats, Patricia's thoughts turn to Missouri on the national ChGK stage.

"Missouri has a state ChGK championship?" Patricia's father is taken aback.

"Yes, but enough about ChGK. I'll need to move the cooking set and utensils I took with me to New Orleans for college, as well as any furniture in my bedroom. Even then, I'm not sure about the appliances and the kind of work required" Patricia adds.

"I know you have been saving up for several things, vacation, down payment, emergency fund, all the while you have been paying down your student loans. Which is why you have been staying here, at least for the time being. Now that your work situation is more stable, it's realistic to start planning for home ownership" Patricia's father is about to explain the multitude of factors that go into buying a home as well as the aid they can get.

By far the most important factor for Patricia is shortening the commute time from northwest Olathe to her job in Kansas City itself. Then his father runs down the list of closing costs, her budget, which will ultimately determine how much home is realistic for her to buy.

I earn too much for the state's first-time homebuyer program, but I might still be eligible for the down payment assistance program, which is a godsend for the closing costs, Patricia then makes a mental note of what help she can get for moving out. But knowing that she may need to buy some supplies, and potentially a dining room and home appliances under the form of a stove and a fridge, she believes it's a little too premature to make the move. That certainly gave Patricia a lot to think about.

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When stage 6 of the Ivy League series comes, on Friday night, before the tournament starts, once again at Yakiv's home:

"While I'm preparing to move away from my parents in Olathe (Johnson County, or JoCo as local residents often refer to it), I'm stuck staying in Kansas because of the ChGK Kansas state championship's glupyy (stupid) residency regulations!" Patricia rants about ChGK as a house hunting constraint to her teammates.

"You realize perhaps that our relative isolation from the greater ChGK world is a double-edged sword" Vira comments on the situation they're in.

"How so?" the sixth player asks Vira.

"On the one hand, Kansas is a ChGK desert, so people don't play tournaments in person outside the state championship. You noticed that, for the faithful few who attend ChGK-State yearly, they use it to remain connected with their heritage. On the other hand, since we're so far away from where the main action is, we don't get to hear the toxic arguments between players. Political, personal or games-related arguments are by far the most common" Vira answers the sixth player.

"At Penn, these pesky Quantum Computers finished tied with us. Just because we wrote off the Worlds for this year, doesn't mean we should let our guard down at Brown! We had a strong finish at the Top-Thousand, we must ride our hand while it's still hot!" Patricia harangues the players before the tournament starts.

Of course, when the online tournament, hosted by Brown University, gets underway, they begin to focus on getting the most points. On "taking" as many questions as they realistically can, and they realize the questions are approximately the same difficulty level as Nats and therefore they should be able to answer a large number of these.

Once the tournament ends, Sergei seems to want to talk to her captain after hearing something about wanting to leave her parents' home.

"Patricia, it seems like wanting to leave your family home is something new for you. I never heard you talk about this subject. You understand it's a big decision. If I wanted to do so myself, I would need to do so with someone else to live in. But you also realize it's a decision for the long run" Sergei confronts her.

"Yes, I'm aware it's a decision for the long run. So, if you want to move in with me, I would like to know what the future holds for you in CSR. Please?"

"Why?" a puzzled Sergei asks her.

"It's about how the financial burdens of the home will be shared, both now and in the long run. Better prepare for it now than have bad surprises later" Patricia warns her teammate.

"I can work from home, unlike you. You see, in CSR, people tend to change employers after three to four years in the field, branch out to different subfields of CSR or move up in the same subfield. I also feel like I'm due for it going forward, but I am not financially ready for this"

"It's all right: better get your finances in order first. I have seen a few who moved back with their parents because they didn't get their finances in order first! But I won't lie to you: I'm a little scared to make the jump. My dad gave me a long list of costs I need to account for before I can even think of house-hunting. I also need to ensure that I have a dining room set with six chairs, a refrigerator/freezer and a stove, depending on what the seller wants to leave or take with them. And some supplies for the home, all of which come at an additional cost" Patricia explains to him about the logistics of buying a new home.

I never tell anything to my parents about ChGK because I know they won't understand anything about my involvement in the game. Also, they think I'm a money-pincher, but it's for stuff like these I save up. I want to make every dollar count, Patricia then muses, upon realizing that there is someone else to ask about.

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The following day, when lunchtime arrives, Patricia comes to Ainslee with the entire manifest of fees she is responsible for: appraisal fees, fees on mortgages, wire transfer fees, title search, title insurance, appraisal, survey, inspections (home and pest), prorated property taxes, credit report, legal fees and finally the mortgage fees. So much of these costs hinge on the home being purchased, but at least, in her mind, she would have a better idea of what she needs to do.

"Oh Ainslee, I was hoping to see you. I would like to know more about your neighborhood. I only went to your home once and we discussed our involvement in Congressional debating in high school" Patricia then tells her.

"Patricia, any specific reason?" Ainslee asks her, believing she has other motives.

"I currently live much farther away from here than I would like. Traffic jams along Interstate thirty-five make me go nuts at times. If I lived within Kansas City proper, I wouldn't need to spend nearly as much time commuting. Before I can start getting things such as a mortgage preapproval, I want to make sure I know what I'm getting into"

"It might be more dangerous than northwest Olathe, but it's not the most dangerous neighborhood in the world. Of course, the main amenities you will need require regularly, such as groceries, bank and all that, are close by so that ought to help you" Ainslee explains to her. "The houses for sale in that neighborhood are a little old, but it begs the question: why my neighborhood?" Ainslee asks, surprised that Patricia would even consider that area, based on what she knew about administrative salaries.

"Honestly, I confess I don't know KCK so well. Up until high school, most of my life was centered around Olathe and the other southwestern suburbs of Kansas City, and sometimes we went shopping on the Missouri side of the region. So while I knew that patients might have had rough upbringings and dealings with drugs because of their neighborhoods, I never went into the geographic details" Patricia confesses about how her early life was sheltered in some ways.

"I definitely saw more sheltered people than you were, but the ones I knew personally were MDs" Ainslee sees fit to comment on Patricia's upbringing.

If Ainslee thought I was sheltered, she should have seen some of the wealthy kids who were at Tulane with me, especially in the first 3 years of undergrad. The last 2 years in college were spent with students who felt less sheltered because they felt like they had more practical real-world experience. Especially those who used to practice a healthcare profession before coming to graduate school at Tulane, Patricia seems deep in thought, having flashbacks of her classmates in college and graduate school.

"I chose to live in this neighborhood because it allowed me to get close to the patients if they needed house calls. When you have outpatients in recovery, getting to the patient when they need it most can save them from themselves" Ainslee comments on how her job led her to pick a place to live beyond commute time.

"I guess, commute time is far from the only reason now, even though I know patients will interact with me mostly if they have paperwork issues. You have a point: medical staff can and do run in administrative issues with patients while on house calls. If it helps do my job better on house calls, so be it" Patricia then draws that conclusion.

Maybe... maybe if I had a better idea of where house calls happen the most, and for what kind of patients, I could call for a meeting regarding what works and what doesn't regarding house calls. Up to this point, I left the medical staff to their own devices about house calls, and in almost every clinical aspect, which is why I never mapped house calls, nor what they asked house calls for. But to choose where I'm going to look for a new home based on things such as house calls? Patricia muses upon returning at her office, while looking at the data collected for addiction outpatient house calls for the year.

"I'm a little scared, but at the same time, maybe I can afford a home that can get me closer to the ambulatornyy when they need it!" Patricia thinks out loud.

"Ambulatornyy? What the hell are ambulatornyy?" Deepak asks her on her way back to her office.

"It's Russian for outpatients"