Solace

"Wow, Allie J, you really just ghost during tax season."

Let's just say that there are quite a few things going on.

First and foremost, I hate being a grown up only when most almost all of the time happens.
Did that make any sense?
Good.

Secondly, my car tag registration is due April 15th. Like everything else in my life.

Let me tell you of how my life did a complete 360 in a couple of weeks.

"But Allie, going 360 is going a full circle. It's not just turning around. It's turning all the way around."
I know. I'm pretty much doing the hokey pokey here.

I mean, that is what it's all about...

So the last time you talked to me, I was probably all "I'm buying a house!"

Here's a quick and dirty rundown of what happened.
And if you skim this, Mum, we will have words. Words!!!!

Mike and I want a house. So we looked at houses.
There were some for rent, and we went and looked at one.
But it was really small and really high priced.
And then we figured out that we could buy one for less than we could rent one.
And then we were like, but if we buy instead of rent, that means we're here for a while.
And then we were like, that's okay because reasons.

So then we started looking for houses in a reasonably priced range.
But most of them were ugly.
And in order for them to show us a house and actually get them to spend any time with us, we had to do a "pre-approval" kind of mess which is like applying for a loan but then not actually getting money or signing anything.
And then I found out that I have icky credit because I like the Dave Ramsey way of living where you don't need credit until you actually do.
I sighed a lot that day.
But with just Mike buying the house, we could do that.

And then we were like, we should probably get married.
So we went and got married.

I'm just kidding.
So we were in touch with this realtor who sends us houses, and we picked out a couple of houses to go see.
But since Mike and I work full time like couple of hooligans, we tell her that Saturday would be a good day for us to do a mass viewing.

In this one week, both of these houses that we liked get snatched up by people who actually have money and credit and probably a lawn mower. Seeing a house that you loved and imagined yourself living in (even though you never actually saw it in person or lived in it)...
It was like falling and love and having your heart broken twice. In the same week.
So Mike and I have been on this emotional roller coaster over stupid real estate.

But then we actually decided to so the math. So like the accountants we are, we compiled a simple spreadsheet and pretty much decided nope.
A big bag of nope.

We are not ready to spend thousands of dollars we do not have.
We are not ready to make this life-altering decision.
We are not ready for this.

It basically came down to that we weren't going to be happy either way.
Live in a mediocre house making affordable payments or living in a beautiful house being strapped for cash all the time.
Most of all, I hated how it ruined my retirement plan. Remember this? Yeah. I still want that to happen.
And shoving all my savings into badly-painted Sheetrock that doesn't pay dividends hurts my soul.

And every day, we contemplated this decision.
And every day, we became more and more depressed about the future.
Then we realized life was so much better before we started looking, and it really won't hurt to wait because we will be in a way better position next year.
(plus, there's some really nice construction going on around here that will widen the selection a bit)

So yeah. We're going to let future Mike and future Allie worry about buying a house.

Because this kid's done.

kthxbye

And I've fallen behind on all my correspondence because I keep travelling and doing laundry and house hunting.
Like- have you noticed that there is ALWAYS laundry to do? Always.
Like always always.
Even when you think you've got it all done, there's either a towel you forgot, or a missing sock or the clothes you're still wearing.

Adam and Eve had it made in this respect.
You know, before the whole sin thing happened.

Also, stress makes me ugly. And it does this on a really sneaky level I haven't quite figured out yet.
First, it makes me want to dress comfortably. And dressing "comfortably" is only cute probably 34% of the time. And I don't want to put in much effort to make my face look like a face.
Secondly, it makes me want to eat only warm, juicy food. Or muffins. Oh my gosh muffins.
Thirdly, it makes me think that I have no time to exercise when in reality, if I just went downstairs and walked around for like 10 minutes, I'd feel a lot better.
Fourthly, it makes me super tired. Dreadfully tired. Coma tired.
Fifthly, it makes me cranky. I didn't want to tell people "good morning" today because I was so angry at whatever. And last night I pretty much pitched a fit because I had to take a shower.

It's like I'm this ugly, fat cartoon character bumbling around with one of those gray tornado swirls over my head.
I don't think I've been this miserable since high school. Even taxation of corporations and partnerships wasn't this bad.
(That's like the hardest class in the MAcc program. Pretty much the standard by which to measure misery.)

But it's all gonna change now that my little crisis is over.
Goals: save money, get pretty again, take a vacation or three after busy season.

Mike: Why don't they have coupons for houses? Like "Buy a one story and a two story and get a two liter free!"

I am where I'm supposed to be,
TWS

Severus and Stone; Radical Face