Beach and fair; good financial news; back to submissions
Every summer I say I want to do two things:
1) I want to go to the beach.
2) I want to go to a fair.
Necessary caveats: an ocean beach (I can go to a lake-beach any time), and an agricultural fair (I'm not interested in like the state fair, or any other really big, commercial fairs).
Every summer for at least the past five? ten? years, I've managed not to do this.
This must be remedied.
I'm fairly certain I know what I want do for the fair part--the Bolton Fair is quite close to me, in Lancaster. (Ironically enough). But for the ocean, I dunno. I've only been to an ocean beach once since I've been in MA; it was Duxbury Beach, a long time ago. (I think? Or one near it. It was the public, not the private beach).
Here I shall entertain your opinions on beaches and fairs, as well as any "me too!" responses.
--
Good financial news:
1. Matt got a promotion and a huge raise recently--nearly 20%. It means $600 extra in our budget every month. He is still underpaid, I think, for having been a software engineer for thirteen years, but as he's been at the same company that whole time, and has no desire to ever be a manager, there's a limit to how much he can reasonably expect. It's a sad reflection on the industry that these are the ways one primarily gains a better salary.
2. We are 14 months out from having paid off our second mortgage in full. We bought a house in those halcyon days of 2006 when you could do so with no money down, by having two mortgages from the get-go; the second mortgage, being in actuality a home equity loan, has a crappier interest rate and was set to balloon at 15 years while being amortized over 30. Yeah, it was a bad deal. We shouldn't have bought a house then, but we did, and now we're a lot closer to having a big chunk of it paid off.
I still don't know to feel about this house I've been in for about eight years now. In some ways, I love it. It has great entertaining space, lots of light, central air, a couple of acres of land, a lake nearby, a great homeowner's association, and other features.
But in other ways, I hate it. I hate the amount of maintenance it requires, and I hate our asshole neighbors, and I feel like the town in general is pretty conservative and intolerant, from various experiences I've had. I wish I were closer in to Boston, or to my job, or to my friends.
I know I have a serious case of Grass-is-Greener Syndrome, though, so take all this with a grain of salt.
--
I got back on the query-submitting wagon today, submitting a packet to Jennifer Jackson, agent to such notables as Elizabeth Bear and Saladin Ahmed. I mean, that right there tells me G&F should be up her alley, right? The only reason I delayed is because I didn't have a synopsis; thanks to some help from my VPeeps, I finished readying one last night. (Thanks especially to Dave*, who made me realize how bereft the synopsis was of an emotional arc. That--I think--is remedied now).
Probability is not in my favor here. But at least I'm trying. It's ugly and it's emotionally wrenching but I'm doin' it.
1) I want to go to the beach.
2) I want to go to a fair.
Necessary caveats: an ocean beach (I can go to a lake-beach any time), and an agricultural fair (I'm not interested in like the state fair, or any other really big, commercial fairs).
Every summer for at least the past five? ten? years, I've managed not to do this.
This must be remedied.
I'm fairly certain I know what I want do for the fair part--the Bolton Fair is quite close to me, in Lancaster. (Ironically enough). But for the ocean, I dunno. I've only been to an ocean beach once since I've been in MA; it was Duxbury Beach, a long time ago. (I think? Or one near it. It was the public, not the private beach).
Here I shall entertain your opinions on beaches and fairs, as well as any "me too!" responses.
--
Good financial news:
1. Matt got a promotion and a huge raise recently--nearly 20%. It means $600 extra in our budget every month. He is still underpaid, I think, for having been a software engineer for thirteen years, but as he's been at the same company that whole time, and has no desire to ever be a manager, there's a limit to how much he can reasonably expect. It's a sad reflection on the industry that these are the ways one primarily gains a better salary.
2. We are 14 months out from having paid off our second mortgage in full. We bought a house in those halcyon days of 2006 when you could do so with no money down, by having two mortgages from the get-go; the second mortgage, being in actuality a home equity loan, has a crappier interest rate and was set to balloon at 15 years while being amortized over 30. Yeah, it was a bad deal. We shouldn't have bought a house then, but we did, and now we're a lot closer to having a big chunk of it paid off.
I still don't know to feel about this house I've been in for about eight years now. In some ways, I love it. It has great entertaining space, lots of light, central air, a couple of acres of land, a lake nearby, a great homeowner's association, and other features.
But in other ways, I hate it. I hate the amount of maintenance it requires, and I hate our asshole neighbors, and I feel like the town in general is pretty conservative and intolerant, from various experiences I've had. I wish I were closer in to Boston, or to my job, or to my friends.
I know I have a serious case of Grass-is-Greener Syndrome, though, so take all this with a grain of salt.
--
I got back on the query-submitting wagon today, submitting a packet to Jennifer Jackson, agent to such notables as Elizabeth Bear and Saladin Ahmed. I mean, that right there tells me G&F should be up her alley, right? The only reason I delayed is because I didn't have a synopsis; thanks to some help from my VPeeps, I finished readying one last night. (Thanks especially to Dave*, who made me realize how bereft the synopsis was of an emotional arc. That--I think--is remedied now).
Probability is not in my favor here. But at least I'm trying. It's ugly and it's emotionally wrenching but I'm doin' it.