Year in review and stuff
Since everybody else is doing it and I am such a damn conformist...
- January--Started the year at our home in Lakeland, Florida. We had just installed our new hardwood floor in the den and all that was left of the project was finishing the edges along the doors. That shouldn't take long right? I submitted my resume for a new position with my company. For the first time in a long time, we had no credit card debt. Finally did what I had wanted for years and got LASIK on my eyes. Unfortunately I wasn't like most folks that immediately see perfect the next day. In fact, it would be many many months before I could see a difference.
- February--received word that my grandmother was seriously ill with a colon infection of sorts and probably won't survive the hospital stay. Rather than a romantic evening with my hubby on Valentines, I drove up to Macon instead and hung out at a hospital. My mother was convinced that it was too late for prayer, but after grandmother's amazing recovery I believe God taught her better. I think the floor finally got finished at the end of the month. No word about job so called and found out that "location negotiable" meant either Boston or Columbia. Put idea aside and didn't think much more of it. Early in the month the doctor thought he felt a mass during my pelvic exam. Two weeks later all fears were put aside after an ultrasound (I was told it must have been gas or something).
- March--finally had a fight with my husband. Took long enough I suppose. The world around me came crashing down in many ways that month. I learned just how much stress I really can handle and just how much my husband loves me. Charges of sexual harrassment by me from a fellow co-worker were dropped after an investigation revealed that a) none of the supposedly harrassed folks even knew what the accuser was talking about and b) everyone agreed that the accuser was using this as a pathetic attempt to get me fired. I'm still not sure if this is cleaned from my employee personnel record though. Decided that this was the final sign from God that I needed to get the hell out of Florida and set up an interview over the phone for the position. One of Jason's grandmothers died this month so we went to Alabama for the funeral. Discovered that in Alabama, folks consider funerals to be family reunions and take pictures and stuff.
- April--Early in the month I was told to write my own performance review since my boss was newly hired and didn't know me. I got my coworker/friend/subordinate to help--he gave me glowing reviews that we submitted to our boss who in turn kept it exactly as is. That might be the only Exceeds Expectations I will ever have. After a long wait for my file to go through various levels of HR, upper management, executive management, and finally the signature of the CEO, I was given an offer letter for the position in Columbia, SC along with $5000 to move with. This month I also experienced first hand the ugly politics at my company of hiring from within. It would be over a month before my old boss would release me to my new position. Jason and I canceled our planned trip to Longboat Key and traveled to Columbia to house hunt, etc. Looking back, we probably should have put off house hunting for a while. Either way we found the Perfect House and immediately signed a contract.
- May-- I used to think I hated my job as a customer service rep for the 7 years I had done it. I was wrong. Upon knowing I had a new and better career ahead of me, I despised my current position with such a vehement passion during the 40+ days I was forced to continue doing it. Suddenly crap that I just put up with because I had to was impossible to deal with. On a funny note, a customer that I hated called to let me know that he was promoted and wouldn't be working with me anymore (oh thank god, no more 6am cell phone calls about poor service), but would like for me to meet him for drinks and dinner sometime. Evidently my being married wasn't an issue. I should be an actress if I can fake liking somebody I hate enough that they think I would have an affair with them. Housing market in Florida stalled and we couldn't even get a visitor to an open house. For my birthday on the 13th, Jason took me to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Tampa. I was in heaven and drank so much that I eventually passed out. Note to self: if very drunk, drinking coffee with Baileys is not going to help. I started my new position finally on May 15. Due to a paperwork mixup, my company actually changed my title on May 10 so I had already started making more money and most of my computer rights as a CSR were taken away. Oh how funny since I was alone in the office much of the week (everyone went on vacation before I left), yet I couldn't do a single thing. I began my new position by flying up to Columbia and living in a motel for a couple of weeks while getting trained. Jason finished out his notice at his old job and met up with me the second week to look for a new job in Columbia. Near the end of the week he found one paying much better with less hours than his old job. Spent Memorial Weekend/Jason's Birthday getting house packed up and sending Jason off to live in a motel in Columbia.
- June--Jason starts new job, I stay behind and work from home while trying to sell house. Slashed price $10k and still didn't see movement. Credit card is starting to rack up. Drove up to stay with Jason for a week. Finally talked builder of home we were buying to let us move in and pay rent as tenants until we could close on the home. "Rent" was basically the cost of another mortgage so we literally were paying on two homes plus utilities. Love my new job though, it is perfect for my personality.
- July--Drove up again to stay with Jason over holiday week. New home definitely an improvement over the motel and significanlty less expensive. Finally got a contract on home in Florida. Thought we would close at end of month. Drove back to Lakeland, finished final packing and let moving company take all our boxes, furniture, etc. If it weren't for the cost, I would have had them load my car too and me just fly back to Columbia. The drive was getting old. Stuff arrived at new home within a week (Graebel rocks!) and my mother and brother in law helped us unpack. It was nice to have a refrigerator and eat off real dishes rather than paper plates. My brother and his girlfriend flew to Las Vegas at the end of the month and got married.
- August--house still didn't get closed and our patience is growing thin. Required another $2000 in earnest money from the buyers or we would put house back on market. Near end of month we finally maxed out our AMEX card. I never thought that day was possible. Unfortunately to get the house sold we had to finally come $40k off our original asking price so we now won't have enough money to pay off the card and still put money down on new home. Note to self--it takes more than $5000 to move from state to state. Thank god we don't have kids. Finally got house closed near end of month, and had only 3 days to get house in Columbia closed. Felt good to finally have some financial freedom.
- September--traded the Maxima for a Pathfinder. It is nice to have a large hauling space for bales of straw, plants, dogs, furniture, etc. The final push was when I found out the Maxima was going to need the transmission rebuilt. At over 100,000 miles, it just seemed silly to spend that kind of money when I could put it in a newer car. Drove up to Charlotte and got a LASIK touchup on my left eye. About 5 hours after the procedure, I woke up from a nap and could see perfect. I'm now 20/20 in my right and 20/15 in my left. My grandmother passed away mid month. At least we got another 9 months to spend with her. She and my mother made peace with issues that had divided them and the family for some time so I guess she didn't see a reason to keep fighting it anymore. The last weekend of the month we flew down to St. Petersburg for my friend's wedding that was held at the Tradewinds Resort. It was a mini-vacation for us. Since we had so many skymiles on our AMEX card, we flew first class. I got a massage and we both spent quality time getting drunk on the beach while laying out. While I miss being close to the Gulf and its beautiful sunsets, I can do without the red tide smell. I had hoped it would be gone by then, but at least it wasn't as bad. I guess we lived in Florida long enough that the smell of rotten fish is not as bad anymore. That night we enjoyed the open bar and both of us drank ourselves silly.
- October--about the only exciting thing I can remember this month was Jason dressing up as a cheerleader for Halloween. We volunteered to judge the children's Halloween parade in our neighborhood and had a blast. I joined the Magnolia Hall Lady's Bunko group. Unlike Florida, folks here tend to be much more friendly. On that similiar subject, our homeowner's insurance in Florida would have been up for renewal this month. It had gone up to nearly $1500/year, and our property taxes shot up as well. Had we not moved when we did, we couldn't have afforded the monthly mortgage/escrow payments on that house. I'm hearing of quite a few folks down there that are now trying to sell because of that scenario and can't get any buyers. Once again I am reassured that anytime I feel the call to move from the Higher Power, there is always a good reason.
- November--money is getting very tight as we keep running into all sorts of unexpected expenses. To get a new tag for the Mustang, we had to dish out nearly $300 in ad valorem taxes. Our auto insurance rates in SC are much higher. Evidently this state allows folks to not be insured so it causes rates to go up for those who are--bummer. We cleared out a bunch of debris and crap from behind our house that had been dumped there over the years and it cost us over $300 to ship to the landfill. Jason has started a new treatment for his teeth and gums that should help make them stronger. It is expensive and even with insurance, we must pay 20%. I keep having all sorts of medical ailments. Some related to my severe depression and related disorder, others to my crooked spine (and damaged cervical vertabra due to a nasty accident at a bar 10 years ago--stupid alcohol), and some that nothing seems to explain. My new psychiatrist changes some of my depression meds so at least I don't get the migraines and headaches as often, and then she referred me to a sleep study doctor. She was worried that I might have sleep apnea since my mother does and that maybe it will explain the excessive daytime sleepiness I've experienced for years. I go in thinking I may have apnea. I come out finding out it is narcolepsy. Most likely caused by a head trauma when I was younger. My parents should have made me wear a helmet every time I rode a horse. Evidently all those falls and concussions when I was 12/13 were more serious and they thought. Or it could have been from the bad reaction I had to Cylert given to me in 5th grade. Apparently it was a nasty drug to give hyperactive children, but I suppose we didn't have Ritalin then. Anyway, I'm told that many of my physical and mental problems may be solved if we can get my brain rested. In the meantime, I've added more drugs to my morning cocktail.
- December--This is probably the most stressful Christmas season I have ever had. Not due to work since my job doesn't stress me at all. Funny thing, my team leader keeps telling me that it will get stressful and I should be prepared for it. I told him, "you can't scare me, I've been in customer service for over 7 years dude." I've concluded that none of the project managers I work with know what CSRs do. I am one of 3 women in the entire department, and the only one working at the Columbia office (in proposals that is). We all agree that there is some patronizing by the men and they don't even realize it. Ironically, of the two folks that have master's degrees, one is me and the other is another woman. One weekend the neighborhood had a "Progressive Dinner Party." We went from house to house and had appetizers, salads, entrees, desserts, and lots of alcohol. We could then stumble up the block home afterwards. The next day while nursing a hangover, I found an error in our checkbook that was certainly not in our favor. I left out my last two payments on my student loans from the register as well as an insurance payment and we realized that we were way off our budget. I could honestly say that we were more cash strapped and poor than when I was in college. We canceled all doctor/dentist visits and were down to bare bones for the entire month. It looked like we would need to cancel our trip to visit Jason's family in Alabama since we could neither a) afford the gas, b) find a place to keep our dogs, and c) pay someone to keep them anyway. I was so embarrassed and kept apologizing to Jason for screwing up. My parents shipped us a box of christmas gifts from them and my brother and his new wife. I had been praying for some sort of miracle to help us make our mortgage payment at the beginning of the month and it came in the form of some cash from my folks. I think they had expected us to use it for our landscaping project we were planning in the empty back yard. It saved our asses. We were able to go to Alabama, we were able to pay a dog sitter that we found at the eleventh hour, and the home is safe from the bank. Christmas was very special this year. I suppose everyone needs something like that to happen in your life just to help you realize just what truly is important. I didn't care about presents, I was happy to drink home made hot chocolate and eat fresh baked pecan pie at our Granny's house. I got to play beauty shop with my cousin-in-law's daughter (and went home with 3 different shades of nail polish on my toes and fingers--not just nails mind you, but the entire toe and finger). Most of all I was reminded that I God can take everything away from me at any time just to make sure I fall on my knees and humble myself. We came back home on Christmas Eve and was able to spend Christmas day together with our dogs. The rest of this week has been me cleaning the house and steam cleaning the carpets for the second time in a month, as well as me being in a funk. Not sure what is wrong, but even on a rather high dosage of stimulants, I keep sleeping for hours during the day. I also don't feel like leaving the house and right now decided against a News Years Eve party. It didn't help that I had to pay half of our HOA dues for the year and then got a letter from the Richland tax assessor regarding my Pathfinder. They want $612+ in ad valorem taxes by February 9th!!!!! I thought I had til the tag was due but evidently not. Maybe the stress of the month has finally caught up with me. I start work on Jan 3rd so hopefully I will snap out of it by then. For all those folks that I didn't return emails this month, please don't be mad or insulted. Everytime I tried my mind would go blank in front of the keyboard and I just couldn't do it. I felt too tired.
So now for resolutions in 2007:
1) Get our budget and Quicken registers cleaned up and accurate. (I actually did that today)
2) Sticking to our budget no matter what each month.
3) Getting AMEX paid off again (ok, it will probably take more than a year or two so you may see this next year too).
4) Get my narcolepsy under control, and hopefully be able to reduce my anti-depressants as a result.
5) Get caught up enough on bills so that I can start back getting my chiropractic treatments on my neck. Hopefully long term the headaches from my damaged neck will subside.
6) See an ENT about my sinuses once the bills are caught up. My nose shouldn't be so stuffy, sore, and bleeding all the damn time. It isn't THAT dry indoors. I had less problems in Colorado!
7) Work harder at fighting the funk that keeps me from being social and makes me reclusive. I will host parties and get togethers at this house and do a better job at returning calls, emails, and keeping up with my friends in other states. Just because my brain is missing chemicals (seratonin, norepinephrin, hypocretins, and god knows what else) is no reason excuse for me to ignore those who still care about me through all my faults.
Happy New Year folks. I'm going to do some shots with Jason and ring in the new year. I wish we had thought to grab some fireworks today. Our neighbors are firing them off all around us.