Mi Vida Loca
My goodness… where to start. Felt like I needed to "dump" into LJ to be rid of my full brain and, hopefully, gain some sort of semblance of order, again.
Hummm.. I'll begin with my birthday shindig at Mulleady's and the super fun time I had that eased me into being my new age of 35. (I have to remind myself, all the time, that YES.. I'm 35). Damnit. I stopped growing "up" around 25 so I figure if I can have the attitude of a younger person, perhaps I'll look like a younger person as well. ;) heh heh heh. Ahhh.. The eternal search for the fountain of youth. So, after said birthday party, Mr. Rockstar and myself decided to really put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and amplify our search for a home. We were blessed to have a pre-qualified loan through BECU with an amazing interest rate so we felt we may as well get our asses out and about to search for our new home. And we found it, or so we thought….
The same day we requested an offer letter from BECU for a house in Shoreline, we found out that my mom's company had just laid off 30% of their entire workforce… "oh-holy-crap" is all I could think. Poor Mom, and the other 40 people that got laid off. Wow. So, Mr. Rockstar and I elected to not make the offer on the house until we could be 100% sure that my mom was financially stable. Her unemployment benefit was practically insulting, but she was determined to make things work, no matter what. And that she did. She was able to network with some folks at WorkSource and got enrolled into a very limited/exclusive credential course that was directly related to the industry she has worked in for 30 years. Such a blessing for her to have the opportunity to refresh her skills and she seems to be adapting well to the "school life". She also applied for 3 jobs, and all of them she received call-backs on, interviews and even an offer from one of them, so far. How amazing to go to school and have a job waiting for you when you complete your studies. *blessing!* Mom has done a great job keeping a positive attitude through the stress of loosing her job. Her schooling is complete as of next week so I'm happy to see her with renewed vigor towards a new career in the industry she enjoys so much.
Our next hurdle came with the extended sickness of my grandmother. She had a nasty cold during the holiday season that ended up turning into pneumonia. She battled the illness and was making some headway in beating the sickness. And then.. She took a turn for the worse. Her kidneys just couldn't handle the stress on her body. We lost my sweet family matriarch on April 6th. I was grateful to be with her when the good lord called her up to be with him. So very humbling of an experience. The family is trying to adjust through the process of not having such a strong leader around anymore. The family gathered at her and my grandfather's home for Easter, as we all have for many, many years. We had the best time we could, under the circumstances.
And yet, another hurdle…when we found out a close friend of ours was diagnosed with melanoma. Wow… what a blow. Mr. Rockstar and I were soooo very worried about our her. She had her diagnosis and then was scheduled for surgery about 10 days later. (I can't even begin to imagine the feeling of having to wait that long to really know what the heck is going on). Her surgery went very well and the doctors were able to remove the cancer, completely. *THANK GOD* The procedure she had to go through was painful, but she handled it so well, and had an amazing attitude through the whole process. So very grateful that she was able to catch it before it spread anywhere in her body.
(For the record: I did schedule my long overdue skin exam with my dermatologist). Sometimes these "reminders" make you realize how vulnerable you really are.
Through all of this I was able to continue work full-time, go to school part-time AND go through my Project Management Professional (PMP) study courses (8-hrs a week for 10-wks) and prepare to sit for the exam. I have elected to reschedule my exam for the late-July timeframe as Mr. Rockstar and I are in the process of buying a house. We made an offer on a place last Friday, and should (hopefully) have mutual acceptance from the seller, either today or tomorrow. *fingers crossed* The location of the house is in West Seattle, in the Admiral Point neighborhood, about 1-mile from Alki beach. It's a fun neighborhood, so we are looking forward to the possibility of enjoying this Summer in an amazing place that we can call our own. I guess it's funny when you have a vision of where you may end up living, it may not always be where you first thought it would be. We said we'd move as far North as Shoreline, and as far South as West Seattle in the Alki neighborhood.. We thought we'd end up somewhere between (and had been searching and searching in Ballard, to no avail) so this place really came as a surprise to us.
With all the stressful events, I have to say that I have learned I'm a pretty strong person. I can also be quite resourceful and I also do count my many blessings that happened along the way. I'm so grateful for my family and all of my friends.
Gratitude:
- Thank you Mr. Rockstar for the un-ending love and patience you show me when I'm tired, stressed or grumpy.
- Thank you Mom for having a darn good attitude throughout the last few stressful weeks.
- Thank you to Mr. Rockstar's family for their support and love throughout our homebuying process.
- Thank you to Neph / Sae for hugs, kisses and kind words. You are always so generous with your support, even when your own lives are busy/stressful.
- Thank you Jay for doing the best you can, even when you don't wanna.
- Thank you to Lizzy-B and Brian for your amazing help at Easter, and with always lending a listening ear (and pulling up a bar-stool for me on those nights when it seems only a laugh and some beer can take the stress away)
- Thank you to Zerlina for "nudging" me to write this LJ post. It's been very "cleansing" to put these events into writing.
- Thank you Marina for your friendship and spiritual support during my grandmother's sickness.
- Thank you to Ricker for always making me laugh and for helping me to keep perspective.
- Thank you Christie for encouraging me at work when I need to take a break and get away for lunch with the silly lunchtable crowd.
- Thank you to my boss at work for being SO flexible when I need to leave on a moment's notice. Having that ability is truly a godsend to me during those difficult times when I needed to take care of family matters.
- Thank you to Stephanie for coming up with the plans for shennanigans on Cinco de Mayo on Alki. Additionally, I VERY much look forward to riding trikes-for-beer with you and Michelle on Queen Anne in a couple weeks. I can only imagine the photo opportunites that will be had.
- Thank you to my sweet kitty, Midori. She's got an unconditional love that is not normal for a cat. I'm grateful to have my little buddy there all the time.
- Thank you UW for my season ticket seating announcement. Exactly the seats I wanted + my priority voucher for the Apple Cup tickets!! Oh Yeah!!!
- Thank you to the folks at BECU for being amazing. I've seen other friends have such negative experiences with other banks during the homebuying process. BECU has shown amazing support and follow-through on everything I've asked for.