the next frontier.
The further life tends to go on for me, it seems, the more things seem to point toward settling down, and that sedimentary feeling is still such a foreign one. And thank God for being able to buy a new computer through my payroll: I can now use my sister's mediocre connection on my souped up MacBook. Yay for new gadgets!
Shannon and I were scheduled to apply for a pre-approval on a mortgage last week. The meeting with the bank was something that Shannon was actually ducking and covering for, but I was secretly excited and nervous, all at the same time. See, we both have this differing view of debt and credit: Shannon is scared to death of it, especially after her father died last year. I think she's afraid that, if something should happen to her, or worse in her mind, me, that the price tags on our education, my car, and soon, our house, will be too much to surmount. However, I've always been glad that credit exists, because it's made things possible for me and my family: owning a house, climbing out of financial and familial gutters, education. So, unfortunately, money has become a rift between us at times, something that we prayed would never happen to us, simply because we had seen it pry apart relationships, and more importantly, other marriages than ours.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a punchline to all this. We were, bizarre as it may seem, approved for $200,000 after closing costs. And while we'd have to pay $1600 a month after a 3% ($6000) down payment for a house that expensive, something like a $140,000 house ($1000 a month) is well within our reach. What shocked us most, I suppose, is our credit, which, according to the branch manager, is 'stellar'.
This was more of a 'what-the-fuck' moment for us than anything. We kind of looked at one another, wondering just how we got that good at managing everything, and what made the bank think we might actually be trustworthy enough for a $200,000 loan. Of course, we didn't really behave like skeptics after that meeting. We took a trip down to Panera, snagged a couple of bagels (well, a souffle for Shannon, but close enough), and started perusing for houses. Suddenly, six digit numbers weren't something to dispute or fight over. They were manageable. And the few houses we could find under the $150,000 mark (our new target) didn't look too shabby. We might even be able to look in my district, which consists of Berwick, North Berwick, and Lebanon, Maine. So, we've been shopping around, looking for houses and furniture to fill it with.
Of course, that's put the financial pressure on us. We have to come up with three percent for a down payment: $6000 on a two-hundred-grand loan. It's doable, considering that I have my signing bonus ($5000) in October. This condition has turned me into a saving freak: I'm constantly checking our accounts, and rolling the 'spare change' into our savings, every time we have an uneven (i.e. not a multiple of 5) dollar amount in our checking. I keep all my change and throw it in a jar, hoping to take it to the bank when it's full. I can't decide whether I'm obsessing about it because I want as much money for a DP as possible by the 'deadline' Shannon and I set (February of 2008) or whether I want to get out of our claustrophobia-breeding apartment as soon as possible (October, when my bonus is paid). Either way, it still feels weird.
My summer is ticking down slowly. I still am working my tail off at The Science Source, where they have me doing everything but my forte (curriculum development). I'll actually be heading down to Greensboro, North Carolina to help Paul (the GM of TSS) market some of the things I've been working on to college professors and high school teachers. Should be a good time, and it'll allow me to hit the conference scene for the first time in over two years.
Summer's flying by, and it's keeping busy. Before I know it, it will be over, and I'll be teaching again. Countdown: 50 days. Fifty.
You know, that used to be a lot, an eternity. Now, it's nothing. Where does the time go when it's not here?
Shannon and I were scheduled to apply for a pre-approval on a mortgage last week. The meeting with the bank was something that Shannon was actually ducking and covering for, but I was secretly excited and nervous, all at the same time. See, we both have this differing view of debt and credit: Shannon is scared to death of it, especially after her father died last year. I think she's afraid that, if something should happen to her, or worse in her mind, me, that the price tags on our education, my car, and soon, our house, will be too much to surmount. However, I've always been glad that credit exists, because it's made things possible for me and my family: owning a house, climbing out of financial and familial gutters, education. So, unfortunately, money has become a rift between us at times, something that we prayed would never happen to us, simply because we had seen it pry apart relationships, and more importantly, other marriages than ours.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a punchline to all this. We were, bizarre as it may seem, approved for $200,000 after closing costs. And while we'd have to pay $1600 a month after a 3% ($6000) down payment for a house that expensive, something like a $140,000 house ($1000 a month) is well within our reach. What shocked us most, I suppose, is our credit, which, according to the branch manager, is 'stellar'.
This was more of a 'what-the-fuck' moment for us than anything. We kind of looked at one another, wondering just how we got that good at managing everything, and what made the bank think we might actually be trustworthy enough for a $200,000 loan. Of course, we didn't really behave like skeptics after that meeting. We took a trip down to Panera, snagged a couple of bagels (well, a souffle for Shannon, but close enough), and started perusing for houses. Suddenly, six digit numbers weren't something to dispute or fight over. They were manageable. And the few houses we could find under the $150,000 mark (our new target) didn't look too shabby. We might even be able to look in my district, which consists of Berwick, North Berwick, and Lebanon, Maine. So, we've been shopping around, looking for houses and furniture to fill it with.
Of course, that's put the financial pressure on us. We have to come up with three percent for a down payment: $6000 on a two-hundred-grand loan. It's doable, considering that I have my signing bonus ($5000) in October. This condition has turned me into a saving freak: I'm constantly checking our accounts, and rolling the 'spare change' into our savings, every time we have an uneven (i.e. not a multiple of 5) dollar amount in our checking. I keep all my change and throw it in a jar, hoping to take it to the bank when it's full. I can't decide whether I'm obsessing about it because I want as much money for a DP as possible by the 'deadline' Shannon and I set (February of 2008) or whether I want to get out of our claustrophobia-breeding apartment as soon as possible (October, when my bonus is paid). Either way, it still feels weird.
My summer is ticking down slowly. I still am working my tail off at The Science Source, where they have me doing everything but my forte (curriculum development). I'll actually be heading down to Greensboro, North Carolina to help Paul (the GM of TSS) market some of the things I've been working on to college professors and high school teachers. Should be a good time, and it'll allow me to hit the conference scene for the first time in over two years.
Summer's flying by, and it's keeping busy. Before I know it, it will be over, and I'll be teaching again. Countdown: 50 days. Fifty.
You know, that used to be a lot, an eternity. Now, it's nothing. Where does the time go when it's not here?