Home Sweet Home

Welcome to my new home in a month’s time!  (These photos I saved from the ad).  Yes, in an unexpected and very quick turn of events – I signed a lease on a new place to live this morning.  I replied to 4 ads on Wednesday, and got 3 replies back to set up viewings on Thursday.  I had low expectations – none of the places seemed particularly enticing and all seemingly had faults, but I wanted to at least look at a few.  So, the very first one I looked at ended up being the only one I looked at!  I was lucky – I was the first person to reply to the ad (thanks to an early teleconference I was in the office very early and able to reply to the ad very early) and hence the first person to look at the place.  I got on well with the landlord – a retired guy who lives in a nearby house – and so I got first dibs.  And my first impressions were good – I didn’t dislike the place.  So in an unexpectedly impulsive decision on my part, I decided to go for it.  A decision I hope not to regret, although the omens are good because apparently there was a LOT of interest in the house and I wasn’t the only one interested in it (I forgot to bring my checkbook with me, so whilst I rushed home to retrieve it some more people viewed the place after me and also completed the application for it!).  And so, here we are!  It is almost the exact opposite from where I am now – I’ll be going from an apartment surrounded my annoying neighbors to a detached house (described in the ad as a cottage – but I wouldn’t call it that since it has 2 levels and no thatched roof!) with no neighbors.  I don’t see noise being much of an issue anymore – especially as it is also set back a long way from the road and not even near a main road!  You can’t even see it on Google Maps, just the driveway.  It’s substantially bigger than where I am now – for example 3 bedrooms instead of 2, and more living space (hopefully enough space for a pool table?).  However, the rent is only $20 more per month than what I would’ve had to pay to stay where I was.  And the commute shouldn’t be worse than where I am now – closer to work by distance, but more local roads to deal with.  Of course I have some concerns – for example it’s not the easiest place to access and it is a bit isolated (so I wonder if I should get a home security system?), and I imagine if we get another winter of snow and ice then the roads and the dirt driveway might be a real issue (fingers crossed for a mild winter!).  But I’m happy/anxious/excited to be moving – I wobbled a lot over my prospects of moving, and I think I would have had an enormous amount of regret if I hadn’t – especially come the summer months and all the prospective issues then – so I do feel a big sense of relief.  Fingers crossed it works out.  

Patio Furniture

I currently have some interesting items on my patio/balcony that do not belong to me - a pine cone, a "white pebble eraser" and a lipstick-shaped foam thing.  I have no idea how any of these got here - maybe a bird dropped them there, maybe a disgruntled neighbor (perhaps annoyed by the sound of my wind chimes) threw them up there, maybe kids had something to do with it (I'm wondering whether the foam thing might be a projectile from one of their toy guns).  But none of them are small enough to be an accident.  And all of them are big enough to crack a window.  Weird.

Podcast Recommendation

It’s easy to bingewatch television, where you steam through several episodes of a show at one sitting and/or steam through an entire series over just the course of a few days.  That’s how I managed to clear up some of my DVR space, though sadly that has now filled itself up again with all the junk I currently record.  But I’ve never bingelistened to a podcast, until now.  I got through the podcast S-Town in just a few days – it was only 7 episodes long, but very addictive, very atmospheric, very twisty (no spoilers here – just to say things change drastically at the end of the second episode) and highly recommended.  It was touted as the next big thing from the makers of the Serial podcast, I actually think this is far superior to the typical true crime podcast – with almost a novelistic quality to the setting and set of characters, yet these are real people and real events that happened.  You will probably finish the podcast like me with a ton of unanswered questions, including questions on the ethics of whether the podcast and certain aspects of the podcast should even have been released.  But definitely worth listening to if you don’t mind some rather coarse language in a strong Alabama accent.  

Typical Me

Well, it will be one month tomorrow until my current lease expires.  And I still haven’t found somewhere new to live.  And it is stressing me out.  Big time.  I’m still caught somewhere between wanting to move and not wanting to move.  I scan the ads for places to rent all the time now, but even those that might be of interest I find something in either the photos or description that puts up red flags for me.  I don’t know.  I want to move away from Seattle next year, so is the time and effort (and expense) of a short term move now worth it?  This is a perfect microcosm of why I don’t actually own my house yet (and, arguably, many more aspects of my life) – never getting that balance right of short-term versus long-term plans and desires, and then never following through on those plans and regretting my choices and my indecision.  Undeniably, my apartment is hellish during summer – from the noise of neighbors and kids to how hot my apartment gets, and everything in between.  But a lot of things are symptomatic of my habit of staying at home too much – I need to get out more, and staying put might give me the push to do just that.  Also, with the money saved from not moving (most of the places I would consider moving to are up to $500 more rent a month, plus however much it would cost to actually move) could be spent on going away on weekend excursions.  That sounds good to me.  But I think I really need somewhere nicer to live, and a better quality of home life – and I mean REALLY need, for the sake of my sanity and mental health.  I think I’m going to give myself 1 more week to find somewhere.  If I can’t, then I’ll see if I can stay put.  That might not even be a possibility – I’ve already signed documentation confirming my move-out date – in which case I’ll have to take what I can get.  We shall see.  At times like this I can’t help but reflect on the past.  How things would have been different had I not been laid off in San Diego at the end of 2005.  That was the last time I was truly happy with my job and where I lived – I actually had my signed lease renewal in my possession on the day I was laid off.  I wonder if I will ever feel that way again?!  

Padres

The San Diego Padres - my baseball team - got blown out 14-3 by the LA Dodgers in their opening game of the season.  I suspect it will be a very long and very disappointing season.  Again.  They haven't made the playoffs now for about 11 years.  I don't have high hopes for the Seattle Mariners either, who also lost today - but I might at least try to go see them one time, as I haven't been to see a live game for quite some time.

Wrestlemania

It is the biggest weekend in wrestling this weekend - Wrestlemania!  The immature child in me still somewhat enjoys the pantomime spectacle of "professional" wrestling, but not enough for me to actually spend my money on pay-per-view events like Wrestlemania.  Instead, I'll read the online recaps and opinion pieces later - and I might catch some of Monday Night Raw tomorrow.  But my interest has been slowly waning over the years -  albeit probably too slowly for a supposedly mature adult!  But a good wrestling match is still a good wrestling match, regardless of whether I'm a teenager or a 40 year-old, and I still appreciate a good promo or story-line - although this is a lot rarer nowadays, since we're a long way past the glory days of wrestling.  It is kind of sad to see a 55-year old broken-down Undertaker still competing (if you've seen the film The Wrestler, you know what I mean).  It is also, coincidentally, the opening weekend of baseball.  I'd much rather watch a wrestling match than the dreary monotony of a baseball game.  America's favorite pastime is well past it's prime.  

April Foo(tbal)l's Day

Chelsea 1-2 Palace.  I thought it might be a very unfunny April Fool's Day joke, but no Palace actually beat the champions elect, at their home ground no less.  For the second season in a row.  Miracles do happen - especially when you look at the stats from the game with the amount of possession and amount of chances Chelsea had.  Big Sam has definitely instilled some steel and some character that the Palace team didn't have before.  And to think I doubted his credentials (which secretly I still do).  Sadly Hull also won so the gap is still the same to the bottom 3.  But now an awful lot of other teams are in danger of getting dragged into the dogfight if things get tighter.  But hopefully they won't - Sunderland and Boro look doomed, which just leaves one other to go down - hopefully Swansea or Hull.  As long as Palace keep on winning, I don't care who goes down.