House-hunting. There are so many people who seem to think that it's the best thing in the world. They're all full of Ooooh when I talk about needing to go to open houses on the weekends, and they're eager to get the addresses so they can check stuff out online (though that is definitely a bonus these days). There's just a whole lot of "don't you just love this?" and I don't feel like I even get it. To me, it's enormously stressful, self-defeating, depressing, and overwhelming in the extreme. I feel even more broke, indecisive, socially inept, and incapable about this than I have in years. I'm trying not to think too much about it in the macro version because I think I'd just settle in for a long cry.
That it ends with yet another opportunity to move all my stuff...that makes it all the more.
The weather. In a change from what has become typical (cold, colder, even colder, less frigidly cold but still damn cold, cold, colder...), there's a storm predicted tomorrow. The snow totals were originally set between one and three inches. As it came closer, it was adjusted up to four to eight. Now, over the last twenty-four hours or so, it's gone back to one to three, with temperatures topping out at 34°. So much for Tuesday being cancelled on account of snow.
Dating. Did I shock you? Yes, I realize that this element hasn't shown up on a bullet list here for a while. Well, it's still not. Not exactly. I did receive a sort of invitation - an offer? a summons? - for a day out last weekend. Circumstances conspired against it, and I'm not certain whether it was "the right thing to do" anyway, but the offer was more than welcome.
The new job. I can't say I quite understand what I'm doing a lot of the time, but at least some of the time I seem to be doing it better than the people who are supposed to know what they're doing. I am not referring to my direct colleagues, who are nothing but unfailingly kind, helpful, bright, and great to be around. Those with whom we deal on a daily and weekly basis, however, run the gamut from outstanding (I talked to someone today who went well beyond the call of duty to help out with something that could have gone undone, left on my plate forever) to dreadful (two examples of literally devastatingly stupid decisions and failure to follow through, in the course of two days). The most that I can say about it is this: when you're signing something official, legal, or financial, be DAMNED certain that you, and those with whom you are working, are clear on what it is, how it's been completed, what it's for, and whether you are actually signing properly.
My health. Is it a sinus infection? Bronchitis? Pneumonia? I described it as "a goopy cough that is not likely contagious. Feeling far better than I sound, which is like a gerbil slowly drowning in a vat of warm molasses." It only hurts when I breathe. After a week of it, I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Everything else. What are the criteria for being friends with a younger person on FB? I am trying to rely on their own common sense (such as it is), and choosing only to accept friend requests, not to extend them, with anyone to whom I'm not related who is under eighteen. Does anyone have a rule about such a thing? Am I weird to think about it? I'm not so concerned about bad behavior as about being a cooling influence on their own activities--about being all "grown up ish" and bringing them down.
Fingernails. I broke one today while rearranging the sleeve of my sweater, where it had ridden up a little on my elbow. Time to eat more Jello.
Speaking of Jello: pudding. Had a debate this weekend about the very clear quality distinction between instant and cook-and-serve pudding. Would anyone care to contribute?
I'm meeting a friend for lunch tomorrow, smack in the middle of snowpocalypse, here. I haven't been there for ages, so it will be good to see what it's like. And I haven't visited with that friend in probably five or six years? Maybe longer. So that will be good. Assuming that we don't get snowed in/out/away.
I should be sleeping, if the gerbils will let me.
[the title quotation is by William C. Dement]
I think house hunting is appealing to those of us who aren't actually in the market because it gives us an opportunity to dream of the what ifs.... but if it actually came down to having to make a financial decision that would impact us for the next 30 years, we would be exactly where you are.
ReplyDeleteCook n serve pudding comes with the delightful pudding skin but is indeed much more laborious than instant pudding. I opt for the sugar free/fat free pudding which means my only option is instant so I guess I vote for that by default.