Tuesday, August 28

Holy crap, we bought a house!

They accepted our first offer!

There was a big article on the front of Charlotte.com today (which means it was big in the Charlotte Observer) about how houses aren't selling, and are staying on the market longer and going for a lot less than the owners had hoped for. Maybe they got scared?

I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. But here's some details for you detail oriented folks...

Single Family Area: 5/7 Charlotte, NC 28277 County: Mecklenburg
Total Fin HLA: 2738 Unheated SqFt: 463
Beds: 4 Baths: 3/1
New Construction: No Year Built: 2003 Completed: Builder: Ryan

ROOMS
Main: Breakfast, Dining Rm, Entry Hall, Great Rm, Kitchen, Laundry, Living Rm
Upper: Bedroom 2, Bedroom 3, Bedroom 4/Bonus, Master BR
Lower: None
Basement: None

PROPERTY
Approx Lot Dimension: .155 Approx. Acres: 0.155

DESCRIPTION
Type: 2 Story Style: Transitional Exterior Const: Vinyl
Parking: 2 Car Garage, Back Load Driveway: Concrete Foundation: Slab
Fireplace: Yes Fireplace Location: Gas Logs, Great Room Laundry: 1st Floor, Utility Room
Floor: Ceramic Tile, Laminate, Wall-to wall Carpet Doors/Windows:
Equipment: Cable Prewire, Ceiling Fan(s), CO Detector, Cooktop Electric, Dishwasher, Disposal, Electric Dryer Hookup, Ice Maker Connection, Refrigerator, Security System, Self Cleaning Oven, Smoke Detector
Interior Features: Attic Stairs Pulldown, GardenTub
Exterior Features: Fenced Yard, In-Ground Irrigation, Patio, Porch
Community Features: Playground, Pool

UTILITIES
Water/Sewer: City Sewer, City Water HVAC: Central Air, Gas Hot Air, Multizone A/C, MultiZone Heat Water Heater: Gas

REMARKS
Picture perfect! Absolutely beautiful home in immaculate condition! Wonderful rocking chair front porch. Gourmet kitchen w/cherry cabinets & island opens to spacious great room w/gas log fireplace. Extensive pergo flooring & upgraded lighting throughout. Huge bonus room with private bath. Incredible fenced yard. Extended patio overlooks rose garden & pond. Irrigation. A MUST SEE!!

Monday, August 27

Exciting weekend!

We've found the house we want to make an offer on!

Here are pictures:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v386/ultravioletu/house/

The few things you can't see from the photos are the upstairs level (2 br + master, bathrooms need a little cosmetic work, but they're good), the super-secret extra hideaway
(it seriously needs a bookcase to make it a secret passage) bonus room which has wood floors, a full bath, extra storage and is big enough to comfortably hold a pool table, and the finished garage complete with nice oil resistant flooring.

Our buyer's agent thinks the listed price is high, but we're probably still going to end up paying more than we wanted to pay for a house. Isn't that always the way, though?

Keep wishing us luck!!

Friday, August 24

House Hunting, take one!

For those of you who haven't heard, Craig and I are for real moving back to Charlotte! We hope to be moved in by the end of October.

Tonight we hit the road after work for the (ugh, 7 hour) drive down, and begin our search with our fabulous exclusive buyer's agent, bright and early tomorrow morning!

We have a big list picked out to look at already. If you're interested seeing some of them for yourself, you can look them up on the MLS. I'd send you to the Charlotte default MLS, but I don't like their photo/info tools as much as I like Allen Tate's (realty office in Charlotte) so I will send you thither instead!

http://www.allentate.com

MLS Comments
700599 The bungalow house
673437 Coffered ceiling
676122 Coffered ceiling, but empty
696531 The paint house (you'll see what I mean)
689743 almost identical to 696531 but nicer floors, and neutral
674658 great master bath
686806 lots of hardwood, nice kitchen, sunroom!
699796 pond and rose garden
693876 lake view from 2nd floor
679730 Charleston style, lake view from 2nd floor
701763 Lots of light, space, open fp, wood, lot
682794 Pool! But no photos. Backs to greenway
665269 beautiful kitchen, wood, yard

Unfortunately, you can't put in more than one MLS number at a time, but don't let that stop you. The first handful are probably our favorites, with the exception of the ones towards the bottom with the view of Lake Norman.

I'm so anxious and excited all at once that I've made myself sick. I've had deadly deadly heartburn for the last 3 days, and even though I know I'm hungry, I'm slightly more nauseous than hungry, so it's a problem. I need to calm the fuck down.

We're staying at the Westin in uptown Charlotte for three days. First, I love the beds in Starwood properties. They live up to their "heavenly" title. Second, I watched them build that hotel when I lived uptown, and I vowed that one day I would stay there because it's gor-ge-ous. Today's the day! Plus, I got the room for $109 a night!!!! We may have to pay for parking on top of that but at that price, so what.

It's going to be an exciting weekend... Stay tuned and wish us luck!!!!!

Monday, August 20

Tech Support Jackpot!

As I've told you all already, Sunday nights hold one of my small weekly pleasures. On this night every week, I grab a little snack, (this week, some lovely watermelon imported from NJ) and settle in for two hours of blissful 80's alt rock on VH1 Classic's "120 Minutes." It's not quite the same as the original "120 Minutes", but it's the one bit of pleasantly guilty nostalgia I regularly allow myself.

So tonight being Sunday, I park myself on the couch, and flip to the usual channel. But what greets me tonight? A big black screen that reads "Subscription channel." VH1 Classic has disappeared from my lineup!

So I flipped through my other channels. AMC? Gone. TCM? Gone. G4? Gone.

Now, I know Comcast has been working hard to fuck up my service for the last few months ever since the buyout of Adelphia at the beginning of the year. I've had to call a few times about the internet service, and strange things have been happening with the channel menus. Yesterday, all the channels shifted to new locations, and we lost all our "favorites" programming. So the new development tonight was only a little surprise...

At first I went all Morrisey and moped around, accepting that I'd be without until we moved to Charlotte. Then I decided, you know what, they have support people 24 hours! I'm calling their asses up!

I got a very nice support person named Larry. I told him that I knew they were changing around the lineup, but now half my channels were flat out missing. He said, hold on and let me see what's going on. He said it looked like the packages had changed with everything else, and I could switch to the digital blah-blah package, and it would work again. So I said, okay, well, what will that cost me? And he said hold on...

I told him that I tried listening to the FAQ on the phone before asking to talk to him, and it said that they tried about 20 different ways of notifying everyone of all these changes, but damned if I hadn't seen ANY of them! And he started laughing. So I said, "I bet you get a lot of people who tell you that." And he said, "whew, you wouldn't believe it!" And I said, "Well, at least you're not too busy at night," and he told me I'd be surprised at just how many people call at this hour. Mostly drunks. And I said tweekers, and they all probably want to yell at you. And we had a good laugh. And thus began a very nice conversation with a support person who said, "Hang on a second, maybe I can save you some money..."

Sure enough, some options here, and a "you shouldn't be paying for that" there, and he restored all my channels. He upgraded me to the new service. We now have ALL the movie channels.

AND he saved me $33 a month!

After all that, we still couldn't get AMC to work, and he tried a bunch of stuff but it still wasn't happening. So he said, "I know you don't want to hear this, but it means I'll have to send a tech out to your house..." And I said, "You know, it's not really that important..." And he's like, "Are you sure? Because you should be getting all the channels you're paying for..." And I said,

"You know? It's just AMC. It's not that great a channel. I now have all the OTHER movie channels. And what are they showing right now... 'Raising Helen'?? I didn't want to watch that anyway. Don't even worry about it!"

He said all right and asked if I need anything else, but I told him no thanks, and that he was great, and thank you so much!

So say what you'd like about Comcast's customer service, but all the times I've called I've spoken to really nice people who actually act like they want to help. And tonight's experience was no different, AND it came with bonuses!

So then I spent the rest of my "90 Minutes" with a pleased little grin...

Monday, June 25

Bring on the Dancing Horses

It's been 4 weeks since my constant companion left my side, and I still miss her like you wouldn't believe. So many times I'll be going through my day and just expect to see Autumn come around the corner, and I almost want to hold my breath and wait, like maybe it was all just a bad dream.

I'm still gathering the strength to post part 2 of my farewell, but I'm starting to repress the feelings and the memories of that particular bad day and the ones that followed. I'm stuffing them into a tiny box, and putting them in a dark corner in the back, right next to the box labeled "September 11." They're like painful little spring-trap, needle-filled time capsules that maybe one day I'll be able to disarm, but not until I have the time and the distance and emotional maturity to handle them.

They're also taking their damn sweet time getting her ashes back to me at the vet. They told me two or three weeks. It's been four. Craig called and they stalled him and put him off, until he got hold of the "manager" who told him, oh yeah it can take as long as TWO MONTHS. Meanwhile, I want to cry from that disappointment, and my gut aches with the fear that there's been some kind of mixup, and I'll never get her back. Craig says he's tired of calling them. I'll have to sack up and do it myself. The challenge will be not crying in anger and frustration while I'm on the phone.

IN HAPPIER NEWS, I love watching the triumphant return of 120 Minutes on VH1 Classic. Some of the best days of my life were to the tune of Alt 80's music! It gives me a happy little butterfly or two to remember the times and the places I recall with The Church and Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and Souxsie. Those are the 80s that I remember, not all the day-glo and Madonna puffy sleeves and legwarmers. I think of the summers driving to skate shows in my friends' beat up cars. The nights roaming the boardwalks and beaches of the shore in our little punk rock gangs. The laughs and the camaraderie and the heartache and the purple hair and the spikes and the combat boots and the trips to the city and hardcore matinées at CBGB's.

I wish my 80s were the one making the comeback.

And lastly, we're starting our search to see how much someone wants to lend us to buy a house! (And what the best rate we can get is of course.) So exciting! In fact, that whole process is gonna need a blog of it's own. I've been scoping out the houses in Charlotte though, and it's got me pretty psyched! You can't imagine how much house you can get for a realistic price there! Whee!

Tuesday, May 29

Eulogy for a Friend, Part I


So as most of you have heard by now, we had to put my sweet little cat Autumn to sleep on Sunday. I think I've totally cried my insides out at this point. But every time I think it's stopped, I realize I was wrong.

On Saturday night I noticed she wasn't behaving normally, and she was leaving little drops of bloody urine around the house, so I decided to take her to the vet first thing Sunday morning for what was obviously a bladder infection. What I didn't know, and what the doctor told us was that she was also in renal failure, and her pancreas was inflamed. There were things he could do to try and treat her, but what would fix the one would do things to hurt the other conditions and vice-versa. It was so hard to realize that ultimately she wasn't going to recover from those things, and it would just be more humane to her to put her to rest than to have her suffer through a slow and painful decline of her systems, just so we could spend a little more time with her. It was the hardest, most awful decision I've ever had to make, but she is at peace now. Craig and I were with her as she passed, and I know she knew we loved her.

I probably haven't had more than 6 hours sleep since Saturday night when I realized she was very sick. I'm going to post a memorial blog just as soon as I can get it together long enough to do so. (I've written most of it, I just haven't added the pictures.) Our other cat, Shiva, seems a little more needy than usual too, and you can tell she occasionally looks around like she expects her companion to just come around the corner. But with a little patience, and a little extra love and attention, I think she will adjust okay. (I'm not so sure about me.)

The vet is going to have her ashes returned to us, so when Craig and I move to our new home, we can place her in a comfortable, sunny spot where she can always stay a part of our family. Craig's dad also suggested we put a birdbath near her, and I thought that was a really nice idea.

So please love your own furry family members a little more tonight, in memory of the dear, sweet little friend who had so much unconditional love for everyone, and whom we all loved so much. We will miss her.

Thursday, May 3

Upheaval

Just when you think everything is going to be okay, and is going along nicely...

Our landlord informed us last night that she is raising our monthly rent by $150 as of July 1st. We already pay an outrageous price for this place:
2 BR + loft, 2 bath, living room, dining room, washer/dryer included, etc = $1600/month.

I pretty much told her she's out of her mind if she thinks we're going to pay $1725 for this place. (The least reason of which is that we can DEFINITELY find a comparable and/or newer place for cheaper.)

I can't complain too much because she's really been the nicest, and the reason she's raising the rent is because she's gotten married and is officially converting this condo she owns to a rental property. Her ARM came up, and she had to refinance, and now she owes more money due to her new interest rate. So in order for her just to break even, she needs to raise the rent.

While I'm totally sympathetic to that, I'm still pissed.

This leaves us four options:

1. Stay and pay that ridiculous rent for a place that isn't even worth $1600/mo.

2. Find a new place to rent in the area. Which gives us 2 months or so to work that all out and get packed, etc.
However, Craig has given me the ultimatum that he doesn't want to move again unless it's into a house so...

3. Buy a house.

There's no fucking way we can afford a house in this area.

(For laughs, you may like to check out http://www.zillow.com. It will display a "heat map" of house values in a particular area. Check out your own house value! BFE is starting to look pretty good.)

That means we'd have to move somewhere else entirely. I'm lucky with my job, because I'm a regional resource. I can move a lot of places on the East coast. Craig would have to quit his job. Which sucks, because he loves his job.

4. Buy a condo/townhome.
That, we could afford. However, why would I buy something when I'd still have to share walls with other people?




We don't know what to do. sob

Friday, March 23

Los Vagas

So we've planned a very spur-of-moment trip to Las Vegas for Easter weekend.

What better way to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord?!


My sister called me a couple of weeks ago and said, "Easter is cancelled!" I'm like...what? Because I thought maybe the Second Coming had happened and no one told me, or James Cameron found out the whole "resurrection" thing was a hoax. But no, she just meant that our parents were going on some kind of reunion trip that would have them in Las Vegas for Easter, so the usual get together at the family home in Jersey was not happening. After a few moments of thought, I said...

"Let's go to Vegas."

So we started thinking about it and throwing together plans, and here we are!

We got the world's most cheap-ass tickets from JetBlue: $99 each way, which was somehow only miraculously available for a few hours on Tuesday. When I had checked a few hours earlier, the "from Vegas" price was $199. Then it went down. Now it's back up to $199/$149 each way! Whee!

Prolix and Husband are coming with us. (Younger sister Xtina and husband cannot make it due to financial troubles.) We've got a "spa suite" at the Luxor to stay in. I'm sure the weather will be lovely because it's the DESERT. We're talking about going to good restaurants and to see the MGM's lion habitrail, and possibly seeing Cirque du Soleil "Love" (aka the Beatles gig.)

So what should we go do? What should we see? Any recommendations? Any tales of debauchery? To hell with this, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" crap! Spill!!

Also, if anyone has any stories about JetBlue, good or bad, we've never flown with them before so we'd love to hear them! (Yeah we know about the whole stuck-on-the-runway-for-nine-hours thing, but we consider that an anomaly, and they've more than tried to make up to their customers for it.)

Tuesday, March 13

Mini Married Life Update

I'm excited that tonight Craig and I have tickets to see Janeane Garofalo at the State Theater. It's the first time we've been out at night to do something (other than go out to dinner) since...well, it seems like forever! It was his idea, too.

We're starting to settle in, being more comfortable with one another, though it hardly seemed possible considering how close we were before. Every day seems to bring a new understanding, or something else I hadn't considered, or some new level of just being a couple. As much fun as it would be to have babies, right now I'm still waiting to see where the married-couple thing goes, and I wouldn't want to spoil it or keep it from reaching its potential. Still...tick, tick, tick, tick...

If I had gotten pregnant on my wedding night, we'd be having a baby this month.

In other news, I'm starting to settle into my new last name. I like the sound of it. I like the way it goes with my first name. I like that no one is ever unsure how to pronounce it. Occasionally they leave out an L or add an S, but so what; it's still mostly right. I like signing it because it's all loops and just seems to flow off the tip of my pen, though sometimes I get carried away and throw in a loop too many.

Also, unrelated, it's nice to have all the windows open again.

Even if it means it's "motorcycle weather" for the douche who lives downstairs.

Wednesday, February 28

Taking the Long Way Around

My friends from High School
Married their high school boyfriends
Moved into houses
In the same zip codes where their parents live

But I, I could never follow
No I, I could never follow
I hit the highway...

February 28, 2007 marks 11 years since I left "home."

I didn't just move out of my parents' house, I left NJ and I didn't look back.

I left with a trunk full of my belongings in my '71 Monte Carlo, the blessings of my mother, and the blatant disowning of my father, and took what would be the first of many 8 hour drives down I-95 to Raleigh, NC. (and later beyond.)

I began a new life, my own life, full of potential to be and do whatever I wanted. I don't think everyone gets a chance like that in life. Or if they do, they chicken out. But if you see the road before you, and it seems so clear and bright, you just can't be afraid to take it. Yes, the unknown is scary. But I think I've always been more afraid of the slow death of the known...

I've learned more about myself in the last 11 years than I think I ever believed I could have when I left.

I learned about and touched and spoke to all walks of life, some I never could or would have just staying in New Jersey. I made fleeting acquaintances and lifelong friends all over the world. I took risks I never thought I could, and experienced things I never thought were possible for me. I had the highest of highs and the most cold rock-bottom lows.

I proved to myself the existence of angels at the depth of one of those lows. Once when I was almost the hands of my own undoing, this angel swept in and saved me from myself, and I will never know whether she had any idea of what she did for me. But just as quickly she was gone, and to this day, (as good as I am at internet searches!) she remains a ghost. Which is a shame, because I miss her, and I would love to see her again just to thank her... But I never again doubted the existence of God.

(And coincidentally, it was proven to me that God couldn't possibly hate gays, as this woman, on a gay-scale of 1 to 10 was "Had David Crosby's child with her wife.")

If you told the me-girl of 11 years ago that she would be here, and who I am this day, you would have gotten the raised eyebrow and probably a nervous laugh.

I'd like to think that 10 years from now if you told the me of today what the future holds, you'd get a confident smile and a nod like, "Yes, of course. I wouldn't have expected any less."

More to come...