home

A while back, around new years, I posted a musing on what kind of person I would be in a year. One never knows what the coming months will bring; we're at the point in our lives where every morning dawns with only the guarantee that things won't be the same at dusk. To prove my point, I promptly quit my job; no longer "college administrator" or "premed advisor" I became instead "dog walker." Or "phone-call maker." Or "girl who pretends not to cry when the beautiful Rottie is deemed unadoptable." I'm still trying this new identity on for size, still trying to figure out where my life fits into this chaos of always-on-your-feet, uniform-required, loud and dirty and sad and rewarding and crazy married-to-your-job environment.

And I don't have much time to ponder it or discuss it, because in the spirit of embracing change and charging forth, I've gone and bought a house.

I keep saying it because it hasn't registered yet; people seem to think it's very exciting and the permanence, the hugeness of the whole thing just hasn't hit me. Maybe it's because it's a townhouse--it's really only part of a building, after all. And we haven't had the big somber closing event with the lawyers, so possibly after that you'll find me curled up in the fetal position on the floor. It's hard to process, because for the past week my life has been composed solely of work, dinner, and lengthy conversations with my parents, Joe's parents, the realtors.

What I do know is that it's a beautiful, light-filled house packed with windows, and the cats can have their own room, and there's a garage, and it's in damn near the cutest part of NoVA I've encountered. I'm a half-mile walk from the frozen custard store, and that, my friends, is exciting. What's especially thrilling to me is that now, forever, nobody else can come into my home without my invitation. I can be secure in the knowledge that I own something, some little piece of the world belongs to me, if nothing else goes right I have a place to come home to and it's mine, just what I want, just perfect for me and Joe and this crazy little furball family we have. In my head I'm already sitting at the breakfast bar checking email before work, curled up next to the big bay window reading a book, sunning on the patio on a rare day off.

In the meantime, I have to figure out how to pack up and move my life from one place to another in one month when I DON'T HAVE ANY DAYS OFF.

Hm. Anyone looking to make a quick buck?