The Battle of Tippecanoe

You remember a few posts back I was all gushy about how much I loved this area, and how I put an offer on a townhouse, blah blah blah? Yeah. Well the short and skinny of it is, I am still a pending homeless person. My lease is up in 25 days and while I can go month to month, I really would like to know if I'll be living in a deluxe apartment in the sky, or a tri-level townhouse 10 miles further West of here. Dealing with short sales, 3rd party approvals, and weeks upon weeks without word whether or not your offer to buy a home will be accepted is nothing less than agonizing. I am the kind of person who wants to be rewarded immediately for making large decisions, purchases, or life altering events. I want nothing more to be self gratified, and to immediately reap the benefit of said event. You know, like buying a car, and taking it home. Buying a lot of clothes, and taking them home. Buying a home and well, calling it MY freaking home. It should be easy. But easy is the furthest thing from what this crappy home buying process has been.

I wish I would have counted the exact number of houses I have looked at. My guess is that we're close to 100 now. My realtor must think I'm a total spaz. Thank God he's wonderful, because if he were like most any other man (not like you honey), my non-decisive nature would have scared him a long time ago. Well that, and he's getting paid, and his wife is a friend of mine from college and I'm quite sure she'd beat him into submission if he weren't. You know, just sayin'.

Anyway, I currently have two offers out on two different houses. You're not really supposed to do that but you know what? I'm pretty sure it should be illegal to ask people to make an offer on a house and then being the nice bank that you are sit on those offers for multiple weeks, just cause, you know, you can. I am pretty sure that by waiting and waiting it out, your hair falls out en masse and you find yourself in former homelands and cities that are now-not-too-far, drinking excessive amounts of foreign and domestic beers just to dull the voice in your head that incessantly screams, "where is the self-gratification that I so desperately need?" FFS. Why won't that bank respond and tell me that the home I've been looking for so diligently is now mine?

This is nothing less than a battle. A battle of wits. A battle of wills. A true testament to one's character.

You lucky bastards who haven't had to deal with the short sale and foreclosure process have no idea just how lucky you are. And those of you out there who think I'm getting a freaking amazing deal just because I'm trying to purchase a short sale/foreclosure...let me tell ya. When you're paying an arm, a leg, and a future unborn child just to live in a townhouse that costs more than most 5-bedroom homes in your former city, one in which has emerald green carpet throughout THE ENTIRE HOUSE (that you will have to fork over another 10K to replace just so you can paint the walls to not clash with said carpet), and a kitchen your inner Julia Child says "ewwwwhhhhh" too, it's not such an amazing deal. It's called less than perfect and totally obscene.

Ahhhh, the joys of home ownership. Home sweet home.

Damn it!

It's about time that I be able to say that!

I Want To Be Friends With This Guy

Awesome.

Life Is Good & My Writing Today, Yeah. Not so much.

I love this picture (thanks Crackberry phone) of little miss CC, taken this weekend while in LexVegas. How happy is she? Seriously, arms up, yayayyay! Smile away, yayayyayay! Tounge out, yayayyayayay! Love her, love her, love her.

Had a blast in ye old hometown. I don't really know what to say about it, other than it was a great time. The sunshine, the rain, the old friends, the new addition, it all added up to perfect harmony. We drank and ate, a lot. I'm serious when I say that it's quite possible I had 25 beers in 2 days. Pints of draft beer, not bottles. NB-C and I were basically like a British/Irish pub crawling/Horsetrack junkie duo for like, 48 hours. Good beer, bad beer, the whole weekend was fantastic. I got my three weeks of missing potatoes and fried food goodness in, also. Oh my, how I love a good waffle fry from Shamrock's. They always ever so tasty. Got to see my wonder twins Nan & H.O., which was awesome. I love these girls like old friends, even though they are relatively new friends. They are just like a second self. Saw a couple friends from college who I hadn't laid eyes on for what seems like years, and it was so nice to reconnect. Gotta say, it was good to be home.

The weekend was so fantastic, in fact, I weighed a dreaded 6 pounds more on Monday morning than I did when I left on Friday. Woops. I chose the "get out of jail free card" this week at the DubDub. Back on track, and I've lost 4 pounds of that since. Thank God.

Anywho, I'm really not into writing today, this is an admitadly bad post. I'm so bored of it that I'm not even going to re-read, edit, or obsess before hitting the "publish post" button. Amuse yourself with my pictures.

College friends! Me, LC, MB, NB-C

Two of my favorite BITCHEZ Nan & H.O.

Life is Good.

Yay! I love Keeneland, too! Where people watching should be a sport of its own.

In 14 years, this was the first time I ever saw a race from this close! Look! Real horses! You know! Racing!

Six words: "I need to go inside, now."

Going Home

Heading to LexVegas in a few. Can't wait...

Still waiting on the bank to respond to at least 1 of the 2 offers I have out right now. Foreclosure home buying isn't exactly what I call "fun."

Down 7lbs thanks to the WW. I'm pretty sure I'll recapture half of that this weekend. Rode my new! green! bike! two times this week, thanks to the reassuring peer-pressure of the FBF. I hope smoking cigarettes and over indulgent drinking doesn't derail this train completely...

Anywho, back with evidence of the fun I'm sure to have on Monday.

Cheers!

Onto The Living Part

When I moved last May, I wasn't sure what would happen once I got here. You know, would I like being a NOVA transplant? Would I adapt/fit-in/like living in this area? Would I make friends, and would I have a vested interest in staying? Eleven months later (has it been that long already???) I am able to answer that question with a resounding answer: Yes.

For as hard as it was to leave LexVegas, for as long as the days went on without my friends, for as long as the miles seemed to keep us apart, I am still glad that I moved. I am thankful everyday to know how far those miles have really taken me. I am happy here. I am the me I was screaming to become. It's a beautiful and bittersweet parodox, of losing so much in order to gain so much more.

I miss my friends every day. I miss being able to call NB-C to go to the tanning bed, to have my best friend in the same city. I miss the ease and familiarity that city had afforded me. The traditions in April and October, the "First Down Kentucky!!!" blaring from Commonwealth on game day. I miss my work people, who became so much more than just that. The smell of the Jif plant roasting peanuts, or the grandeur of the horse farms right within my distance. I miss the small town feel, the Nicholasville Road traffic, and the shortcuts through neighborhoods I had become so familiar with. I miss laughing with people who knew me for me, who cared about me, who were always kind, and who loved me. I miss the ease of I-75, that straight shot that led me to my hometown. I hate knowing that 3-hours is so much less time to spend than the 7-hours it now takes to get there. That what is there now is a little man who I fear will never know his aunt the way I'd like him to, who captured my heart more than I knew was possible, and who won't know how hard it is to not be with him as he grows up.

Yet what I've found here, allows me to take comfort in knowing that it's all still there, and that it's mine for the taking anytime I want to return.

I am happy here, because when I look out the window I see a future instead of a shackle. I can't describe what it is that makes me love being here. What gives me this vesting, what envokes me to stay. I just know that I love it here, in a very different way than I love LexVegas. I love it for what it meant to me to get here, for what it's afforded me in my career, and for the people I've come to meet along the way. I love that the open air and the blue sky often give me a glimpse of being home, like the day sneaks up on you and wraps its arms around your soul. I love it because it led me to him, and to the happiness I had almost convinced myself would never happen. A comfort in having a best friend so close, her children to love, family members even closer, and for the first time having all so close at the same time. I love it because what it means to me is that I began living my life, for me, because of me, and in spite of me. For learning who "me" is. And for growing up. As for what's left, I can't even begin to express how much I love having so much to do, all. the. time.

I left Lexington because I knew I had to let go in order for the fantastic happen. And I'm pretty sure it has happened to me. I feel this ease and this burst of satisfaction and I know that I have much to look forward to, in a place I look forward to being. It just feels nice. To really be happy. To leave all the strife behind, to deal with new challenges, new drama, new possibilities, and for good or bad, to do so by myself and without any pre-concieved notions of who I should become.

I wish I could say the irony would not befall me this time, but the vortex is whirling again. Thrusting me into a collision of both worlds this week...

I will go home to Lexington on Friday. Back to the arms of the friends I miss so deeply, surrounded by the sublime presence I so long to feel. And today, I took the first step in securing my place, here. I made an offer on a townhouse. A place to call home, a home to grow into, something that is totally my own.

Home.

A place, that took me a very long time to find.

My Cup Runeth Over

It's The Final Countdown

So, yeah. I find my spare time more than filled with the high propensity to stalk a certain 80's boy band. Oh, Nelly. It's gonna be bad.

In other news, the FBF (herein fondly known as the French Boy Friend because he needs a good name) and I are heading to the hometown tomorrow to see My Favorite NEPHEW! I don't know what to be more excited about...seeing said NEPHEW! or anticipating how my entire family will be with the FBF. I like to think of my family as the Franklin County Mafia when it comes to meeting new love interests. They are loud, opinionated, and really like giving the new comers a run for their money. FBF has no idea what he's in for. My poor little introvert. This will challenge you. Hehehehehehe. But I suspect, you will love them as I do. Because they are the reason I am me.

WW day 4 is going well. I forget how much I actually like being on this diet. I've become substanially more hydrated and fantastically more regular in such a short time. It's wonderful. TMI. Oh well!

Okay, should go to bed so when I awake, it will be time to see my beloved NKOTB on the Today Show. I probably won't be able to sleep tonight.

You know, like Christmas. Just giddy with the anticipation.

Impending NKOTB Reunion: 3 Days Down, 1 To Go

Sweet baby Jesus, thank you for this miracle.

Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, dressed in your finest polka dotted shirt, black pattened leather-lace-up shoes, and rat tail, for this beautiful photograph of the SOON TO BE REUNITED New Kids On The Block, looking ever so flipping hot in 2008.

Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for giving an otherwise dreadfully long week something to look forward to on what would surely be an otherwise dull and boring Friday morning.

Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, for bringing my nephew into the world, so that I could unknowingly have to choosen my first 7-hour trip home to see him, over the impending reunion of said favorite-life-long band in a city that is only 3-hours away.

Thank you, sweet baby Jesus, that Joe is still effing hot. For Jon, surprisingly looking exactly the same, yet somehow, hotter. For Donnie, gracefully less rebelious and able to carry himself quite well in a perfectly tailored suit. For Jordan, looking, well, not a thing like the Jordan I remember? And for Danny. Sweet little forgotten about Danny.

Sweet baby Jesus, thank you for answering the one prayer I thought might never get answered. For giving me a reason to stalk and obsess again. For allowing me to analyze how queerly Jon is standing (does he ever stand up straight?). For shedding a new perspective on the face that belongs to Donnie, cause DAAAYYYUUUMMM, he's looking HOT.

Just sayin.

In My Next Life...

...All I want is a healthy metabolism, thin genetics, and a willpower substantially stronger than the one I currently possess.

Went to the dubdub last night. Ah, the familiarity. This one is nicer than my former WW center in LexVegas. You just step on the scale right at the registration desk. Makes sense. It's nicely painted too. More of a taupe instead of Pepto pink like the former. More bright and airy, too. Substantially more annoying meeting leader is the weak spot. But maybe it's nice overall mojo will help me shed another 30 pesky pounds. I did keep thinking to myself, although I've joined, re-joined, re-re-joined (you get the idea), I have kept 35 pounds off since 2003 (or was it 2002?). That's kinda a long time, so maybe there is something that really works. I also forgot how much the first week sucks. Not cause it's that different than what I usually eat, just cause it's because now someone says I shouldn't.

Two weeks in and I'll feel noticeably different - I just have to remind myself of that certainty. That and how damn good I'm going to look in that dress that's been hanging in my closet since this time last year.

But right now, all I want is a damn cupcake.