Catch a Tiger by the Toe

Friday again and August to boot. Can you believe it? I don’t even know where the last two months went, but I’m exhausted. (I'm so behind, I unpacked the last of my suitcase from Scotland and Dallas on Tuesday night.) I spent the last two nights painting my living room and getting all the furniture put where it belongs. I will tell you that the big open space thing has its drawbacks – when the living, dining and kitchen are all once space, there’s no way to just stop painting. It all has to be painted. Good grief. I don’t know when I’ll get finished at this rate. I’ll try to get some pics up soon.

After this, I’m hoping to focus on my new office. I've never had one before, so this is exciting. I've ordered a bunch of my favorite movie posters to frame for inspiration (yes, there's one of Captain Jack although I restrained myself and did not order the life-size cardboard cutout they had for only $35!). Now I'm trying to figure out the right color to paint the walls, but I have no clue. I can't figure out Feng Shui. The room is on the 2nd floor with windows facing south, but the door is in the northwest corner. Where is my wealth and success section? What color should the walls be? Beige is not an option and blue and brown have been overdone in other rooms. I'm looking at green, purple, even yellow if I like the shade. It's also important that the color match my existing furniture. Right now, I have a tall cherry bookshelf and a short black bookshelf, a tall cherry file cabinet. I’m lacking a desk, but I’m also having trouble finding one that isn’t priced as though it’s carved with ivory and gold. That or it just looks cheap. Finding one that matches the existing furniture isn't much fun either.

Here's the forerunners. What do you all think?

Option 1: $199 (staples.com) No drawer for pens, etc., but it does have that nifty bookshelf built into the side there.


Option 2: $279 (staples.com) Has a drawer and plenty of nooks and crannies, however the keyboard tray seems short and I wonder where my mouse would sit.


Option 3: $199 (staples.com) This one doesn't have a drawer either, but it does have a black desktop, so it would match both my bookshelves.




Option 4 : $429 (officedepot.com) Lots of drawers and cabinets and whatnot, plus I think out of all 4, it matches my existing cherry furniture the best, even the drawer pulls are similar. I'm not sure its $200 nicer than the other ones, though.

What do you guys think? I’m leaning towards number 2. Maybe with a hunter green wall color? Or would that be too dark? Play interior decorator for the day and help me out! I know some of you have taken workshops on creating the ideal workspace and I need some assistance here.

Are you having trouble making decisions lately? Toss any quandries into the blogosphere and see if we can help you decide, too.

SP

PS. Angel’s winner from Monday’s Blog with Barbara Vey is MaryKate. Anne is the runner up. Email her at angel@writingplayground.com to claim your prizes!

To my past winners – Joye (Harry Potter prize) and Robynl (Scotland prize) please email me ASAP at smartypants@writingplayground.com so I can send you your nifty gifts. Otherwise, we’ll have to schedule a trivia shootout to see who gets your stuff.


And finally, a special birthday shoutout to Maven Linda! Happy Birthday!!

Off-Line

My blog today is more of a rant. I apologize in advance. It’s just....well, you know if you read this blog often enough that several of us are internet addicts. Addicts! I mean, my icon has a computer mouse in it for goodness sake! I check my email every 5 minutes the entire time I’m at work and several times throughout the evening at home. At the old house, I had cable internet. Very speedy - 8.0, I think. Not super-reliable – every time someone digs up the wire, the whole neighborhood goes down, but they’re usually pretty quick at fixing it.

The new house was close enough to town that I could now get DSL, which is a little cheaper and I could bundle it with my phone, cellular and satellite service to save money and get some cash back bonus. I closed on the house Wednesday, had an appointment to turn on the phone Thursday and an appointment to setup the DSL Friday. All lined up in the neat and orderly way I do things. Thursday of last week there is a card on the door that says there’s no phone lines available and it will be setup within 5 days. I had to cancel the DSL appointment, of course.

Tuesday was 5 days. Wednesday was a holiday. I call this morning for a status as I still have no phone. They tell me its going to take another 2 weeks. 2 WEEKS!! That’s just for the phone. Then I have to get on the schedule for the internet installation. No way. Can’t do it. I don’t care if they have to run the phone cable from the phone company building 20 miles to my house – this is unacceptable. It’s a new subdivision, they should be equipped to handle the new houses coming in. They, of course, are not very apologetic about it. What am I going to do about it, right? Can't very well call and complain with no phone.

So I call my old cable company and decide to reup my cable internet and add the new online phone service – something like Vonage, I guess. Same price as the other guys, but includes unlimited long distance and all the bells and whistles. They can get out to install the internet on the 12th, the phone on the 17th. Not great, but better. We have cell phones, so the internet is the most important (read above: internet addiction!).

First time in my life I’ve said this, I think, but thank goodness for work! At least I can check email and blog from there. Poor DB has no access at all, forcing us to make several trips a week to visit my mother and use her computer. His internet addiction is far worse than mine and he is getting quite crabby. Normally, I'd suggest he install some cheap dialup software until we could get the high speed, but again...no phone line.

I can’t live this way. It’s making me crazy. I can’t do web updates for us or our RWA chapter without going to someone’s house. I’m way behind on email. I’m cut off from the world from 4:30 PM – 7:30 AM every night. The other night I even lost my cell phone (it was on my floorboard, but I thought I left it at work) and sat on the couch all night, not sure what to do. No phone, no internet. ARGH!

I know some of you are laughing and thinking things like “Fifteen years ago, we didn’t have all that internet nonsense.” I KNOW! What did we do back then? I honestly don’t recall. I do know that I was forced to do icky things like use the phone book, call stores and ask for their hours, do research in the library and buy an Atlas. The horror of it all. I can't buy a tv, shop for shoes, research a book, find a phone number...my life has just become wrapped around it now.

So, what can’t you live without?
SP

(PS. I won't be responding to any comments today because I'm not at work, ie. no internet access until Monday when I come back. Oh the suffering!)

Closer to the Ending

No, not the ending of my book. Surely, you can’t be serious? (I am serious and don’t call me Shirley.) That’s lurking on a flash drive wishing someone would rub it and let it out like a genie in a lamp. At the moment, I don’t even know where that flash drive is. Somewhere safe, knowing me, where I’ll pay hell finding it. I do back up fairly...often...sometimes. I’m sure it’s somewhere safe.

Anyway, I mean I’m closer to my endless home selling/buying/moving process. I closed on my new house Wednesday and I have movers scheduled tonight to start bringing the furniture from storage. Hopefully before I leave for Dallas I will have some semblance of a normal life resuming.

I doubt it.

At the very least, I will have the kitchen and bath put away, a bed assembled, and the computer and TV up and running, because sadly, I can’t live without the last two. I’m ahead of the game from my last home purchase – the power is on. My last house greeted us frigidly on Valentine’s Day because the builder forgot to put in the connection notice with the utilities company. Brilliant. This time the house will be frigid because I’ve cranked up my brand new A/C system and have both my ceiling fans running full speed. Much better.

When I planned the trip to Scotland, the scrapbooking retreat, the conference in Dallas... I didn’t have an inkling of moving. I have this tendency to make a decision and go with it. Without much build up, I just sort of bought a house and worked all that it entailed in with everything else I had going on. I’m looking forward to July 16th. No special reason, of course, other than I won’t have any travel or major activities until a wedding at the end of September. It will be the first chunk of time I’ve had since early December where I don’t have anything to pack or paint or move or clean. If I do, it will be because I want to, not that I have to. Maybe I can have some peace, decorate my house, and write the book, of course. If DB is lucky, I might even cook again, something I have done maybe 4 times since we moved into our tiny apartment.

So, here’s my brick and mortar baby. She’s so pretty I can barely believe she’s mine. At least until I get my first mortgage statement. She's a 2300+ sq ft, 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, storage wonderland. I have cubbies and closets and shelves everywhere. My pantry is bigger than my old kitchen. It screams for new furniture. New bedding. New everything. All in good time.

I am looking forward to a long stretch of peace in my new house, sprinkled with paint swatches and new furniture. What are you looking forward to this summer?

SP

Closing a Chapter

Well, it’s done. I turned over the keys and picked up my check at closing. I ran from the building like it was on fire and went straight to the bank (by way of Arby’s) to deposit it before they changed their mind. So far, so good. I am no longer a home owner, much less a dual home owner, which was my biggest fear.

It was kinda sad to walk through my empty house – a house I had built and picked out every detail from the colors to the flooring. It was my baby, my first house ever. Now it belongs to a nice couple from Massachusetts. It’s their first house too, so there’s some poetic justice to it all. I laid in bed all last night worrying about closing and something going wrong. Of course, in my dreams, the problems were absurd dream-type problems like unwanted monkeys in the attic. All this time, since I got the initial offer, I never really believed that all of this would actually happen – something was bound to go wrong. The inspection would be a mess or the appraisal would come in below the offer, their credit would tank and they’d lose their loan, termites...something. But everything turned out fine. What a relief. I feel like the weight of the entire house has been taken off my shoulders.

In other good news, the builder is scheduling my closing on the new house for after my return from Scotland. Although I’d like to be settled in the house and out of my apartment before I go, this allows me the time to relax and enjoy my time in between, including the trip to Scotland. DB is mightily excited to be so close to Chick Fil A and the world in general, after being 30 minutes from anything for so long. He might not even miss me the two weeks I’m gone with so many culinary options nearby – Subway, Chinese, Pizza Hut, McD’s, Checkers, Wendy’s, Arbys...who needs me anymore?

The question I have now is...now what? This move has been occupying my brain for months. I’ve been preparing to sell, preparing to move, etc. since January. Now it’s done. If I moved straight into the new house, I’d probably be able to start obsessing about decorating or whatever, but I’m a solid month away from that. Almost two weeks out of those four will be in Scotland, but the rest of the time, what am I going to do?

Write the dumb book? Is that what I heard you say? Perhaps. I need to jump on the literary bandwagon and get the rough draft of this book cranked out ASAP. Maybe for once my mind will be uncluttered enough to actually focus on the story and the characters.

But I think for a few days, I’m going to revel in nothingness. Nothingness! How wonderful. Calls for champagne and non-WW approved goodies. What have you celebrated lately? Lets all celebrate together!

SP

DOH!

So amid a sea of boxes and rubbermaid totes (of which I got 24 into my Ford Focus, a miracle, I must say) I realize its Thursday night. Shoot. I haven't written my blog yet. A slew of curse words follow as I dash into the office, shurking my packer's assistant duties to type this.

I may have a dash of brilliance and write more later, but if not - tell me your best or worst moving story. I know its my personal version of hell, so I'm certain y'all have some frightening stories to share. Maybe later I'll tell you about the 40 foot long mud trench and the tow truck...

Your turn. I'll pick one story to win a copy of Body Movers by Stephanie Bond. If I haven't packed that box... :)

SP

Stop the Train, I Wanna Get Off

It's hard to blog after Linda. I feel, well, unworthy of my own blog. Alas, it is my day and I have to do it. Its appropriate, though, given her unnatural attraction to plywood, that I would blog once again about building my new house. No swords named Kitty, although DB accused me of having to name everything. I do. Doesn't everyone name their plants, car, computer?? No. Oh. Hmmm. Moving on...

Well, if I wasn’t in a state of panic before today with home appraisers, wood insect inspectors and handy men hammering roof shingles, the events of the morning pushed me over the edge. I found out that my new house is anticipated to close on...wait for it...June 13th. Ugh. For those of you that don’t know, that’s the day we leave for Scotland. I’m working with them to try and push the date back to the 11th or 12th, but if it doesn’t happen, that means I will set up closing as early as possible that morning, hand DB the keys, and hit the road to Birmingham. No romantic “first night in our new house” sort of thing. Just wrap up the paperwork and run. I’m hoping a day or two early might let me get utilities turned on, maybe even move a few things in. We’ll see.

I guess you should be careful what you wish for. I’d hoped the house would be done before the trip instead of after, but that’s sure cutting it close. It’s also a little disappointing that I won’t be able to revel in new house glory very long before I have to leave it behind and revel in Scotland glory. I wanted to pace my glory. Now I’ll be coming home, jetlagged and exhausted, to an entire house (potentially sans internet or electricity) that needs to be moved into and all my junk put away. Sucks the fun out of it.

Keep your fingers crossed for the two extra days, ladies. Otherwise I'm going to be a scattered, neurotic travel companion. I give all of you fair warning to bring extra toothpaste because I'm anticipating to forget half my stuff in the chaos. Thank goodness for Ambien. Everyone gets one. :)

Considering everything else, we’re not even going to talk about my book. After the luncheon we brainstormed some good ideas for where I went wrong (I've stalled) and there’s a lot of work to be done on what I’ve written before I can move forward. Guess I’ll try to squeeze that in between getting fully moved into the house and leaving for Dallas. I do have one positive development on the book front -

I have a title...the winner of last week's contest to name my book is...Pat L. My working title will be Ghost of a Chance. Kathy gets honorable mention for coming up with the longest list of completely crazy titles. My favorite was Deadliest Match : A PIMPS Mystery. Instigator also gets honorable mention for the best title that wasn't eligible to win with Ghost Encounters of the Future (Dead) Mother-In-Law Kind. I'll keep that in my back pocket when I sell this book and the editor wants a list of titles to choose from. Anyway... Pat - email me at smartypants@writingplayground.com with your home address to claim your prize.

The winner of yesterday's guest blog with Linda Howard is Ladypugs! Email instigator@writingplayground.com with your snail mail address to claim your prize.

That's it. I'm going to bed. Happy Friday.
SP

Go With The Flow

I’m a big believer in fate. Not that I don’t think we have control of how our lives go, I just think that there is a place and time for everything to happen (whether you like it or not) and by going with the flow, you often end up where you should instead of fighting the current and getting no where. And I do believe in fighting, but sometimes you’re meant to fight and sometimes you’re not.

This whole house thing has been one surprise after another – good surprises – which was a surprise in itself. Things have just flowed. I decided one day I wanted a new house and found one I liked rather quickly at a price I could afford. I got approved for the loan easily. I had to work hard to get my house in good shape, but it turned out nice and the first people that saw it agreed. I wasn’t ready to show the house really, but if I hadn’t, I would’ve missed them and they wouldn’t have gotten the house they really wanted. They wanted to close earlier than I wanted to, which means apartment living for a few months, and yet when I cruised by my previously vacant lot yesterday, there was a house on it! Framed, roofed, everything. It’s a long way to go still, but the 2 month estimate on completion will take me right to when I close on my current house so I may not need an apartment at all! The inspection was quick with only a few minor fixes. Its just like I was meant to do this.

This happens in my life a lot. I think I was meant to go to college where I did and meet the people I met there. I think I was meant to move to Alabama, which I did on a whim, because I met DB, the Playfriends and the Mavens. Without them, my writing might have stagnated and I might have given up by now when the work got lonely and hard. My life would be so different without having done that – as would my mother, who’s married and had Little Sister since we came here. Even horrible things, like car wrecks where no one was seriously hurt, somehow lead to things getting better – a newer, better car.

For the most part, I am aware of this force in my life and I do my best not to fight it because things turn out the way they should. The hardest part is to accept it with regard to my writing. Of course, I work hard to be published and I feel in my heart I will be someday. I try not to get too discouraged by a rejection telling myself – well, maybe that wasn’t the editor or publisher for me. Maybe the timing isn’t right – I’m not ready yet. Yeah, I tell myself that, and maybe twenty years from now I can look back at these struggles and say it all worked out fine. That it happened when it was meant to and I was ready for it to happen. But it doesn’t take the sting off of all the setbacks and detours.

I've had so many pleasant surprises that I'm going to offer one myself today to a lucky blog reader. Comment on the blog today and tell me about something you're waiting for fate to bring along. The big sale? A new house? A vacation? A wedding? A grandbaby? I may not be able to get you what you're hoping for, but maybe I can come up with something to help you pass the time waiting. And no, not a Sudoku book... :)

SP

Hope for the Best...

...and expect the worst. That’s usually my plan. I don’t like to think I’m a pessimist, per se, just a realist. I took a chance when I started building my new house. My mortgage company said I could maintain both loans, so I didn’t have to sell my current house before I went under contract for the new one. Of course, no way could I pay BOTH mortgages, but the bank seemed to think so – silly people.

Anyway, so I took the risk and hoped I could sell my house in the six months it would take for my house to be finished. It seems like every week since Christmas, another house has popped up for sale in my neighborhood. The builders of my subdivision were building more houses nearby as well, so I had a LOT of competition. Why would anyone buy my house when they could build one of their own just the way they wanted it?? I was discouraged as prayed that I could get my house together by March 1st. Surely 4 ½ months would be enough time for it to sell.

As I picked out carpet swatches and frantically painted every room of my rainbow tinted house a lovely (boring) beige, I was also working on my backup plan. I needed 5% down in cash, which would be no problem if my house sold, but just in case, I needed to save that much to have for a worse case scenario. My house needed a lot of decluttering, but there was only so much I could do. My realtor and I decided to just go ahead and list and keep working on the house. I anticipated the first few viewings to be fruitless with lots of “cluttered” feedback.

I was so wrong, and thankfully so. Apparently, as cluttered as it is, I had the neighborhood golden nugget. (Who knew??) The house down the street from me that listed 1 week before mine has had 15 viewings, no offers. It had the same layout, but was the slightly smaller one with no fence. Mine was 100+ sq ft bigger, plus I had a privacy fence. I had one viewing on Sunday. I was agonizing all week because no one was calling. No one was going to buy my house.

Monday morning – got an offer. One viewing, one offer. We did a little negotiating and signed on the line. My house sold in a week. The inspector comes next week at which point, we will review any issues and negotiate any fixes. Then the appraisal. Barring the purchaser running out and buying a boat or something dumb the week before closing, I’m set. What a relief! (And for the record, all the other houses in the neighborhood are still for sale...bet they’re hating me right now.)

So now my stress has shifted to finding a short term apartment and getting moved out of the house instead of just de-cluttering. Taking spring cleaning to a whole new level. By the time May gets here, my house will have a bed, a couch, a tv, and some dishes if I can possibly manage it.

So, spending every waking moment painting, packing and watching “Designed to Sell” has paid off! Of course, I’ve gotten virtually NO writing done in the last month when I was supposed to be doing a writing challenge. Oh well. I'm sure my new house will be the muse I'm looking for. Right?? And, this has served as a righteous distraction from the fact that I didn't final in the Golden Heart. Great timing, I'd say...

When was the last time you were pleasantly surprised?

SP
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