So obviously blogging hasn’t exactly been a priority this year. I think I’ve had about 10 entries in the last 12 months. The whole reason I even started this thing (the 101 in 1001 list) has been thrown out the window.
I’ve thought about writing now and then, maybe even signed on to do so, and in my typical fashion, didn’t, assuming some other day would suffice. That day is today. But mostly because I’m too tired to sew, and too awake to sleep.
The start of 2008, as documented by one of my few posts below, was hopeful, and looking quite good. I think the ensuing months is what cements myself as an eternal pessimist. When you think everything will go wrong, and don’t really expect good things, you’re always pleasantly surprised when they pop up.
Enough of foreshadowing. Here’s a quick run down of my bell curve of a year so far. I’m penning it in list form, because I’m lazy. That much hasn’t changed.
The first part of the year (aka, the highlights):
1. Had an awesome birthday, which was totally unexpected, considering the number being “celebrated”, and my slew of birthday disasters from years past. Disneyland, asurprise party and lots of cake was involved, so how can one lose?
2. I continued to get straight As in all my classes.
3. I survived starting up “real” classes on campus, and even made friends the very first day, almost like I was a normal person or something.
4. Our race team went to a Lemons race in Reno, where we dressed up in our hand decorated Elvis jumpsuits and wigs (our most awesome outfits at that time) and finally freakin’ won it! It only took 7 tries. Felt AWESOME, even if I was just decoration for the team.
5. Continued to make straight As in my classes. (I still astonished at this, so I figure I can include it more than once, for each quarter I completed.) I enjoyed this especially, because I was finally able to come to a tenuous peace with myself for having so royally botched my previous go round with higher learning. Realizing it dealt more with personal circumstances, rather than personal defects was quite freeing.
6. My husband was also doing very well in his MBA classes, and his company was paying for all the tuition.
That’s roughly where the highlights end, and the lowlights kick in:
1. In April, my husband’s company decides, in its infinite wisdom, that they will revoke an incentive they’ve had for 30 or so years, and no longer pay for tuition for anyone but those in the executive programs, not even allowing the employees currently enrolled to finish their degrees. So, after a year of a hell of a lot of hard work, Kyle had to drop out, because suddenly having to come up with $30,000 turned out to be rather difficult.
2. In his fit of disgust with said employer, Kyle also realizes that adjusted for inflation, he is making $3000 less a year than when he started almost 5 years ago. This was alright when he was getting $15,000 extra a year for tuition.
3. My dad becomes ill again, very seriously, and spends most of May in the hospital. It’s even worse, because I can’t be there with him or my mom to aid in any way, which is a horrible, completely helpless feeling. Luckily he had some surgery, and is doing much better now.
4. In June, the handyman that works for my landlady (who lives upstairs) bumps into Kyle’s motorcycle, knocking it into his car while trimming a tree, and leaving a large dent and scratch right down the hood. He proceeds to not inform Kyle that he did so, even though Kyle is going in and out the apartment while he grills hotdogs. Kyle figured out what happened a few days later, and had to confront the handyman (named, I can’t help but chuckle, Jesus) who first tries to deny it, and finally admits it. We will spend the next 2 1/2 months hearing him continually promise to get Kyle money to fix it “next week”, our landlady tell us lies about how the bike is unsafe because now she bumped into it and it started falling over but she managed to keep it upright (even though Kyle can’t keep it from falling over, and he’s got about 60 lbs and a lot of muscle on her), how Jesus shouldn’t have to pay because the bike has flat tires, and that makes it more unstable than if the tires had been inflated (um, perhaps a remedial science class covering surface area is in order), all of which finally ends in a fun little episode in our living room, where Jesus tries to insist he did tell Kyle he knocked the bike over, and we get gypped out of $50 because he “lost” the quote we gave him, and we forgot to make a copy. From that first day forward, I hate going outside my apartment, because I just want to avoid the both of them, they make me so angry. Whew.
5. Over the course of a month, we ended up having to spend a ton (and I mean a ton) of money to keep two of our three pets healthy. For once, Mabel was the one not giving us problems.
5. On July 9, I got laid off. Probably don’t need to provide too much else on that one.
6. Because I got laid off, no part of my tuition was covered any more, and with my only income now coming from unemployment, I had to make the very difficult decision to quit school. I most likely won’t try for interior design again. I think it not working out on four different occasions might be a bit of a sign.
After losing my job, and Kyle basically loathing working for his asshat of a company, we realized that we aren’t going to make it very far out here, and we can leave. This is both good and bad. Bad because we had hopes when we both started school that we were finally on the path to gaining some sort of financial security, and we might be able to make it out here, where the cost of living is so freaking high. Good because we could move to a place where it was much cheaper to live, and start thinking about buying a house, going on vacations, being able to replace Kyle’s sad dress shoes. And, try to move closer to family, especially so I could be there if either of my parents became ill and needed help again.
So, we’re looking to move back to the midwest. We’re focusing mostly on the Louisville area, to be near my parents, but also including Indy, Cincy, and maybe St. Louis. I’ve ruled out Chicago because I don’t know if I can deal with all the lake effect weather. So we’ll see. It’ll probably end up being much more dependant on where Kyle manages to find a job. I’m not even sure what occupation to look for. If I stick with admin, which I despise, there’s no way someone’s going to hire a person living 2000+ miles away, so we’re focusing on Kyle for the moment.
I’m tired now, so I leave this as the general run down of the last 9 months. I determined to keep writing here again, so I’ll leave my sentiment about leaving LA for small town midwest, new Lemons racing updates, and the glorious adventures of my cats and dog for another sleepless night.
