Back in the beginning of April I had this really clever idea that I should begin an entry with a nod to the recently deceased pontiff and his followers, thus allowing myself use of that wonderful pun. But, uh, I guess I was busy, because three months later, here I am, 700 miles east with a new job and a shiny new life and the midwest squarely and flatly behind me.
People keep telling us that things seem to have really fallen into place for us; Scott is happy in his job, our house sold after a week on the market (the agreement of sale was signed the night before we made the drive to DC), we found a place to live in a great location, and I was offered a job two weeks after we landed. And I want to laugh at them. Scott struggled with the idea of taking a step back in his career even before he started with Aramark, I spent months renovating our finances and getting rid of half of our possessions, two days before settlement on the house we found out that we were not only NOT getting money back on the sale but that we owed thousands of dollars in taxes which completely wiped out our savings -not to mention the emotional toll of letting go of the house. And then there was the week of me driving around and crying while trying to find us a place to live. And the filthy temporary apartment. And me, silently blaming Scott for all of this. So, no, everything did NOT fall into place. We worked hard, we struggled, we went back into credit card debt to pay for the move and cover the loss on the house, we resigned ourselves to spending three hundred dollars more per month on rent so that we could live somewhere without quite as many crackheads; there were bounced checks, frantic phone calls, last minute wire transfers, and we went through dozens of rolls of toilet paper in one month because I didn't want to touch anything in the bathroom of the temporary apartment with my bare hands.
Now, to be fair, the job did kind of drop into my lap. And within three weeks of moving in we got our Minnesota refund way ahead of schedule, and with a completely unexpected check from HUD, we had enough to pay off the move and put just a bit back into our depleted savings. My mom gave us some housewarming cash that was enough to take care of all of the post move expenses. And Scott got the Hilton Honors points refunded from the trip we had to cancel last summer, so we're going to Virginia Beach for free in September.
Although we're not ahead of where we were three months ago, the money worked out and we can start rebuilding our savings, especially once I start working full time in September. But to say that things just magically fell into place... egads. It diminishes how hard we've worked just for things to be ok- no debt, both of us employed, decent place to live, and happy about it. I wonder if anyone realizes exactly how hard it was to make this look so easy. Of course it looks like everything just fell into place. We busted our assess for a year and a half renovating our finances, our ideas about success, our relationship with each other and our ideas about how the world works in order to allow these things to "just fall into place."
So there.
In other news, I'm a little miffed about my current bra situation. I thought that if I got myself into really good shape, I might be fortunate enough to have a normal bra size for once in my life. But get this - after YEARS of not being able to find anything attractive (or comfortable) in a 36D, it seems that manufacturers have finally caught on that there are a lot of unfrumpy 36D women out there. Now there are lots and lots and LOTS of decent 36D bras out there. Which is great, except that I have whittled myself down to an even more impossible 32D. Some stores don't even carry 32s anymore, and a 32D?Forget it. A trip to Bloomingdales yielded exactly 6 bras in a 32D and the only ones that fit properly were sixty-two and thirty-five dollars! And, as it turns out, the thirty-five dollar one is going to work only for limited engagements, as it gets a little uncomfortable after a full day of wear and there is is some risk of stuff flying out of it if I bend over too many times.
