I had a really nice day yesterday. Took a wonderful walk with my dog.
Watched some management vids with a really no-nonsense/no-excuses type of manager and I learned a lot.
Drove around and looked at the pretty countryside and some fixer-uppers with D12. We took the drive around sunset. The sunsets around here are simply breathtaking.
Slept in this morning and awoke to D12 cleaning up the downstairs and doing laundry and making me a cup of coffee. What a kid?! Still, this kid needs some friends pronto. I'm cool with her helping and I know she loves to clean...but, she needs more. So do I. :-)
Opened an account on Mint.com which will help me get a handle on where my money needs to go and what sorta budget will work to get things whittled down. D12 is dead-set against moving again...I explained to her that we can stay where we are, but it may mean renting D20's room and my writing lots more which won't leave much time for fun. I told her, calmly, we need to come up with a plan as a team in order to bring things under control and reduce some of this stress on me...which, indirectly, stresses her.
She gets it.
Still tossing around options with extra income, possibility of moving, asking the landlord to adjust the rent, etc...
Fort Drum's talk of downsizing is reducing rents like a tidal wave around here. Things are suddenly becoming much more affordable.
In the village where I work, there were three dinner events this weekend, a bake sale, another church event, etc...I'm seeing how, if I lived closer, these are events where I could kill two birds with one stone and deepen the friendships I've made, plus give D12 a chance to meet more people.
There's an old house across the street from my office that's for rent. Owned by a slum landlord though...not sure about this...
The thing is...as much as I love the views of the Adirondacks and the beauty of the village where we live...people are really beginning to love me in the village where I write the newspaper.
There's this one property available which has an old schoolhouse and a mobile home. The mortgage, including taxes and insurance, would come to around $500 per month--this is with approx. $20k allotted for initial improvements to make things comfortable for us. This would give me the opportunity to gradually fix up the old school house in order to rent it out as a snowmobile camp or summer rental, while paying down some debt.
Matt and I used to go around and restore old apartments in Akron and we restored the home we lived in for 20 years--with my doing a lot of the work towards the end.
Now, that I don't have the pressure of the other publication looming over my head...I'm feeling a bit freer.
Just thinking here. Please don't pop any balloons today. This is the first time in months that I've felt excited again about being in NY and enjoying my life on MY terms.
I don't know. I'm thinking out loud and I'm feeling some excitement about living again. Thinking about things that drive my passion like restoring old homes and history and all sorts of things. Life is good today.
Releasing some of that stress yesterday made a big difference. I've been carrying a lot of tension. It needs to go somewhere. Got out my yoga book yesterday. Did a few poses.
Have to get down to the business of writing today. Plan on writing a bit and taking a break...
"You know, it's times like these when I realize what a superhero I am." Tony Stark/Iron Man
“Focus on what you can do, then do it with all your heart.” Lois Wilson
