Buying a house and fighting a virus

Sometimes, life has a way of forcing you to make the decisions that you've been putting off.

Today, I woke up with an email from my housemate (and owner of the house) that I need to vacate the house by April 6.I'm going to do my best to turn this into an opportunity, the kick in the pants I needed to join the world of home ownership. My goal is to be in a house of my own by that date, April 6. It just doesn't make sense to sign a yearlong lease with an apartment complex or something, and it's hard enough to find a place that will take a big dog. Plus, I'm ready. My credit is good, and my finances are, well, decent.

So I immediately applied for, and received, a mortgage of $150,000. The woman even proclaimed my credit score "good," and said she could go higher if I needed to. But I want to buy something in the range of $125,000. A cheap little starter home, hopefully something I don't have to put a whole lot of work into to live in - since I only have two months. I've been shopping online all night, and there seem to be several possibilities; hopefully, I can find a realtor who can find some more and get this ball rolling.

The only hangup is a downpayment, as the program requires 3.5%. I don't have that. I have about half of that (I'm really kicking myself for a huge payment I made on a credit card last week - that would have given me about 3% and left only a little bit left to save). I think I can get the rest of it by the time any money has to be put down, especially with my tax refund coming. I think I might also take some shifts at the restaurant; I've already agreed to Valentine's Day. Desperate times...

I'm looking in the areas of Ednor Gardens, even a little north from there (Lakeside), or Better Waverly, or Remington, or even in my current neighborhood, Belair-Edison. The latter seems to have some really good neighborhood deals. I've learned so much even tonight, fiddling around with the internet. I wish I had more time.

In a way, getting kicked to the curb might have been the kick in the ass that I needed. Hopefully everything works out.

I'm also sick, fighting off a very sore throat and a cough that feels like it's going to break a rib every now and then. I recently changed insurance, and I haven't received the card yet. The insurance company assured me that the doctor would just be able to look up my information and that they'd accept me; however, Patient First would not look up my information and insisted that they needed a physical card. I was livid, so much so that I almost caused a scene. The guy was also a big douche about it, as was the lady I called on the phone from the insurance company for help. I hung up on her and walked out on the guy without a word. Better that way. I then drove across the city to a public library, printed out a temporary card - the same information that was showing on the screen at the Patient First - and went to a different Patient First farther away. The whole process took about four and a half hours. The cotton swab test took 10 seconds, and doctor examined me for about 60 seconds, and I was on my way. No strep throat, just a bad viral infection that's been going around, here are your $17 antibiotics, it will probably get worse before it gets better.

I just watched about three episodes of The Sopranos in a row, though. I was thinking that Season 4 was sort of mediocre, but it just got really good - Tony just killed Ralphie, and then slept with the one-legged girl in the next episode. A couple of great scenes; this series just keeps wowing me.