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.

25 Things

1. I'm finding it less interesting to blog here when I have Facebook and can mini-blog in my status update every day. You should friend me if you miss EiB.

2. I don't really want to do the "25 Things" viral forward on Facebook, so I'm doing it here.

3. I just discovered that almost all the bad things on my credit comes off in 8/2009. That's awesome.

4. I also discovered a $75 parking ticket from Rehobeth Beach that I had no idea about.

5. I'm burning through The Sopranos right now and wish I had someone to talk to about it next to the water cooler the next morning. It's really good, even though I don't think it holds a candle to The Wire.

6. (Spoiler.) I accidentally read on a wikipedia entry that Tony will eventually kill Chris. OMG.

7. The other interesting thing I found out was that the actor who played Jackie, Jr. (Jason Cerbone) was also the boy in Suzanne Vega's "Luka" video.

8. I saw a cool show at Teavolve with my new favorite local band, Nelly's Echo. Or, at least, 2nd favorite band. I saw a really cool show with them (Caleb Stine and the Brakemen) at Ram's Head Live.

9. I loved Slumdog Millionaire. Loved it. Can't decide what my favorite Best Picture nominee is this year - loved Benjamin Button, and loved Milk. Still need to see the other two.

10. I'm realizing that Holden's age 6-10 years or so are the best years he'll give me. He's an awesome dog, and middle age is an awesome age for a dog. He turns 9 this year.

11. I went to the inauguration and it was awesome.

12. I am searching for a new office chair on Craig's List, but I might just head to Staples today and see if I can get another cheap $50 floor model.

13. I have no idea if I'm going to buy a house or a car first. Still. I have about $3K of credit card debt to eliminate first and only have about $1K of savings.

14. My new hypothetical vehicle? A Jeep Compass. I kind of want a small-ish SUV, and the Compass is fairly cheap, and is 4-cylinder so that mileage is good. And I think they look cool. I might go much smaller and cheaper, though. Been thinking about a Pontiac Vibe maybe. Or another Pontiac G8 (I have a Grand Am now and have loved it). Dark horse: A Ford Mustang.

15. I'm going to buy American. Two cousins are out of work from the auto industry right now, and i feel like it's ethically wrong to buy foreign. Plus I'm hoping there will be some good deals with the domestics.

16. Yesterday, we were dismissed early from school, so we went to Joe Squared, drank wine and ate pizza all afternoon. Good times.

17. I am completing a massive process of whittling around 2000 CDs down to 500, and uploading all of them. I still don't know how to back them up, but at least I'm going through them, and finding songs I haven't heard in years and years.

18. Am reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao right now.

19. Am loving new CDs from John Legend and Alice Smith right now.

20. Just discovered a new musical artist who is blowing me away - K'Naan. He's like a Nigerian Eminem. If you have a chance, listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBbR9YlNnyA.

21. I am considering seeing Mos Def at Rams Head Live on 2/25. Anyone want to go?

22. I think I'm scheduling another house concert in the next month or so.

23. Still no girlfriend. I had a good run in November/December. Thinking about joining Match.com. Disappointed at opportunities that have passed me by. I'm sort of getting old.

24. Mostly loving not having a second job. Soemtimes I have too much time on my hands that I waste. Went in there after a few drinks the other night and had a great time talking to old friends and possibly agreeing to work again. They haven't followed up, which is good. I must be strong.

25. My next karaoke performance will be "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" by Jim Croce.

Hall of Fame

I have a cold, something I rarely get, and my frustration is palpable. It just frustrates me so much not to be able to ignore something as puny as a virus. Hopefully it's a three-day bug because I feel stupid (can't grade papers), listless (too tired to work out, too tired to sleep), and frustrated (days at school are pretty horrible right now).

I've tried to dump my energy into reading (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), watching television (24 rules so far this year), and DVDs (I've been making my way through The Sopranos, and just finished Season 2). I've also spent a bit of time arguing about the Hall of Fame.

See, Ricky Henderson was just voted in, as well as Jim Rice. I'm glad both of them made it in.

Still, I'd like to see more. Here would have been my ballot, in this order:

Henderson

Raines

Blyleven

Rice

Trammell

Morris

L. Smith


I've spent a lot of time in recent days debating the merits of each, and I'm pretty confident in my justifications and arguments. On Lee Smith, I go up and down on, but he's clearly a better pick than freakin' Bruce Sutter. That's not the only reason, though, of course - Smith was a fine closer when closers were expected to pitch 90+ innings a year in the first half of his career, than a fine one when closers dropped down to 1-inning guys. He retired with more saves than anyone else. Blyleven was the best pitcher of his generation (the one between Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens), Jack Morris was the 2nd best. Trammell was the 2nd best SS of his generation, after Cal Ripken (far better than Ozzie Smith), and Tim Raines was the 2nd best leadoff hitter of his generation, after Henderson. Both also compare well to others in their spots throughout the history of baseball.

Still, no on Andre Dawson. He'll probably make it in the next time through, which is mystifying to me. A .323 OBP is not a Hall of Famer.

Next year, Roberto Alomar and Barry Larkin deserve to be voted in. Maybe Fred McGriff too.

Some mini-reviews of stuff I watched over the holiday break

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: I loved it. Yes, it has some flaws (it gave me the willies a little bit when the old guy/7 year lost his virginity, then came back and was still messing around with the 7-year old Fanning girl), and was a lot like Forrest Gump (a movie I really liked), but, wow, it really packed a whallop with me. Definitely a movie about the fleetingness of life - heck, let's just say it, this is a movie about death, which is actually kind of rare - and it hit good and hard with me.

The Visitor: They're saying that Richard Jenkins is going to get a Best Actor nomination this year for this film, and it's deserved. This is a quiet little movie about a middle-aged lonely guy who finds himself immersed in the lives of an immigrant couple. It's a moving little character study without a happy ending. Good flick.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: I'm not usually into westerns, but this is one of the best I've ever seen. A great story, it had me looking all around the internet lately for more details about the story. It's also an impossibly beautiful film, with some of the best cinematography you're ever going to see. It's too bad that Oscar went so crazy for the overrated No Country for Old Men last year; this film is its clear superior in my eyes.

Iron Man: Just the right balance of humor, drama, and thrills. A really cool movie.

Hamlet 2: There is a moment in this screwy movie in which Steve Coogan looks at his cat while he has writer's block, and sneers, "What is your fucking problem, man?" (it's at the 50-second mark in the trailer below). That moment made me laugh so hard that, literally, I had to pause the film and my sides hurt. This is a fun movie, some uneven moments but a great payoff with the performance of the play at the end.

Baby Mama: A nice little comedy. A few laughs, pretty innocuous overall, but Tina Fey continues to create gold with everything she touches.

Because white people love acoustic covers...

A couple of awesome ones:

KT Tunstall singing Jackson 5's "I Want You Back":



Paul Filek singing Kanye West's "Love Lockdown":

You know, I try to make my tomorrows better than my yesterdays, without hurting anyone else in the process.

The holidays were good. I took the time to spend days with my family, and watch lots of movies, and see friends. I couldn't have asked for a better time. Admittedly, I'm at the point in my life where the holidays bring with it a sense of melancholy as a partner for the joy, mainly because the holidays make me think of what I don't have, and what I thought I would have by the time I was 31 - namely a family of my own. This was especially punctuated this break because I met up with my two of my closest friends from college for New Years, and they are both pregnant, and they surprised me and each other with that news. But the holidays also bring me with a resolve to try to do something about it - and, who knows, maybe this will be the year that will push me to get out there a bit more. Fall was good in this area. Maybe it will continue.

Some years, I've been really into resolutions, but I don't think I will be this year. We'll see. I'll ponder it for a few days. I'll live by the rule of Murs, my favorite musical discovery this year, who, in his song "Everything," from his current album Murs for President, says that he tries to make his tomorrows better than his todays, without hurting anyone else in the process, because, you know, if we all do that, then we all win, right? And we do. That sounds like a good resolution. I'd like to figure out how to lose more weight, of course; I love how I look and feel when I get myself down to the 200-220 range instead of the 240 range I seem stuck on. It's not about exercise, which I'm religious about, but I'm going to concentrate on eating more vegetables and less refined sugars. If I could just cut out my sweet tooth, I'd probably be all set.

Well, I guess I just set a couple of resolutions, eh?

I spent a lot of money over my holiday, including the $822 on my rental car. I hope it was worth it. It's going to take a bit to pay that off, to the point where I'm considering calling up the restaurant to ask for a few shifts. I might do it. Seeing my little sister buy her first home made me firmer in my resolve to do the same. I really want/need a new car, but I think I should try to get the house first, to try to decrease the amount of debt I have when the interest rate on the mortgage is calculated. So that's a goal, too.

I really haven't done much with my life in the last five years, except professionally - getting my Masters degree, continuing to work on my teaching and coaching, working two jobs to pay down student loans. I think it's time to shift priorities a little, or, more accurately, add a little bit of balance.

My favorite singer/songwriter, Brenda Kahn, was an important part of my life throughout the last fifteen years or so; her music and lyrics have pulled me through a lot (indeed, the title of this blog, is an homage to her masterpiece Epiphany in Brooklyn). I try to listen to her song "Yellow Sun" every New Years Day. It's far from my favorite song of hers, but the ending refrain of a repeated "Happy New Years Day" gives me some resolve on this day. I share it with you now, followed by Murs' "Everything." Murs is probably the songwriter that, right now, is speaking the most to me. Brenda, meet Murs; Murs, meet Brenda.