Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Whole New World...

Well, we are selling the house. Primarily because frankly, we really can't afford the thing any more...it costs (between insurance, property taxes, maintenance, etc. , etc., etc.) about $90,000 a year to keep up - and we only paid $250,000 for it to begin with.

Now, before anyone leaps in here to piss and moan and commiserate...I AM THRILLED. Those of you who have been on my house know its size, its wonders, and all like that. But none of you have ever been in sole charge of the damn thing - and it's a monster to keep up. Which, of course, given my distaste for housekeeping, I don't do well to begin with. Unfortunately, being the nice girl that I am, I invariably feel terribly guilty about this...but equally unfortunately, being me, I usually go to bed with a book until the feeling passes. This isn't useful.

Also, the damn house collects things all on its own. Because it's so damn big (by NY standards), people feel free to leave things. Right now, for instance, I'm living with a pair of red boots (yoo hoo, Victoria), various bits of clothing (Shai, Seth - which of you belongs to the thermal shirt?), an old foldout couch (it was a gift, for some reason), more odd books than I care to count...the list goes on. Not to mention that because there is a LOT of storage space (admittedly, most of it taken up by Joshua), I am not terribly good about throwing stuff away since there always seems to be an extra corner to shove it in.

And oh, boy, is it shoved in. Bags of stuff, boxes of stuff, free floating stuff...stuff, stuff, stuff. Pace George Carlin. (You can probably find his Stuff routine on YouTube...it's wonderful.)

I cannot even begin to tell you how delighted I am about moving to a nice new one bedroom, all on one level, with nobody's stuff but mine (oddly enough, I DO throw out MY stuff...weed bookcases and all that).

Anyway, I'm excited...I think the only way to stay young is to completely reinvent yourself now and then.

And I got the Christmas tree unChristmassed, although not yet out of the house. Every year I ponder the fact that while people come from far and near to trim the tree, none of these people are anywhere about when it comes time to UNTRIM the thing. However, it is done, done, done. And I have thrown out all the old lights, which were beginning to become a fire hazard, and next year we'll have lovely, bright new lights.

Joshua is going to be an unholy nuisance about the moving, because he feels he has to have two months notice...however, my trustee says this isn't going to happen. I am bracing myself for a whole slew of passive aggressive numbers here. Really, he gets odder by the moment. One of the nicest things about living alone will be no longer having to listen to the varied and more than peculiar noises Joshua makes. I mean, if he's not sleeping (during which, by the by, he snores, talks, and yawns), he yawns and groans and squeaks and...

Sarah and I were in the kitchen one morning around Christmas when Joshua went into the bathroom (which is right off the kitchen) and performed his morning ablutions, and we got hysterical because of the odd sounds. We don't know what the HELL he does in there, but it takes forever and requires flushing the toilet about six times, humming, singing, talking to himself, swearing, and various groans and burps. And it takes 45 minutes. Now, I can get dressed from shower onwards for a white tie affair in 45 minutes, for God's sake. Presumably what he's doing is shaving, pissing, brushing his teeth and combing his hair. What on EARTH could take so long and require so much vocalization?

Ah, well. Not too much longer, thank God! And you better believe I'll throw a HELL of a housewarming.

Oh, and a question for all you lovely people out there. It strikes me that it's pretty silly to buy a new monitor for my old clunker of a computer when prices for laptops are going down so far. Any ideas on where I could get the best deal on a PC laptop? Yeah, I know I'm working on a Mac right now, but I don't like them...I'm a PC gal. I looked at craigslist, but the ones there seems to be just as expensive as new ones. Anybody got any ideas?

Love, Wendy

4 comments:

thhande said...

W -

Hie thee to: http://www.dell.com/.

At the bottom of the page, under "shop," click on "dell outlet." This is where they sell various and sundry refurbished or ordered-but-subsequently-cancelled brand new computers at a discount.

I don't know if these prices will fit your budget, but Dell systems have been rock solid for me, customer service has been excellent, and this is where they are the cheapest. Because the systems listed here are one of a kind, generally speaking, the available stock is constantly turning over, so keep checking back till you find what you want and be ready to buy quickly lest the system of your dreams get away from you.

Good luck,

T.

SaintTigerlily said...

Noooooooo. Dell is eviiiiiiiiil.

I bought my Dell on one of those pay by month plans and only paid it off (three months in) when The Boss pointed out that their interest was so high I was paying $25/month and only about $10 of that was actually going towards the computer. The month after I paid it off the monthly automatic payment came out of my bank account so I called Dell to let them know they had made a mistake. The rep actually said to me, like, in actual words, with a straight phone face: "Why, don't you want to begin putting away money towards your next Dell?"

And then my face turned red like it does when people are angry in cartoons and my head exploded.

Evil stupid Dell.

thhande said...

Well, St. T., I don't know if I'd agree on 'evil,' but given your experience I'll cop to "inconsistent." Like I said, I never had any problems. Sorry (sincerely) you did.

T.

Seth Mulvey said...

that might be my thermal shirt