According to my calculations, it has been nearly a month since I've posted anything on my blog. For those few readers I have, I apologize. Needless to say I have been pretty busy these past few weeks.  To start off, I purchased a house. For the past two years I have been sharing a house with a couple friends from college. When people would ask me if I liked living with them I would say sure, with all bills split three ways, living was really cheap! Which left me with a surplus of disposable income. Most of the time this was a good thing as I was able to build up a nice little nest egg in case of emergency. Sometimes though desire got the better of me, like when I bought my motorcycle or the time I pursued a hobby in sky diving (more expensive and more addictive than any drug). Other than few financial responsibilities, we also had the ultimate bachelor lifestyle complete with kegerator and home theater with 8 foot screen and projector. Despite all this I found myself wanting more space to myself and to stop throwing money away on rent! So I bought a house, and I'm loving it. The house I decided on is a bit smaller than the place I moved out of, but that is no problem since 90% of all the furniture in my previous residence belonged to someone else. So here I am, in a 1200 sq ft house with nothing but a bed, dresser and desk. I have an inflatable river tube sitting in the living room which serves as a conversation piece and running joke until I get some real furniture (hopefully today). I've had many late nights painting, hanging blinds and unpacking. In addition to dealing with the stuff I already had, I've begun to acquire new stuff. I've spent more money in the past two weeks then I've spent in the previous 12 months, but when I come home and look around, I can't help but smile and realize that this place is mine and I can decorate and do with it as I please. For those of you out there considering purchasing your first house, despite all the headache and stress of looking and getting a loan, know that it is totally worth it. The other major event I've been pre-occupied with is the death of my grandmother. It has been a long time since I've attended a funeral for a family member and this is the first funeral I've attended for someone I was close to. My grandma Ona passed away March 17, 2007 at the ripe old age of 93. An interesting fact I didn't realize till this weekend is that she died nearly 40 years to the day that her husband passed away in 1967. I thought I knew my grandma pretty well, after all I'd known her all my life. At her memorial service, listening to all the people that had known her throughout her life, I learned a few new things about her. It was mentioned several times during the ceremony that to know my grandma was to be loved by my grandma. She never met a person she didn't like and was very adept at making new friends. One sentiment was common to everything said at the service, Ona was a wonderful, caring women who was an important part of many peoples lives. A sentiment I can testify to. One of the toughest parts for me was when a women my grandma had known practically all her life began to speak. This women and my grandma had been friends since she was very young. After many years they lost track of each other due to moves from place to place. They finally met up again during a chance encounter on the street. They exchanged contact info and promised to keep in touch. But days led into months which led to years and she never got around to checking in. She had all but forgot about my grandma until she read her obituary in the paper. Her biggest regret was not making the time to pick up the phone or write a letter. I say this was the hardest part for me because I have many friends that I've lost contact with and though I want to get back in touch something always comes up that prevents me from doing so. I wonder if the next time I see these people will be at their funeral (probably a bit extreme considering my age, but you get the idea). One of things I found pretty funny is that during the service, while all the people that knew my grandma spoke about how they had met her and how she had touched their lives, there was one common theme in each testimony, apple pie. All the people that spoke raved about my grandma's apple pie and with good reason, it's the bomb! To my grandma, I'm sorry I didn't get to see you much those last few years and I'll miss you. There was also a quick business trip to Santa Barbara which I thoroughly enjoyed save the trip home, which you can read about here, and a few odds and ends that have kept me distracted but that about sums up the past few months of my life. |