Quick Trip Up and Back

Atlantis enticed me with some free play - so I headed up there on Saturday morning for one night.  Wouldn't you know that one night was the ONLY night in a two month window that was sold out - so I (oh, the horror) actually had to pay for a room.  Still got a rock bottom rate and it was worth it.

I checked in and proceeded up to my room - only to open the door and find people in the room!  Yikes.  They said they had been switched around and they were waiting for 'someone to bring them the keys'.  I headed back to check in and went down the elevator with a bellman who said he was on his way to pick up the keys for that room.  (I explained to him what happened when he asked 'how's your day going').

The person at check in upgraded me to the concierge level which was nice.  I could have gone up there for happy hour and/or breakfast this morning but I didn't - still - nice upgrade.  Really nice room; bigger and more amenities.

I had a great time - played with wild abandon yesterday and was down $50 at the end of the night.

I did lose more this morning but I was betting pretty aggressively since I knew I didn't have a lot of time to play.

It was a great trip and I came home with fun money - so that's a good trip in my book.

I didn't have time to drive down to Carson City - we will likely go up there sometime in November to (hopefully) give them the down payment on the lot so they can officially break ground on our house.  We haven't seen the new 'revised' floor plan yet and are chomping at the bit to have all this stuff finalized.

H. is here today - J. picked him up this morning.  He's got a pretty amazing tattoo on his upper arm and the story behind it is a good one.  I really don't mind anymore - as long as what you are permanently inking on your body has some meaning to you, then do what you choose.  It's going to be a full upper arm tattoo when it's completed - still a work in progress.  Happy for him that he has some discretionary income he can use for stuff like this - I did remind him 'hey, you still owe us' and he is paying off the rest of the loan today.

He has been offered a different role in the company he's working for - which is awesome!  Full time WITH the company vs. contracted through an agency.  Fingers crossed it all works out.  He'll have insurance and be making more money - he really wants to get his own apartment as soon as he can.  I keep throttling him back a bit - reminding him how $600 a month is pretty great and is allowing him the 'extra' discretionary income he has.  An apartment negates any discretionary funds - it's all going to go for surviving.

The house they live in had a new resident this past couple weeks - a schizophrenic gentleman who was fine 'as long as he's on his meds'.  J. and I sort of scratched our heads and wondered about the arrangement - this person hadn't been through any New Hope recovery at all - but were placed at the SLE (Sober Living Environment) home.  H. was mildly concerned -

Today, H. told us that the guy disappeared for two full days and a night - didn't tell anyone where he was.  (The home has very specific rules about leaving and returning - it's all documented so everyone knows where people are and when they'll be returning).  The house residents called New Hope and were told to pack up all his stuff and put it in the garage.

The guy showed up and was upset to find out that he'd been booted from the house.  H. said he said 'you mean I'm being kicked out because I've relapsed'?  Um.  YES!  That is what happens to people who use again when they are trying to be and stay sober.

H. explained that it's a community/county program that placed the guy at the SLE - and that New Hope has decided to no longer accept those cases because they've never had one that worked out, ever.  The guy showed up with his bicycle and two shopping carts to pick up his stuff.

Homeless. And totally not understanding the key components of sobriety:  you do not start using again.  If you do, you are NOT sober.  And you can't pretend to be sober when you're not. 

I'm super relieved that NH won't accept those placements anymore - it seems to high of a risk to potentially have newly sober people reside with not sober people pretending to be sober. 

Truth be told, I'm finding it incredibly hard these days to be engaged at work.  I'm still there, still transacting, still whittling away at the never ending list of stuff I'm responsible for.  I'm far from a dead beat - never have been, never will be.  But....I sure can't wait until I don't have to show up there daily.  I'm burned out and ready to move on.  Big time ready. 

We're already through 1/3 of this school year and if the next 8 months go by as quickly, it will be a blink of the eye before I'm done.  We have a massive amount of stuff to take care of before then and we will do it all - one step at a time.  J. makes steady progress and while this weekend, I didn't participate, the garage is still looking better everyday.  Step by step. 

Floor Plan

Can't believe it's been over two weeks since my last post - time is flying by.  Good thing, right? 

This week, we received the preliminary floor plan of our new house - and we like it.  But we don't love it.  The draft gave us everything we asked for and is very similar to the floor plan we sent them - so they did just what we asked.  But the footprint of the house as currently drawn doesn't fit the shape of the lot all that well - and there are a couple odd things about it that we truly don't like.  Our 'hobby room' is only accessible via the garage and has no windows.  There's no linen closet.  There's no windows on the kitchen/dining room side which is where most of our backyard will be.  And that:  the backyard is primarily to the left of the house vs. in the back of the house.  Hopefully S. (builder) can help figure out solutions for those things. 

We sent a 1.5 page list of 'likes and dislikes' off to the team today and will await a time to set a call with the builder - his one comment (so far) was that he thinks the design needs to be wider and shallower to fit the lot.  So we'll see what he suggests when we chat with him. 

I've been back and forth a million times about the timing of when to leave.  I told my boss it would be the end of the school year (June 30th), then panicked about qualifying for the loan on the new house.  Running 'what if' scenarios constantly - realizing that without my income, we'd have to prove retirement income and that's not impossible to do but wouldn't that be way more complex?  A call to the mortgage team reassured us - IF I leave my job at the end of June, we will need to have in place the monthly 'draw' against our savings in place for three months before we qualify - along with confirmations of pension income from CalPERS.  All of which should be do-able.  Still, even just writing this has me fretting - we can do the draw for the savings for three months in advance no problem.  But if they want three months of my pension, too?  We won't have that. 

I'm sure it will all work out.  I'm sure it will.  J. texted me earlier this week 'your 'mom' just flew into the garage, hovered inches from my face and said 'everything will be alright'.  It was a hummingbird.  She always comes to us as either a hummingbird or a dragon fly.  She made miracles happen for our move from Hayward to Tracy so it's quite possible she will do the same this time around, too. 

I am planning to tell our Board my retirement plans at our November meeting - which will make it very real. 

Last week, I spent a day in architect interviews - and at lunch, my boss came to check in with me.  I confessed that I was finding myself more choked up than anything else - and I wasn't expecting those emotions.  To feel so invested in how the new schools turn out and to not be able to be a part of the process?  It's hard.  Makes me sad.  But oh well.  I can visit and I know they will be beautiful.

We had an H. free weekend last weekend - he was at a baby shower on Saturday and helping a friend move on Sunday - we will see him this Sunday which will be nice. 

J. is taking a ton of shred to the free shred event our city is holding tomorrow.  Super glad the timing worked out - he's been shredding a bit each week and putting the plastic bag full of the shredded paper in the recycle bin but at the rate he was going, we would be shredding for months.  We've cleaned out so much stuff!!

We hired a new gardener and so far, he's really doing a great job.  Best we've ever had.  He gets all the debris out from EVERYWHERE - not just the patio - but from around the pool equipment, behind the pool boxes (that hold towels, etc.), both side yards.  Looks so nice to have all that debris gone every week.  He's also trimming our trees a little at a time - shaping them better.  He seems to really know what he's doing and we are pretty impressed. 

The massive list of projects and things to do continues to grow but we make slow and steady progress.  We think the next 'required' trip to Carson City will be in February for a week of design decisions - though we may trek up there with the check for the 50% lot deposit when the builder is ready to pull the permit and start moving dirt. 

Super excited!

Carson City, Here We Come!

No update on the timing of the house - we wish we had more information.  I just have to remind myself there were 30ish homes ahead of us and now that the development is really getting off the ground, I'm sure it will be some time before it's our turn.  Boy, is it hard to wait! 

Today, we trekked in to San Francisco to meet with our finance guy.....and today is THE DAY when I am absolutely positive I am retiring at the end of this school year.  Zero reason not to - honestly, it seems like I could have stopped working a long time ago.  But that's OK.  Put us in an (even) better position and now?  Really.  I have zero reason to work.  Zip. 

It's liberating.  And scary as hell.  Our finance guy was incredibly reassuring - he is the epitome of calm and cool and since he spends all of his time studying the markets and has a pretty good read on things, we feel very confident.  He was very reassuring and is going to be arranging a once a month deposit that will replace most of my salary....which is pretty great since I also have a decent pension.

We are so, so blessed.  And I give J. most of the credit - his 37+ years at Wells Fargo really sealed our future in the best way possible. 

When J. and I were 'early married' - still with kid(s) 'cuz B. came into our world 10 months after we got married - we would go to San Francisco once in a while and always ALWAYS make a trip to the champagne bar at Nordstrom.  I loved Bellini Peche which was ridiculously expensive at Nordstrom but we always splurged and bought it.  (I later found it at BevMo for a gazillion times left but still - I wouldn't trade those memories for anything).  We thought about heading there today after our meeting was over?  But luckily, we headed home - Chloe is at the vet getting a glucose curve and they close at 5.  We got home at 4:15 and that was with no Nordstrom stop. 

So I've opened up my next favorite alcohol treat - an ice cold Blue Moon. 

I took today off to go to the city so it's back to work tomorrow - wishing I could always have Wednesdays off.  I'm sure my boss would agree if I proposed a modified schedule?  But there are lots of other people who would love to work 4 ten hour days to have a day off each week - so it won't happen.  We tried it one summer and it was a convincing exercise in how hard it is to stay motivated for ten full hours a day. 

I'm running some retirement scenarios on the PERS website and also fine tuning our monthly budget.  Heating leftover ravioli lasagna (a Costco ready made meal) and enjoying the realization that in nine months (that will undoubtedly fly by), I am giving up alarm clocks and the stress of a job.