summation

So, what to cover first?

House, job, life, family--

There's a lot. I have the attention span of a squirrel. Let's do one and then worry about the rest later, shall we?

Right, then.

House

We went ahead and bought it. Why not? We liked it. "And you'll find a new job," my husband said encouragingly, while I hyperventilated into a pillow. "It'll be fine."

"Right," I said. "Fine. You do realize we're now about $700k in debt?"

"Thanks," said the Guy. "Now I'm depressed."

"That's what wives are for."

(I'm sure my husband would say the conversation above never actually happened. For the record, I would like to say that it did happen. In stages. I just distilled several rounds of conversation into that handy dandy little snippet for easy digestion. It's the spirit of the thing that counts.)

It's funny how ownership changes your perspective of houses. Until now, everything we ever lived in was just a box with extra wires coming into it. Now that one of those boxes is ours, we inspect it jealously for flaws, and stare at other people's homes for improvement ideas.

"You'll see," Mom said when I told her we wouldn't be doing much to the house. I could hear her wagging her head in Seattle. "It's different when it's yours."

"The Guy's not that handy, and I'm too lazy, and we're poor until I get a new job," I said.

"You think that now," she said darkly. "Men. You'll see."

She's right. I saw.

The Guy has started acquiring tools.

"I got a sander for $30 off of Amazon," he announced proudly one day from the huddled gargoyle stoop he'd acquired over his laptop. "It's a great deal."

Another day, it was a reciprocating saw. It arrived in a great big cardboard box at our door one evening. That night, I sat and watched TV while he chortled proudly over his new toy and made threatening little jabs at our DVDs.

They join a growing array of power tools currently residing in one side of our new house. It is possible that my eye has been a tad skeptical. "I've used every single one of them," he told me at some point, perhaps detecting some offensively doubtful quality in my glance. "They've all been useful."

He bristled at me like a protective hedgehog guarding its young. Grar.

It was quite cute, really.

Job

I am employed.

Well, that is to say, I have been employed on an indefinite open-ended layoff program that seemed to have no end in sight. However, I accepted an offer on Friday, and gave my notice the same day. This coming Friday will be my last day at my current job.

Depressing and nerve-wracking as being laid off was, nothing could have been more calculated to teach me how much the market had changed in the intervening years, or how much I had improved in employability over the same period. Somehow, without noticing, I ended up on a career track: one that was not only fascinating, but challenging and engaging as well. And apparently, one that was in demand. I was in the really enviable position of having to choose between two jobs, both for fantastic companies, both with incredible products that actually helped people, both with people who were not only intelligent and charming, but dedicated and nice, as well.

It was incredibly hard to decide. I made a reasoned decision and started going ahead with that. And then, at the very end, I changed my mind and made a gut one. I don't think I made the wrong decision. Only time will tell.

At any rate, witness me. Employed and a homeowner. Check out the change a few weeks make!