Happy Girl

Folks, I am such a happy girl these days I can hardly stand myself. I know that society doesn't much like it when someone actually admits to being happy, people don't like it when you have something they don't, but I can't help it, I am happy. I have been in a relationship with Joseph aka My Marine for a little over 2 months now and I am extremely happy and content.

Although I had been told by previous dates and boyfriends that I was looking for something or someone that didn't exist, I found it! Joseph is affectionate and sweet, and caring and nurturing every single day. He tells me I am beautiful, he tells me he is proud of me and probably most important of all he shares my dreams.

We both have a dream of finishing our college degrees. He is working on his online at Kaplan University and I am on year 27 of my degree at George Mason University. A few months ago when I was registering for the fall semester I discovered that there were only 3 classes being offered that I needed and they were all being taught during the day. This meant that I would miss another semester because I was working during the day. This caused much angst and soul searching on my part, should I give up on school (again) or should I quit my job and concentrate on school til I finished. Considering I only need 8 more classes to graduate, that seemed like an excellent option, but how would I support myself while I did that? I don't have any debt, I live with Mama so I'm not paying rent, but I do buy the groceries and have a cell phone bill and need gas and insurance for my car. When I talked this over with Joseph his response was immediate. He told me to quit my job and he would help me with my living expenses while I finished my degree. He is already set to graduate next May and if I can get all the classes I need, I could do the same! I gave notice at work the very next day.

Dream number two that we shared was to own and RV and travel across the country. In order to pay my tuition I had already planned to cash in some investments that I had, so I went ahead and cashed in twice as much, half for tuition and half for an RV. We commenced our search for a decent motor home that we could afford, that had a good engine, that didn't smell, that was a nice size. It took a couple of months of diligently reading the Craigslist postings from all over the state, and checking out the ones that seemed to fit our criteria on paper. We saw some real duds, rattle traps, engines that wouldn't start etc., but last week we found our girl! She is a 1986 Fleetwood, Jamboree Rallye and we have dubbed her Rallye Girl.

So yes, I'm a happy girl. Three of my lifelong dreams are being realized with the help of this wonderful man, I am in a fabulous partnership with a wonderful man who speaks my love language, I am finishing my education (finally) and I will be hitting the road to see this great nation in person.

Things Change...

If you know me, then you know that things have changed in my life...again.

I am single once more and I am moving once more. Sheldon and I didn't work as a couple. We tried, we really did, but the more time went by, the more clear it was to me that I was losing all the best parts of myself in an effort to make him happy. I packed up my neccessities and my dog and left him last Sunday as soon as the snow stopped and the driveway was clear.

I have moved in with my mama, at least temporarily. She wants me to stay here and she isn't charging me rent, so it is definitely a good place to rest and recoup and make some decisions about my future. As soon as the side streets are cleared of snow I will hire a truck and get all my furniture and the rest of my "stuff" out of Sheldon's house. I'll have to put it in storage as Mama's house is stuffed to the gills already.

Right now, I feel like I can breath again, and that is a VERY GOOD feeling!

The Cost of College

Being back in school AND being the mom of a teenager, I am keenly aware of the cost of college tuition. The X and I invested in the Virginia Pre-paid College Tuition program when Miles was in 2nd grade and I am so glad we did. Paying for college is still an issue though, because we still have to pay his room and board and if he goes out of state we'll have to pay anything over the highest virginia tuition. Since his college years are only about 30 months away I have really started thinking and talking about this topic with Miles. Today I found a link on CNN.com that gave the list of the ten most expensive schools in the nation:



Sarah Lawrence $55,788

Parsons School of Design $52,400

Georgetown $52,161

NYU $51,993

George Washington University $51,775

Johns Hopkins University $51,690

Columbia $51,544

Weslyan $51,432

Trinity $51,400

Washington University in St. Louis $51,329



This list made me curious as to what the schools in Virginia were charging these days. I am a student at George Mason Unversity, but I am only taking one class at a time (which runs almost $1,000) but I needed to see the full time tuition to compare. I clicked another link on CNN.com that took me to a site where you can check the tuition of most any school in any state. I found the Virginia list pretty shocking for its disparity. I guess I never really knew the difference between the costs of the private schools in Virginia vs. the state schools. We are so lucky here in that we have so many fabulous state schools in our lovely commonwealth. After reading this list, I'm just not sure why anyone would go to one of the private schools, unless it was in their own backyard, or their parents worked there, or they had a full boat scholarship. I mean seriously, Ferrum and Bridgewater each cost 4 times as much as Va. Tech or Mason. Are you really getting a better education?

From my own family, I know that personality and school size are important factors too. My sister wanted a small school, it just fit her personality and learning style better. She went to Roanoke College which happens to be where my father went as well. It is a beautiful school and Roanoke is one of my favorite areas of Virginia, but I personnally would not be able to justify the cost. My sister reads this blog so let me say right now that I am not passing judgment on her decision but I'm curious as to how she feels about it now that she's out in the "real world" and having to pay back student loans? Katy? Feel free to comment...

BTW, Katy has her own blog now so skip on over there if you'd like to follow the life of a young single girl in Brooklyn!

Update

Hi Peeps!

I know, I know, I haven't written in a while. Sheldon has been complaining about my lack of posting and he lives with me so he knows how busy I have been! I am now working two jobs and taking a horrible, horrible math class. I'm not even sure where to start with my updating...

1. Job number one is fabulous. I am a receptionist for a Aerospace Engineering company. I took the downgrade in responsibility so that I could take classes and finally finish my degree. I love it! I love just being able to sit and answer the phone and sort the mail and be nice to people all day long. We are a 24 hour facility so I can even get overtime. The bad part is that I took a 45% paycut. Ugh.

2. Job number two is a retail job at an upscale women's clothing outlet. It is physically exhausting but fun. My favorite spot is folding/hanging clothes in the dressing room. I can stand in one place (which kills my back but is so much easier on my feet) and help the women who are trying to make decisions. I took this job to earn extra money to pay for repairs on my car and tuition.

3. I'm back to taking classes at my college of 26 years. I only need 9 classes to get my English degree. I love being back at school, but I hate my class. Unfortunately for me, Sheldon decided to go back for his second masters degree at the same time so although I thought I'd have my own personal math tutor, he is too distracted by his own homework to help me with mine. I am the oldest person in the room each week by at least 10 years and that includes the professor!

4. Due to all of the above I am physically and mentally exhausted. To make things even worse I have been having trouble sleeping.

This is a very whiny post...sorry! More to come!!!!

Hobnobbing with the wealthy.

Yeah, that's me, I'm a big hobnobber! I had a dream last night where I was working for a friend of mine. In real life my friend is a baker and a caterer, she lives in my neighborhood and is the first friend we made when we moved here 15 years ago. Her name is Marjorie but her grandchildren and all the neighborhood children call her Gramarg. This is not a name I made up, like most of the other names in this blog. This one is too cute, I had to use it.

Anyway in my dream instead of being a caterer Gramarg owned an upscale paper and stationary store in Middleburg. In case you have never heard of Middleburg, VA it is a tiny boutique of a town full of rich horsey types. Gramarg had hired me to be a calligrapher, rich women with too much money would come in and buy invitations or notecards from her and then they would hire me to write out their information or their letters cause they were just too stinkin' lazy to do it themselves. I'm sure I dreamed about expensive notecards because I was just reading a back issue of Real Simple where they were showing stationary examples that cost like $150 for 50 cards or something crazy like that. I love the Magazine, but my idea of cool new stationary is whatever I can find in the $1 at Target!

Anyway, in the dream, One lady hired me to write a note to her daughter for every month that she would be away at college, along with a check for pocket money. $11,000 a month. Pocket money. For a college kid. She gave me the wording on the note which she wanted to be the same every month, she gave me the 6 signed checks. I had to write all the notes and all the checks, being careful to date them starting with November 11th and working my way month by month through the 11's on the calendar. As I sat there writing her note over and over and then writing the checks one after the other I realized that I was not charging this woman near enough. I even had to mark it on MY calendar when to mail them for her each month.

The funniest part about this is that I have HORRIBLE handwriting and NO ONE would pay me to write anything down for them!

It was quite an entertaining dream. I am often entertained in my sleep. I have long elaborate dreams that could totally be blockbuster movies if I could only recall them in the morning.

You can tell exactly what Sheldon and I are obsessing about these days, we are both thinking of all the possible second jobs we could work so that we can afford to do everything we want to do to the new house. My current home has one bathroom and his has 2 and a half, the new house has 4 and a half. That's a lot of soap dishes and hand towels and hand soap, not to mention toilet paper!!

I did enjoy seeing Gramarg in my sleep, and it prompted me to email her asking to get together which is always a good thing!

New Caledonia

So we found a house!!!! We are referring to it as the New Caledonia House. Well, actually, Sheldon is referring to it as such. I guess to differentiate it from the Old Caledonia House, wherever that may be. After weeks of searching and falling in love with short sale after short sale, we finally found a house that was ACTUALLY FOR SALE!! And we bought it. That very night. A couple of days later we went back to take pictures. (I couldn't even remember what the dadgum thing looked like because it was the last of 8 houses we viewed that night and I was so tired and cross eyed and grumpy from stupid short sales.) While Sheldon was taking the pictures and I was poking into every nook and cranny realtors kept showing up to show the house to other prospective buyers. I would run to the front door and breathlessly inform that the house was no longer on the market. Sold! Sold! Sold! It made me very happy! We may actually be able to move in by the first week of April. It was a relo and the other family is already ensconced in their new home somewhere far far away. I am so happy that they left this behind for me. :)

Birthday Wish List for Sheldon

Okay so my birthday is coming. I love birthdays. Not as much as my sister who starts reminding people 6 months in advance, but still, I'm giving you 28 days notice. I'm making a list of things I would like. Don't worry if you weren't planning on getting me anything, I'd rather do something fun with you than get a present anyhow...BUT, if you wanted to buy something these are the things I'd RATHER have:

Perudo (Liar's Dice)
Packrat Tickets
A walk amongst the cherry blossoms (ooh a free one!)
Anything on that Amazon Wishlist in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Peacock, Heather, Evergreen, Ivory, or Chocolate Fiesta Dishes
A new cupcake stamp for letterboxing.
KISSES, lots and lots of KISSES!

a bodybugg so I can track my workouts!
ummm...a new house?
a trip to Germany to see pregnant Jeannette!!
A lapframe for cross stitching.
This gorgeous shoe cabinet.

I wanna go to Madrid too!!!

If you don't already enjoy the lovely and funny Crazy Aunt Purl you should hop right on over there. I wanna be her when I grow up!! I wanna be smart enough with my money that I can hop on over to Madrid for a long weekend!


http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2009/02/the_email_machi.php

LUMI

Just finished reading this book...

and I loved it! Although I don't live in NYC, I absolutely adore it there and still see a gaping hole in the skyline that breaks my heart whenever I am there. This book made 4 of those 3000+ names into real people. It also made me pine for Manhattan, reading about the great meals and the great trips they were taking really made me want a better paying job!!!

I highly recommend this book. It wasn't a tearjerker, just a realistic look at how these four women overcame the most devastating event in recent memory.

Boob Job?

If you saw me this morning in my brand new sharp looking striped blouse you may wonder if I had a boob job over the weekend. The answer to that query would no and YES! While I did NOT have any surgery I did in fact enhance my figure. Saturday while Sheldon was snowboarding and Miles was hanging with his friends at the mall I went to Nordstroms and got myself officially measured and I found out I was wearing The Wrong Size Bra!! Oprah did a show on this a while back and when I watched it I thought it was so ridiculous...I mean who could be so dumb. Turns out it was me! So I got myself measured and then fitted and then I bought several of the new lacy concoctions with their matching undies. Sheldon was SO happy as this is something he was really missing in our relationship. I feel like I am wearing a straight jacket as this contraption is much more involved than my old ones were...but it is also much more uplifting!! I'm a whole new girl, before you know it I will be paying more than $10 for a haircut and having manicures and all those other girlie things I have managed to avoid so far in this life. Ugh!

Of course, when I was wearing a new bra I had to go buy some sexy new tops to show off my new figure. Luckily, cute, sexy tops are much cheaper at Old Navy than they are at Nordstroms, so I was able to buy several. I guess the fact that I spent nothing on xmas is now moot as I spent a boatload that I didn't have on new clothes for myself. I did need the clothes though, I have not bought myself anything new to wear in quite a while.

Miles hasn't noticed the new me yet (and honestly, he shouldn't!!), but Sheldon was quite pleased with the results!