We're doing this again? Seriously?

Tonight we signed the papers to list our house for sale. Ugh.

Even though it's been three years, it still feels like we just did this and the thought of keeping the house spotlessly clean 24/7, having random realtors ring our bell at odd hours, and experiencing the frustration of showing after showing that doesn't result in an offer leaves me rather cold. I. Don't. Want. To. Sell. My. House.

It's not even that I'm resisting the move as much as I'm resisting all the crap we have to do in order to get to the place where we can move. Selling the house is really just the tip of the iceberg, and this listing means getting the ball rolling on things like quitting my job, finding a new one, renting a new house, etc...

Anyway, I'm once again soliciting good house selling thoughts. In this market, we're really going to need them.

Open letters

Dear Newly Divorced Man Across the Street,

I noticed this morning that you invested in some new artwork for your truck. "I swapped my wife for a gun--it was a great deal" is both a rather bold statement to make and a great way to let your neighbors know that not only are you bitter towards your ex, but now you're also armed! Thanks for the heads-up.

Sincerely,
C (who really hopes you didn't go out and buy a gun)


Dear Colorblind Couple at the End of the Block,

Did you know that your house was a lovely shade of buttercream up until last fall? It was. I often thought that yours was one of the prettiest homes on the street, and that was saying a lot. We have some beautiful homes here. Now, I don't know you personally, but I've been assuming that you both suffer from some form of colorblindness after the fateful day last November when I came home from work to discover that you had repainted your house pea green. Not a pretty pea green (if such a color exists) either, truly the ugliest shade of 70s throwback pea green I've ever seen. I dearly hope you're not planning to try to sell your home...ever because no matter how it looks on the inside I just can't imagine potential buyers doing anything other than screaming and running away once they catch a glimpse of the exterior.

Sincerely,
C (who really, really hopes you're planning to re-paint soon)


Dear Frozen in Time Neighbors,

I'm not sure if you got the memo, but Christmas was almost 6 months ago. I know, feels like yesterday, doesn't it? The thing is, the unwritten rule about holiday decorations is that they're supposed to be taken down no later than the end of January. Seeing as how one usually doesn't display 3/4 scale nativity scenes on a year-round basis, I'm going to assume that you forgot about it (and are shut-ins since it's really difficult to miss it in your front yard) or have no idea that it's actually almost July now. Either way, I'll take the damn thing down myself if you're not going to because it's driving me crazy.

Sincerely,
C (who has limited tolerance for yard sculpture even when it's seasonally appropriate)

Stung

Remember back when Juan found a scorpion on our couch? And when I found one in the washing machine? Those were unfortunately just the first two of many ugly, scary little "friends" we've found here in the last two years. Well, tonight my arm looks like this:



because I got stung.

Juan and I were playing with Luke in his room, and when I put my arm down on my knee I felt the sting. It HURT. I haven't been stung by a bee in twenty some-odd years, that's roughly how it felt. The good news is that this type of scorpion's sting is about as dangerous as a bee's, so while Juan did make a point of circling the sting with a pen (and noting how far the redness spread) it's not dangerous in the slightest.

That said, I still kind of can't believe that I was stung by a scorpion.

I'm really not sure what to do about the fact that we've found more of them in Luke's room than in any other part of the house. I don't like having the exterminator spray in there, especially since it's hard to keep him away from the baseboards now that he's crawling, but I also don't want him to get stung. Ugh. We never had to deal with this kind of problem in Maryland.

homeownership bites (no, really)

The roof is leaking, sheetrock needs to be replaced (since it's now wet from said leaking roof), one swamp cooler is shot, and the cat is peeing on furniture again.

Oh, and it's only Monday.

Three Things

Amalah posted this challenge today and since I'm in a meme-y mood (and since it's a very good question) I thought I'd tackle it. To wit:

What are the three things you wish for your kids to experience in their lives?

1) To always feel safe and loved at home.

I've always had a very strong connection to my parents and "home". It made moving away after college really hard and is the main reason why I talk to them at least twice a week. I always knew that no matter what I could go home if I needed to feel safe and loved. Even though Luke will live in a number of different houses and cities as he grows up, I dearly hope he always feels that he can come "home" to me and Juan whenever he needs unconditional love and protection.

2) To make a difference in someone else's life

Few things are more significant, in my opinion, than making the world a better place for another person. There's really not much more I can say than that.

3) To have lifelong friendships

I thought long and hard about this third one because experiencing love is certainly something I want for Luke. Friendship is an important kind of love, more important than romantic love in many ways, and I know that I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for my friends. You need people to turn to when things are bad, when you're unhappy, and when you need to talk problems over with someone outside of your family. I want Luke to know what that feels like, and I certainly want to send him out into the world knowing that he has people he can turn to no matter what happens. Everyone needs those kinds of friends.

Open letter to my swamp coolers

Dear Swamp Coolers,

Why do you hate me? Is it because J and I frequently talk about replacing you with refrigerated air? Is it because we didn't replace the winter covers after they blew off in February? Is it because you think I need to clean the house more often? I really can't figure out why you have such a vendetta against me, but you clearly do because you broke last week and then broke again today.

Seriously, what's the deal? Do I need to spend all my time scrubbing the kitchen? Swear up and down that the refrigerated air talk will stop? Sacrifice a goat? Please, just tell me and stop randomly breaking. I just can't handle any more days like this!

Sincerely,

C

Senseless

I turned on the news this morning to see this story dominating the headlines. It's frightening when an attack so violent and so senseless hits close to home. In this case I mean that literally since I lived right across the street from Trolley Square when I was in college. So many memories happened there-- Juan and I had our rehearsal dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory mentioned in the story above, I went there with my friends and our dates before the senior prom, and it was a hangout for me and my roommates when we could just cross the street to get some authentic saltwater taffy or just to do a little window shopping.

It's hard to believe something like this could happen in a place everyone always thought was so safe, and in a community that prides itself on having such little gun violence. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

Happy (belated) Blog-iversary

So, the actual 1 year anniversary of this blog was a week ago, but seeing as how I've been drowning in work (and living in a lot of denial about how much I still have left to do every night for the next couple of months) I didn't notice. Oops! So, happy blogiversary to me!

I thought I'd take a look back everything that's happened to me over the last year. Note, this was originally supposed to come with links, but I'm too damn tired and overwhelmed with work to add them. Sorry, but you can navigate by months on my sidebar if you'd like to read posts I mention here

January:
-Began this blog
-Started the spiral into a depression over not being pregnant
-Put our condo on the market

February
-Took a fantastic trip to Boston and Maine
-Had the best Valentine's Day on record
-Got in a car accident
-Finally called my doctor to start the fertility testing process
-Took the infamous photo of a knife I almost stabbed Juan in the foot with

March
-Hit a peak in my depression over not being able to get pregnant
-Had the crappiest 25th birthday on record
-Visited my family in Utah and posted about all the things I dislike about my home state
-Was picked up as an evil liberal blogger on a conservative Utah blog for the aforementioned post
-Still didn't sell our condo

April
-Had my first RE appointment with the most evil Nurse Practitioner known to man
-Took a trip to California with a mysterious "Item X"
-Had my HSG and was officially diagnosed as infertile
-Took a trip to our new town and placed an offer on a house

May
-Lost our contract on the house because our condo still hadn't sold
-Wrote my all-time favorite post on being an infertile 20-something
-Quit my job
-Got an offer on our condo
-Lost our buyer after just a week
-Found out that our dream house in Texas was back on the market and placed a new offer
-Got another offeron the condo from a new buyer
-My dad was hit by a car while riding his bike in North Carolina
-J graduated from medical school
-Left DC for Texas

June
-Took a trip to Vegas
-Entered a new chapter in infertility-related depression
-Closed on our Texas house and moved in
-Did not find a job

July
-Started seeing a new doctor about infertility
-Adopted Jasper
-Got admitted to grad school to become a teacher

August
-Survived our massive flooding
-Still didn't have a job
-Joined Operation Common Thread
-Celebrated my parents' 25th wedding anniversary
-Started school

September
-Had a laparoscopy and FINALLY got a diagnosis for our infertility--scar tissue
-Wrote an angry letter to NBC over a stupid, prejudicial story they did on young, infertile women
-Encountered the centipedes from hell
-Interviewed for a job as a high school English teacher
-Took a road trip to Utah

October
-Didn't hear from the school after my interview, assumed I didn't get the job
-Got another negative pregnancy test
-GOT THE TEACHING POSITION!
-Decided to hold off on calling the RE to start IUIs
-Started my 20th cycle of TTC

November
-Was busy at work
-GOT PREGNANT!!!
-Our cat Codi went into heart failure and spent a week in critical condition

December
-Codi came home!
-Finished my first semester of teaching
-Annouced my pregnancy to my family and the internet at large

Ready to go back

Today was my first day back at work, and it felt really good to be there. Not that vacation wasn't a lot of fun, but there comes a time when a girl has to get up off the couch and realize that there's more to life than a weeklong marathon of "America's Next Top Model" on VH1. Of course the students don't come back until Monday, but it was still a very full day.

In other news, we got snow the other day! SNOW!!! It was less than a dusting, but it still made me smile. Winter hasn't seemed very winter-y what with our 60 degree temperatures and nonstop sun. Juan even called me from the hospital to make sure I saw it. We both got way too excited about the snow for two people who supposedly dislike it so much.

What the...

It's 26 degrees here this morning. TWENTY-SIX DEGREES! Brrrrrrrr! So much for an easy winter.

Codi's appointment is later this morning, and I'll post an update tonight. Thank you all who left well wishes for her in the comments on Tuesday.

Oh, and on a final (somewhat disjointed) note, does everyone see how effed up my template is now? I switched to Blogger Beta, and the navbar at the top looks like it's taking over my masthead when I open up the blog. Does it look this way to you guys? If so, I'll try to fix it over the weekend.

Don't knock it until you've tried it

We're all guilty of doing it, but I have to say that one of my biggest pet peeves is hearing people put down places or things that they've never actually experienced. Restaurants, schools, hobbies, and (particularly for this post) cities.

Now, don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of city-bashing. There are reasons why I don't ever want to live in Salt Lake again, reasons why I'm hesitant to move back to the DC area, and reasons why I don't love El Paso 100 percent of the time, but those reasons are all based on experiences. I've lived in these cities and formed my opinions based on the years I spent in them. If you don't like a city after living there for several years, then you plain don't like it. Move somewhere else, end of story. If you just think you don't like a place but have never actually experienced life there (and no, a weekend trip in college doesn't count) then, in my humble opinion, you have no business telling other people that it's not a nice place to live.

In case you were wondering, this rant isn't coming out of thin air. I've now lived in El Paso long enough to form a very definite opinion about whether or not I like it (the answer is yes) and it really bothers me when I see people who have never lived here say disparaging things about it. For example, the author of a blog I read is considering a move here. A number of people replied to the post and encouraged her to move somewhere else. They didn't give reasons or personal experiences, just flat-out told her that she'd be happier elsewhere. I can't even tell you how much this bugs me.

True, if you don't like the idea of living so close to the Mexican border, El Paso may not be the city for you. If you're not willing to learn conversational Spanish, you might want to move elsewhere. If you don't like the desert, friendly people, or beautiful sunsets, this is not the city for you. These people didn't think about those things, though. Instead they made stupid, prejudicial, and flat-out wrong assumptions about El Paso.

In the interest of full disclosure, I made a lot of those same assumptions before our move. I didn't think I would like El Paso, didn't think I'd be able to find a job without learning Spanish, and didn't think I'd ever feel at home here. I was wrong. It's a mistake that I won't be making again, and one that I wish more people would stop committing.