Saturday, April 7, 2001
Well, things are moving quickly. I put an offer in on a house yesterday. I found out this afternoon that the offer was accepted. Molly and I looked at a bunch of houses yesterday. Some were too small, others were too expensive. Then we found one that was just right. Felt like the three bears would walk in on me any second. It's on Pierce Street, right next door to where Trent and Frank live (and where Andy lived until last month). It's just around the corner from the Co-op and on a block that it seems the punks have virtually taken over. I know people in virtually every house on the block. It's a duplex, the lower unit is larger and has 1.5 baths. The upper is a bit smaller with only one bathroom. I think if everything goes smoothly I'll live upstairs and rent the lower unit. After all, what in the hell would I do with two bathrooms? It's got a tiny fenced in yard with a huge three car garage. There's a little area for a garden. It's a really cute house and well within my price range. Hopefully all will go well. This whole thing makes me feel rather uneasy. It's a big "grown-up" kind of step. But it's also been a long time in coming.
Thursday, April 12, 2001
Well, things are moving even faster now. I had the home inspection done Tuesday. The only major problem is the electrical wiring in the basement. It's illegal. I didn't think much about it, but now I realize that it could cause problems with insurance, particularly because I'll have tenants. So I called my realtor and had him write up an amendment to the offer saying that the current owner needs to bring the basement wiring up to code. There doesn't seem to be a problem with that. I met with the loan officer at Great Midwest Bank today and filled out loads of forms. I don't foresee any problems with financing. Now it's simply a matter of waiting. We've set a tentative closing date of May 10.
Monday, April 23, 2001
No news on the house. Is no news good news? Let's hope so.
I found out that it's time to renew my teaching license. Has it really been five years already? That's amazing. Tempus fugit I suppose. I've been wondering if I really want to be doing this teaching thing forever. A couple of years ago I was convinced I'd found what I'd be doing for the rest of my life. I don't know what's happened to place the sliver of doubt in my mind. Perhaps it's because it's late April and I've got a bit of Spring Fever going on. Or perhaps I'm a bit frustrated by my own laziness and lack of effort in the past month. Or perhaps the frustration arises from a virtually complete lack of enthusiasm or effort on the part of my students. All three are probably true and no doubt related. Both my students and I have been at this school year for quite awhile. We're ready for summer break. At the same time, I still feel some sense of accomplishment and pleasure in my work on a daily basis. I wonder how many other positions I could pursue where I could say as much. But I still feel a bit lost of late. I feel as though we're all just going through the motions at this point.
Sunday, April 29, 2001
I feel as though I'm in a holding pattern. There are all of these things that are coming up in my life, but there's really very little I can do in terms of preparation. It's frustrating. I called my mortgage loan officer person and my real estate agent on Friday just to see what's happening with everything and they both told me all is well. I'm just waiting on all the paperwork to be processed. I just want to get into the house and see what needs to be done and maybe start thinking about how I want to decorate the place. Seems like everything is coming to a point between May 10-14th. The tentative closing for the house is on May 10th. May 11th I'm organizing an event at the Shambhala Center. Rita Gross will be in town for Vaisakha Day (that's a celebration of the Buddha's birthday) and I've asked her to speak at the Center. Today I have to make up fliers for that event and tomorrow I'll go around posting them. Friday the 11th is also the first time Jenny will be playing with home-grown local rockers Wrecker. That show's at the Cactus Club. Saturday the 12th is Vaisakha Day and I'm heavily involved with the organization of that as well. I've got to figure out who's going and round up people to transport various items and cook and so forth. And I've got symphony tickets that evening. Finally, my old friend Rico will be in town with his band "Living Under Lies" on Monday the 14th. It'll be one very busy weekend.
But now that I've whined about how much is going on that weekend, I must confess that there really isn't a whole lot happening before then. So I'm left with this feeling that there's so much to do and I'm overwhelmed, yet at the same time, there's plenty of time to take care of everything. Unless of course I get lazy. Which is always a distinct possibility. And so it's time to bust out the ubiquitous to-do lists and start slowly and methodically moving through them. Sometimes I feel as though my epitaph should simply be a to-do list. "Daniel Gatewood: born (check), died (check)."