mystic_savage

Yesterday, I registered and enrolled in Psych 200, Lifespan Development.  It's one of four prerequisite psych classes I need to take to apply to the Art Therapy program at Antioch or the Master's in Counseling programs at either Antioch or Argosy.  (Both have rolling admissions, so as soon as I finish the classes I'll be able to apply).

Also yesterday, I had two job interviews.  One in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and one in the School of Social Work.  Seems like the Medicinal Chemistry job would be the least stress, but they both have things to offer about them.  Would welcome an offer from either, although would face the Social Work job with more trepidation than the other.  The Med Chem job seems laid back.  The other is a program coordinator/assistant to director position in a program that is funded half by UW and half by DSHS/state of Washington.  So there would be not one, but two, bureaucracies to manage.  But the program director is a woman who seems to have a good sense of humor and compassion.

Last weekend, I finished leveling the concrete floor and filling in the nail holes of the room at Karen & James' house (where I am going to move at the end of August).  Got to the point of actually buying the paint for the floor.  It's a color I call "Mystical Purpose", but its real name is "Mystical Purple."  You can look it up on the Behr website, but I found a close-looking sample on another site:


I'm pleased with it.  The walls are stark white & I only have $$ to do the floor right now, but as time goes on I may--oh I dunno--tile a bright yellow border at the bottom of the wall or buy a thousand plants or something.  The thing I'm going to miss the most about my current bedroom is the purple wall, so it will be nice to have a purple floor to make up for it. 

I want to downsize quite a bit...get rid of at least 2/3 of what I currently own.  I want a more spare, simpler physical environment.  Moving is a great opportunity to de-junk, although I don't really have that much junk.  But I'm going to keep only what I really love, keep only those clothes I look forward to wearing and plan to wear at least 10 more times in the next year.  I'm going to keep the books I go back to over and over again, and the books I work out of and a few of the books I haven't read yet --that's still probably 200 books, but everything else is going.  I'm getting rid of my beading supplies and my art supplies -- well, they'll be absorbed into Karen's craft supplies since she has a lot of those things.

So all in all, things are moving along & going ok.  Hope you are all well. 

Love and light,

Virginia

So, trust us to put our house on the market the very week an article comes out in the PI about the real estate market hitting its lowest point in the last twenty years. For some reason that totally doesn't bother me -- it's probably the four chocolate chip cookies I've had (made specially for me by one of our faculty people).  But it could be my natural fluffypagan bouncy denial of everyone else's reality and the belief that there's nothing that a good goat sacrifice and some naked dancing won't cure.  (Not that I sacrifice goats, but I could.  Ritual animal sacrifice has been constitutionally protected for at least a decade now).

Kevin also sent me a link to the Irvine Housing Blog, which has been "chronicling the seventh circle of real estate hell since September of 2006.  Reading it is depressing if you believe in the reality of economic analysis, but worth a few chuckles here and there.  For example, when "IrvineRenter" notes that one couple now list their house at more than 100,000 off of the price they bought it at in 2004, he quotes the lyrics from "Stairway to Heaven," noting that buying this property (located on Stepping Stone Ave) seems to be leading the owners closer to Hades than to Heaven.

Bleh to the market, I say.  Bleh.  I defy you market.  I shake my fist merrily in your face.  I speak in an outrageous french accent.  I spit on you.  I fart in your general direction.

Kevin and I posted our house listing to the Duwamish Cohousing Homeowners Association on Friday.  Our asking price is $260,000 for a 2 bedroom condo with a large storage room with skylight.  (We use it as the kids' bedroom, but it's not legally a bedroom because there is no egress).  We'll be putting it up for sale externally after a three-week period.  I don't know what to expect, but I doubt it will just leap out of our ownership.  The market's kinda slow right now; our legal problem is settled but we don't have the construction fix costed out yet, and although our unit isn't that bad, it *is* starting to show some problems from the slag.  Which is why we're offering it at $260 and not $300 plus.  I think it will sell eventually, and I hope it will sell by summer at our asking price.  Our back-up plan is to rent it out.  So I'll be moving late this spring one way or another.

For the right person or people I think it would be a great place.  They'd have to be interested in cohousing, though, and Kevin and I are definitely post-community.  I think we both want to find our own separate place to curl up:  Kevin's dream is a huge chunk of a land out of the city; mine is a luxury condo in Belltown or a 2-bedroom apartment on Capitol Hill.  Note I said that that's my *dream,* not reality.  I can afford a room in a 3-bedroom house with 11 housemates in Yelm.  But I'm not moving yet.  Maybe by the time we move I'll be able to afford something in the city. Or maybe I'll have discovered that Western is putting together such a great package for me that I won't be able to turn it down and I'll be looking at a move to Bellingham.  Rents are fairly reasonable in Bellingham.

This is my last week on this job.  Friday's my last day.  The week cannot go quickly enough for me.  I *do* have an interview on Wednesday for a job I might want -- it's a 60% Program Coordinator position and might be a really good foundation financially.  (That plus the tuition reimbursement plus subsidized housing might work out well for the next couple of years).  One of the hardest things to do is to let things unfold.