Moving forward

Change.  As everyone has always told me, it is inevitable.  It is a constant in and inconstant world.  You can always expect it.  Yet, I have always resisted it.

When I was a child, my parents added a family room to the back of our house and during the process, they remodeled the kitchen.  This meant that our Harvest Yellow refrigerator would be replaced with a lame almond colored one.  I was upset about this.  I cried as they removed the old refrigerator from the house, begging for my parents to keep a part of it for me….like the door. 

On a separate occasion, the upstairs bathroom was being remodeled.  I did not ask to keep the toilet seat, but rather, I snuck my own memorabilia from the demolition; including a piece of the wall paper and linoleum floor.

When my grandparents updated their kitchen, the same thing happened, except I think my dad was feeling nostalgic on this occasion because all of their green metal cabinets and their fridge ended up in our garage to create a work shop area....the work shop never was completed.

So you can see a theme from my life.  I have never been keen on dramatic change.  Yet, here I am.  My life has been swamped in dramatic change since November 6, 2004 (the day I found out I was pregnant).  I hit a plateau until last when I left Jimmy John's for Planes.
  

I started 2013 at Planes and looking forward to a very soon coming interview with Great American.  A year after I had been denied a job here, they called with another offer.  This change of employment was official in March.  This has been a change for which I am thrilled every day.  I am back in the part of Cincinnati I love the most.  I see our beautiful sky line every day.  I gladly walk a half a mile to and from my car.  I see people on the street whom I used to serve and am happy to see that they are still here- although, none of them recognize me.  I feel peaceful when I enter the building.  I am still learning this new job and will be for some time, but it is a place where I know I will have a long future. 

But to back up for a second: my last day of Planes is important.  It was a rather boring day because I had finished up 90% of my work and passed along the other 10% already.  Another lady had had her last day the Tuesday before me, so the farewell party was already passed.  My landlord had called and left a message for me, that I declined to listen to until later that day.  I called him on my way home and was told that he is selling the Two Family building where RP and I live.  Great.  He assures me that he will do everything he can in the event of a sale to get the new owner to want me to stay.  For the next couple weeks, I try not to sweat it, but I start looking online for apartments and since those are so boring to look at online, it morphed to looking at houses.

So there happens to be an adorable craftsman in a neighboring community of Cincinnati.  I mean, it is cute.  Front porch with a swing, two car garage, fenced back yard, two bedroom cuteness wrapped up in brick and siding.  It happens to have an open house the day after I find it.  RP, MR and I load into the car the next day to check it out.  Love at first sight.  I mean love.  So I schedule a private viewing of it for the following weekend so my dad, step mom and sister can be present.  They all fell in love as well.  So then comes the offer, the counter, the counter, the acceptance.  Boom.  Under contract.  Fast?  I know.  Unpredictable?  Completely.  A huge step?  Scares that crap out of me every day.

A requirement of my loan is to take a first time home buyer class.  Yes, it is 9 hours long on a Saturday.  But it is free.  Yes, it was very hard to wake up and want to go to this on a Saturday, but, I am being completely sincere, it was worth it!  There are a ton of grants (free $$$$) for first time home buyers out there!  Anyway, I am driving in Clifton and good ole MLK coming up to Jefferson when I rear end a Kia Sorento.  From the looks of my car, you are thinking, did you plow into her?  Were you sleeping?  What the hell!  I wish it was a good story.  Construction, blinding sun, traffic and a start and then stop light.  She started, I started, I looked at the clock (my best guess), she stopped, I looked up, I braked, boom, my hood was bent in a way it shouldn't have been.

I am very calm and collected about it now, but I assure that MR and my dad would have other words to describe me that morning.  My gut said my car was totaled.  Her Kia, not so much.  Almost just fine is how I would describe her SUV.  The police came, we did the exchange of info, she drove off, my car was towed and MR came to pick me up.  (Thank you so much again my dear).  Off I went to be a half hour late to my class.

Less than two months since my last day at Planes, I’m in my new job, waiting on my closing date and have a brand new car.  When did my life get real?