Out of the Lion's Den

We DID IT! We finally closed on the townhome! Did it go smoothly? That depends on your definition ;)

Considering all of our experiences in DE, a 2 hour close felt great. But with all things, there were problems. Silly mortgage company omitted the hypen in my name (even though every other bank & attorney paperwork had a hyphen). So the closing started an hour late because the attorney had to change all the information from hyphen to no hyphen (why didn't they just change the one piece of paper that was wrong to begin with???) Then we found another error on the HUD...nothing major, but still, it needed to be fixed (and the mistake should never have been there in the first place). So anyways...

We are no longer in the condo & FINALLY in the house. I woke up at 5:15 this morning because it was so sunny and bright in the room (yes, the blinds were closed)....The condo was a serious cave (I was able to sleep until noon sometimes because of how little light seeped in.

So now it's on to more important things...like paint. I've narrowed it down to two colors that look incredibly similar, it's hard to figure out the differences. Behr's Cracked Wheat or Behr's Stable Hay...they actually sit next to each other (not on the same strip though) at HD. Ryan really doesn't want me to use the same River Rock color from the Charleston bedroom, but I'm going to see if I can't convince him otherwise (I think river rock will look nice with stable hay, but he thinks river rock is too dark...Charleston friends: what did you HONESTLY think of the bedroom color??)

I promise to take pictures (still need to upload older ones)....the Verizon FIOS guy will be at the house on Friday, so check for updates next week!

Weekend Update

Past three weekends have been jam packed traveling.

June 8-10: Charleston, SC
Yes, I did the unthinkable. I visited Charleston. But really, it was for the friends :) Got into CHS from Philly around noonish. Cassidy and I had some lunch & an afternoon at the pool before meeting Frances downtown for some martini's at Chai's & a very un-Delaware dinner at Basil. Is there anything better than a pineapple cake martini? No...not when you come from Delaware. Saturday was a wedding and that night was spent drinking lots of wine.

One thing we learned that weekend? When the cork of the wine bottle is turning with the corkscrew, rest assured the wine bottle won't open. What to do? Take a knife and just stab the cork into the bottle. Yes the wine is now corked, but since some wine companies are moving more towards the fake corks, taste is not compromised. Just be forewarned that when you open the bottle this way, lots of wine will spurt OUT of the bottle...

June 16-18: NYC
My first experience with Amtrak. I mistakenly thought railroad travel was similar to air travel, complete with "arrive two hours prior to departure." NOT. I got to the train station at 6am. The homeless were still asleep on the front steps of the station. After getting my ticket, I went upstairs, and shamefully quickly came back downstairs when I realized the 'ticketed people only' section was outside, where people literally board the train.

When the train finally boards, I have ID & Ticket ready....foolish again, since nobody was checking tickets or IDs at boarding. After the train gets going, I snuggle up with Vanity Fair, and a man in a Amtrak uniform comes up to me and says nothing. Just looking at me. "Yes?" I say...DUH-he's asking for a ticket. I felt like Little Lulu in the episode where she loses her train ticket and has to jump cars avoiding the conductor. Who knew train travel was so old-school?

I have pictures from the NYC trip with my parents, but have yet to transfer them to the pc & thumdrive (should have internet service in our new place on Friday).

June 23-24: Philly & NJ
Wake up at 5:30am & leave Dover at 6:30 to see Ryan's cousin compete in a triathlon in Philly's Fairmont Park.

1:30pm Saturday: arrive in Ocean City, NY & spend the weekend at Ryan's Aunt & Uncle's shore house. Up here you don't go to the beach...you go to the shore.

Much fun...pictures will be up sometime this week. Keep you fingers crossed that tomorrow's closing goes smoothly. Tuesday/Wednesday will be spent moving our own things from the condo/apartment to the new place. HOPEFULLY our household goods will be safely delivered, all in one piece on the 3rd. Let's hope I have one full piano and not two 1/2 pieces.

Congratulations to Lindsey!

One of my dearest friends & her husband and their first baby yesterday....& I'm so incredibly happy for them! Not only are mom and baby healthy, but mom called twice, once before and once after the birth and sounded so calm, so collected. She & her husband are certainly heros in my eyes.

Congratulations Linsdey & Sean!

Changes in Lattitudes...

On the way to the gym today, there was a Jimmy Buffett Triple Play....the second song was Changes in Latitude

"Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes......if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

THAT line is EXACTLY how Ryan and I have dealt with this move (which still isn't over....we close on the town home on Tuesday, and we receive our household goods on July 3rd-keep your fingers crossed for us).

As if the house thing wasn't stressful enough, a certain bank that many many military families use for insurance F*#$ed up so incredibly that it's hard to believe. So incredibly f*#$ed up that I'm in the process of writing a letter. Without proper introduction and signatures, the letter is three pages.

More later...off to the gym and maybe tomorrow I'll write/post about my trips to Charleston & Manhattan.

Tagged by Liz

-What were you doing 10 years ago?

1. Hmm…trying to get a dose of skin cancer and working on pre-mature aging as a lifeguard at the City of Hollywood pool. Oh, and shopping for dorm gear.

-What were you doing 1 year ago?

1. Dancing downtown with Cassidy, Frances, Jaime and missing Ryan

-Five snacks you enjoy:

1. blueberries
2. mint chocolate chip ice cream
3. chips & salsa
4. pistachios
5. strawberries

-Five songs that you know all the lyrics:

1. Can I substitue the entire RENT book for all five?
2. The Joker
3. Brown Eyed Girl
4. Hotel Song (Regina Spektor)
5. See answer #1

-Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Travel the world.
2. Open a school/camp for neglected kids.
3. Help Save Darfur
4. Find a cure for cancer
5. Buy books. Lots of books.

-Five bad habits:

1. I can not function without coffee.
2. Being able to get out of bed when I don't have school or a job. (ie. a reason)
3. Having MORE than enough time to hit the gym...and not going. Probably because the gym is free...
4. Quitting
5. Complaining...lots of complaining.

-Five things you like doing:

1. drinking coffee
2. complaining (kidding!)
3. chatting with friends
4. Reading
5. playing the piano.

(can you tell I have few friends in Delaware??)

-Five things you would never wear again:

1. Skidz
2. biker shorts-especially the ones made by Body Glove
3. denim shorts with a ruffle trim
4. socks with a ruffle/lace trim
5. scrunchies (but living in Delaware, this might change...)

-Five favorite toys: (I struggled with this one...)

1. My Piano
2. My stereo
3. My thumb drive (dork, I know, but I just discovered how incredibly great these things are)
4. My hairdryer
5. Puzzles

Tagging other people:

1. Frances
2. Cassidy
3. Lindsey
4. Traci
5. Can't I just tag everyone?? Amanda...Jaime....Dawn...

Baltimore

Blogger's giving my problems right now, but I was going to upload a couple of pictures from our Saturday in Baltimore. Possibly one of my new favorite cities....check back soon :)












YUMMY! I had read about Attman's in a NYTimes '36 hours in Baltimore' article. Well worth the walk out of the typical touristy area of Baltimore. If I closed my eyes, I would have thought I was at Katz's Deli in New York. The B-E-S-T corned beef on rye I've had in eons.

Our first stop in Baltimore was the Water's Museum, but unfortunately, the hours recently changed and we were waaay too early. We ended up walking the original Washington Monument-225 (?) steps, walked around the Mt. Vernon neighborhood, and checked out the Peabody Conservatory. Afterwards, we drove down to the Inner Harbor, toured a boat used in the civil war (?...it was boring..I don't remember much), and decided to take the trek to Attman's, where it is probably safe to say that Ryan and I were the probably the only tourists.

Then it was back to the Inner Harbor and a trip to the Aquarium...pricey, but fun and touristy. More walking around the Inner Harbor, followed by a trip back up to the Mt. Vernon neighborhood to see the Water's Museum...I wish we can go back because we only had a hour to explore 4 floors...very little 19th century art, but a LOT of art and relics from the Italian Renaissance, India, Tibet, Central America, and quite a few religious artifacts.

After being kicked out of the museum (at least it was free, thanks to a grant), we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant whose name I can't remember, but I remember the great food...Afghan Cuisine..Ryan and I each had similar meals, lamb and a type of Afghan rice, but it was incredibly.

My stomach thanked me that day :)

Reincarnation is a bitch...

Real ASState

If Ryan's and my life was to be videotaped as a reality TV show, it would not be called Real World or My So Called Life. It would be called, "OH CRAP" or "What the FCUK?!"

It seems that almost NOTHING has gone smoothly since we've arrived in Delaware. Most already know about the first house. Through the first house though, we found a mortgage broker we were satisfied with.

So after we backed out of the first house, we found a second town home. Inspection-wise things were OK. It passed the radon test, but failed the carbon monoxide test (Do I need to write another blog about my first impression of DE being a cancer state?). I'm apparently attracted to houses that have deadly gases...maybe a certain someone in a large white home should bomb DE for weapons (gases?) of mass destruction (if by mass destruction we're talking about the population of one of the smallest states in the country). Good thing the Carbon Monoxide levels CAN be fixed-don't ask me how, but if I end up mysteriously dead in a town home... (Ryan will probably make me delete these last sentences...)

So back to our real ASState problems. Our lender could NOT meet with us on Friday because "things this way are crazy, we'll meet next week." (There was a race going on...Dover's population is around 30,000....150,000 people come into Dover to watch the race...that's ANOTHER story.) For all I know, he was probably AT the race, or at least camping out with the others...

We didn't end up meeting with the man until Wednesday morning at 9:30. Ryan and I arrived at 9:25. The man is not ready. He comes into his office (after we already sat down in his office) and starts cleaning up his desk. Then he proceeds to talk numbers. Mind you, Ryan had already told the man the address, city, price, settlement costs paid by seller, etc. The man is TYPING THINGS IN while we are there to get us to sign (basically, he had done next to nothing to prepare). Everything he prints out is wrong. The house address....the city...the county....the settlement costs...after 30 minutes of this garbage, I'm tired and Ryan is mad. The man is beginning to remind of the character from Jurassic Park that was played by the same actor who played Newman on Seinfeld.

He tried to get us to sign something, 'just to have on file, nothing binding"...which I believe were commitment papers. Papers that were naturally wrong. So wrong that I am listed as a "White Male." we signed NOTHING.

And ran...

To a bank....it was so normal....we made a phone appointment, I spoke to the man that afternoon, gave him our info, met this morning to look over the paper work, and not only was the information ready in a folder (with our own copy set aside), the information was RIGHT.

What a concept.

But wait, there's more...Did I mention how the real ASState agent didn't want to use a contract with for the county that the new home is located in? And I forgot to also mention that she just couldn't refer us to a real estate attorney in that county since she doesn't ever work there.

I'm thinking of either writing a book about my experiences. Unfortunately, our little adventure isn't over yet...we close on the 27th (PUHHHLEASE keep your fingers crossed for us)...AND we haven't even received our household goods yet (duh).

With our luck, the household goods are floating to Japan.