Christmas 2013

...was in all ways superior to last year's. Last year, my husband was in a different state, our stuff was in a storage unit somewhere in Seattle, and I was in Boston, freezing my butt off, sleeping on an air mattress, and feeling thoroughly overworked.

Fast-forward a year, and we were together, with our own stuff and our own Christmas tree. H was visiting us for a change, as was my father-in-law, so we were able to have a family holiday while I was working. I worked a lot, but didn't feel nearly as stressed as I did last year (and made more money, too). We were able to entertain and buy presents for people, which we couldn't really do last year, and the weather was better, too. All family members had an excellent time.

Since the restaurant is closed for the next week, we'll be taking a little New Year's road trip, down through northern California to San Francisco (H will fly home from there) and back up through wine country. Last year, in January, we were wending our way cross-country; and while Utah in January was completely beautiful and completely deserted, I'm glad not to be doing it again right now.

Speaking of moving, however, we'll be moving into a new apartment at the end of January, around the corner from my work. Bigger, cheaper, and I can walk to work. I'm not especially jazzed at the idea of coming back from vacation and then having two weeks to pack and move, but hey, at least it's just across town.

Happy New Year's, everyone!

I'm back!

I feel refreshed after taking a little break from blogging (although I didn't mean for it to be an almost three-month break). I stopped because I was tired of feeling stressed about posting. Quite honestly, it was nice not blogging. I'll still be updating here, and more regularly than once every three months, but my food blogging site will remain inactive for a bit longer.

Primarily, it's because my focus has started to shift to wine. While on hiatus, I took the Level 1 sommelier exam (and passed, thanks!). Now I'm studying for the Level 2; after passing that, I can officially call myself a sommelier. But then there's still the Advanced and Master level exams, which are notoriously difficult. In fact, there are only about 220 Master Sommeliers in the entire world. One step at a time, of course. My next focus is passing the Level 2, and learning more than passing familiarity with all the wines on the wine list at work.

(But that's the fun part about learning about wine; it involves two of my favorite things! 1. Reading, and 2. Drinking.)

So my home cooking efforts have fallen to the utilitarian while I work and study. Which is fine with me, frankly. I have a large recipe repertoire to pull from, and my money goes more to wine these days. I've updated my Twitter handle--@brokefoodie--to reflect my wine tasting notes and general wine shizz.

Other news? We had our own healthcare debacle. As soon as I was eligible for insurance through work, I promptly enrolled DH and myself. Only to discover, after about six weeks of coverage and a few general check-ups, that my premiums would be $216 a month, and DH's would be--wait for it--$520 a month additional. Not including dental. Which meant we'd be paying close to $1000 a month, IN PREMIUMS. I'd be better off putting that money in a savings account every month, and declaring bankruptcy in the event of cancer. I mean, $1000 a month for insurance? That's just silly.

The upshot is that I had to drop DH (I kept him on dental). The good news is that the premiums are going down next year, so my own insurance will become more affordable.

Speaking of DH, his part-time freelance writing job should go full-time between now and March. I don't think it will involve salary or benefits, but it will be a much-needed boost of income and ego.

My own work is going well. We're in the busy season now, but I'm happy to make the money. This time last year DH and I were in different states, and I was working my butt off alone in a very cold Boston. It's much nicer working my butt off with him here. We're excited about hosting my stepson and father-in-law for Christmas (I've already planned a fancy evening out for everyone at my restaurant), and we're also planning to take the boy on a post-New Year's road trip down through northern California into San Francisco for a few days. He'll fly home from San Fran, and we'll drive back through wine country. I've got a reservation for The French Laundry; I'm excited about it, but still not sure if I want to pay that much money for dinner. I may yet decide to cancel the reservation and keep the money. More on that as it develops. (But, of course, there'll be pictures and travel notes here!) The restaurant is closed for a week after New Year's Eve, and I'm very much looking forward to extended time off/another road trip.

We may be moving to a new apartment upon our return. The lease is up at the end of January (hard to believe it's been almost a year since we moved here!), and I'd like to be closer to work. If we move to a place where I can walk to work, we'll save a few hundred dollars a month in rent in addition to vastly decreased gas (and car insurance) costs. DH will continue working from home, so that's no problem. I like my current vicinity to downtown Seattle, but not enough to keep paying the increased rent (and driving a half-hour each way to work). I'm starting to look at apartments now. It makes my head hurt, to think about packing and moving again, but at least this time it would be just across town.

And that's really about it. It's nice to be in a position to have an actual Christmas this year. We can afford presents for loved ones, we're together (it's not frigid and icy outside, like Boston was), and I feel like I'm placing myself on an upward career trajectory. We're both healthy, and caught up on dental work. I can get my hair done once in a while, and get a new pair of shoes for the work holiday party, without worrying about dire financial repercussions. People are traveling to visit us for the holidays, instead of the other way around. We're about to go driving off into the wild blue yonder again. So life is good, for now. And thank goodness for that.

A resort, a wedding, and a bear

Normally, at the end of a vacation, I don't want to come home. But this time, I was very happy to be returning.

It was a long week. I missed my husband (and his mom). It was good to see my family again, but I'm not used to the noise and bustle of small children. The high school reunion was a little surreal. My best friend's wedding was beautiful, but I ended up stage-managing a lot of it at the last minute, so it wasn't exactly relaxing. Also, she and the friend I was staying with were on the outs; so there was that to deal with.

Pluses: The resort was beautiful. I got to drive part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which I hadn't done in years (and saw a bear cub!). When the kids weren't being a handful, they were super-cute. I discovered I'm a fairly competent emergency florist. I paid off another credit card. I'm glad to be home, and ready to work all the time and make a lot of money between now and the holidays.

In memoriam, for my mother-in-law

It's been an eventful few days. I had a great time seeing my friends and old coworkers in Boston--and now I feel no need to ever go back to Boston. I flew into Raleigh, having gotten an hour of sleep the night before, and discovered almost immediately that my mother-in-law had passed away after a long battle with cancer.

I put my husband on a plane and sent him out to Missouri to deal with family stuff. She was cremated quickly, and there will be a memorial service at some point, but no one's sure when or where yet. So I'm awaiting further instruction.

Then, of course, my twentieth high school reunion, which was ultimately fun if a bit surreal. I didn't recognize at least half the people. I did win a $50 gift card for having traveled the farthest to be there.

After that, my family went to Primland, in the wilds of southern Virginia, to celebrate my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary. We're currently in a big house on the side of the mountain, getting ready to go to the spa later in the day for massages. The restaurant here has a drool-worthy wine list, and the views from everywhere are just incredible. I'm sorry my husband has to miss it.

For a lot of reasons, of course. I'll miss my mother-in-law. She was really awesome.

A trip down memory lane

The backyard I grew up in

Tonight, I will be visiting old friends and co-workers at Craigie on Main in Boston, where I used to work. Tomorrow, I'll be in Raleigh visiting my sister. Saturday, I'll be in Virginia at my twentieth high school reunion.

Needless to say, it'll be a trippy few days.

I'll update from the road as best I can...

A high school reunion

It's been an unusually lucrative couple of weeks at work. Add that to the credit cards that have just been paid off, and I'm starting to think I might actually one day be debt free, even with losing ten days of income this month.

Next week I'm off to the East Coast--I'll see my old friends and coworkers in Boston for a night, then spend the rest of my time in Virginia, dealing with my best friend's wedding, my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary, and my twentieth high school reunion.

Naturally all I've been able to think about is the reunion.

20 years. TWENTY.

High school was the longest four years of my life, and I wasn't even there for one of those years, and yet it seems like 20 years have gone by like nothing.

I had a great time at the ten-year reunion, though I wasn't expecting to (largely because I was single and got laid, but that's another story). Most likely I'll have fun at this one, too; people are bound to have changed in 20 years. And even if not, there'll be booze and it'll be a Saturday night off work.

Nevertheless, I'm still thinking about it all the time.

High school was, hands down, the single worst experience of my life. (Second worst? Middle school.) Death, divorce, and car accidents pale in comparison. Getting hospitalized for three days for excruciating stomach pain no one could diagnose? Not as bad as high school. Being stood up, and fired, on my birthday? Not as bad as high school. Dating a guy who wanted to pimp me out on Craigslist? Still, not as bad as high school.

I was teased, bullied, and made to feel unwelcome by pretty much everyone. You name it, it happened at some point--tripped in the hallway, spit on, laughed about in the locker room, pelted with food in the cafeteria, pelted with volleyballs in gym class. If I said anything in class, someone in the back snickered. If I said hello, I usually got, "Why are you talking to me? I'm not your friend." If I didn't say hello, I got, "Why are you such a stuck-up bitch?" I was told that boys would never ask me out because I was a frigid lesbian, and they would rather get AIDS than be seen with me in public. It was a relentless campaign of ostracism; even some of the teachers were in on it. ("You'd make more friends if you just tried a little harder.")

Eventually I stopped trying. I made friends outside the school, starting dating older boys, got involved with theater so that I could hang out with other social pariahs. Midway through my junior year, I realized that if I had to put up with another year, I'd probably become a tower killer, so I exploited some loopholes and left home at 16 to start college a year early. Which was awesome--if high school was the worst four years of my life, college was definitely one of the best four.

And then 20 years went by. There are still some psychic scars--I have dreams about being forced to go back to high school to finish that missing year. I can't walk into a room full of people without mentally cringing, waiting for someone in the back to snicker. I avoid gyms, and locker rooms, like the plague. I see those people on Facebook now, living perfectly normal lives, and part of me wonders, "Do they remember?"

Will this be like walking into the lion's den, again?

No, of course not. We've all changed since then, and it'll be a fun evening of talking to people I never really got to know back then. With booze. Possibly also cool music. I hope.

I paid off two credit cards

In a week, I'll be back on the East Coast, for a ten-day vacation of sorts. I say "of sorts" because it involves my twentieth high school reunion, my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary, and my best friend's wedding. It may not be exactly relaxing. (Still looking forward to it, though.)

But in addition to stressing out about what I'm going to wear--and don't even get me started on the bridesmaid's dress--I've been stressing about losing ten days of income, across two weekends, essentially a third of my monthly income. Hubs is still unemployed, and while we've managed to claw back nine more weeks of partial unemployment, I'm still stressing about being the primary breadwinner.

Then I realized, part of my ongoing stress is due to our ongoing debt. I've been chipping away at it, but if we could pay off some stuff, I wouldn't have to worry so much about all the bills every month on one income.

So we cashed in our 401ks, and by the end of the month, we will have paid off almost $20K in credit card debt.

Since DH isn't bringing in any income, I don't think we'll need to worry about the tax hit, and why carry meager savings and large debt if we could have no savings but also no debt? This will wipe out the highest-interest cards, taking us down to one that can easily be paid off by the end of the year, which would leave us with one. One!

Plus student loans, and the car, but hey, one thing at a time. Maybe by the time we get down to one credit card, DH will have a job.

And it was a pretty good feeling, looking at those zero balances. It was stressful sending all that money out into the world, but it seems like everything is stressful these days.

In other news, the tire pressure idiot light came on in the car the other day. I checked the tire pressure, determined the two rear tires were a little low, and refilled them. The idiot light went off. A small thing, but I felt very accomplished, to have solved that problem all by myself.