Growing pains

I am officially a loan owner...yes I typed loan. Now come the growing pains of ownership. Closing papers were signed last Tuesday, and beginning with the closing, it has been truly and adventure. Not always a fun one, but an adventure nonetheless. After a number delays, changes on closing dates, and a whole lot of going back and forth in the bureaucratic mess that is getting a loan and buying a place, the closing date was finally set for last Wednesday the 30th of June. I was happy but very apprehensive, and I didn't even know why... now I understand. On Tuesday afternoon at 1:45 PM I received a phone call (more like three), from the lender, agent, and title company telling me we had to close that day (instead of Wednesday) before three o'clock. Mind you I was at work on the second busiest day of the month for us. I pleaded with the dean and left work like a bat out of hell to get a cashier's check and rush over to the title company, in one hour (supposedly my lunch). I got to the bank and their printers weren't working. I still made it with 20 mins. to spare. When I got there I was told there were two people ahead of me, and that the officer's printer had broken down and they couldn't print the necessary papers (I guess it was printer curse day) so I'd have to wait. Two hours. At least. No going back to work because I had to be there at the moment the guy came out, and I couldn't really come back from lunch and leave again. My office mate would've had a field trip with that one. So I called everyone, the lender, the agent, even the title officer himself on his cell phone and left a message (he wouldn't answer) telling him he was unprofessional, "this is terrible, I am going file a formal complaint...!" which of course I knew would do nothing. Not one minute after I hung up the phone, the title officer came in, introduced himself to everyone waiting, and called my name (the two people who were there ahead of me had been there over an hour, so they definitely weren't happy when he called me first). By luck of the draw he had printed my papers first, it was totally painless and all done in 30 mins. I was so happy I even apologized to the title officer and told him to just erase my message without listening.  YAY! it's FINALLY over! or so we thought. After an inspection, and having been here several times looking over the place, Rose Mary and I thought we had an idea of the amount of work the it needed. Some paint, change a couple of the light switches, get some light bulbs, blinds, closet doors, buy appliances, (yes the previous owners took everything, I'm surprised the water heater stayed), we're done, we'll be in in 5 days. Boy were we wrong....

My first blog post

After a good hour of designing my blog page, I can finally begin to write, now all I need is some inspiration. To catch up to where I am at this moment, I divorced, finished grad. school, and moved to Florida to get away from the cold, the heartache and to start anew. Why Florida? It is where my best friend from HS (Rose Mary) lives, not quite as far and expensive as California (where all my other friends are) and definitely warmer than Dekalb, so why not? Long story short, it is 14 months later and I have a steady job as a registrar at a university, we're on the midst of buying a condo, temporarily living within walking distance to the beach, and going about every day life. Sounds boring and simple but it's been everything but. After 2 years of tearing out my hair and clothing about the divorce, I got my act together and managed to finish my masters thesis within the time limit before classes got too old and stopped counting. It only took 5 and 1/2 years, but I got it done with one semester to spare. Writing that thesis was definitely a test of my patience and endurance to say the least. Once done and moved, I was able to get a job as a library assistant at a private-for-profit university where I have been working for the past 11 months and 23 days to be exact. The library assistant job was one of the best jobs I've ever had, stress free, got to work with the students all the time, the only catch? it paid, how should I put this... NOTHING. While I was very happy there, another opportunity came up and was eventually hired by the University of Miami to work as a Senior Library Assistant for the Cuban Heritage Collection. Awesome job, but very far from home, and the initial salary offer turned into a lot less, essentially the same as my original position, if I added commuting time, gas, etc. Nonetheless, I decided to take the job anyway, but I was not happy about it. However, when I gave notice at my original job, another position opened up at the same time and they offered it to me. I am now a registrar (the keeper of all student records), which pays significantly better (still not a lot), it's closer to home, in a place I enjoy working at (the majority of the time), has better possibilities for advancing administratively, got to keep my seniority, etc. June 30 will be my 1 year anniversary. Most importantly, that promotion made loan approval for buying a condo possible, and we are now waiting for a closing date, but that's another story, and for what I've seen the best blogs are the short and sweet ones.