mizarchivist

• Moving to the east coast, to a city notorious for being an expensive place to live.
  
  • Parents moved Back Home because this very town was too much in the 70s. The 90s and Aughts haven't been an improvement. Buying a house happened there by default, because that's What You Do. The only way I/we managed this was with shared resources and living familial inheritance
• My professional training and choice of long term employer => also not hugely profitable.
  
  • Dad at least: CFO, business-savvy person. He has multiple degrees, one of which was an MBA.He figured out this whole "stock market" thingy decades ago. Mom followed his lead and this seems to have worked for both of them.
• My spouse's profession: full of boom/bust uncertainty and several demons to stare down that made financial security pretty much an unattainable dream until the demons could be exorcised and new paths established.
  
  • While there certainly have been challenges, there's some super-power situation happening here for sure. Demons they both have, but their coping mechanisms are the opposite of spending money.
• The national landscape in the intervening years since my parents were at my spot of adult-ness gone on to make even the most resourceful of us stagger and struggle, with leadership and culture that gaslights the crap out of all of us for feeling less-than.
  • My parents are Baby-boomers and have ever experienced an actual living wage, mostly predictable employment. See also, super-powers.

lifecollage

Health/physicality- been climbing still, not enough. I need to ping CRG and put a hold on my membership. I can't do all the things, as it turns out. When I live in Newton, that'll likely be my default gym since they have a location about 2 mi from my new house.
I also have been participating in StepBet, because asciikitty is an enabler. That has gamified my activity just enough to keep me from slipping. I'm starting to feel like there's some difference. My goal is to have my utilikilt fit me as it should again.

Fam- I got to visit family in the Hudson Valley a few weeks ago, and then my parents visited this past weekend. The NY trip was to see my aunt in Our Town. My mom's younger sister. My mom, my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Will plus ersatz-Aunt Susan (I actually have an actual aunt by that name, just to confuse things), plus theatrical aunt's two adult kids were on site. Jaime and Kid also came with. it was quite an impromptu reunion and I was happy for the chance.
My parents had been planning on visiting me this weekend for a while. Mom's a huge advocate of vacation rentals, a good way to get a decent place near my house but not IN my house to take some pressure off those family members who might not be that social, the fact that the house is big, but that with guests it no longer feels adequate. Can allow for the dog to come if they want (not this time). It's overall a good thing. This time we went to Newburyport and got a beach house. Yes, tons of snow on the ground, but it was still delightful. The house itself was one that I'd very much like to rent again for a fun get-away for adults (sans parents or kids). It had a great aesthetic and a very nicely stocked kitchen with sharp knives and quality cook wear.

• I have AC in at my office now (window unit, because I'm a satellite office) I am pleased
• I got help from one of the constructions workers next door to get the trash out- whew. We have a LOT to go with the post move, and last week we failed to get any taken because they don't actually come up to our house, just the end of the main street. Noted. (Should be interesting in winter)
• The old house: it's not done. primal_pastry  went through and cleaned on Friday, and the house itself is essentially empty, it's just the basement and rest of the garage, you see... And a lot of it is pretty much just up to quiet_elegance  to sort- not a lot for others to do. I'm hoping he'll be well and truly done damn soon- like Friday? I hope.
  • I did way too much around the house, but most of the books are on the shelves, even if they're not in order. The kitchen still needs rehabilitation and more shelves, but it's getting there. Now that the books are mostly sorted, I have less excuse on the kitchen thing.
• I really can't say enough about how wonderful my parents and Amy are. I keep getting reminders that my emotional state is skewed and that my capacity to deal with surprises and sudden shifts are excessively limited.
• Ditto, quiet_elegance  and purple_terror  are very thoughtful, particularly when I'm at the end of my rope. In return, I try to do things like make the executive decision of yes we're ordering pizza one more night, then doing so and getting it paid for over the phone because after yesterday's activities we were almost or entirely non-verbal in our fatigue.
• I'm so tired of feeling isolated over house stuff. I think that I've hit a turning point. I had to cancel seeing yet another friend yesterday because going out last night was not going to happen and trying to add that in on top of everything else was stressing me out and it was just after breakfast time.
• Given all that: going to work is a fantastic thing. With the AC and things for me to do that are not a huge physical stress, I might have the capacity to do things like, cook dinner when I get home. This would not be the case if I were taking another day to do house stuff.
• OK, that last point reminds me I have to shut up and do some of that to do list.