JUST A QUICK HELLO

And here I am at this place
I've tried to get to all my life
- Vivian Green, "Music"

I'm off today and being a bum but I just wanted to drop in so you guys don't think I've fallen off the face of the earth. Everything is good. The drama at work has ceased; the situation has been resolved and I'm starting a Certified Manager course next month in the hopes of garnering a promotion soon. Business is off to a decent start. I have one new client and when I met with my realtor last weekend, he mentioned that he may be retaining my services as well. The investment group that I submitted a proposal to plans to review it next weekend at their annual meeting. I know my bid was higher than the others so I have no idea as to whether or not they'll decided to go with me or one of the others. I still haven't found any office space but it hasn't become an issue yet so that's good.

Last weekend was our first "official" househunting trip and we didn't see anything we would want to buy. Every house was nice with the exception of one major thing. One house backed onto a major street, another house was on a really steep hill, another house had the Clampetts (before they moved to Beverly Hills) as neighbors. I have a feeling it's going to take a long time to find exactly what we want but we're in no rush to buy. The longer it takes us to find a house, the more money we will have saved anyway. I'm going to start preparing my house to go on the market soon and I'm curious as to what people will think when they view my home. I know we all had plenty of comments about the homes we saw. We were cracking up in one home because the "office" had a tanning bed and the house smelled funny. I'm sure putting my house up for sell will be a bit bittersweet. I know I'll be moving on to something bigger and better but it's MY house - the house I spent time painting, decorating, landscaping. I'm excited about the prospects of having a "clean slate" to paint, decorate and landscape even better than this one though.

Though I didn't make any resolutions this year, I've spent the last couple of weeks taking stock of my life. I realized that I'm exactly where I want to be. I was talking a few family members and coworkers and they all had the same thing to say - they were a bit disappointed because they're not quite where they pictured themselves at this stage in life. I'm extremely fortunate because the life I have is precisely what I've always pictured for myself. I'm doing all things I've always wanted to do - own my own home, travel the world, spend time with friends and family, follow my passions and have someone to share all of that with. I've met or exceeded the vast majority of the goals I've set for myself. The few goals I haven't met (i.e. learn to speak French semi-fluently) are things that I gotten lax about and could do if I applied myself (the French software I bought a while back is still collecting dust on my desk and I've dropped out of two different French classes). I think this is the perfect time to start mapping out the next chapter of my life - I'm on the cusp of turning 30 and not long after that, I will be giving up my house and my maiden name. My only hope is that the next chapter goes as well as the last did.