Yesterday, S and I were talking about the state of the business (you know, the one we work in), the state of the economy (you know, the Republican debt-hole) and the state of our economy (hers and mine). Ever since we bought our little pied-a-terre, we have been basically broke. We save and set money aside to pay big expenditures like property taxes and house insurance (has that ever skyrocketed!). We have little to no money for vacations. God help us if either one of us needs to buy a car, especially quickly! Even dining out is a rare and carefully considered decision.
Being the mutable, mercurial Fire sign that I am, my first thought is "let's change things!" Like, let's quit our jobs, sell the pied-a-terre and maybe take a vacation? Then we'll go get some new jobs, buy a new place and hopefully live within a half hour drive to Lina or Josh! Works for me! What? what? you don't want to tip over the apple cart? Throw the baby out with the bathwater?
Back to our conversation. S ticked off on her fingers all the benefits that she sees in our continuing to own our pied-a-terre. Here they are:
- It's an investment. Even with the stock market doing its roller-coaster thing, real estate continues to be a sound and generally appreciating investment. True -- I agree with her.
- It has improved our quality of life significantly. Commuting to our jobs in Detroit was over eighty miles, one way. On good days, we were spending three hours in the car each day. That is not quality of life. Even earlier in our careers, commuting to Flint was a 45-minute drive, one way. It was a low-traffic, easy commute as commutes go, but it was commuting nevertheless. We realized that for each of us, our pied-a-terre affords us the shortest commute either of us have ever had. To paraphrase good ol' Martha Stewart, this is a good thing!
- Living in our pied-a-terre has expanded our world and expanded our circle of friends. While we love J & J and Kevin and Patrick, we see them fairly infrequently -- maybe once a month, if that. We need more socializing. Our pied-a-terre neighbors, Jan & Tom, have proven to be an immense blessing to us. They call us up and invite us over. They yell across the street from their porch and say, "Hey, wanna come on over for a drink?" They did that just this past week. They invited us to a barbecue some Sunday afternoon this summer, at our convenience. Jan invited us and we all made a trip down to Greektown for dinner and some light gambling (I lost $20). And this past week, our pushing-eighty neighbor, Irene, sent S a card congratulating her on becoming a grandma for the first time. S and I were stunned! In fact, it was the only card that she received acknowledging her grandbaby and her new role. Is that a caring neighbor or what?
- Buying the pied-a-terre was an acknowledgement of our commitment to one another and to our relationship. We handled all the decisions, logistics and unexpected surprises that accompany any house purchase with nary a waver or a wiggle. We are solid with one another in a way that certainly wasn't there earlier. And ... as a reminder to myself and the world -- we are coming up on nineteen years together this fall. Wow!
But, S . . . I wanna take a vacation. I want you and I to take a vacation!
*whine, whine* *snort, snort*
No comments:
Post a Comment