Fresh Start.

So far, this year has not been the best ever. Primarily, work has been a delightful combination of busy, stressful and discouraging. With the exception of my five days in Anguilla, I have maybe two good things to say about this year to date. As a result, I'm trying to think of ways to shake it off and get a fresh start.

My major plan begins on Saturday. After years of listening to my parents' nagging me about the amount of money I continue to throw away as a renter, I'm going househunting this weekend. I tend to get overwhelmed pretty quickly when confronted with housing choices. I'm hampered by the fact that I have no ability with spacial relationships. It makes my head hurt just to think about if and how my furniture will fit in a space. I'm a person who goes in a circle folding box flaps because I just don't see the spacial relationships. Its a tad pathetic.

My years of procrastinating this house buying step has a couple benefits. First, if I had bought years ago, I likely wouldn't have known that I have no need to go outside of my zone in daily life. (Bounded by the loop on the south, the lake on the east, North Avenue to the north, and Halsted to the west, my zone has everything I want.) I like the West Loop but its not really a neighborhood. Wicker Park is a neighborhood that I like but I hate the traffic there. I don't like Lakeview at all, with the possible exception of Wrigley Field. Anything north of Lakeview might as well be Canada for me. I like the South side just fine but its houses are generally much more run down than the north side and I'm definitely not a fixer-upper girl, even if I wish I was occasionally. Second, had I bought a few years ago, I would have bought at the height of the seller's market. Now, its still a buyer's market, with even a touch of desperation from sellers after such a long downturn.

I am sincerely hoping to find a place on Saturday that I love so that I can make my fresh start by summer.