Appropriate.

As I mentioned, as of Monday afternoon, I'm a member of the 30-Year Club, as my mom calls it.

On Tuesday, I returned to work to find that one of the women that I work out with probably five times per week had left a closing gift for me at the office. While we aren't friends, if you spend five mornings a week for well over a year getting ready with someone, you end up knowing a lot about them. Or, she was just a lucky guesser. Her gift: a bottle of Veuve. Fitting.

This morning, I received a delivery from my parents. It came in a box labeled live plant. As I have something of a black thumb, I was a little confused. But, once I opened the box, I realized just how appropriate and funny it was. My parents closing gift to me was a Money Tree. They are supposed to be Feng Shui-y and bring good luck. To me, it just represents how I feel about this whole process. It really seems like everyone involved seems to assume that money does grow on trees. If only money really did grow on trees . . .

Home-Owning.

After finding a workaround on the mortgage issue, I was set to close yesterday at 1:00 p.m. I was told that it would take about an hour so I just worked all morning until it was time. Everyone was on time and ready to go, except for one essential person: the closer. She was well over an hour and a half late and upon arrival, did not apologize. Instead, she adopted a surly, and worse, slow attitude. After some serious prompting, and a $300 reduction in my fees for her tardiness, I was finally a homeowner around 6:00 p.m.

Sadly, my excitement for being a homeowner was seriously dampened by two things. First and most importantly, my overwhelming hunger. Once my blood sugar drops, I become a beast and it takes awhile for me to recover, mood-wise. My super nice agent picked up some food for us on our way to my new home. We met up with Melissa who was there unpacking as she moved into her new place that day. We ate the desperately needed food and toasted with some well-planned prosecco. Sadly, that brings me to the second thing. Melissa's places is similar to mine but currently soooooooooooooo beautiful and mine just isn't. I have high hopes but I want my place to be pretty without the wait. Patience is really not one of my virtues.

But, my place is on its way to pretty. I met the contractor who will be removing the ugly popcorn ceiling, painting and putting up crown moulding this morning. Of course, that was not without a hiccup. My keys worked perfectly well last night but this morning, they refused to open the door for me, Melissa, or the building engineer. I called a locksmith but before he got there (well over an hour late, by which time I was at work), my contractor was able to fix it.

Home ownership is fun.

Event-Full.

Much like robins and the bucket-boys, the re-appearance of a wide variety of events are a sure sign of the imminent return of warmth and fun. Thanks to my friends, my social calendar has filled itself in rather impressively in the past couple days.

On Tuesday, I attended a screening of the new Jennifer Lopez movie. If you have ever wondered about the lack of constants in life, you've never seen a Jennifer Lopez movie. They are generally not good and cliche-filled but yet, not an unpleasant way to pass time, particularily when you have friends around who share your view of her films. This one was particularly full of expected moments so I was glad to have attended a cocktail reception in advance.

Last night was the grand opening of a new Mercedez Benz dealership, not far from my house. I was surprised by this one as I was under the impression that the dealership had been open for months. The opening was sponsored by one of the local magazines and included appetizers from good restaurants, drinks, a fashion show and after-party. We got there on the later side to realize that they were herding everyone to the third floor for the fasion show by closing the bars. The only open bar was upstairs and outside, which was unfortunate as it was quite chilly. Worse the one bar only had one bartender which made for a long wait. We did the only thing that made sense -- double fisted our bubbles. The funniest part of the night for me was while waiting for the valet, seeing all these fancy cars arrive -- Mercedez, Range Rover, BMW, Lexus -- and then my super dirty Toyota roll up. it served to motivate me to want to wash it more than replace it.

These events are always interesting and I'm so glad that they have returned. Now, if only the warm weather they harold would hurry up and arrive.

Whew.

After a week of tension regarding the mortgage, I learned late afternoon yesterday that I will close on my first home on Monday at 1:00 p.m. It was such an incredible relief to get that scheduled. I knew I was anxious about it but I didn't realize just how anxious until it was set.

Of course, the hiccups in the process were not quite done. Because my original closing date was today, the seller scheduled the power to be shut off as of today. Now, its much more likely that it merely was going to be transferred out of her name, but I decided to do the walk-through last night. File that under better-safe-than-sorry, especially after Melissa was not able to do a walk-through on her place until five days after closing because the sellers had stopped the power and it took that long for ComEd to turn it back on. Everything seems fine, even if I had no idea how to use the stove or microwave. File that under fancier-than-me.

Now, we are getting closer to the "fun" part of the process. I'm expecting to receive renovation plans for my kitchen today and have already received an estimate to re-do my master bathroom. Once that work is done, it will be the fun of picking paint and furnishings. Bring on the fun already!

Week One.

I just completed week one of re-making my morning workout habit. Overall, it wasn't even that difficult. Of course, it helped that I was in bed before 10 twice this week. I went to spin class, circuit training, cardio'd on my own, and this morning got back in the pool for swim class for the first time in months. I admit I'm a tad sore but its the good-for-you, productive pain.

One down, two to go.

The Place.

As you may recall, I have a Secret Shame. I do love The Place. But, it seems that The Place is only reserved as a comfort for bad things. I have been three times since caving into its siren song: the night before my review with reasonable trepidation; the day after one of my colleagues was killed in an accident; and, Tax Day.

Today, in honor of Tax Day, The Place offered a discount. With a mere 45 minutes for dinner, The Place was perfect. Sadly, I know the menu well enough to not even have to look. In fact, the reason I wasn't carded tonight was because of that knowledge. That has to be a new level of shame, right?

UGH.

Buying a house even worse than I thought. And, I thought I had really low expectations. Everything was proceeding merrily along, having worked hard to compile all of the necessary due diligence, being responsive and keeping everyone happy. My work training paying off, or so I thought.

Yesterday, as I was walking out the door to meet with the interior designer, a mere nine days before my closing, my mortgage company (WF), called to say that they had absolutely everything they needed from me.

Just one teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy problem: they needed the condo board to amend its bylaws.

Uh huh. As if that is something that can be accomplished in a week.

After trying my best to make it happen, and browbeating the broker into asking one more time for an exception, I had to cancel the deal with WF and start anew with another broker. Now, my closing is going to be delayed. All the fees incurred with WF are for naught. And, I suspect I might incur a penalty from the seller for delaying the closing. If so, one sternly worded and threatening letter is going to WF demanding my lost costs for their negligence.

The Purge.

As part of my moving preparations, I have purged my apartment twice in the past three weeks. After the first time, I collected seven bags earmarked for Goodwill and five bags directed toward the trash. I thought that was good. But last weekend, I realized there was still more stuff that does not need to be moved. So, I added another three bags to the Goodwill pile and another five bags to the trash.

While I -- more specifically my knees -- do not enjoy the many, many trips down the stairs, I very much enjoy the purge. I have drawers and shelves that are entirely empty. I don't know why I lived with all of this stuff before. It stayed here for almost six years, doing nothing. As of this morning, that stuff is out in the world, ready for someone to help it fulfill its purpose.

Habitual.

For most of my adult life, I've been a regular gym-goer. For the past year and a half, I turned myself into a morning worker-outer. That was a big change in habit for me as I'm really not a morning person. (Or a night person either. I'm good for about three hours during the day really.) But the morning classes at my gym are worth getting up at 6 to attend. That and it gets me to work earlier and I haven't bought shampoo in, coincidentally, a year and a half as I get ready at the gym 5-6 mornings per week.

But, in the last month, a combination of misbehaving knees and working too late caused me to break that habit. I resolved that this week would mark my re-dedication to morning workouts. My knees objected to that plan on Monday and Tuesday. This morning, when I really had no excuse, I still didn't get up and go because I was more comfortable in bed. It takes three weeks to make or break habit. And, I'm over the tipping point.

Its going to be a painful next three weeks as I re-make my morning workout habit. But, its a habit that's worth the pain. Or, at least, that's what I'm going to have to tell myself. We'll see in three weeks.