Who Wants to Buy the Tin Can?

We found a house last week and fell in love with it.  It's just the right size in just the right area.  It's in our age range and price range and it's just what we've been looking for.  We were the first people to look at it as it had just been put back on the renter market.  Interestingly enough we didn't even know it existed when we were driving around trying to get to a different neighborhood.  I took a random residential street to try and cut across Route 66, and there it was the first house in from the corner of a wide, well kept, quiet street.

This is the house we went to look at after we found the Saab and we filled out the paperwork right away.  Wynn was hopeful but I have a hard time getting my hopes up, I've always felt that if I do I am setting myself up to fail. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than devastatingly disappointed.

At any rate I tried not to think about it all weekend and at the same time promising my friends that I would tell them as soon as I knew anything.  So I worked my last 12hr shift of the week and came home this morning to sleep for a few hours before class.  At 9am Wynn called and woke me up.  I was so dead asleep that what she was saying didn't even register at first.  "We got the house."  "What?  What are you talking about?"  "We got the house."  and then I dissolved into non-words as my mouth tried to catch up with my brain.

We are moving in on the 13th of September, 12 days after my 29th birthday and my father will be pulling the Airstream out of our rental slot to a nearby storage facility on the 16th the day rent is due here.  The Airstream is officially for sale.  I know I will miss Airstreaming full time but I'm not sure when exactly I will start missing it, probably when we park her at the storage facility down the road.

The house is red brick with white trim and a working fireplace.  It has wood floors throughout and tile in the bathroom and kitchen.  It was probably built in the late 1920s and still has all of the original details.  Someone built a garage on probably in the 1940s and also added on a sun room.  It has two bedrooms a formal dining room and a large living room.  There are 1920s era French doors into the sun room where our office and my study area will be.  All of the plumbing fixtures as far as I can tell especially in the bathroom are original.

It has brand new appliances in the kitchen; gas stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, garbage disposal and even a washer and dryer.  The garage is big enough for all of the tools that I drive around with in our 4Runner and even our motorcycles will fit.

I am so excited that I have been up since Wynn called at 9am, I think I shall crash after class and sleep until my class in the morning.

The next post will have the specifics on the Airstream and the price.

Yes I Know

Yes I know that this is still an Airstream Blog and yes I have plenty of stories to tell, it's just that we've been so busy lately and things are moving so fast in the here and now.  Honestly I'm afraid that if I don't post about the present right now I'll forget.

So I will be posting more Airstream stories soon and photos, but I have to wait for things to settle around here a bit.  Once we find out if we get to move into the rent house we want and once we start preparations to move into said rent house I will catch back up with where I left off on the perils of living in an Airstream.

Oh, I will also post when the Airstream is for sale and for how much when the time comes and I think the time will come soon.  Sorry about the hiatus, just give me some time to breathe and the stories will flow again.

So It's Not A Jetta After All

My first week of class is officially over.  I'm caught up with all of my homework and I have some reading to do for biology but I can do that at work tonight after the kiddos go to bed.  Everything seems to be going better than expected, I'm thankful for that.  It's been a confidence booster, I think I can do it this time and do it well instead of just half assing it like I've always done before.

Alright so, those of you who follow my private Facebook page already know what happened with the Jetta, but just in case you missed it here is a recap.

So we found the Jetta at Volkswagon of Tulsa over two weeks ago and we were told that all of the work that needed to be done to it would be done, however that turned out to not be the case.  After ten days of not hearing from them at all, ten days that they were holding a very large down payment check, they finally called us and told us that it would be $5600 to fix the Jetta and that they were unwilling to do so.  So we went and picked up the check and took our business elsewhere.  It wasn't so much their refusal to fix the car that made us angry it was the fact that for ten days we knew nothing.  Ten days and they couldn't spend two minutes on the phone to let us know what was going on.  Then Wynn happened to look at the reviews for Volkswagon of Tulsa online and found that we were not the first customers to be extremely unhappy with their service.

We still needed a car and we weren't going to buy from them.  Wynn looked online while I finished up a five hour shift at work and by the time I got home she had found another Jetta at a smaller dealership just down the road.  We test drove it and like the Jetta before it just felt like crap.  It felt like it had been driven into the ground.  She happened to notice two Subaru WRX wagons on the lot and asked the salesman about them. He stated that they were good cars but that they had been street racers.  Damn.

He then led us over to a Saab 9-2x.  The Saab 9-2x was made by Subaru.  It is basically a WRX with Saab badging.  I love Saabs and Wynn loves Subarus, perfect.  It was more than we could afford but we test drove it anyway.  It was amazing, it felt like a car should feel, tight steering, smooth ride, effortless shifting and power.  We decide to negotiate once we got back to the dealership.

The owner of the dealer ship met with us and was unwilling to take any less than what he had priced it at and we made it clear how much money we had loaned for the Jetta.  He then offered to let us pay out the difference over the course of three months.  Sold.  Totally Sold.

We picked up the Saab the next day and took it to Oklahoma City to have it insured.  No waiting on parts no bullshit.  We have a second car and I think we're damned lucky that we didn't end up with that broken down Jetta instead.

Oh yeah and it's also a manual, so I guess I will still have to learn how to drive one, but for now I'm just happy to see the 4Runner parked next to a Saab in the driveway.  Photos of our happy little car family will be posted soon, I just really need to wash the 4Runner first.

P.S.  After we bought the Saab we went to look at an awesome little rent house.  The paperwork is pending so I'll let ya'll know when I know.  Hopefully that will be the next post.

That Was a Pleasant Surprise

I went to my first class tonight, I was still nervous enough to forget my student ID and my parking permit, but I found a visitor spot and I didn't need my ID for class so that was good.

I was quite surprised to find that this math class starts at a low enough level that I actually understand it.  I haven't understood a math class since middle school.  I have always been terrified that I would finish everything else and fail college algebra right before graduation.  I'm not afraid of that anymore.  I found out that I will have to take one more zero credit class before I take college algebra but that it is for the best.

Tomorrow morning I have biology and lab and I must remember my parking permit because the metro campus has very little parking without it.

I feel better, I'm less nervous, somehow things feel right.  Tomorrow after class I'll get an iced chai from Shades of Brown and go and get a hair cut from Julianna.  Then I'll pick up Wynn from work (no the car still isn't ready) and we'll go look at houses and go by the dealership to see what is up.  I'll order my text books and start organizing as best as I can for full on homework assaults Airstreamer style.

I Feel a Bit More Confident Now

Yes, I'm posting again, and yes I'm still up.  Luckily my first class tomorrow is at 5:30pm.

I feel a bit better now, I just spoke with a friend of mine that I haven't had a long conversation with in ages.  I found out that she graduated with the same degree that I am shooting for at NSU.  We became friends her senior year there when she was interning where I work but I never knew what her degree was in.  She went a similar route as I, basics at TCC and degree from NSU and she was able to make me feel much better about going back to school.

She was an adult student like I am and I think that makes a difference.  I could talk to college aged students all day and it wouldn't make me feel any better because I am no longer a college aged student and I can't really relate anymore.

I think I can actually do this now.  I think once I get through these first nine hours successfully my college phobia will be gone.

She has just finished her masters and you know after talking with her about the difficulty of the classes she's taken I feel so much more confident.  Will I get that nervous feeling in my stomach when I'm walking to class tomorrow?  Yeah, I will but I think it will be more out of anticipation than nerves.

I can do this.

I will do this.

I will not look back on my failures and I will, for the first time, believe in myself.

Oh and more importantly, I will not skip class and will do my homework.

Thanks L. M.  I'll call you and let you know how it goes.

Third Time's The Charm... I Hope.

I'm really nervous right now.  My first college class in four years starts tomorrow and even though it's zero credit math, I am terrified.  I don't know why I think I've always been terrified of college, it's as if somehow I'm going to suddenly find out that I'm not as smart as I have always thought I was.  I see all of these people with degrees and I think to myself, "my god if they can do it I sure as hell can", but now that I'm actually going back to school, again, I'm am petrified.  What if I can't?  What if I'm really an idiot and I've been kidding myself all of these years?

I started college at OSU in 2000 and I should have graduated in 2004.  I used my partner's illness as an excuse to drop out in 2003.  I could have finished, I was a Junior but I was terrified of taking my basics so I dropped out.

I went back the first time in 2006.  I had a car wreck and used that as an excuse to quit again, I was commuting after all.  Oddly enough Wynn was commuting with me and she was able to finish school despite the car wreck, even though it was our only car.

And now here it is 2010 ten years almost to the day that I started college the first time and I'm trying again.  I have to finish this time, I have to, but I'm terrified that I won't.  I'm afraid that I will start skipping class again or not doing my homework.

Wynn and my boss have done everything they can do to make sure that I finish this time.  Wynn bought a second car and has decided that we will stay in Tulsa, get a house and sell the Airstream. My boss was able to arrange an awesome work schedule for me.

Now it's up to me, I hope I don't let them down.  

Busy, Busy

I know it's been several days since I have posted, we have been quite busy and I am still trying to put the last few years living in a tin can in the correct order to post.  This week started on Friday for me as it generally does so even though it is only Sunday it has already been a long full week.

Friday I went to try and enroll at OSU Tulsa since I am already a student at OSU Stillwater, however I skipped my basics when I was there and so even though I am  Junior I still have to take Freshman level courses.  OSU Tulsa does not do courses that are below the Junior or Senior level so off to TCC.  I've been at a four year university on and off for ten years and now I have to go to a community college?  Yeah I'm getting over it and putting the ego in check, it's my own fault for dropping out.

So instead of starting class on August 23rd I am now starting school tomorrow.  I have to go to two different campuses and I have night classes and day classes.  Again, my fault for enrolling so late.

Wynn's Jetta is still at the dealership having repairs made, hopefully we'll have it this week and my class schedule won't make Wynn's work schedule more difficult.

We have found a couple of rent houses that we are really interested in and since I don't have to be in class all day and I don't have to work until 7pm on Friday we are going to spend this week finding a place to move into.  We're having to rush a bit more since I am going back to class a week earlier than we had initially planned but we'll get it done.

Speaking of work schedules, this is one of the reasons I love my job, I have the most accommodating bosses.  Starting Friday I will be working 3 twelve hour days a week with four hours here and there to make my 40 hour work week.  So I have three days on four days off and I don't go to school on Fridays.  So in effect the days I am off work I am in class and the days I am in class I am off work.

Hopefully within three years or less I will be done with my BS in Social Work and almost finished with my Masters and my licensing hours for my Counseling Certification.