the sympathetic vibration

All this talk of financial crisis and credit crisis makes me really nervous as I’m currently embarking on the largest financial purchase/life change I’ve made so far in the span of my short 32 years of life. I feel good about the house I’m buying, relatively good about the mortgage I got (went with the 30 year at a slightly lower interest rate than I first thought), and believe that my job is stable, but I can’t help wondering what is going to happen with the prices of food and other items I’ll need to survive. I already feel like I can’t seem to go grocery shopping without going over the budget I’ve set for myself. Things are just REALLY expensive (and I don’t think that stuff in general is much cheaper in Texas than in California).

I guess I just feel anxious… but maybe after I finally get paid at the end of this month and start to figure out how I will manage this new life, I’ll start feeling better. I’m feeling really independent, which it turns out is encouraging and depressing at the same time. I can manage all of this on my own… but that means I’m out here in the world on my own. Blah.

Clem and Bear aren’t exactly getting along yet, but I think that things are going to be okay. If nothing else, neither of them are hiding - they are still strolling around the house and okay with each other in the same room for the most part, Clementine just pulls out a hiss every once in awhile. I think sometimes she forgets she’s supposed to be pissed at the “new kid” because she’ll be there all quiet and he’ll be sleeping and then suddenly out of nowhere she stands up and hisses in his general direction. It’s quite humorous actually.

<a href=”http://www.rvthereyet.org”>My parents</a> are coming to Texas for the next month and will be in Waco next weekend and then for about 10 days at the end of October. I’m glad I’ll have some help for the move and for settling into the new house. Maybe they will even help me weed the front garden and taken me to IKEA in their pickup truck. I’m going to contact the current owners to see if we can stop by the house next Saturday so we can look at what projects might need to be done. Plus, I just want to see the house again… I feel like I miss it.

Must head off now to a string of meeting.

P.S. I’m so glad that Waco has an NPR radio station and a PBS TV station.

Waco didn’t get much of Ike today, although it was pretty windy and rainy today. I guess we were on the less aggressive side of the storm. I filled up the car tank (it was almost fully empty) yesterday morning for $3.55/gallon which I guess was a good plan. Seems like prices have gone crazy high already.

I was able to go pick up my new kitty today and so most of the day has been centered around making that transition. Bear (the new cat) seems really comfortable here, but Clementine so far, is not thrilled. He was in the bathroom, but snuck out when I was going in to see how he was doing, and now whenever I put him back in there, he meows like CRAZY. I feel bad for the neighbors so I’ve been letting him out, but just keeping him away from Clem. She hisses and growls and sometimes I think she surprises herself and I swear she snorts! I feel bad for her though…. she’s obviously upset and stressed by this new animal in the house.. I think it’s impacting her intestines. Poor thing.

Right now we are all in one room and no one is hissing which I guess is a move in the right direction. I don’t really know yet what I’ll do with them when I go to bed.

In other non-cat news… I’m still knitting this sweater which was supposed to be finished by the end of the Olympics. Oops. I’m stuck on the 2nd sleeve…. it’s just taking forever because I’m tired of knitting it, so I never do more than 2 or 3 rows at a time. I just want to get to the part where I join for the yoke, but it feels like that will never happen. So annoying.

The weather report for this week is highs in the mid-80s! Awesome.

So, last night I bought a DVD player for $19.98 at H.E.B., which is basically the only grocery store choice here in Waco. Since I don’t have a choice for what brand store to shop in, I’ve been checking out the different H.E.B.’s in town, and have now been in 5 different stores, all remarkably different. Last night I trekked out to H.E.B. PLUS! (Which makes me think of Home Plus (is us!)), which is sortof like a Target, without the clothing… and with a full grocery center. I’d been wanting to get a DVD player since my TV watching channels have been limited, and this one seemed reasonable, even though it’s an off-brand (Coby?).

Anyway… 2 funny things about the DVD player.

1. It has a 90 day warranty where you can return it to Coby for a refund/new unit. The cost to mail the unit to Coby? $18. $1.98 less than what I bought it for. Heh.

2. My TV is so old it doesn’t seem to have RV inputs. Obviously, I didn’t realize this until I was behind the TV with my cables, ready to plug in… (okay, so I guess that’s not funny about the DVD player, but more funny about the television, which admittedly has been in my family as long as I can remember and went to college with both my brother and I).

Guess I’m not watching DVDs anytime soon.