bironic

Since last we spoke—warnings at the link for discussion of mental health, death fixation, weight, babies—I upped my meds dose again, got a promotion in honor of the crap-ton of work I did last summer while high on serotonin, and… bought a condo.

!

Given that the housing market here was obscene even before the pandemic hit, and based on friends' and coworkers' recent experiences and agents' advice, I'd expected to spend a long time browsing and making occasional offers that would be rejected in favor of cash offers way above asking price with every contingency waived before securing anything. So it was a surprise to have my first offer accepted, at asking price, just two months after taking a state-sponsored online home buying course.

I'd also expected, or even hoped, to land on one floor of the triple-deckers that define middle-income housing in the greater Boston area, or a small single-family home further out if I was extra lucky, yet here I am in a condo complex. It's got tall windows and trees outside and CENTRAL HEATING/COOLING and a POOL, it shouldn't involve too bad of a commute once we go back to the office in the fall, and it's two bedrooms instead of one, so for the first time in more than 10 years, visitors can enjoy a door when they stay over, along with not sweating or freezing their butts off.

On the one hand, my bank account now provides none of the safety net I'd taken comfort in for years. On the other hand, I can stop worrying about being kicked out at lease renewal time (*cough* last apartment) or not having control over things that should be fixed (*cough* current apartment). If you can believe it, the monthly mortgage payment will be less than what rent cost. Now to convince my brain to stop yelling THIS IS ALL A TERRIBLE MISTAKE at intervals and ease the occasional pit of dread in my stomach.

Move date is in less than a month.

I put together a registry and then dithered about sharing it online. Brain: It's tacky to ask people for stuff! It's extra tone deaf in a pandemic! Yet why should registries be the province only of people getting married or having kids? So here is the link. The intro contains some of my Thoughts and Feelings. I hope you will forgive me if you find the whole thing untoward.

Spring green

I don't really go to Starbucks except during a fun period of springtime when pollen and/or antihistamines give me a sore throat in the morning, which iced milky tea relieves on my way to the office. But that gets expensive fast, so this week I bought a gallon of milk and a 14-oz bag of matcha powder from the corner Korean-Japanese market for about the cost of a week of Starbucks. It is delicious and effective, and it will last … a very long time. 14 ounces turns out to be a lot of matcha when you use about one teaspoon per tall glass of latte. If I were a chinchilla, I could take a dust bath in all this matcha. It may be time to unearth some matcha baking recipes.

Adulthood is fun

I had a dream that I was among a handful of people who landed a job/internship at some biotech company in Kendall Square, after arguing a dude into believing that the hiring manager had not in fact dropped me from the candidate pool. The dream included details about productivity expectations, managerial oversight and salary negotiation. This followed a dream the night before that someone at work helped me out with that RL project that got cancelled.

What the heck, brain? You used to dream about vampires and Star Trek and stuff. At least earlier this week there were dreams about Zahn McClarnon (good) and someone who was either Ben Affleck or Paul Rudd's character from Mute (not good).

In other news, in the past 24 hours I successfully coordinated flight plans with a friend to go to fanworks, booked two hotels for the vacation portion of my upcoming business trip to Switzerland (!), and did the math on the 6 short train rides I expect to take throughout said trip. Whew.

Spoiled for choice

Too many options for only one day left in the weekend. Work on the Fanworks vid whose June 4 deadline snuck up? Work on a non-deadline-driven vid? Play with a fic or original story? Sort through extraneous belongings in case I decide to move? Research local brokers? Cook and clean? Combine any of these with friend hangout? Or the likeliest option: Stew in indecision.