Holidays

[fairyrune]

This is the first time in a long, long time that I haven't been excited for Halloween. I didn't have the time and resources to get my costume made. Our Funkin* is sitting on the dining table, un-carved. Rich is going to be working most of the day and into the night on Saturday; I don't feel like traveling terribly far on my own, so I probably won't go to any of the parties to which I have been invited.

We don't get any trick-or-treaters, so there's no candy in my house. I shall have to pilfer from my parents before they run out. (Translation: before Dad finishes it all.)

Maybe I'll go take some photos in the cemetery if it's nice enough out. I haven't done that in a few months, and it's appropriate for the holiday, no?

The post-Halloween holidays, on the other hand, I am stupid-excited about. Even though Thanksgiving in my family is traditionally held at my parents' house, and our apartment is way too teeny to host the event, I'm looking at festive table linens rather wistfully. (Hm. The one that would fit my table is only fifteen dollars. I just got a five dollar coupon, too...)

I have Plans for the biscuits this year, even though my mother nixed my bacon-biscuit idea. (Perhaps I shall do half plain and half bacon? I think this may be an excuse to perform some experiments. Delicious, delicious experiments!) I'll get to break out my super-nifty potato peeling device, as well.

Then there's Christmas. Cannot. Wait. I've already got a pretty decent wishlist going, (I like to put a lot of stuff on my wishlist, so that I may still be surprised when gift-opening occurs. If there were only one or two things on it I would know what I was getting before I opened any of the packages, and that would not be fun!) and have been harassing my family members to provide me with theirs. Mom wants a TV; Dad is usually the most difficult, but I have a bit of a plan for him. That leaves Steve. He tends to buy himself a lot of stuff, which limits my gift-giving options.

I'm going to pull out our decorations the minute Thanksgiving is over, and start getting the apartment in holiday-mode. (Unless, of course, we end up moving. Or something.) The lights, the garland, the scented candles, the festive table linens, the holiday movies...

I guess Halloween just seems sort of inconsequential when compared to the feelings that the other holidays elicit. Not that it's not fun, but I'm just more in the mood for that homey feeling these days.

This may have a lot to do with my desire to start shopping for a house to buy. To me, and I think to many people, the holidays mean home. We already know that our little apartment won't be "home" for too much longer. If we can get a mortgage, we'll be buying a house, most likely on the other side of the Hudson. If that doesn't happen, we'll probably move anyway when our landlord raises our rent. For what we'd be paying if that happened, we could get a much nicer, bigger place. (Preferably with a dishwasher and laundry facilities. A girl can hope!)

Part of the problem is that I get bored at work, and start looking at real estate listings online. I keep seeing adorable little houses that we could totally afford! In fact, according to the little calculators on the real estate websites, (which may or may not be accurate,) the mortgage payments on some of those homes would be less than what we are paying in rent right now!

Methinks I must learn some patience. It will happen soon, just not necessarily as soon as I would like.

Also, I really really REALLY want a LensBaby. They just released a fisheye optic! How freaking cool is that??

In short: I'm really sort of "meh" when it comes to Halloween this year, but I want the rest of the holidays to get here, darn it!

*A Funkin is a carvable fake pumpkin. We got it for two reasons: 1. I kept hearing about pumpkin shortages due to fungus, and 2. we don't have an appropriate porch to store a Jack O'Lantern on, so last year we put it on our table. It went moldy and gooed all over the place. It was gross.

Comments

[woodchuck665.livejournal.com]

1) If you wanna come to Art's party, you can hitch a ride up with me & Val. At least then you'd only have to drive half the distance. (FYI tho, we're probably gonna crash there.)
2) Main thing those mortgage calculators leave out are the property & school taxes, which are probably huge in Westchester. (Not that Rockland is exactly cheap...)

[fairyrune]

1) Thank you very much for the offer! I shall consider it, but I'm not too keen on crashing. Plus, there is a possibility that Rich won't *actually* have to work until midnight. If he gets out early enough, we might come up. It's a slim chance, though.

2) True. I found a calculator online that includes that stuff, but most listings don't include the tax rate, so it's tough to estimate. We know *nothing* about this stuff, which is why we're going to talk to a mortgage counselor. We're also going to look in Putnam County, where the taxes are somehow magically lower.

[woodchuck665.livejournal.com]

1) Offer still stands if you wanna take us up on it. If Rich does show up later, he can always take you home so you don't have to crash (but then you've got a car at my place...).

2) A mortgage counselor would probably know more than anyone, but you can talk to me & Val too. I've been through the whole process and her family owns a few rental properties. Putnam is lower because it's more rural than Westchester. Fewer amenities & people. Less rich New York commuters for the county to fleece too. ;-)

[fairyrune]

This plan makes sense. I'll let you know once Rich has a better idea of what time he might get out.

I'm really into the "more rural" concept. We'll see, though. We have to figure out exactly how much we can afford before we start looking at anything.

[jedi-007.livejournal.com]

I work in Putnam, and went to school here.... Taxes are still very high as there is no real industry. If you have any questions about towns and such... let me know :)

[fairyrune]

I've been told they're not as high as Westchester.

Once (if) we get approved for a mortgage, we'll start getting more specific.

Thanks!

[grigoricennui.livejournal.com]

You're aware of the 20% downpayment bit, yeah? Lenders are really bitchy nowadays.

J.

[fairyrune]

Yep!

[grigoricennui.livejournal.com]

It's so odd, thgouh. I totally got sucked in to that late-night real estate he/she last night and it's still on about how you can get in on real estate investing even though you're in debt blah blah blah. I'm almost fascinated enough to buy it's product just to find out what it says.

J.