Monday, July 26, 2010

Pictures of You, Pictures of Me

Sorry, everyone; I couldn't think of a clever title for this one and this song has been in my head, so I thought I'd start there :).

It actually is somewhat fitting. I spent much of my weekend, or at least Saturday, snapping picture after picture. I love photography and always have! The way things move; the shaddows they cast. It's all fascinating to me. And, Pete and I spent Saturday immersed in some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a long time. We took a little day trip, down to Pebble Beach, CA and did the 17-Mile Drive. I'd never heard of such a thing, but Pete mentioned it, so I Googled it and insisted that that's what I wanted to do!

Basically, the 17-Mile Drive is a scenic drive that weaves in through the communities, golf resorts and scenic vistas of the Monterey Penninsula. Of course, since Pete's a lover of golf, we were going to check out Pebble Beach Golf Links. So, we decided to make an afternoon out of it.

The only downside of this very enjoyable afternoon, was the weather. Pete and i are both warm-weather lovers and while it was close to 90 in Sunnyvale, it stayed in the 50's with cloudy skies, for most of the day. A bit disappointing, but it really didn't ruin much for us. We took Pete's classic Corvette out for the drive, took the top off and went for a little cruise :). We saw some beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. I'm always in awe of how blue the water looks. Very different from the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean. It's also so different because people don't just come to the beach here to lay out and enjoy the sun and the water. The water is COLD! So, if anyone is in the water, they're generally surfing :).

Anyway, we spent a good two hours driving on this scenic road, stopping and taking pictures and seeing the sights. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday! Next time, I'll be sure to check the weather before leaving though. While I got some great shots, I imagine they'd be even better if the sun was out.

After all of that, everything is business as usual here in Sunny, Sunnyvale. I'm getting ready for my second trip back to WV, to work in the office during our monthly 'busy time'. I'll be gone for two weeks this time. And when I return to CA, we'll be moving in to our house! Or at least getting ready to :). We're still looking at an August 10 closing date on the house. There are a few things we're going to have taken care of after closing and before we move in, and then we'll be set. We're very excited!

So, that's it for today! Everything is busy and we keep chugging along here :). I'm starting to think about going shopping for my wedding dress. But we want to get 'over the hump' as far as settling into the house is concerned, before we set a date and make plans for our destination wedding. Any ideas are certainly welcome! We've been considering the Bahamas, Hawaii or even a cruise. So, we'll see. I've even contemplated having a small wedding here in San Jose and then leaving for Hawaii or whereever we decide. So, stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

As Always,
Easily Distracted :)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Good Times

While my last entry was about the 'not-so-good' times, I feel the need for a little positivity here today.

Pete's birthday was Saturday, so we decided to venture North to San Francisco Saturday night. So, I did some research and figured out a place for us to check out for dinner and we were off! a little less than two hours later, we arrived at Pier 39 :). Pete overshot our exiting the interstate a little and we ended up having to go ALL THE WAY across the Bay Bridge, and for anyone who has done that, you know it's several miles long! Then, we got to come back across the top deck of the bridge. No harm done, though :). We found the North Shore easily enough, parked the car at Pier 39 and explored a little. We found the restaurant easily and had a nice, fresh, seafood dinner.

After dinner we walked around and found a 'Fresh Pearl' stand. One of those places that has nice pearl jewelry, but also has actual oysters you can choose and they open them up to see real pearls inside. So, doing the 'tourist' thing, we did that. We ended up getting two very pretty pearls; one pink and the other white. But we totally got raped when the salesgirl there showed us settings to choose from. I won't go into how much $$ that was, but let's just say I got one pearl set in a pendant and ran away with the other one not set :). A good time was had by all!

No news is good news, on the house front. Our loan was approved by the new bank and some of our contingencies are going to be released this week! The appraiser went and did his inspection today, so we'll wait to hear back about that. And then I think we're really over the hump! So, we're very excited about that. I'm already figuring out what I want to plant in the back yard. So far, I think a lilac bush, some honeysuckle, lemon and orange bushes. I even thought about clearing out a few things in the flower garden and planting some daisies. We'll see. Exciting!

Pete's going out of town for business, for the first time on his new project, this week. I gotta say, I'm a little nervous. I mean, I know my way around here, but I've never been here, in this town, in this apartment, by myself overnight. Thank God he's only going to be gone one night!

So, that's it for this week, I think. Everything's good! I have my occasional hiccups, but I like it here and I'm excited for us to move into our first home together! I'm already planning the menu for our housewarming party. Stay tuned; I might need help with that!

Thanks for reading!

As Always,

Easily Distracted

Friday, July 16, 2010

Distracted and Distressed!

I'm hoping that after this week, we're over the hump as far as the home buying process goes. Those of you who have done this before may advise me otherwise. But please, if you know things probably will get worse after this point, just keep that to yourselves. I need a day or two with no drama :).

Pete has been banking with Star One Credit Union, who is affiliated with his employer. They are a California bank but he setup his account with them right after he got his job, 5 years ago. It's where the bulk of his savings is. So, logically, he went through them for the pre-approval of our mortgage. And he was pre-approved for the full amount of the mortgage, without even adding my income! So, we thought we were in the clear.

Then, we made an offer on 'the perfect house'. We started going through the next steps of getting the appraisal, etc. and the bank started calling Pete about repairs that they wanted to be done prior to closing. Now, there are a few minor things that we were going to take care of after closing, with a credit the sellers were going to give back to us, but we are not willing to put up money to take care of these things before the house is ours. Things like a torn screen door and superficial cracks in some mortar around a window and the chimney flu being stuck open; all of these little things, Star One demanded that we get repaired by a licensed contractor or they wouldn't finance the loan. That was another issue; Pete had planned to fix these issues himself. All the while, the clock is ticking to get the appraisal done, which they hadn't even started yet.

Star One also had problems with the debt ratio, which is crap. I won't go into too many details there. But trust me, debt is definitely not a problem. We know they were figuring in the ratio after the mortgage payment, taxes and insurance. But after working with a mortgage broker, we found out that Star One was factoring in about 3 times as much for insurance than is average for a home of this size and price.

One thing we did to increase our comfort level was to add my income to the loan application. I went to the branch where our designated loan officer was, to complete the paperwork and give them all of my financial documents. They were complete shits to me! Sorry, mom, or anyone else who might be offended by that statement, but there's really no other more accurate statement. The loan officer Pete had been working with belittled me to the point where I was told I had to explain every detail of my 'situation' including why my employer was located in Illinois, why I'm living in California, how long I lived in WV, down to the fact that Pete and I are applying for a mortgage together even though we are not married. SERIOUSLY?!! Come on, people, this IS California! Same-sex couples finance homes together all the time without being legally married and I bet they didn't deal with half the scrutiny I did. They probably didn't go to this bank and deal with Alex H. either!

One thing I've learned over the years about customer service is this: if you provide excellent customer service, you're not afraid for people to know who you are and be able to contact you or your supervisor if they aren't satisfied. Well, our loan 'asshole' and his direct supervisor, Maricella, neither one would give me last names or business cards so that I could contact them directly. I asked specifically for their cards. Maricella only wrote down on a blank sheet of paper, her first name and email address and Alex would only tell me that he could be reached if I called the bank and asked for 'Alex H.' Nice, huh?!

So, when Pete got home and I told him about my experience, he was livid. I told him that we had to write the bank a letter, from him, stating that he was aware and 'willing' to apply jointly for a mortgage with me. Bullshit, right? Well, he agreed. They treated me like I was a freaking criminal, instead of a prospective customer!

The next day, (yesterday) our realtor started calling Alex, to see where we were in regards to the appraisal. Even though Pete had ordered the appraisal three days prior to this point, Alex said that he hadn't ordered our appraisal because he wasn't sure that we would be approved for the loan. With all of the other road blocks they've put in our way, this time it's credit drama with me. I've successfully recovered from a terrible situation I got myself into almost 10 years ago. But apparently Star One did not want to finance us because my credit score is less than 740. They had other reasons, but Alex was plain out shitty to our realtor and called Pete, leaving an equally disgusting message that we were not approved for the mortgage, either with my income or without. They wouldn't even approve him!! Even after the pre-approval!

Needless to say, Pete will be taking his money and our business elsewhere. After all of that drama, we were pretty strung out because the clock is ticking. We have 17 days in our contract contingency. We're almost a week in. And usually it takes several days to get a mortgage finalized. So, we went to our realtor's office and met with a mortgage broker who works with them. He was great! Tony took our information right there and was able to tell us about any possible issues he saw and found a bank he was sure would approve the mortgage. He said he worked with this particular bank all the time and would work with them to get things moving quickly. So, after almost a week of terrible treatment with Star One, we feel much better after spending 2 hours with our new mortgage broker. No, the rate isn't quite as good as what Pete was 'pre-approved' for, but Tony told us that with all the hassle Star One was putting us through, they probably never intended to finance us at the low rate they pre-approved anyway. Awesome, right?

Now that we're back on track with the mortgage, everything feels much better. But knowing Pete, I'm sure Star One, Maricella A. and Alex H. have not heard the last of us. And, after meeting with Tony, I cried for a few minutes and shook my fists dramatically in the air at Alex H. and Maricella A. Then, I made myself a drink, we watched Superbad and laughed our butts off.

Today is Friday. It's not my normal 'blog updating' day. But I thought this was an appropriate outlet for my frustrations about what we've been through this week. I had an appointment with the DMV to get my registration and driver's license switched over to California yesterday, but had to cancel to go meet with Tony. So, I'm going to try and get that taken care of today, even though I don't have an appointment. Tremendous luck with probably be needed. Either way, I have a backup appointment on July 28.

Hopefully when I update next week, things are still progressing nicely. We're supposed to go to the house over the weekend, or maybe even today, to meet with a contractor to look at some HVAC and wiring 'stuff' we're getting done after closing. At that time, I told Pete, I would be deciding where to place our furniture :). That's always a nice, happy thing to do! I may even take my tape measure!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend :)

As Always,
Easily Distracted

Monday, July 12, 2010

Anticipation or Anxiety, Part 2

Hello everyone! Well, even though I just posted last week before I came back to CA, kind of alot has happened since then :).


My flight back to Sunny, CA was both eventful and uneventful at the same time. We boarded the plane and ended up sitting on the ramp for almost 2 hours due to thunder and lightening in the area. That was the eventful part. The uneventful part was that I was lucky enough to have a later connection from Las Vegas to San Jose, so I didn't have to stay over and fly back the following morning. Of course, it wouldn't have been much of a hardship to HAVE to stay in Las Vegas for a night, would it? But you know, after a trip like that, ya just want to get home! So, instead of getting into San Jose at 9pm, it was 11pm. LONG day, but like I said, things could have been much worse.


We submitted an offer on a house on Friday morning! The owners countered; we accepted their counter and then they accepted the whole deal, I guess today. So, barring any complications with the inspections we're having done, looks like Pete and I are going to be homeowners in the next month! Very exciting. And very scary too! I'm so excited to have our own home. But I'm also scared out of my mind to have that much debt, knowing I wouldn't be able to do it on my own. That's where I have to trust a little bit more. I'm so used to being on my own, at least financially, that this 'together' thing is different! So, that's the big news of the hour. We went to see the house on Saturday and I absolutely love it. it's got a gardenia bush in the front that smells amazing and it's in a very nice, quiet neighborhood. I didn't post any additional pics on the Sunny Vista page, but that's the one! Seems like I'm having issues posting pictures and getting everything to line up. So, I left it, with the update that that's the one for us! I went ahead and removed all the others from the house hunting area.

This week, I also plan to get my car registered here and get my California driver's license. Exciting, but again, a little daunting. I officially will be a 'California girl' then :). So, I've been finding out about everything I have to have for that and I made an appointment to get it all taken care of Thursday afternoon. Perfect timing, since Thursday is payday! I have an appointment today to get a smog inspection/certificate for my car. I can't get it registered without that, so I figured I'll go ahead and take care of it.


So, here I am, taking care of business. Pete and the feline divas were very happy to have me home. Paris peed on my running shoes, to make sure I wouldn't be using them to leave anytime soon, but otherwise, they've settled down and things are back to normal. Hopefully we can do without the drama from them the next time I go back to WV.


That's about it for now! Thanks for reading :)


As Always,

Easily Distracted

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

HOT Holiday Weekend!!

Well, I hope this finds everyone happy and rested after the Independence Day weekend. In just the few weeks I spent living in California, I was VERY spoiled by the weather there. Don't get me wrong, I love hot, sunny weather but MAN, the humidity here! Of course, the temperatures were up all weekend, but it really did seem humid to me. Everyone around me talked about how it wasn't, though. And it looks like it's going to be hot all week, which is fine by me. I love the sunshine. I told Pete that California weather is perfect for me; sunny and mild!

I didn't even have to work much over the holiday, which was a pleasant surprise! I put in a couple of hours from home on Saturday, just to do some filing and checking emails, etc. but didn't come in to the office :).

Pete found us another house on Saturday and this one looks better than the others we've been interested in, so I'm excited! I've given him 'permission' to make an offer based on his comments and the pictures I've seen, so he's going to call the bank and check on his loan pre-approval today and possibly go see this house again this evening. Of course, if we make an offer, it's totally possible that we'll close on the house while I'm back here in WV next month, but I think we can work with the dates, so we'll see. I'll post pictures tonight, maybe.

So, what did I do over the holiday weekend? I enjoyed myself, that's for sure! I lounged by the pool Saturday and Sunday for a few hours. Had a girls night out with my sister and her friend BJ Saturday night, which was well-needed :). We had Mexican and Margaritas for dinner and then went to see Eclipse, which was really good. Sunday, I went with my sister and her friends to see Craig Morgan in concert at the park here in Fairmont. GREAT show! I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much! And, of course, the people watching at these events is second to none :). Monday, I endured pooltime in the blazing heat for a couple of hours (that was about as long as we could stand it) with my sister and then I took her and my mom out for dinner for their birthdays. Fun was had by all. But the part I feel the best about is that when I got home from dinner, I cleaned house. I took trash out, vacuumed and took care of some clutter. Now that I don't have the kitties, I can clean knowing the cat hair probably will stay away. Trust me, it's a good feeling :).

After dealing with Pete's frustration over the feline divas last week, he calmed down some and things started to even out again. I'm sure Paris was freaked out about me being gone, but he said she seemed to be better. Then yesterday, he called to let me know that she's been using her travel carrier as a toilet, so that's awesome. He's convinced that she'll ruin whatever house we decide to buy, within weeks. So, I'm sure the welcoming committee will be enthusiastic when I get back to Sunny California, Friday night. I'm praying that after they know I'm coming back, maybe the next time I leave them they won't punish Pete so badly. We shall see.

So, this week should be busy. My goal is to keep my nose to the grindstone and do my work while I'm at work and ignore everything else. I've got dinner plans with my friend Carol, movie plans with my Daddy and that just about takes care of my 'free-time' in the evenings :). Then, I'll be heading West on a 4pm flight this Friday.

Easily Distracted really is 'On the move' now!

Take care!

As Always,
Easily Distracted ;)

Friday, July 2, 2010

Feels Like the First Time

Ok so that title is kinda stupid, but I heard that song on the radio on my way to work this morning and thought I'd steal it :).

'Feels like the first time' kinda describes the way I felt when I walked into the office yesterday morning. A little excited; a little nervous. But after I got here and fired up my laptop everything was as if I'd never left. Kinda. I mean, there are a few people who are acting weird, but I guess you'll have that.

My flight Wednesday was uneventful, without delays which was very nice. Except I started out by having to go through a fairly thorough inspection by one of the TSA agents. Not sure why but it didn't get me down. I kind of laughed about it most of the morning. Of course, if I'd been running late that might have changed, but whatever.

So, I'm here in my hometown of Fairmont, WV for the next week for work. They set me up with a nice, rugged, sort of beat-up, pick-up truck complete with the safety strobe, backup alarm and highway cones in the bed :). But it has wheels and pretty safely gets me from here to there, so I'm tickled with it!

While yesterday was fine for me in many aspects, I got an unsettling text from Pete mid-morning. I'd purchased some bean bag chairs for us to sit on when we watch tv and one arrived Wednesday evening. When I talked to Pete before bed Wednesday night, he was happy. Thursday morning, he texted me that I'd better get another bean bag chair because Paris ruined the one we'd just received. AWESOME.

So, right away I called him. He seemed ok. Said he'd just gotten up. It was only about 7am there. I asked what happened and he said Paris had peed on the new, twill bean bag chair. Then he started into how he was going to look for a second job so he could keep up with all the furniture we're going to have to replace if she kept peeing on stuff. He even said he was thinking about selling all of the furniture we have in storage because it was all bound to be ruined anyway. And he told me all of this in a normal, conversational voice which usually is not a good sign. So I started apologizing and said I didn't know what to do about Paris. I told him he could put the cats in the bathroom when he's not there, to be sure. But apparently when I say 'I don't know what to do' about anything, it sets him off. So, we weren't talking much and he asked if I had anything to say since neither of us were talking. I told him I was sorry and I didn't know what else to talk about because he sounded so mad. He said he wasn't mad; he'd just woken up but that I was making him very angry. So we hung up pretty fast after that.

I went about my day fairly normally. I was pretty exhausted yesterday so I left work at a reasonable time to go home and check out my apartment and go through my mail. I had a nice, relaxing evening. Watched New Moon for the hundredth time, in preparation for going to see Eclipse on Saturday. And mixed myself a nice, tasty beverage. Ahhhhh :).

I called Pete before bed to see if anything had gotten better and that may have been a bad idea. He was sleeping and you know how much fun it is to wake a sleeping bear. So I asked him how he was and he said he'd had a terrible day. The morning was awful and things hadn't gotten any better throughout the day. But he never wants to talk to me about what happens at work, so I dropped it. I asked if we still had two cats in the apartment and he said yes. He said Paris was hissing at him from 5 feet away now and seemed kind of upset about it. So I asked if he'd done anything to her, meaning to ask if he'd punished her for peeing on the chair. For anyone out there with cats, you know that doesn't do any good. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because he got really upset and asked why I thought he was always 'doing things' to them. So I clarified and he said no, he hadn't done anything. So, I dunno. Our conversation was short, but I feel pretty helpless since I'm 3,000 miles away from him right now. There's not a damn thing I can do about anything happening there.

So, I'm determined to be happy today. And when Pete calls me this morning, I will cheer him up with my cheerfulness. I may suggest he marinade himself in catnip. Then Paris will surely love him. And I'm going to suggest he make sure he gets the 'ruined' chair out of sight. Maybe that's setting her off. It's definitely a concern if she's doing this now since we'll be moving again once we find a house.

Anyway, that's how my first day back in WV went :). My apartment greeted me with a fowl stench that came from the humidity and the fact that Pete had turned my air conditioning completely off before we left. So, this holiday weekend will find me cleaning my apartment, from ceiling to floor. Since there aren't any furry people walking around, I can get rid of some cat hair once and for all :).

There will be house hunting updates over the weekend. Lots of excitement there! Out of three houses we decided we liked, all three had offers before we could get ours in; one of them above asking price. So that's awesome. BUT, two of those offers may fall through, so Pete's going to go out with our agent on Saturday and look at a couple of places.

I'll post new pictures there as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!

As Always,
Easily Distracted