Buying, Selling... and Settling

 

Wow, it's been a busy spring and summer, and it's been ages since I've checked in with all my imaginary friends online. Hi there, and hope everyone is doing well!

This post is mostly NOT about the very temporary Drastic Markdown of my novel. Because there has been a lot of other activity in my life lately relating to the title of this post. Maybe yours too? Hard to avoid in our capitalist culture. But let's get the book thing out of the way first, before the jump.

So in celebration of the (roughly) Six Month Anniversary of the release of Niccolo Would Like a Word, the $4.99 Kindle ebook will be just 99 cents until end of day Thursday, Oct 22. 

If anyone hasn't read it and wanted to give it a shot? Now's a great time. Or, if you wanted to share the novel with a friend, this would be an excellent cheap way to do that. (Or better yet, an enemy! The book contains a Murderous Revenge Plot engineered by a talking cat, so if you gift them this book, and then mention that your cat has been talking to you alot lately, saying some really interesting things, you could scare the crap out of them).

But really, this promotion is not aimed primarily at blog people, many of whom have already been kind enough to have sprung for it. It just seemed dumb to have a sale and not at least mention it here.

So what other Buying and Selling and Settling has been going on and keeping me so preoccupied lately?

 

Hasta Luego, Valencia and Provincetown, and Hola San Diego!

It's really hard to say goodbye to people and places you love, and up until now we've solved that by being perpetual vagabonds. We've been lucky enough to arrange our lives so that we can experience the best (and worst) of several different worlds, going back and forth and rediscovering all the intriguing differences, with contrasts always fresh in our minds.

But life was getting too complicated. Plus medical issues came up that needed a bit more continuity of care than we could manage. So we elected the novelty of... stability. For us, it's going to be weird not to pack our suitcases every three or four months and shift to different activities, languages, foods, friends, neighborhoods, and routines.

We tell ourselves we will visit the places we are leaving, and we will! But it's not the same as living in them. So: some emotions. Zoom calls and texts with friends are not the same as evenings together.

Valencia and Provincetown are totally different from one another, but they're both weird places in just the ways we like things weird. Lots of peculiar local customs and subcultures and events and seemingly inexplicable behaviour. Plus, parades and costumes and charming old architecture and the sense that NOWHERE ELSE ON EARTH feels the same way.

 

Now don't get me wrong. San Diego is lovely! And we're going to be living in a one hundred-year-old house in a charming older neighborhood called Kensington.

(Note to potential stalkers: there are tons of other houses that look like this there, good luck trying to hunt me down. Easier to head to the Copley YMCA and look for the ridiculous older woman on the treadmill dancing awkwardly to her awesome playlist, walking uphill backwards, gasping over intervals, and otherwise making a spectacle of herself). 

 

But San Diego does not scream: OMG look at this incredibly atmospheric place, so quirky and unpredictable, can you believe you actually live here???

San Diego is too mellow to scream. It just smiles and offers you a taco and a margarita at an outdoor table, because the weather is so nice today, isn't it?

And so yeah, we've been busy.

Anyone who had ever watched HGTV knows that real estate buying and selling is exciting! And stressful! And sometimes really annoying and stupid! (Wait HOW MUCH commission do we have to pay our real estate agent to sell our place, when buyers find the listings online now, and the rest of the job is mostly just one day of photos and a little scheduling and paperwork? Hint: it's a shit ton of money.)

Also, real estate decisions are so weirdly high-stakes. One day we're in the grocery story, saying "Wait, don't buy these paper towels, those over there are on sale for a 79 cents cheaper!" And then the next day we're saying: "Well, we can always just renovate both the bathrooms and the kitchen, whaddya think, maybe a hundred, a hundred fifty grand? Because just look at that beautiful backyard!"

So yeah, even once we're all moved in we won't suddenly "done" with the transition, but we can begin to settle in. 

And Speaking of Settling...

I find it interesting that "to settle" has a couple of different connotations. It can mean "to stay somewhere long enough to adapt and get comfortable." Like, you can settle into a sofa or a new role at work. But it can also mean "to realize you you can't get every damn thing you want all at once, and to finally accept that." You settle for a used Toyota with good gas mileage, when you'd really prefer cruising the streets in a vintage Thunderbird. You settle for kale chips, when nachos would be so much tastier.

For us, I think both meanings apply as we approach the "settling" phase of our lives. After the excitement (and stress) of a new home purchase and likely renovations, it will be an adjustment for us to just... settle for being settled. This is something most people figure out long before their 6th and 7th decade of life, but it appears that we are slow learners. Hopefully we'll get the hang of it.

My wife has found a senior basketball league, and I have a great writing group (which, sorry folks, means another novel will be forthcoming the distant future). We're meeting tons of fun people, and we have plenty to keep us busy... at least until we change our minds again. So life is good!

So what have you folks been up to??? Any buying, selling, or settling? What are you currently settling for, or are you considering any major life decisions to upend everything?