Can I make that house payment in Euros?

I had an enlightening conversation today that made me wonder if I should rename this blog: City Girl Takes on Yet Another Adventure.

I miss my friends from The Beach. I miss them all the time. Almost every single day. I haven't been able to put my finger on it. Until today. I had been thinking this lately: Do I still miss them, because they're so much cooler than most other people? Or maybe it's because I just haven't found the perfect set of friends up here just yet. Or is it because I just simply miss them?

The answer is: not quite. I miss them, because they are the rowdiest bunch of adventure seekers I've ever met. There's no doubt in my mind that my motley crew of friends have an insatiable desire to constantly chase adventures the world over. That's our meeting point. The one thing everyone has in common. And everybody's adventure schemes always look different, but it's still the same underlying excitement of seeing new places, meeting new people and trying new things.

Jumping into bodies of water buck-naked? Check!


Anyway, the enlightening conversation went a little something like this:

E: "A friend of mine told me the other day, 'I can't wait for you to have your own house that you can decorate and settle down in.' Not one ounce of me has ever wanted to do that."
CG: "Me either! I had someone tell me the other day how I would stop traveling when I have kids. No I won't!"
E: "Yeah, I don't think I'll ever settle down like that."
CG: "I just always figured that when I finally do have kids I'll just buy another hammock. A baby hammock...for the treehouse we'll live in. Ha!"

The reason this conversation lit up my face and entire day was because while I want to buy a house, I've been sort of dragging my feet about the whole thing and feeling somewhat bummed about the idea. Almost like I was being pressured into living in a big house all alone. I couldn't figure out why. Why wouldn't I want to take the next grown up step? What's the big deal about buying a house? (A cheap house at that!) And it hit me....I never had plans to actually live in it. Everyone else around these parts buys a house to live in it. Raise a family in it. Have dogs running around the yard. I want to buy a house so I can rent it out to weekenders from The City. I have next to no plans of actually spending day after day in between those four walls, working from home and watching daytime TV. I want a house for completely different reasons than the average bear. I want something that pays me to go on adventures.

Can I get an amen!

Love bites.

I recently got half-eaten alive the other night by a surly spider. I woke up with one shoulder much larger and redder than the other which left me horrified and forced to wear nothing but sleeved shirts. Sleeved shirts during the summer in this neck of the woods is like wearing a bikini in Alaska during the winter. It sucks. And so I learned (once again) that living in the country requires you to buddy up with the skin-so-soft bug lotion. The bugs are literally everywhere! It's like nature is constantly in my face!

Yuck.

And then I was bitten by another bug the other day. The real estate bug. The inherent need to buy a house type of bug. I hadn't planned to revisit this idea again so soon, but I just couldn't help myself. I started looking again when I accidentally saw a decent sized house for sale for under $100,000. That's right. Multiple rooms. With a yard. In town. UNDER $100,000!

My city days were sweet. We're talking rent control sweet. The amount I paid each month for rent was unbelievable. Coveted. The apartment wasn't anything over-the-top special, but it was in the heart of the city, had running water, was in a safe neighborhood, and had the most easy-going landlord a girl could ask for. And in the seven years I lived there the rent went up a whole twenty five dollars. It was the very definition of an urban legend.

I can't say that I had plans to actually buy a house the first time around. I was thinking about it. And at one point I took those thoughts seriously. For almost a full 24 hours. But I never envisioned myself owning a house alone. I'm that girl. I've always had the same few thoughts circling my brain since I was five years old. I will get married, move into that house (you know, that house we just so happen to magically own when we say some vows?) and then we'll have kids. It's perfect, really. Although, I have yet to meet anyone that has actually played this exact scenario out. It's usually messier than this. More complicated. And so now I've resigned to the fact that life will probably never go as I planned. In fact, it may be the one thing I can consistently count on!

And I'm OK with this. In fact, I'm more than OK with this. I'm really looking forward to buying a house. To becoming a home owner. A home owner who could possibly end up paying less than six digits for prime real estate.

It's practically an urban legend.

The Ugly Truth

If there's one thing I learned while living in the city it's that everyone wants what everyone else has. You get up early in the morning to get the worm, so to speak, so you can have that "other" thing. The thing that everyone else seems to have that you don't. And you strive and you stress just to get it. (Whatever "it" is.)

I had drinks with an old friend the other night. We were discussing the finer points of life in the country versus the ins and outs of city living. Since I last saw her she has birthed a couple kids and a nice little mortgage. Meanwhile, I traveled the world, partied my brains out and started a business. Our lives couldn't be more opposite.

Then we got down to details: I told her how I've learned that according to the country folk, a girl my age hasn't lived life yet until she's gotten married. (As if that's the only thing she can do!) And she told me how she runs off to the city for a few days, sans the kids, every chance she gets. I was starting to think that I had it all wrong: I had partied and traveled my marrying days away. And here she was telling me that she wished she had more chances to live the single life.

Maybe it's time to cut that greener grass?

In any case, I will still be getting asked by everyone and their cousin why I'm not married yet. And she will still be grasping at her chances to live the single life again. It's the ugly truth. And it followed me from the big city to the back roads of the country. Everyone wants what everyone else has. Even in the sticks.