I Survived

I did manage to escape the laundromat of DOOM intact. I then meandered to the Virginia Museum of Science (sadly, relatively lame) and Applebee’s, home of the most delicious corn chowdah I’ve ever had and boasting some of the most terrible service I’ve noticed. I’ve had worse service, and the kid had a good reason to give terrible service – huge crowd of senior citizens who wanted separate checks. I cut him some slack.

In ANY event, because my entry did cut off abruptly (my keyboard went away and I couldn’t figure out how to get it back, so I kind of went ‘meh’), I’m here to expound.

I’m sitting in the hospital, and have been for two hours, still awaiting access. I am still so upset that I had to be freaking down here doing nothing, away from my life and family, in order to sit for eight hours. I’m genuinely peeved. But I’m also resigned to my fate. There is nothing I can do about this, and I go home on Friday, never to return. And boy, do I mean NEVER to return. I don’t care. I’m telling Laura no more travel. It’s too much.

So, to expound on a few things…

The consulting opportunity is with a large nation-wide insurance company. There are no benefits because it’s technically not a full-time gig. I get paid based upon the number of cases I complete ($25 per case for the first 100 cases, which are reviewed for quality; $30 per case thereafter). The company does not take out taxes. They do not offer benefits. I would be an independent contractor. This is a good first step in the direction of starting my own business. But I’m having that crisis of ‘I don’t know if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ There is also the idea that the case requirement is 1,000 per year. That’s a nice chunk of change, but also a nice chunk of time – about 20 cases per week minimum, which would take up an additional 15-20 hours a week that I’m not sure I have.

I sent the woman who interviewed me an e-mail this morning and asked for some additional time to discuss the tax concerns with my "tax professional." Basically, I’ll be speaking with my aunt, who was an independent contractor and did all this tax stuff herself. I just want to know what I’m getting into. If she’s not cool with my requiring extra time, see ya. I’m not the type that enjoys being pressured. She wanted me to accept on Friday, and I politely but firmly refused and requested time to consider. Again, if she doesn’t like it, obviously not a great fit for me.

On to the house news…

Sean surprised the HELL out of me with this. We were discussing our future and careers, talking about going back to school, and I was expressing my sadness that there weren’t a lot of great opportunities in my field in our area, because I was pretty sure we were settled on staying there.

Sean then mentioned my aunt’s house. I had offered it up as a possibility to both Ian and V when they mentioned they were looking. Sean said he wanted right of first refusal.

The house is nice. It’s in the area we’d like, suburbs, with a lot of the amenities we’d look for. It’s 4 bedroom, 1 bath, but only 960 square feet. It really only needs cosmetic updates. My aunt had said she wished I was ready to buy a house so that I could buy hers. The only caveat is that she’d want to be out sooner rather than later, and we have NUZZING saved towards a down payment. Mom thinks my aunt would wait for our lease to be up, so that would buy us almost a year to get our finances in order….but still, that’s a tall order for a short period of time.

All this leads to a thought I’ve had for awhile but haven’t verbalized (here) yet. I think Sean is getting ready to pop the question soon. He won’t do it when I’m expecting it (ie, our anniversary on the 9th), but I think it’s coming. He’s been asking questions about my financial stability, about wanting to go back to school, we’ve been talking more about weddings, and now the house thing.

It’s just a feeling I have. My sister agrees. It’s funny; I’m not overly nervous or impatient. I know he’ll do it on his own time. I’m just excited and willing, for once, to not freak out over this and require the control of knowing when, where, or how. I know that I love him and I’ll be spending the rest of my life with him whether he proposes tomorrow or fifty years from now.

It’s a good feeling.

Also a good feeling? Getting paid $27 an hour to sit here and ‘talk’ with you all, as well as catch up on my reading. I just wish I could be home doing so…