2016 Catch Up

Lots of big things in the first two months of 2016. First, I decided to step down from my position at work (I quit). I'm doing it a bit back words. Instead of lining up a job and then quitting, I'm doing the more modern thing - a sabbatical. 2015 was me trying to make work work. There is so much of my job that I loved and got satisfaction and pride from, but the higher I climbed the corporate ladder, the more challenges I faced.  I love the good fight - as I make the environment better, and the work place better for women.  And I have to say, looking back, last year I grew so quickly, learning how to handle situations and put things in perspective. As a result, I was able to step back and see that the position I was in was a lot of effort to over come change with diminishing returns on effecting change. It was healthier to spend my energy on something else. I figured that much out but not what to spend my energy on.  The challenges weren't limited to my company but to my industry so I didn't want to just move laterally. Hence the sabbatical. Financially, I followed some wise advise from a colleague, and as the salary went up, I kept my spending constant and as a result was able to squirrel away a good chunk.  So as a result, after The holiday vacation, instead of going back to work, I was able to enjoy a guilt free time off. 

So what do I have planned and what have I been doing?  Well, at Christmas, mom, Nick and I booked our vacation together. We are heading to Istanbul and Athens in May.  And I was able say yes to a pilgrimage to Transylvania with Cece that will be in April. And I think I might have mentioned, last summer I got a good deal on tickets to Amsterdam for a trip in March.  So a ton of traveling I wouldn't normally be able to do. 

January I spent just chilling.  I had the best excuse - Wallis.  I had gotten an XXL crate and she entered full restriction, locked up in that cage for 4 weeks. 

Webster and I kept her company so she didn't feel abandoned. We had a pretty regular schedule by the end.  I would wake up in the night and find my bed empty, Webster, sleeping beside the cage to keep his sister company. So parts of the day, Webster would climb into the cage, and sometimes I would pull her out and snuggle with her in my lap under the covers. She's so good, she quickly learned to stay put and just snuggle while I watched a movie. After thanksgiving I had splurged on a 40" flat screen that I installed in my back room.  

Sad news, at the end of the 28 days, no change, other than her knee got worse. She's scheduled for surgery in two weeks and then we'll have to do it all over again.  I think they said recovery takes 6 weeks in confined movement. I can't believe my cat is having knee surgery. I did shop around and found that the place I liked best (nicest staff and doctor) is also a thousand dollars cheaper.  Granted, I have to drive an extra 20 minutes since it's farther out of Boston, but I don't mind.  In the meantime, Wallis is loving running around no playing with her brother. You'd never know she didn't have a bum knee unless you looked closely. She's learned how to walk favoring the other leg. 

January, was also the start of my KonMarieing my house. I mentioned the Marie Kondo book earlier, and I finally broke down and bought a copy. Basically, I have been going through every single item in my house.  Initially I was naive to think I'd crank through everything in January. Granted she says it takes a good six months, I figured since I had more time I'd fly through. I was already a bit ahead since I already have a precluvity for organizing. It's quite mentally exhausting since you are going throughout every single item, holding it in your hands and facing the hard truths and making a decision. A lot of decisions. Instead of doing books second, I moved them to second to last and just finished them up this month. All I have left is mementos which is the hardest. I literally have like ten boxes full of stuff from my past. 

But man, how free I feel after the deep cleanse of letting go of stuff. It's really not about getting rid of things, but just keeping the stuff you love and use. It also includes rediscovering things and giving more prominence to this tuff you love. It's a new mindset. Hopefully, I'll do another post on the topic, mainly to remind future me of the process and mindset shift. 

I also got a new car!  Well a used car, but new to me.  I searched and searched and searched.  I found pinterest helped me.  I forgot I had a "car" board that I've been pinning beautiful cars to for years. Mostly it's classic jaguars, but nestled in there, was a car I kept finding turning my head when I saw it on the road. The Audi A6. 

But my dilemma was that the Audi A6 was above my price range.  And the Audi A4 I could probably make work (even if the GPS screen didn't disappear). But it didn't do well in Consumer Reports for safety. And both were going to be expensive to repair, which would happen often.  Still I kept looking, but nothing I could find with great milage. In the meantime, I was negotiating with my insurance company for the value of my old car. They said I had to find comps to make my case. I was dubious since my car was one of a kind, with ultra low milage. I could find cars with triple the milage and occasionally double the milage of my car. And then... there it was. A 2006 Infiniti G35 fully loaded with 42k miles. It was my car but in silver inside and out (instead of gray on the outside and rosewood on the inside - my old car). It was 11 PM by the time I found the car. So I slept on it. Bracing myself that the car was probably already sold. It was a private sale and the fellow was  actually going to pull the listing down and keep the car until spring. His mother had died and he was going to use the car for winter (since he didn't want to put winter tires on his Audi S6).  He could still smell a little of her perfume in the car. I had to practically talk him into selling the car to me.  In the end I couldn't be happier and the insurance company came through resulting in me almost getting an upgrade - newer tires, better paint job and a whole laundry list of other improvements over my old car. I do feel bad sometimes about this new car since it spent it's life in a heated garage being driven to church once a week. And now it lives outside in the cold. Ain't it a beauty?

February I spent long weekends in NH visiting my dad and Barbro while they were in town.  Witnessing them voting in the NH primary, skiing! celebrating my birthday and just hanging out. 

And now I'm prepping for my trip to Amsterdam. I can't wait. I stumbled upon a private collection (the Six collection) that you can only visit by invitation. On a long shot I asked and just got this email from the Baron J Six van Hillegorn permitting a private showing next week.   How cool is that?!

2015 Catch Up

It's been a bit of a radio silence on my end and a lot to catch up on. So I'll break it up over a few posts to catch up and then I'll still be leaving out too much. Another lesson to stay on top of the posts. 

Last I left off I was on my way to Virginia for thanksgiving. Great to see the new place, catch up with my step-sister, hang out with my niece and nephew and the rest of the family. We ate, played, explored the area, and had an earlier christmas resulting in playing with the new lego set that was given to Mateo. Gotta love the lego. And playing other games, even if made up.  Nick took over and Marianna loved it.

On the way back we got to use the small local airport. It was so strange, only one terminal and limited staff. So the person who comes over to the counter to check us in, a little while announces security is open and runs the X-ray machine where we then wait in another littler waiting room and then the same person then takes our ticket as we walk out to the plane. It was a bit humorous. I felt I was on that show Wings, but smaller and not as many people. 

There was some funky weather. I love the look of the sky after a thunderstorm with the sun coming out. 

I also found that the bed in the back room for Wallace just didn't work. Too much jumping. At least, I got my bedroom painted. Here's the before and after of my back room. Fun slumber room:

Fun regular sun room, with cats wondering where the bed went:

I'll need to buy a dog crate and try full confinement. 

At work I had the brilliant suggestion that our companies green operating group do a cell phone collection and they liked it and took it on. My hidden agenda was to finally off load my old flip phones without having to mail them in myself. How brilliant right?  Only problem is that in I could have sworn I brought my phones in and drop them into the box, but I found them in January... After the drive was over - ugh. The good news is that we donated a ton of phones to good causes. I dug around and after asking the IT guy and a guy in accounting, check out all the old company phones I rangled up!  

And not just phones, cords and accessories too.

And I'm really proud about how well I know my staff. While I was gone for Thanksgiving, the staff that were in town made turkey hands and I was able to identify all of them. I also love that they love to have a good time. I think I have the coolest department. Actually, I know I do, since several folks from other departments have mentioned it too. 

Nick and I went out to see the Martian - good movie, and I like that it was based on a book that was written where most of the science in the scifi is actual science. While we were at the theater, I ran to the bathroom after and stumbled upon this museum:

Yes - the Musuem of Bad Art. I forgot it was there (in Davis Square). I had heard about it on NPR years ago and didn't realize it was in my own back yard. Here's one of my favorites. 

In case you can't read it, it is Madonna with Floss. All real art collected from real artists and rotated often. I'll have to go back and spend more time. Didn't want to keep Nick waiting too long.  He introduced me to a new find Amsterdam Falafal. It was really good. Who knew amsterdam was known for their falafals. I'll have to check them out on my visit to Amsterdam.

I did take some slightly better pictures of my "finished" bedroom. I still have a few final touch ups. I'm not usually wild about light blue but I really like this color and it just keeps growing on me.  It changes with the light and thought the months. I've decided to not go with the navy blue velvet curtains and go with a lighter cream curtain. The room is darker than the white walls so it all balances out better. 

Mom really liked the color and got to see the finished product when she came to visit for Christmas.  Nick  and mom and I had a great visit and I was able to get almost all my christmas decorations out. 

 Including finally my Waterford 12 days of Christmas ornaments my aunt sue gave us in the 90s. Not something you can hang on a tree when you have pets. And after last christmas I picked up this great display at the Crate and Barrel outlet. Perfect, right?

I got to test out my new dining room set up.  Very cozy, but I think it worked for all three of us. 

Well, that's not everything in 2015, but it's what I had pictures of to jog the old noggin. What else, I saw Maggie in the nutcracker, again. Looks like a tradition.  I borrowed by brothers car a bunch to run errands and look for a new car. I like my independence. Although I mostly walk, bike and use public transportation, I still like to know I can hop into a car at a moments notice. Carless is not for me. But more on that in 2016.