Well it seems like it's been a while. Theres a whole big whirlwind in my life right now it seems. I wish I could say they were great - it could be much worse but everything is in limbo it seems.
For starters - Florida was awesome. It was the most perfect weather, no humidity but sun, sun and more sun. No rain. We went to the beach everyday I was there. I stayed with 2 different friends so each day it was a different group of people at the beach but they were all great days. I wore tons of sunscreen, no skin can.cer for this girly! I do have a slight tan, just from being outside that much but not what you think of when people go to Florida and come back. My girlfriends I saw were awesome. It was so great to be with them. My throat hurt from catching up with them and talking so much! I went to my old job and boy do I miss it. Went to lunch with a few co-workers and it was nice to catch up.
My house - I cried, twice. The first night my girlfriend brought me by to go inside (it's empty, the tenant is gone) and I lost it. The yard is sh*t. When I bought it, the previous owners had just sodded it and had it all landscaped with pretty plants and a palm tree. We don't have a green thumb so it never looked as nice but it was always pretty close. Hubs would treat it (even pre-marriage he took great care of the yard) each year and fertilize or whatever you do. We trimmed bushes, weeded, you know the stuff you do with a yard. And oh yea, we ran the damn sprinklers! Well obviously in the last year, the sprinklers have not run. No more nice sodded grass, all crab grass and weeds. It wasn't all overgrown which I was afraid of because there was hardly any grass to grow! The back fence was being held up with rope....clearly someone ran into it. I was of course never told so I know it wasn't a branch or something that fell. The house to me was gross. My girlfriends told me it wasn't (oh yea a tile was missing from the kitchen. Really people?? it's peel and stick we left a whole box of them in the garage, you couldn't just stick a new one down??) and I was just looking at it was my home. In terms of a rental property it's still in great shape. We just wiped down walls, baseboards, door jams. Stuff like that. Overall it was okay though. I was still sad. My last night there I went in one last time and cried so hard I wiped a contact out of my eye and lost it! I just never know, that might be the last time I see the house bc who knows what's going to happen with it. And my grandparennts bought us a ceiling fan (its a nice one too) for one of the guest bedrooms and that was still there so that made me sad. I wanted to just take it down but don't know how.
Anyway - 2 of my wonderful friends came over to help do some yard work and picking up. While we were there 2 random people stopped to look at it and one wanted it there on the spot. I said you need to speak with my realtor. One warning flag was the husband had on the ankle tracking bracelet so he must have been in jail. Which, that's ok, it might not be something terribly bad but if it was something bad, I don't want to subject my neighbors, who were always nothing but nice to me to that. They other thing is they said they'll take it for $200 less than I was asking. Umm no, this isn't a new car, its not negotiable and not $200 worth. Heck if you knew what I was losing a month between my mortgage payment and the rent I charge you would be shocked.
The best part about the trip I think - I have been questioning if we should have moved and why did I come back up here and the winter is horrible and why, why, why. Well that didn't feel like home. It's beautiful there, yes the ocean was 5 minutes away, yes there is a ton of stuff always going on, but this is home now. The trees, hills, mountains, fresh air, change of weather...it's all home. So, it put me at peace with our decision to move. Of course, I'm sure I will always ask why we moved at the end of every winter or if things go bad but I know in my heart this is where I should be.
I flew back on Tuesday - meet with my boss about my review. He pulls a whole bunch of b.s. about this and that and completely offends me and basically puts me down (I don't think he was intentional, I'm not saying it that way) but it is soooooo obvious the gender gap here. I really didn't know it still existed but oh yes. He admitted it without using so many words as to telling me the exact salary as the male that works here. He just said the 'large gap in our pay is bc....' I countered with well he has all of 2 more years of experience but I have a masters degree and I'm a CPA. The raise he offered me was a joke and hurt my feelings. I know I shouldnt look a gift horse in the mouth and there are a lot of people out there that would be happy with just a job but I am absolutely being taken advantage of. I don't appreciate that, I don't appreciate being put down, I don't appreciate being made to feel like I'm not good enough bc I'm female and I can't live up to the males so I have had it. I had done researched and printed out the pay for this area and the average - now I'm in a smaller office so it should be scaled a little....well I am $20,000 less than the industry average. Now, I don't make $300,000 so $20,000 doesn't matter much when we are dealing with a small salary to begin with, 20k is a lot of money. Truly, I feel that I should be making $10,000 more. Yes I'd love to be 20K but I don't think I should be paid that at this firm. Other places, yes, but not here. I'm not looking to rip anyone off or be completely overpaid, I'm looking for a reasonable salary. Oh yea - and I told him his 1 week of vacation he gives us is basically a joke. I said we are professionals with degrees and we work in a professinal office, people that work at Mc.Donalds probably get a weeks vacation as a cashier. All of it makes me angry. Needless to say the search as started. I know its not the most opportune time to find a job but I'm in a field where fortunately, it's ALMOST recession proof. Things still happen but everyone needs their taxes done. Plus, depending on what happens when I speak with an attorney next week about my Fl house and what to do with it could be another determining factor on what I should do.
Anyway - that got long - I'm done for now :)
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