Not Moving Afterall...

So we have had a major change in plans! Everything got turned upside down in less than a week. It started last Saturday when Grant noticed the heater/AC unit in his car wasn't working. Lucky for us we haven't been getting snow so we could still drive without needing to defrost the windows. We dropped his car off at the mechanic on Monday and they told us it was going to be a $600-something dollar part. With labor, taxes, and the oil change and new wiper blades his car needed the total cost to make his car good to go? $940. That was a painful check to write.

I had some people ask, "Well why did you fix it? Why not just go without heat?" I just wanted to ask these people if they had ever tried to drive a car without heat in a New England winter. Your windows are iced over on the outside, foggy on the inside, and you literally can't see out of any of them until your car has sat there with the heat on for 5 minutes. It isn't ourselves keeping warm we were concerned with, it was being able to safely drive the car.

Anyway, that means we don't have the money to afford an apartment in Park City. Park City is expensive beyond reason. We had people give us plenty of suggestions. "Live in the youth hostel, find a heated storage unit and live in it, just move from temporary housing to temporary housing." None of these sounded at all appealing to us. Maybe we just have too high a standard of living?

So Grant went and talked with the financial aid department at NECI and asked if he could fast track. Fast tracking is skipping the internship altogether and moving on to his BA classes. We originally wanted to do that. We tried to talk to them months ago and they said unless he paid the entire tuition up front he couldn't. They weren't willing to estimate his grants and loans based on what he received before. For some reason they were willing to help him this time!

For a little while we weren't sure of what we were going to do. Find a place less expensive to move to? Go live with his friends in Kansas City? It was stressful not knowing, so I am glad we figured out we are definitely staying. It isn't a bad thing at all, especially because it was our original plan 5 months ago.

The problem? I told my work 3 months ago that my last day was going to be December 21st. They have already replaced me. I am now out of a job. I'm trying to figure out if there is a job within another department at the same hotel I can possibly move to. So far I have been offered a position paying much less money and it is only 4 days a week. I can't take that much of a pay cut and still afford to pay my bills. So as of right now I still don't have a job.

We also don't have an apartment. We are trying to find an amazingly cheap 1 bedroom apartment for just us, or a 2 bedroom and a roommate. We are looking at house shares. No luck yet.

So with the thoughts of "I don't have a job after the 21st, and we don't have an apartment after the 1st." running through my head, I have been worrying myself sick. Literally. I am sick because I've been stressing over this. I just need to calm down and trust that things will work out, but that is so much easier said than done! I want to know that we are going to be okay financially.

We have amazing friends, though. When I was crying and freaking out last night they told me that I was being really silly. "Worst case scenario you come and stay with us until you find another place and you try to work with the school." were their exact words. I feel blessed to have friends who are so willing to give us there extra room.

And I have to say that I am still happier this year than I was this time last year. This time last year Grant had just left to go to Florida for 6 months and I was depressed. I have great friends. An amazing boyfriend. And I am still going to find a way for us to see both our families around the holidays. Really, things aren't that bad. Please keep us in your thoughts though, because I could really use a job and a cheap apartment.

I'm off to send out my resume some more and scour for more apartment opportunities. Maybe I'll be able to rest a little after and my headache will go away. I am too stressed and tired to clean my apartment, which is saying something considering I clean when I get stressed 90% of the time...

I'll keep you posted! Warm wishes to all!

Music Monday

I know there are only a few singers on here, but these are damn good songs. Well, they are if you like country. ;)