New Space
What a whirlwind!
If you noticed I’ve been MIA for the last month and a half, I have reasons.
So, mid-February, my husband and I took a trip with some friends to North Carolina and drove all over the Western part of the state. We all desperately want out of Vegas and NC is the mutually agreed upon place. I want my kids to grow up in a school system that isn’t the second lowest in the nation. I also want them to be able to play outside without worrying one of them is going to be nabbed or find the wrong person to talk to. Vegas just isn’t that place, and the real estate market here is overinflated by a landslide! No thanks, I can get more bang for my buck out East, have property, and not shrivel up like dried fruit the second I walk outside from the dry heat. Anyway, I had a whole plan to buy a house, had money in the bank, and spreadsheets. Lots of spreadsheets.
After all the extra careful planning, the unexpected happened. We got noticed that the condo we’d been renting for the last nine years was being sold and we needed to be out by April. Either I had to fast-track my move to North Carolina or delay it. Upon our trip, we found a BEAUTIFUL house and I wanted it so bad it hurt! It was in a quiet neighborhood, trees surrounding the 1 acre property, a creek that ran through the backyard, and room to grow and breathe. It was perfect!! We told the realtor we wanted to go forward and find out the numbers from our loan officers to put in an offer. Needless to say, we were 6K short of what we needed to close and move our family of four. We probably could have gotten creative and came up with the extra 6K, but that would have left us broke for a couple of months with a whopper of a house payment. I don’t do broke, and I certainly don’t do “house broke”! So, I decided to wait another year here in Vegas.
Right as our landlord started urging us out sooner (from the longest place I’ve ever lived), I came down with a horrible virus! It was five days of fever, body aches, chills, a dry cough, a smashing headache, and tough breathing. On day four I woke up feeling a little better, but my best friend was sick with the same virus and staying at my house so we could help each other out. I decided to go to do a pickup order at Target, then go to Starbucks to get a couple of medicine balls. Spell it out with me: S T U P I D! I didn’t get out of the car, I didn’t do any walking around, but my body decided it couldn’t handle things and I passed out in the Starbucks drive-thru. Thankfully, I was on the phone with my husband when it happened (and the car was in park because I’m always aware of when I’m about to pass out) and he continued to yell my name after I conked out. Funny enough, my son was in the backseat, and told him, “Mommy’s sleeping.” 🤣 Funny guy. The employees at Starbucks realized something was wrong, rushed out, called 911, and gave me cold water, apple juice, and a butter croissant. It helped a ton, but the 911 operator told them to take it all away. An ambulance showed up, the medics moved my car (one of them stayed with my son to talk about monster trucks), and Kyler raced across town to get to me. I declined a ride to the hospital because I didn’t want to pay for the ride or the hospital. So, Kyler took me home to drop our son off with my friend, then brought me to an urgent care. Upon sitting in the triage, I told the nurse I was going to pass out again and asked my husband to hold my head up so I didn’t fall out of the chair. An ambulance was called on me for a second time that day because, after three minutes, they couldn’t wake me up. When I did wake up, it was SOOO hard to stay awake or even speak. I was transported to the nearest hospital, Sunrise Hospital to be exact, ignored for 3.5 hours, witnessed horrific racism by the nurses along with elderly abuse, then told I was being discharged without any information on my test results or chest x-ray. Of course, I asked… They said everything was normal. I removed my own IV because they were too “busy” the three times I asked, and left. Upon calling my regular doctor (who is a saint!) she was outraged and will be sending me to a cardiologist in the near future. My heart has not been handling things well, even after I kicked the virus.
While all of that was going on, I was still in a desperate search for a place to live. The scams that realtors in this city inflict are egregious! There are non-refundable application fees that pick you to the bone, and half the houses you’ve applied for are already gone, even though they tell your realtor they’re still available. There are some companies and people that belong in the slammer for fraud if you ask me. Needless to say, we found a new house in a wonderful neighborhood, that fits our family so much better. I figured if I had to live in the earth’s dead zone (Las Vegas) for another year, then at least I’d make it more comfortable. We moved over the course of a week, and LOVE our new house. I especially love my new writing space. The upstairs of the house has a small loft with a little nook that fits my desk just perfectly and has glorious 7-foot-tall windows (facing South) that let in the most gorgeous sunshine all day long. 😌 My bedroom is also beautiful, my kids have their own Jack and Jill rooms, my husband has his “bat cave” (our master closet), a two-car garage, a kitchen that people aren’t crowded in, and a little backyard for the kiddos to safely play. If those things aren’t bonus enough, I’m two minutes from Starbucks and Dutch Bros to feed my caffeinated needs. 😏 All my favorite stores are 5 minutes max from my house and I have Mt. Charleston in the background. Rain doesn’t last forever, and the sunshine is just behind the clouds, you just have to look for it.
In more book-related news, I’m all over the place. I’ve been working on whatever book speaks to me most, and that’s been changing from day to day. While I have another book lined up and ready to go, I’m sitting on it because I have a feeling that there’s something missing from it that I haven’t thought of yet, so I’m sitting on it a little longer before reaching out to betas and going through the whole process again.
Until next time,
Happy Reading Friends ~ Elly
