I’ve Got My Heart Set on Anywhere but Here

 Friday February 18, 2011

This will still be my view in 12 months

 I’ve known in the back of my mind for awhile that there would probably be no way around this and as of yesterday the news is concrete.  We’re going to have to push back leaving for about year.  Now instead of leaving in August 2011 like originally planned we’ll be leaving in June or July of 2012.  I did not take this news well.  It was becoming excruciating just counting down the next six months, but to add about 12 more to that I actually stormed upstairs to pout for the rest of the night when Matt gave the final verdict.  There also may have been a few tears shed.  And aside from that episode on the boat last summer it would pretty much take my dog dying to make me cry so you can tell this meant a lot to me.

There are a few reasons we’re allowing ourselves this extra time.  One of them is the house not selling quite as quickly as we’ve wanted it to.  We knew it wouldn’t sell right away but I think four months on the market is what we were hoping for.  Now it’s been five and a half and although there was one offer where we could have signed the papers already, the buyer found out that two people in the neighboorhood were having a disagreement and said he ‘couldn’t live in a place where people didn’t get along’.  I think he was a little messed up in the head.  Now with all the time that’s gone by it would pretty much take someone walking in the house tomorrow and saying they want it for us to feel comfortable enough to deal with moving and making all the final preparations on the boat to be able to leave on time.

Another reason is that as you may have read a few months ago, we’ve decided to possibly expand our trip by going all the way around the world should the urge to keep going still be there once we hit the Bahamas.  So a 2-3 year trip around the States and Caribbean could now be a 3-4 year circumnavigation which means we need to have enough cash in the bank to make it all the way around should we desire.  This brought up many discussions of stopping to work along the way (we found out you can get a work visa in New Zeeland between the ages of 18-30), but going back to number 1, we were afraid we’d be all set to leave with the exception of the house possibly still being on the market.

And then the icing on the cake although this hasn’t been affecting us as much as I thought it would, the company I’ve been with for the past five years has downsized me right out the door.  So now my part time waitressing job at an Australian themed restaurant has now become my as close as I can get it to full time work.  Thank god for that 2 hour wait every Friday and Saturday night.  So far I’ve been able to keep things pretty close to where they were before, but I’ve heard it becomes a ghost town in the summer.  Crikey.  I’m going to need to start looking for additional/replacement work.

So there you have it.  We will be stuck on land for one more year.  One more year of work, one more year of scraping and saving, and one more winter (damn you Michigan!!).  I guess there are upsides to it too.  That’s another year to spend with friends and family, one more year to get to know the boat and prepare it exactly how we want her, and one more year to scrape and save.  Plus Michigan summers are unbeatable and almost worth the torture of snow and cold, so I think if I can get through the next two months until warm weather comes I just might be ok.  Check back with me in a year though, two winters and I may not be as optimistic.

Think I’ll miss winter walks like this in the park?

Mazzii seems pretty indifferent