20K and a Year Away

I am one month into this new adventure. The new job is good, albeit in complete chaos. But, that is ok. I kind of specialize in calming the storms. I am lucky, I think, that the people who work for me are nice and quite capable. That isn’t always the case.

I look up plane tickets every single day. That is probably not going to change any time soon. I have one flight in two weeks, but it is to go get Axel and bring him here. I am flying up at 10:30pm here, arriving at 12:22am there, then flying out with Axel at 5:30am. No, I will not need a ride, thanks! I am on a mission. Axel wasn’t ready to fly alone just yet, which is fine considering I read a headline about the airline losing a kid the other day, so off I go. I managed to use some miles and a trip credit to cover a large chunk of it. It is not how I envisioned using my miles, but it is a good cause.

Speaking of miles. I have got to learn how these people do all their mile building. Now, let me throw out the disclaimer that I don’t want to apply for a bazillion credit cards or jump through endless hoops before I get some advice. I want the miles to just come to me in a gift bag or something. I want to just look one day and see I have enough miles to quit my job and fly around the world several times. I don’t think that is asking too much, really.

I was doing my usual daydreaming about not working and just wandering and started to price my around-the-world ticket. The route I chose ended up at around $5,000. That didn’t seem like a ton at first, but then I was thinking that that is just one person. What if the kids want to go? I would need to have a ton of money. And, that isn’t the rest of my life, that is just a couple years. What will I do after that? The exercise turned into work rather than fun daydreaming. I am going to need a second job.

The big news today is that I bought a house. I was looking around at housing and found that I was going to pay the same for a rental as I would buying a house, so I bought one. It is a cute three-bedroom brick house with a big yard and fireplace. The sign that I should buy this particular house came when I went to view it and there was a hammock all set up in the backyard. If that doesn’t scream me, nothing does!

I sign the papers and can start moving in next week. The next steps are to get power, water, internet, furniture, appliances, plates, spoons, forks, a broom, and everything else that one needs to live in a house. I just picked up some towels so I can at least take a shower there. I will move all the little boxes we sent home from Florida and the two beds in a box that I ordered the other day over next weekend and be officially in by Monday, July 25.

When Axel gets here, we plan to do some furniture shopping. Since it will just be the two of us until one or both of the girls decides to join us, we can buy only the furniture we need and want. I think I need to buy a fridge. I will have my final walkthrough tomorrow and see what they have left in the house, if anything. I was pricing a fridge today. Do you know how many plane tickets you can buy with that money!?!?

I am not sure how this whole Texas thing is going to work out, but so far, it is ok. There are a lot of things about Texas that I don’t like or agree with, but the people I work with have been very easy to get along with even when we don’t share the same views. I am actually surprised by some who do share the same views. That is definitely a breath of fresh air.

I have laid out my 5-year plan for getting Axel through high school and into college and then just selling everything, again, and heading back out to the world. I can say that I know some things I will do differently on the next go-around and will adjust everything accordingly. I hope the world doesn’t become so expensive over the next five years that I won’t be able to do anything. I guess if it does, I will have to stay at the beach longer.

Right now, I am trying to see what dates I will have open for my very first vacation from my new job. HAHA! I made it a month without putting some time off on the books. I think that shows serious strength and determination. I am sure the next five years are going to fly by… right?

I can do this! I got this!

(the mantra whispered quietly, incessantly, in my brain: I am building miles. I am building miles. I am building miles. I am building miles.)