2017- Glad it’s over.

I’m never particularly fond of odd numbered years, because it makes me feel older when my birthday is an even number. Don’t ask why, it’s just me.

But this year, I’m setting one particular goal, not resolutions, because lets face it, the best resolutions ever written, involved a bunch of fearless men getting together to take on another country and winning.

But last year I took a step to leave my job ( not career, no matter how long I’ve been there) but my resignation didn’t stick. I handed it in, he flipped out, cried, and guilt tripped me into staying. The reality is, I had it, but didn’t have another job. So I let him change my mind, and as karma would have it, I got a phone call three days later from a company I had applied to before the year prior, rescinded my application after a very good phone interview, and got the same offer again. Once more I had to refuse the offer and I’ve regretted it since.

The one thing I had left was my integrity and ethics, but my boss has stripped that away from me as well. One thing I remember a nurse telling me back in the day ,as I was visiting a friend/roommate in the psych ward where I had him admitted, was ” Don’t let him take you down with him.”

The same can be said now.

I was seriously considering selling our home and ditching it all to go to Texas. Toddy will go where I go, and after being an AirBnB host for a couple of years now, I’m pretty good at it. So I had found not one, but two homes for sale in Waco Tx for 140k for both. We would live in one, and rent the other (next door) and my plans were rolling through my head.

I reached out to my brother, to figure out how I would get a mortgage and he gave me a couple of ways to do it, but he did add that he was just in Texas in NOVEMBER and it was 114 degrees, in Austin that was only an hour away. Nope. In the Northeast it gets cold. Currently it is 3 degrees with a wind chill of -10. However, you can always put clothes on, but there is only so nakedy you can get. Also, I am a big fan of Fixer Upper, there were a couple of jobs I could apply to in their world, but as I was checking things out, I saw that most of the houses that they fixed up on their show, were actually rentals as well. Guess those lucky people who could afford the homes, didn’t move in, and decided to cash in as well. So strike that idea.

But as I was speaking to my brother, about the where to’s and why I wanted to leave, I filled him in on my current job, and he was pretty incredulous and flat out said, what I realize and that was ” You work for a crook!”

Crook, Desperate Man, label it as you will, but the truth is, I thought back to what the nurse had stated all those years ago, about not letting them take you down with them.

So as I’m trying to figure out where to go, and what to do, and knowing that 114 degrees just doesn’t work for me, I’m staying put.

My best friend, has been asking me about long term rental for a couple of people who are really in need, and with my love of decorating and projects I’m converting the basement into another finished area. A potential tenant is coming over today, even though I’m not quite done, but the house is zoned for student rental and bed and breakfast so I’m not breaking any codes.

So, knowing that I can offset the mortgage that I just refinanced down to 15 years, I’m feeling optimistic about covering that payment monthly.

But reality always steps in, and once again as I check the company bank balance at home just now, I don’t even think there is payroll this week ( again) and it gets old having to wait an additional week to get paid. Last year, hubby and I had to wait 5 times to get paid, and I had to loan the company money so checks didn’t bounce, and hand my boss cash out of my wallet so he had spending money. I get it back but I shouldn’t have to be in this position.

Last year, I decided to up my game, and got certified as a Home Inspector, and told hubby we could do that and make some money. We already work weekends with my advertising business, but that ebbs and flows with the housing market. So I also decided to become a Notary Public, but that isn’t exactly a money maker, but looks good on a resume. I also decided to get certified as a good Samaritan to administer Narcon if I’m ever in public, if someone od’s I can at least help until the ambulance arrives.

But since hubby is a self proclaimed professional procrastinator, I can’t rely on him to help with any home based business. Every year he tells me he’s going to get his license but lets face it, its been 6 years, so I’m scratching that off his “resolution” list for 2018.

But 2018 will be there year I get out of Dodge, find a new, less stressful job, that I can maybe actually put some retirement funds aside, beside the equity in my home. I know I can reach out to past employees, who he put in the same position that I’m in now, but he either fired them, or they quit as well.

So in retrospect, I’ll take a cup of kindness yet, for days of new lang syne.