Summer cave retreat

We finally closed on our refinancing, end of July. You know what sucks about the whole thing? It wasn't really necessary. We're not in financial trouble, we don't have problems paying the mortgage, and we've never ever paid late. Ever. Once the bank messed up so it appeared as if we paid late, and I made them make a notation that it was their fault and not ours. Prior to closing, we were getting zero information from the bank--they couldn't even tell us if we'd owe closing costs or if we had enough equity for cash out. THEY WOULDN'T TELL US! And I think, by law, they're supposed to tell us 48 hours in advance of the closing. At least.

Then they did owe us money for cash-out, but didn't tell us it would take another week to actually give us the money.

All through this, the Dave was maybe, maybe not going back to work for MKay. Once again there was zero information going on (and I know that was mostly Dave's fault). Finally I asked my friend Bloomie--you know my homeschooler friend in Plaintown--if Dave was getting the job or not. You see, her husband will be The Dave's boss. The Dave and this guy have worked together at three different companies, just because they work really well together.

Of course Bloomie knew (yes, The Dave would be offered the job) and I was mad at myself that I didn't ask her sooner. But then again, their whole family had the flu for most of July so she wouldn't have been able to talk much anyway.

Then it took a couple more weeks to find out if they met his salary request, and other requests, like having 4 weeks vacation like he used to the last time he worked for MKay, and vested 401(k) and stuff. No-go on the vacation but that wasn't a deal-breaker.

Then I was waiting for a rather large amount of money from a CD to arrive, which took about 7 days longer than I thought it would. And once again, we don't need the money. But we knew it was coming.

And once Dave finally had a start date at MKay (same as the first day of school) we, in my mind, had limited time during which to apply for passports. No, we're not going anywhere soon, but Dave might have to go to Russia or China or Mexico because MKay does well in there. Travel to those countries was specified on his job description.

So finally on Wednesday, we applied for passports. Mine's been expired for 9 years (I have an 80s Freshly Fucked hairstyle in the picture). And for children, both parents must be present to apply for the child's passport. We wanted them for the kids just in case we take that shortcut through Canada again in the future. And I'm not kidding, there's a shortcut through Canada, for us, where we usually travel...through national forests and such. It's not going to be acceptable to just have birth certificates for that, very soon, if it isn't already disallowed.

The cost? $497.50. For four passports (we requested both book and ID card formats). $497.50 to prove we're American.

So I turned around this week and realized we have one week. ONE FRICKING WEEK to not having anything in the pipe, so to speak. I think we'll be at the pool for most of it.

So back to the summer cave retreat idea: I can micro-multi-task, but I can't macro-multi-task. I can deal with my family and my life, day-to-day, but if something big is coming up? I can't move on to the next big thing.

Basically, I was in my house. All summer. Being my slightly agoraphobic self. My cave. You know I don't even like it if the kids open the shades that face the patio? I finally got the shades put up in my kitchen, and I immediately felt calmer. It was freaky.

I know what you're thinking. I need new meds. And I agree. But my old meds were costing nearly $200 a month because our health insurance was so crappy, so I've been waiting to see if The Dave was going back to MKay, which has wonderful health insurance.

A week from Monday, I can go back to the doc for different meds.

My whole family is looking forward to that day.