Looking ahead at 2024

 Hello! Looks like I haven't blogged in 4 years, lots has happened since then. The major points:

*After 5 years of friendship, my friend Derrick and I started dating, bought a house in KCMO together in February 2021, and he is now my fiancé Derrick! We have 2 dogs together- Petri (sweet Petri, who is now 8!) and Ivy, our shiba-inu of 3.5 years. They LOVE each other and play all the day. Derrick and I plan to get married sometime in 2024 in a tiny ceremony.

*My wonderful partner Zay and I have been together 6.5 years, and have started going on yearly dive trips together. Earlier this year we went to the Caymans. We have our collective eye on Belize and Guatemala next, possibly in the spring, to catch the whale shark migration.

*I completed my life goal of visiting all 7 continents. In October 2019 I solo-ventured in Australia (and met cool people along the way). Last winter I took a month off to join a National Geographic expedition to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falklands/Malvinas.

*There was a global pandemic!

*I got back into birding during the pandemic since I couldn't work or travel during lockdown, and started a life list, (currently 303 species seen in the wild). I'm taking my 4th online class with Cornell Ornithology Lab. I inherited Kansas City's Bird By Birds group, and I occasionally lead local birding walks around the metro.

*After 14 years of dormancy, I did my first show since college- COMPANY in 2021 with The Barn Players (dream role of Amy), and then this fall I was in the play Kimberly Akimbo at OCTA (my first non-musical play in 16 years). Both top notch experiences, and I'm thrilled to have theater back in my life, when I can fit it into my schedule.

*Home ownership is both wonderful and expensive, and 2024 looks like a big year, so I've returned to the blog to keep me accountable for some big financial goals.

BIG FINANCIAL GOALS

1. I have debt again from fixing our foundation (to the tune of $55K originally), and replacing 5 windows (initial cost was about $5500). We had some very generous help to pay down a chunk of the foundation. Now, collectively, I owe exactly $13,500 left on these 2 debts. This is a shared debt, but we have an arrangement where Derrick pays the mortgage while I pay for major home repairs, and we have a spreadsheet that we update monthly to make sure that we even out in the long run.

2. This was a massively expensive year, full of blessings and adventures and fun- Zero regrets, but now my savings needs a major tune-up. I owe it $13,000 to get to a total amount that will make me feel comfortable.

3. We have 2 major house projects that we may need to pull the trigger on in 2024- One is replacing the rest of our windows which are in sorry shape (2 of them are bay windows, which could cost $5K-$8K each), the other is rebuilding our back deck (which we would do ourselves, but we think with materials it could be as much as $5K)

4. We are getting married sometime in 2024. Both of us are excited to be married, but less so to get married, as weddings are expensive and basically one big way to people-please one's way into a panic attack or six. We will do a very small ceremony, since we don't believe in going into (more) debt for a single day. Nevertheless, we anticipate that we will probably need to spend around $5K for the "big day" (which is going to be a special day, but we are really looking forward to is marriage itself, and a kick ass honeymoon in 2025... Eyeballing Scotland).


I'll be blogging about how and when I meet these goals. I will be doing a lot of the stuff I did back in 2016-2018 when I paid off all my debt back then. Creating the wants/needs list, celebrating little wins here and there, unpacking the setbacks to learn from them, etc. Stay tuned if this sort of thing amuses you!

My fiancé and me in our backyard, a few days after getting engaged

Location: Hopewell, NJ 08525, USA

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