It has been a year

It hit me today that it's the 1-year anniversary of selling the Jetta. SO weird.

Surprisingly enough, I haven't missed it a bit. I wish I would have sold it as soon as I moved to D.C., but at that time, not having a car was complete crazy talk. I thought I'd never be THAT citified.

As much as I still feel a twinge of desire when I see a nice car drive by, as much as I'm thinking of going to the auto show this weekend just because I love cars ... it is SO nice to not be paying to park it, getting oil changes, having the emissions checked, going to the DMV, filling up the tank at +/-$3.09 per gallon ... all that stuff.

Yeah, if ... er, when ... I get the opportunity to move back to Indiana, that gas thing is going to be painful.

But it's one painful trade off for another ... take this for instance:

I have to tell the management company what my intentions are for the coming year by Feb. 1 ... even though the current lease period isn't up until April 1. Irritating.

They want to raise the rent $40 per month ... and I actually feel like this is a deal because last year they asked for a $75 per month increase. Sad.

I can re-sign for a year, or go month-to-month for an extra $100 per month ... which would put the rent at a whopping $1,895 a month. Painful.

After two years here, I'd like the freedom to be able to move at a moment's notice ... just in case, but if I'm still here a year from now I'll be SO mad at wasting $1,200. Better than the $7,000 early termination penalty I guess. Blah.

Having to make adult decisions: Total suck.

PostSecret

For anyone out there that hasn't heard of or doesn't read PostSecret every week, start.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Warning: It's one of the greatest and single most-annoying Web sites at the same time because ...

1) Frank posts new secrets every Sunday, but the new week's secrets replace the old ones. There is no archive. I get the worst feeling on some Mondays when I realize I forgot to check it the previous week.

2) There can never be too many secrets to read. It takes about two minutes to read the blog each week, and you're always left wanting more ... but you know you have to wait another seven days for it. It's not nice.

I've known there are books out there for awhile now, but for some reason tonight I decided I HAD to read them. Like NOW. I walked to the bookstore at 10 p.m. to buy one even though I can get them for much cheaper online.

I was through more than half of it in 20 minutes. I'm posting this blog to try to get myself distracted from reading it, so I still have some to read while I'm waiting for the others in the mail.

Now I'm looking at the book longingly ... I don't think I'm able to stop. And I can't stop thinking of the secrets I should send in ...