ReEntry

What a glorious vacation. Camping in the beautiful Colorado mountains, waking up with the crisp air, cooking over a camp stove, being with friends and hearing great music. Let’s just say that the re-entry to reality was a rough one yesterday.

I fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with Mark. Literally. He was talking to me about the closing costs and closing papers and repairs to finish this sale of my house and I just fell smooth asleep.

There are lots of things chomping at our heels right now, getting back into the groove with our house that still needs unpacking, my office that still needs unpacking, all of the recruitment stuff from August, the students are back at OU, Mark is understaffed and so ridiculously overworked it just blows the mind.

But for now, we are holding on to the Colorado magic, singing together around the campfire. We only have one song together so we’ll be learning a few more before next year. We met some fabulous camp neighbors who sang with us and ate with us and laughed and talked with us for the week. We plan to camp with them again next year.

I’ll tell you all about the festival in a few days. I’ve got some fun stories and photos.

But really, what I want to tell you today is that yesterday…I paid my very last house payment. My very last mortgage payment on Brokedown Palace. We are set to close either Friday or Monday. We have 30 days past closing to finish the repairs. I’m taking a pretty awesome loss on the house. There will be no money after I pay for the HVAC replacement and the other repairs. In fact, I’ll have to borrow money to finish the repairs. SO the hope of paying off the other credit cards and getting out of debt with this sale is an empty one. But it is what it is. I’m finished with that place and the stress and agony that it’s given me. I take with me the memories and the laughter and the backyard parties that brought us all such great times together. Julie will have a really safe and sturdy house to turn into a home with her own special magic. I can’t wait for it to be hers and not mine. So there is that for some forward motion!

The air is clean and crisp and while the temps are still scorching in the upper 90s during the day, the mornings are full of Fall. That makes me happy.

This weekend is the Gentlemen of the Road festival in Guthrie. It’ll be a fun time, and hopefully I’ll start getting excited about it soon. I’m excited to see Cindy and meet her fella. I’m excited to see Talaura and for all of us to have some facetime together. It’s going to be 98 on Saturday. That sucks. But the music will be great. Mumford & Sons, Alabama Shakes, Edward Sharpe. So good. As of now, there is no way I’m camping. I want to be home. But we’ll see what the week brings.

So ending the week by selling a house, seeing good friends, hearing great music?

That’s not a loss at all.