Life is a Constant Change
From the summer of 2005 up to the summer of 2009, my life has gone through 3 major changes that all resulted in a change of address.
Late spring of ‘05, my dad paid a visit to his cousin in Vegas. When he came back to Jersey after Memorial Day weekend, he and my mom started to explore the idea of relocating to Sin City. On June 6, the day of my birthday, our house went on the market. By mid-summer, I found a new place to live, and my parents had decided against moving to Las Vegas. They were convinced that their new hometown was going to be Houston instead.
Moving Out - Date: August 2005. My new place was much closer to work, more accessible to friends, and right in the heart of our usual hang out – New Brunswick. My landlord doubled as my new housemate – a fabulous, kind-hearted gay man. He was Will, and I, Grace. I was single, independent and having the time of my life.
My friend Mike lived ten minutes away from New Brunswick, so hanging out was quite convenient . Well, what do you know, our new proximity made our hearts grow fonder. Our constant exposure to each other mutated our friendship into something deeper. Our relationship began. My life as I knew it, had changed.
Mike and I got engaged in October last year. Not long after that, we started planning a wedding. And very soon after that, we realized what, or I should say how much it takes to get married nowadays. Hence we also started saving up for the wedding.
Moving In - Date: February 2009 . I moved out of my place in New Brunswick and moved into Mike’s condo in Princeton. This was something we both thought we’d never do. The place in New Brunswick was always a place where I can go home to, even though towards the end it really only served as a giant storage space for me. It also became difficult to keep track of which of my clothes are at my place, and which were at his. Even then,I always imagined maintaining this aspect of my independence up until we get married. Having my own space was sort of my pride. Besides, he and I had previously discussed NOT living together before marriage. We wanted to look forward to that official ‘adjustment period’ after the wedding, to experiencing the thrill behind the unleashing of the unknown.
But one has to be practical these days. Why should I continue paying rent when I could be putting that money away towards our wedding photographer’s fee? In any case, not having my own place where I could crash if I wanted some space or a taste of solitude was a concept I had to get used to and accept. Two distinct spaces (with quite a few things in them) merging into one is no laughing matter. On top of that, sharing a closet with someone else was a league on its own! My life as I knew it, had changed.
And so Mike and I cohabited in the 950 sq. ft. 3rd floor condo that we named ‘Sparta’. We loved Sparta’s location, we were happy, content and completely open to the idea that we’d probably continue living in Sparta even after we got married, or heck, even after having our first kid a couple of years down the road. However, looking at the real estate market is a pastime for us, if only to see what’s out there. We also like going to open houses, if only to look at how sellers decorate or stage their houses. We had no pre-meditated plans to buy a house. But things happened fast, and the timing of everying was akin to a perfect storm.
Moving Together - Date: May 2009. We bought a house together and it was yet another move for me. And it was so soon since my last move too. It’s okay though because this time it is ours. Not his alone, or his first, but ours at the same time. And now that I have a place that I can finally and truly call MY HOME, my life as I’ve known it, has changed.
I’m aware that more changes will come, some may be expected, and others not. I used to reject change and fight it with my feet kicking and lungs screaming. Through the years, I’ve learned to embrace it and accept it as a part of pro-active living. These changes have brought me to the present – the ‘now’. I can only savor the present moment and eagerly anticipate what tomorrow brings.
Gabbages Revival
Blogging is something that I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed, whether it’s writing posts, or reading entertaining blogs made by interesting people. I started blogging in 2002, junior year of college. When senior year hit, I got busy with an internship and trying to graduate so the blogging stopped. In 2005, I created the site Gabbages.net, and RELIGIOUSLY blogged. Late in that year, the servers of my hosting company crashed, and all of my posts were lost. I was devastated.
All that hard work poured into building what I had, all the hours, all those thoughts and memories so meticulously logged — were gone just like that. I didn’t keep any local copies of my posts in my computer, and would blog directly on the web interface. BIG MISTAKE!
The entire blog database and the automatic backup files were wiped out. The thought of backups getting destroyed never even crossed my mind. I complacently believed that disaster recovery procedures would come to the rescue if ever something bad were to happen. I thought people doing their jobs were reliable. But I learned the hard way. I don’t even know if the company had a disaster recovery plan in place at all or whether the people they employed were even competent.
Needless to say, I terminated their services – FAST. However, I didn’t quite as quickly rebuild my blog. I dreaded the thought of starting from scratch again, and the reminder of the year of hard work that I had lost stirred up anger, not motivation.
For the past four years, I’ve been paying for the services of another hosting company to host pretty much nothing, with the thought that someday I will blog again.
That someday is now. I’ve learned my lesson and will back up often. Hopefully Gabbages is here to stay and nothing else gets in the way.