Warning: This post written while
Warning: This post written while stinking up the joint. I just got back from the gym
Sorry I haven’t been around, loyal reader(s?) of Where There’s Smoke. Between moving plans and finishing up a long interview with Jennfier Egan, the week has left the station with me stranded on the platform. Odd, I’ve only been blogging here for about 6 months (maybe more? I haven’t kept track), but I can tell when I haven’t posted in a little while. It’s a bit akin to the sour, metallic taste you get in your mouth if you haven’t brushed in a while.
So hey. Plans on buying the house are proceeding apace. My real estate agent (an old friend and the only way to go if you’re voluntarily morgaging your life away) is out of town this weekend so we’ve gone ahead and scheduled the inspection for next week. I didn’t know this but if you’re buying property, you want an expert to look it over, make sure the walls will hold up the ceiling, that water will flow when you turn a faucet and that a termite metropolis hasn’t sprung up in the floor. After that, you apply for a loan, bicker with the bank over how much they’ll give you, let the seller know, pay a bunch of other assorted fees, hopefully close on the property before an earthquake reduces it to matchsticks and then between paying mortage, property taxes, and climbing that mythical thing to nowhere called The Equity Ladder.
Or so I’m told. There are some other steps in here but I don’t remember. I’ve been trusting Britton the agent and she’s kept me afloat thus far.
To others possibly in the same boat (at last count, my friend Dinah had just moved to town, my friends Mena and Ben Trott may be on their way, and my youngest brother Daniel has his eye on the East Bay), I offer an excellent essay by my colleague at The Grotto, Ethan Waters.
Tomorrow is the Alternative Press Expo, a huge convening of over two hundred independent presses, zinesters, independent comic artists, and other assorted media weirdness. I’m so there. And thanks to the way-with-it creator of Wishbone Zine for keeping me in the loop.