Hunting high and low... mostly low...

We're looking to buy a house.

We have visited SO MANY houses recently, and looked at SO MANY MORE listings online that they are all starting to run together.

Like so many things, house-hunting, to me, is a really fun idea to talk about and play around with...

But a really, really, horrible, existential, soul-reaving process in which your very notions of priority, maturity, budgeting and self-esteem are blown to pieces, baked in a pie, and served back to you in relentless perpetuity.

It's also very complicated for first-timers. No wonder so many people screw it up, get foreclosed on, and ruin the world's economy.

But hey - you know - NO PRESSURE.

I say all that to say:

We actually found a house we like. It's a little farther out from work than I'd like (it's in Katy, TX), but it's very cool, within our price range, a good size, and in a great neighborhood.

We're meeting with the Realtor tonight to work out the details of an offer.

I'm scared to death. I don't understand why everybody else is NOT scared to death of committing to something for 30 years. Renting feels very, very safe to me right now.

Nevertheless! -we are pressing forward. And yes, I'm actually a little excited. There are a lot of pieces to consider, and a lot of hoops to jump through. Plenty can go wrong.

Now I can die in peace...

Reading back over the last few posts, I noticed a couple of things I had mentioned off hand that I wanted to follow up on.

Namely -

I HAVE GENERAL ADMISSION FLOOR TICKETS TO
U2 @ RELIANT STADIUM ON OCTOBER 14, 2009!!
(Muse is opening)

Patrick Gilgour bought them for me as a "birthday present". As promised, he is hereby exempt from all future birthday, Christmas, and anniversary presents (You're still on the hook for baby showers, though, suckachump!).

Now I can die in peace.

Secondly, Abz and I leave early tomorrow morning with our friends Raine and Andrew Neilson for The World's Best Vacation of 2009 (so far)!! Codename: Project Rodent. We're going to Disney World (again)!!! We're staying at the plush Sheraton Vistana Villages in Orlando, and spending 5+ days park hopping, relaxing, and playing LOTS of Settlers of Catan. Wish you were there butnotreally!! Comment with your address, and I'll send you a picture e-mail from EPCOT!!

Lastly - My summer reading list.

As soon as I finish High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, I'll be reading:

Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostriecher

The Reason For God by Tim Keller

A Christianity Worth Believing by Doug Pagitt

and just for fun,

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

And hopefully LOTS and LOTS of comic books, namely the Batman: Battle for the Cowl, and Green Lantern: Blackest Night series.

What are you reading?

Also - do YOU have U2 tickets?

Marriage

Sometimes... when my wife and I are getting dressed in the morning... independently of each other... we end up wearing almost exactly the same outfit. It's weird because she usually picks her clothes out first, and I don't see her until she is almost all put together.

I guess what I'm saying is that - in a really uncanny way, I think I can sub-consciously sense my wife's color and pattern vibes and misread them as original thoughts on what I'M supposed to wear that day.

This morning we both wore jeans and a green t-shirt. Sometimes she gets mad when it happens, as if I were doing it on purpose. I actually think it's sweet, and kind of hilarious. Sometimes I even change my clothes when I notice.

Let me make one thing clear: I would NEVER intentionally dress just like my wife, unless we were going as chaperones to the Parkview Baptist School Homecoming dance in 1994.
If you live with someone for a while, you start to become like them in little ways. Have you ever heard about how if women live in the same house for a long time, their menstrual cycles can start to synchronize? Two thoughts.
A) Whew! NO THANKS!
and
B) This is kind of how I think about the whole dressing-alike thing. I don't have a menstrual cycle, so maybe this is the next closest thing.
And that, friends, is what marriage means to me.