Three Weeks Until The Move....I Hope.

The move is almost here. I am, in fact, not ready. This week cause the harsh realization of that through three events.

1) My movers cancelled. I had a contract with Bekins that Justin and I worked out over three months ago where I would not have to do it last minute. I called them, and they basically blew me off saying there was a problem with having enough drivers. Please note that Bekins is one of the largest moving van lines in the U.S. I find this hard to believe. Luckily, after a lot of searching Condor Moving Systems out of Arlington, TX was able to take my move. The packing has to be done by me (0r my friends helping!). This makes it less expensive, but now there is three weeks to pack my house. I should also throw in that the smaller company had a much more realistic quote. Bekins actually said that my house was the same weight as when my parents last moved their full 4 bedroom house (around 6500 lbs). My house has one full bedroom, kitchen and living room - oh and one more twin bed. The new moving people estimated 3200 lbs - much more reasonable and not a ripoff. That problem solved.

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2) With all of the new requirements for a mortgage we had a few problems trying to close our house. See, when we did the paperwork to begin with we qualified with no catches. We got our construction loan with a nice interest rate of 5.00% - that would then be bought by our VA Mortgage that would kick in during August. Mortgage paperwork is a beast, as some of your know. But, it is only good for about 2-3 months. Our house took a bit longer than that. Thus, I had to redo the paperwork. This time there was a different underwriter involved, Chase Bank. They had also upped their requirements a bit. We had to send in letters explaining some less than perfect things on the credit, and even letting them have copies of my undergraduate and graduate transcripts (weird huh?). After sending in these letters explaining why Justin and I had two addresses (like duh???), and that my degree was in the same thing my job was in, it was suppose to take 48 hours to get a response. Well, it took three weeks! They left use squirming - with the possibility that we would not get the loan. If you are wondering this means that the construction loan would not be paid off, the house would go to the bank, and then foreclose. All this after being APPROVED! I got calls from the builder who was panicking, and tons from my loan agent who had no news, after no news. I decided to apply for another loan through the bank that did the construction loan. About the time that all that paperwork was done, the loan officer called and said we were approved with an interest rate of 7.00%. At least I now have a house to have the stuff delivered to. Being an adult is complex.

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3) Then there is my dissertation. I will have to be a little less specific here because nothing is really decided, but we have a lot of complications that have arisen. I thought it would be quite easy to finish up by August and take my data to Ferrum with me. After that all I would have to do was the write-up, and everything would be great. What I did not count on was delays in the dissertation from outside, unpredictable forces. Right now there is a break in my research, which makes it possible that I will not be able to get everything done before I go. If this is the case there is an issue as to actually being able to complete everything I need. I have a great team of RAs to help, but until we can get into the lab and get back to work there is not much I can do other than work on getting ready to leave. the software programs that I need to analyze my data are quite expensive, and only available in the lab. Once I leave I will either have to buy my own copy, or find another way to do what I need. I should know in a few days what I am going to need to do to complete my dissertation - and this could be different from the original idea. My dissertation committee will probably have to meet come up with a solution to the current roadblock. I will keep you all posted, at least as much as I can.

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