Last night I was talked into going to the bar in Fort Mac by Sister and Peter. The rational was that it was their leaving ESS party. Can't argue with that. So we went, we drank, we danced, we drank, we danced a lot more, I woke up this morning drunk. The waking up drunk was a new experience... as was feeling like utter shit this morning. Remember why I pretty much stopped drinking in camp months ago. Over all everyone that attended agreed that it was a phenomenal time. Now if my calves would just stop throbbing...

After reading the Strata minutes last night the unease I've had in my gut increased. After being tormented by the decision today I officially retracted my offer for the condo. It's kind of upsetting to me in one sense but on the other hand I'm actually feeling pretty at ease with the decision.

There were two main factors that were bugging me. The first was obviously the price of the mortgage I would have to get. As I saw it by getting the mortgage I was essentially denying myself the right to tell the company to go F themselves if I ever really just had it. I'd be tying myself to this job and the big money for a long time. The second factor was that the strata was very hardline against rentals in any form. Even if I had a room-mate in the place with me being away all the time for work the strata could start to cause problems by claiming that I was renting, due to my low occupancy rate. In the meeting it was documented twice that people had bought and were asking the strata to rent, for good reasons, and the strata turned them down flat. In each of these cases the units sat empty for very long times and I don't really want to be paying for an extremely expensive "hotel".

Overall I made a logical decision and I suppose I'm pleased with that but my emotions aren't exactly feeling that right now.

I'm feeling low.

Honestly I didn't think that I'd be writing about mortgage woes before I even had one... Turns out that a certain Orange bank thinks I'm not necessarily a good credit risk. How are they basing this decision? Well because I'm new to my job they don't want to take the risk that I'm not excellent at it. So I had to get my Dad to guarantee it... at least until I've been with the company for 6 months.

So after we got that fixed up I anxiously awaited a call today telling me if they have been magnanimous enough to grant me the priviledge of paying them a great deal of money for many, many years. The call came and... the bastard at the other end told me that I have "significant debt"! Well let me tell you, that was a fucking shock to me.

The Money Monkey then asked me if I could pay any of it down. I asked him what the hell he was talking about. Turns out that my AMEX bill last month was $230 and my Visa was around $300. He didn't tell me that these numbers were from last month so I had a hell of a time figuring out what the hell he was talking about, as I pay my credit cards off every month. That and my line of credit balance of around $900 and the balance left to pay off my car (which is below $5,000) were enough for them to have to think seriously about my eligibility.

The fact that I have a $20,000 down payment and a flawless credit record seem to mean nothing. So as it stands now I'm going to see what happens on Monday before I go the alternate routes I was considering with either the bank or the credit union who have both been actively pursuing my business. I can tell you one thing the Orange bank should change it's advertising because they're not friendly or remotely helpful. I plan on doing my damnedest to let everyone I know about this experience. Likely won't make a big difference in the long run but it'll make me happy knowing that I may have cost them at least one customer.


PS - I'm closing my accounts with them on Tuesday regardless.

THEY ACCEPTED MY OFFER! KELOWNA HERE I COME!

Well I put an offer in on the apartment that I was looking at. After looking at 5 others, just for the sake of making sure there was nothing else out there I wanted, I put an offer in on the original one that I liked. The other's had a number of things wrong with them. In one you could hear the traffic through the walls, in a couple of others the floors were totally destroyed (new carpets and lino needed), in the other's I hated the location. So I put an offer in on the first one I looked at, to be honest it's the one I wanted in the first place, and they came back at $10,000 more than I offered.

This is actually a good thing because I offered them $20,000 less than their asking price. So I am planning on offering them another $5,000 tomorrow knowing full well that they're going to likely stick to their price. Then I'm going to tell them that I'll happily take their price but I want their living room furniture (including the flat screen TV). So we'll see. I'm excited. Stay tuned for updates...

After spending much of the day with Janet yesterday I decided that today I would look into this whole house buying business that seems to be the rage with the kids. So I went onto MLS and started to look around. Well wouldn't you know it but the condo I've been dreaming about was there.

The place is in the building in downtown Kelowna that I lived in once-upon-a-time and that I loved. The suite is bigger than the one I was in and is a corner suite so it's got tons of windows and natural light. The current owners were clever enough to put laminate and tile in throughout. The kitchen is huge, the ensuite is huge, the walk in closet is not so huge... but you can still walk into it. The coulours on the walls were perfect. The only thing not perfect about it would be the $1,400+ a month mortgage payment. Even though I can easily afford that now... it's the commitment that scares the living bejeezus out of me.

This is tough though. Frankly I don't think that it's going to get cheaper to buy a house anytime soon.

I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote. Work has been so psychotically busy it's just sick. Things are going good but I'm really looking forward to going home again. This time in I've been dealing with some sporadic sever depression that I think is a result of being exhausted a lot. Just to be sure though I've got an appointment with my naturalpath while I'm home.

Right now I'm procrastinating on packing. Can't figure out why because I really want to go home... but I pack so much I'm tired of it.