Just Call Me Frank: Our Endeavour at Being Frank: Oh, The Places We'll Go

Well, here is it...New Years Eve.

2013. Remember as a kid the year 2013 felt like forever away, and surely there would be flying cars, and robot servants (followed by a robot uprising), and all sorts of other bizarre futuristic things? Of course, those things do exist, just not how you thought they would. Give it a few more years. Shit just keeps getting stranger.

Time for reflection, or something, right? Fun.

This year has taken us so many places...and nowhere at all.

Living in England for several months. (glorious)
A road trip around North-Eastern United States with James (and meeting a whole bunch of people from Twitter!).
Two offers down on houses, both lost. (one pretty much stolen from us).
A seasonal job, our first job in the United States since 2004, since we last lived here. (the last day was December 24th)
Personal growth? Probably not. It's been a struggle of a year, mentally and physically (can't win them all...)

Here we are, still living in The Mother's basement (one of those things we didn't win); we expected to be not by now.

James got a job though, he should start promptly in the New Year (as soon as they get his urine test back). Good pay, with a good company. So that's awesome.

We (James, and us) have been seriously considering moving out of the city we currently reside in, to a town 40 miles away. It's small, with a population of less than 1000. The housing, both prices and taxes, are more affordable; the market where we are currently living being a seller's one. The idea of being so far removed from what we all consider civilization, is making us nervous. The cities nearby being what they are anyway (not very populated, and simply full of "box stores"), and not at all like the ones near the property we looked at this past summer, several hours away. It's making everyone involved nervous. It equals a long drive to work everyday, in the winter it can be dangerous. It equals a lack of culture, amenities, convinces; however, it also equals silence, few distractions, plenty of time for us to paint, to garden, to develop more recipes for a cookbook, and work on other writing. And generally get all the alone time we're likely to need, for a bit.

The primary residence of interest is a large white two-story, 3 bedroom turn-of-the-century house on a giant lot, with the potential to buy an empty lot next to it. The price is unbeatable, despite it needing massive amounts of work. It hasn't had a thing changed, interior wise, since at least the late 50's (some of us are excited about the interior design work that needs to be done). It also needs a new roof, and the siding could use a fresh coat of paint...at least. Probably the electrical needs to be updated. And it only has baseboard heating from what we can tell. It's marginally better than the previous house we put an offer on, and far better than our beloved Weeping Willow property (except for the lack of the 40 acres)

Probably the biggest thing? The day after Christmas we applied to go back to University, to finish a bachelors degree. The job market is limited with simply our culinary arts degree, and with the kind of physical problems we have; so after months of looking for work here at a wage we find fair, and coming up empty, we decided perhaps it'll be better to finish our degree. We have to do something, after all.

So, we're going to be a University student again...(if they re-admit us). There are a wise range of feelings about this.

It's part of a long-term goal anyway. Long-term, ha! Those never work out...but they are sometimes fun to make, as long as you don't get too "married" to them and can be flexible when things get uprooted.

So, this year has been one long "adventure", punctuated by sitting around, with promises of more to come in the New Year. Oh, the places we'll go (just a little homage to the late great Dr. Seuss).

In the meantime, why don't you sit around a little...and read some of our archives (or don't, what the fuck difference does it make).

While we've written loads over the last couple of years, the entries below are representative of some of the "better" (coherent, topical, apropos, etc.) things we've written, ranging from topics such as sex, life, mental illness/health, relationships, current events, art, philosophy, food, and more.

(Also: The Stories of Us - A grouping of all the entries we've written about our past. Contains some material not suitable for sensitive people and those under the age of 18.)