infections and condos and workouts, oh my!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

After the newness of the tattoo had worn off (and it had gone into scabbing over and drying out phase - the icky part of the process no one really tells you about) I began to focus on two things: 1)Getting out of this crowded house and 2)putting my all-over health plan into effect.

I looked at a couple apartments in the neighborhood of my job and quickly found out that it would be impossible for me to get an apartment of my own. The rents here are from $600 to $800 for a one-bedroom and $900 plus for a two bedroom. The one bedroom is out. I can't afford it. The two bedroom would work with a roommate, but I'm nervous about having someone new live with me. Then, I found out that I couldn't get a two bedroom in my name anyway, because they want you to make some ungodly amount more than the rent. Soooo.....I researched more options. Either move in to an already established household with a room for rent (thus opening up the whole fear of roommates thing again) or buy something.

Now, I am the last person who I know who I would think could buy and own a home. I make very little, have a lot of debt, and have little savings for a down payment. Low and behold, the magic of low income, community programs for people like me. At Station Casinos we have a program that works with HFN (Housing for Nevada) where they help you with the financial obligations (down payment, appliances, etc.) and counsel you with the rest of what goes on with purchasing and owning a home successfully. I got the application and did some more research. For my purposes, this would be my last resort, because it MUST be owner occupied and then when you decide to sell, HFN gets first dibs on buying it back and making it available for other program participants. That's fine but it is unclear if any profit is made when you sell and that scares me, defeating the purpose of investing in property to begin with!

My boyfriend's best friend (who's a realtor) gave me the name of his mortgage guy and I met with him. He told me my debt to income was too high and that he couldn't help me. I wasn't really discouraged because he was honest, but luckily I know there is another option. NACA, Neighborhood Assistance Corp of America, is similar to HFN, but even more involved and, according to a lender friend of mine, one of the best deals around right now. NACA helps you with the down payment, gives you a low fixed mortgage rate, is more "character based" when it comes to your credit score, and has more lenient restrictions when it comes to debt to income ratios. They counsel you throughout the entire time you own your home and encourage you to participate in their program to help other low income people purchase homes. They require you attend a workshop and then one-on-one appointment. I'm kinda excited. If this ends up working out, I could own a condo here in Vegas and have a $400 dollar mortgage payment. Doesn't make a lot of sense to rent, when a mortgage is less expensive and works more to your advantage in your financial future, does it? My workshop is on Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.

As far as the health plan, I cut out certain foods, bulk up on the healthier foods, eat more often, and have smaller portions. Also, I started working out with weights and doing 25 minutes of cardio a day. Two days of the week I do 45 minutes of cardio. Let me tell you. I was sore, but I found I was sleeping better and wasn't tired throughout the day like I used to be. I had energy and looked forward to coming home from work, working out and taking a hot shower. I'm happy with my results so far.

The last of my news is unfortunate. Friday my tattoo is mega itchy and bright red. I don't think much of it because it's at the tail end of the healing phase. At work, I show it to my boss and she says it doesn't look right and to ask. I ask a woman who has tattoos and she says it doesn't look right, that its infected, and to put ointment on it. I call my tattoo place and they tell me I won't die and it will go away. I'm okay with that until I get home and pull out my trusty laptop. I look up people with infected tattoos and my symptoms are similar. Bright red, the skin is hot to the touch, itchy, and swelling. My ankle below the tat is swelling up too. Online they have mixed pieces of advice. Some say it will go away on its own, others say go to doctor immediately to get antibiotics. I call my insurances 24 hour hotline and the nurse says go to the doctor, even though they are more worried that the tattoo artist wasn't reputable and they gave me Hepatitis or Tetanus. But I watched the artist go through her motions and everything was either brand spanking new out of the bag or heavily sterilized. I was worried that something on my hands or under my nails got into my wound and infected my blood in a bad way. I needed to see a doctor for piece of mind.

I did not want to go to Urgent Care. I didn't want to spend my Friday night waiting around for hours for a doctor to look at it and hand over antibiotics. Urgent Care is for emergencies, not infected tattoos. So even though my insurance didn't cover it, I headed over to the nearest Walgreens Take Care Clinic. I had never been but thought I'd try it, even without them taking my insurance. I'm glad I did. With no one in line, I checked in within 2 minutes on the computer and the nurse took me right in. She asked me some questions, looked at it, and knew exactly what it was, Cellulitis, and how to treat it. She told me what to expect, how to deal and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. My prescription was free and on Wednesday she said to stop by and she'd let me know if I needed to keep taking the antibiotics. $60 was worth the hours I would have waited at Urgent Care. It's getting better, but still looks wicked and I want to scratch it right off sometimes! I love the design sooo much though. Even the doctor commented how cool it was! :-)

Other than that, I lugged my book out to work on the edits. I haven't been doing much on it, but I've been reading. I thought I'd expand my horizons and read a mystery. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Series, A is for Alibi. So far I'm enjoying it. Very succinct writing, but amazing descriptions. Millhone is a straight-laced, tough-talking detective, yet she knows people so well.
Here's one of her best....

I cleaned my place, did laundry, went to the supermarket, and had a nice visit in the afternoon with my landlord, who was sunning himself in the backyard. For a man of eighty-one, Henry Pitts has an amazing set of legs. He also has a wonderful beaky nose, a thin aristocratic face, shocking white hair, and eyes that are periwinkle blue. The overall effect is very sexy, electric, and the photographs I've seen of him in his youth don't even compare. At twenty and thirty and forty, Henry's face seems too full, too unformed. As the decades pass, the pictures begin to reveal a man growing lean and fierce, until now he seems totally concentrated, like a basic stock boiled down to a rich elixir.

This is what makes me want to write.

Quote of the Day: When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence. ~Samuel Butler