The little things, Part IV

Last night Evy and I stayed up far past our bedtime, simply talking. Both of us were extremely tired, but we were discussing how lucky we are to be in the situation that we are in, and how happy we are with how things are going for us. A lot of people thought we were crazy for wanting to move to what they considered a "third world country", but people who have that opinion about Bulgaria really don't know what they are talking about.

Sure, the countryside can be a bit backwards, but so can the countryside in France, in Greece, or Italy. Hell, even the backwoods of Alabama can be Deliverance-style scary if you get right down to it. Every country out there, no matter how technologically and economically advanced, has its backwoods areas. Places were technology is scarce, and where the people are viewed as "dimwits" or "hillbillies" because they lack the sophistication of the city-bred folk.

We live in the city. Cities are the same, world-wide, for the most part. We have all the amenities we had back in Greeley, Colorado, but our cost of living is 400-500 USD a month rather than 4500 USD a month. To us it was a no-brainer. 4 thousand dollars a month difference in living expenses, for the same amenities?

That's neither here nor there, I suppose, as I've talked about it a lot in other blog posts. Last night in particular we were talking about the little things that make us happy. Her work is going good. She might be upset with me for discussing it here, but I will anyway :) Evy is a very passive individual. Very passive. She made a mental choice last month to stop being so passive when it came to work, and the results are already paying off. And she was talking last night about how refreshing it is to be in charge of her work, rather than just keeping her head down and doing what everyone else tells her to do.

I have always found taking initiative to be invigorating. I am a firm believer in taking charge of your own destiny. The only person standing in the way of your success is...you. The sky's the limit. The world is your oyster. [insert cheesy upbeat phrase here] And while I may not have always used the best means in order to motivate her (she has sometimes gotten quite irritated at me for what she says is "riding her butt" about being more aggressive), even she admitted last night that she is seeing a big difference in the quality of her life after she made the conscious choice to start taking life by the horns instead of only taking what was dished out to her.

Co-workers are complimenting her on a daily basis now. Evy walked in and took what was a chaotic mess of an accounting system and single-handedly fixed the other guy's mistakes within a week's worth of time. The girls she works with have taken notice, and are extremely happy. They are coming to her now, instead of the other guy. She has been introducing herself to new clients who walk through the door, earning their trust and doing their procedures for them, transitioning from simply the desk girl who does an occasional procedure to "one of the girls", who also happens to take care of all the accounting as well.

The hard part has been she is part-time when school is in session, but she has a good 4 month run right now to really establish herself more than she did last year, and I think she's finally looking forward to it. Where her job was just kind of "meh" last year, now it has turned into an exciting time for her, and that's a "little thing" that should be taken note of.

We were also talking about the little things we still have left in my sister's garage. Last year shipping was outrageous, and the boxes were going to cost 500+ USD per to ship, and it's just stuff like DVDs, books, random coffee table accessories and sentimental objects. But prices are down to 200 USD per box at the moment, and looking to get even cheaper, so I put in a request for full-time work to my clients for July and August, to make an extra few thousand. The goal? Well, we still have a 2 thousand dollar credit card to pay off. Then we have 5 boxes to ship, so there's 3k we need. Above and beyond that we were talking last night about taking a nice little 4 day romantic trip to Rome sometime in late September, or perhaps going down to the Lecce region of Puglia to take part in the wine festivals that Cinzia talked about over on her and her sister's website. Late fall, when the weather has cooled off some. We both loved Rome, but hated going in July. It was 42 degrees at 9 a.m. and by 3 p.m. it was 46 degrees, which is just mind-bogglingly hot.

So there's a few things we'd like to get accomplished this year, and there's a motivation for us to do so. As a result, she's going to push extra hard at her work, and I'm going to put my novel work on the back-burner for a couple of months and focus instead on transitioning into full-time freelancing for a couple of months, rather than just 3-4 hours a day.

We also have been talking about a car. We don't need one. Not in the least. The tram is right out our front door. The subway is a 5 min tram ride or a 10 min walk. We live on the main strip through downtown Sofia, so transportation is not an issue. However, there is also the downside that, for example, if we want to take a weekend trip to the seaside, we have to take a bus. And neither one of us likes taking a bus. It sucks. So we have been debating buying a little Audi A3 or a Volkswagen Golf or Polo. Something that's like a 2002 or so, for around 3-4k Euro. A little something that won't matter if it gets a little dinged up (impossible to avoid living in a city like Sofia; the people drive like idiots here, there's nowhere to park, people slam their car doors into your vehicle because you have to park so close, etc), that we only drive once a month or so for those special occasions when it would be convenient to have a vehicle. The only thing that we know for certain is that we won't be worrying about one until we can afford to buy it in full. We are so close to being debt-free that the last thing either one of us wants to do is turn around and strap ourselves with another debt.

So...lots of little things this month. Some to be happy for, others to look forward to. June has been a good month so far :)