#2083 two out of four

Last year on my birthday, in 2017, I had myself a bit of a mid-life crisis. I remember telling MT that I wanted four things: a new house, a new car, a tattoo and a nose piercing. To his credit, MT didn't get all freaked out about my proclamation. Instead, he focused on the one that was most interesting to him: a new house.

He had a million questions. Did I want a new house to live in or was I looking to become an investor? (To live in.) Was I interested in the one he was currently fixing up? (No.) Where did I want to live? (Not on a busy, noisy street.) What were my must haves? (Laundry on the main floor, rambler if possible, nice yard with trees, quiet street, not on a corner, bathroom on the main floor, four bedrooms, at least two bathrooms, gas appliances.) He added a few must haves of his own; I'm pretty sure I wrote everything down. We talked about what we would do with this house: keep it and rent it out or sell it. We made a list of things we would like to do to this house to get it to sell for top dollar. Then that was pretty much the end of that conversation and although we have talked about it in 14 months since that 2017 birthday proclamation, we haven't done anything else about it. I'd still kinda like to have a different house, but it's not a burning need.

I decided not to get my nose pierced after I read a book in which a middle-aged woman such as myself got a nose ring and a teenage character in the book wailed to her own mother, "What is she trying to do? Be young?" Plus I just don't know if I would like to have a sharp little stick in my nostril. Scratch that one off the list.

Which brings me to the tattoo. After my June 2017 proclamation, I started looking at tattoo designs on Pinterest (of course) and on people. There are a LOT of people of all ages with tattoos these days. Some look good and some don't. I thought a lot about where I would be tattooed and what it would be like to have some art on my body all the time forever and ever. A year went by and my tattoo board on Pinterest had lots of pins. On my birthday this year, I decided that I really did want to get a tattoo and I got serious about what it would be and where it would go and who would put it there.

Earlier this month I made an appointment at SLC Ink with a sweet girl called Keely and I got a tattoo of a sea turtle with a map of the world on his shell. It's on my right forearm. It's about two or three inches long. I totally love it!

An extra fun part is that T wanted a tattoo also, so we went together. Keely did T's first since he had somewhere to be that evening. I watched him get a yin yang symbol with the word BALANCE under it. It looks great and he is very happy with it. (I took this photo right after it was done, so his skin is red from the tattoo process and there's a lot of ink above and below the tattoo itself that got cleaned up.)

You know how they say that tattoos are addictive? I am already thinking about my next tattoo. I have a design in mind. I don't know when it will happen, but I'm pretty sure it will.

I wrote before about T's car getting rear-ended earlier this month. The insurance company declared it a total loss and a settlement has been reached. In the meantime, T has been driving my car, Ford, and I have been driving a rental car. Until yesterday, that is. I bought myself a new car! It is a Subaru Crosstrek, a car I've been wanting for several years. I'm excited and happy about it. It looks just like this:

I'm sorry that T's car bit the dust, but it has worked out for both of us, I think. He will buy Ford from me for a very reasonable, family-friendly price, so he gets a nice car that he will be able to drive for awhile. I'm not much of a car person, but this car is what I really wanted instead of what I settled for and that's a great feeling. For a mid-life crisis car, this one is damn sensible!

So from my mid-life crisis list, I have two out of the four things I thought I wanted. I do think we will move in a few years - who knows for sure when? I'm pretty sure I won't get a piercing, and that I'll replace that with a second tattoo sometime.

Woooooooooo!