Nora, you guys are going to be just fine. I TOTALLY get the panic. TOTALLY. But, it's gonna be ok. Freak out here. That's what we're here for.

Just a hunk of fabric and one single needle -- they can't possibly have a problem with that.

Nope. I can't imagine that they will. I've never had a problem with that kind of stuff.

I have great fear, every time I read the business section (which I now do voraciously) that we were just fucking stupid to buy at the top of the housing market and that we will be screwed. I try to talk myself out of panic by thinking, it'll be OK, we love our house, and if it is hard to sell it, it'll be OK. We have absolutely no expectation of making a huge profit off of it, as our sellers did. I'm just afraid that we did something completely stupid and we will take a financial bath.

Nora, as someone who's more or less in the industry, don't worry about it. You're not looking for an investment property, you're looking for a home for the two of you.

Markets go up and down, and then up again. Even if house prices are a real roller-coaster over the next few years, none of that affects you in the slightest, because your house won't be on the market. It'll be providing you and Tom with a place to keep all your hopes and dreams.

Lukas and TJ have numerous computers and I'll have easy access to my profile addy.

Nora, everyone (in the media) had best step off and leave your brain alone. Your house is beautiful. If you're planning on living in it for a few years, and you never were pinning all your hopes on turning around and selling it for a big profit, you're fine. The tiny handful of realtor's pictures I saw online just knocked me out -- it's elegant and quirky and just utterly lovely, and you get to LIVE IN IT. It's YOURS. That beautiful place is the place you get to go to when you go home. It has a nice kitchen and a guest room and a washer/dryer, and it's where you share a bed with your beloved husband Tom. It's worth it.

And if, God forbid, something financially rotten happened and you had to sell it unexpectedly, you'll manage. You'll survive, and you'll find someplace else to live, and you'll most likely do just fine because it really is a treasure of a house, and if (again, God forbid) you ever had to put it up on the market, someone would come along and fall in love with it just as you did.

Just heard back from the dude that offered me a job at the beginning of the summer. He said they are all set for the summer but to please contact him after Labor Day as they will likely need one or two people then.

I'll keep looking in the meantime, but that's good to have in my back pocket.

If you're planning on living in it for a few years, and you never were pinning all your hopes on turning around and selling it for a big profit, you're fine.

Nora, repeat this over and over, because it's the point. If you're planning on living there a while and can afford the mortgage, it doesn't really matter what housing prices are doing today.

Thanks for the interview~ma. I am now bejobbed! (I likes making up words.)

I really hope I'm doing the right thing. I'm taking a huge pay cut, but I try to keep telling myself that if my job makes me physically ill, it's worth it.

I only wish I was quitting in time to meet JZ and hang with the Somervillains! pout.

And Nora, JZ said what I was thinking, and better than I could. Love your house and tell the media to shove it! (See? When JZ writes, it's all magical. I use phrases like "shove it".)

am now bejobbed! (I likes making up words.)

You got it? YAY!

I did! And when they said "Of course, all the major holidays off, including the day after Thanksgiving," I almost cried.

The other cool thing is that they originally set out to make the job temp to hire, but decided on direct hire for me.

It's nothing special- I told my friend Abby it was like George's job on Dead Like Me. Not the cool reaping, the OTHER one. I shall dub my workplace Happy Time.

Oh, that's wonderful, Lilty! I'm so happy for you.

Even if house prices are a real roller-coaster over the next few years, none of that affects you in the slightest, because your house won't be on the market. It'll be providing you and Tom with a place to keep all your hopes and dreams.

Aww, that's a nice image. Thanks y'all. I have been saying a lot of this stuff to Tom, because he also is concerned, so being able to freak out about it a bit here helps, so I can put my logical face on. And now I feel a little better, like maybe I'm not lying to him when I say stuff like you guys said above.

If you're planning on living in it for a few years, and you never were pinning all your hopes on turning around and selling it for a big profit, you're fine.

Nora, repeat this over and over, because it's the point. If you're planning on living there a while and can afford the mortgage, it doesn't really matter what housing prices are doing today.

I may well print it out and tape it above my desk.

Thanks for listening to my freakout. Some of it is based in total Nora illogic... like, for the first time in my life, I'm financially OK... and being responsible and seeing the benefits of that... so obvously, something must go terribly terribly wrong or I fucked SOMETHING up without even knowing it.