Underwater, sinking, drowning. & shoefetti

   Over the past few years the term underwater has come to mean something brand new to me. Hold your breath for as long as you can and hope you don't drown.
   I'm not talking about bikini bottom, or pirates of the Caribbean. I'm talking about my mortgage. Like many new homeowners over the past ten years, I was chasing a dream: start a family, own my own home, cars.. and flourish in my career. I already had three out of the four, so it was time to get out from under the reins of a landlord and into my own  home. My thinking at the time was.. just get a condo, let your investment grow and then get into a house. Now looking back on the situation. Oh, how i was wrong. When you buy a condo, you aren't just purchasing your own little piece of the earth (land, home and all). You are buying into a co-operative community that may not always work the way you want it to, spend the way you want it to or when you want it to. looking back, who knew the condo was 30-40 thousand dollars over priced? who knew that the condo association had the right to and would impose 3,4,5 thousand dollars in special fees (assessments) in a two year period. Who knew? So under water, gasping for air, with no life vest. is there a life guard on duty?  okay one too many water analogies.

     The bottom line is that the economy is bad. No one saw it coming. Many good people have fallen victim to it. But we can make it out. I guess if this is my official permanent record, i have to be honest about what is going on. All that under water, Special assessment stress leads to the big F-word- Foreclosure. To be honest, I really don't want to talk about it, but I guess i have to and need to. It's not one of those things that anyone plans to go through in their life. And if you have to go through it you probably only want to go through it once.  Why because i puts a lot of unnecessary stress on marriages, relationships & individuals. Foreclosure sounds bad but when weighed up against the option of not paying for my way to get to work, my son to go to preschool or my tithes, .. something has to give.
    that's all i can think of to write on this subject for now.. maybe next time I'll have some tips for making sure you move into a nice neighborhood.. Tip 1. look for sneakers hanging from telephone wires.  or shoefetti (does that really still mean the same thing?) Wikipedia of course has a bunch of inconclusive explanations for them.
 1. gang territory
 2.crack or heroin house is nearby
 3.someone died.
 4.bullying
   I don't care what the reason is.. I don't want to be in a neighborhood where they can't keep their shoes on their feet.