Well, after a pretty rough and stressful first few weeks, things are finally settling in.
We found home! We ended up choosing a place in Ft. Lauderdale rather than Miami. It wasn't an intentional choice, but rather a very random collection of factors. We needed to get into a place quickly as our time at the AirBnb was running out and we didn't want to spend another $3,000 to $4,000 on a place. Also, one of my roommates was living out of hotel rooms and wasn't keen on doing that for longer than a month. On top of that, the housing market in Miami is all over the place. We couldn't get anyone to contact us when we asked to view properties unless we were applying essentially without even viewing the place. Most of the apartments were taken almost as soon as they were posted online. We did talk to several real estate agents, but they either stopped talking to us after sending photos and promising to set up viewings with the management or kept saying "We'll be in touch to set up a meeting," and never did so.
Enter the place we ended up getting. It was the first place that actually set up an appointment for the next day to let us see the unit. When we got there, the unit was already taken, but they had another property with several units in our price range that were ready to move in. Needless to say, we picked up some tricks. Even though it's located much farther away from one of my roommate's work place that we liked, we jumped on applying for the place as soon as we got back from viewing the property. Three days later, we were approved. Five days later, we moved in.
We've been here four days now and it's been a whirlwind of ordering furniture and setting things up. Honestly, I'm really happy so far. It's in a quiet area with tons of places located nearby - we have a Target and a mall within a five-minute drive, so that's a win to me. It's very dog friendly. And well, compared to Korean apartments, there is a ton of space and storage. I have my room and bathroom set up the way I want, minus wall art (which is coming next week).
I also got a job! It's remote and the pay is good compared to the hours. I'll have plenty of free time to focus on writing and finding other work. The bad news is that it's freelance, so I'll have to dive into the world of self-employed taxes and health insurance. That was going to be tricky enough after 15 years abroad, but work is work and I consider myself incredibly lucky that I found something so quickly. And that it's something I can do from home since it's going to be a few more months before I can have a car. I hadn't been hearing back from the places I applied to for full-time remote work. Even with all the big purchases, I'm good financially until I start getting paid and should still be able to set aside enough for a down payment on a car once I get my driver's license.
In that vein, I've started a new freelance venture. I've decided to do professional proofreading, focusing specifically on indie authors who have to pay for their own editing out of pocket. The prices are going to be affordable and I plan to work with each individual writer to settle on something that fits their budget, but also makes sure I get properly paid for my work. If you have a writing project that you need edited, be sure to check out my new Editing page here for more information.
And, I've started a new writing project that I'm posting to both Wattpad and Inkitt. It's called "Into the Fog" and is set to be a series (The Fisher's Bay series), though I'm not sure just how long at the moment. I've finished plotting book one and am about halfway finished with writing it. The books are going to be fairly short. "Into the Fog" mostly started as an itch to write something paranormal/supernatural/fantasy (and finish it) to get my creative juices flowing again since I hit a wall with the last four chapters of "Wrecked by You." I'm just having fun with it and it'll probably need some heavy editing later on, but so far I'm enjoying it. Check it out if you like supernatural creatures and mysteries.
And just a reminder that "Something Wicked" is up on Amazon! Oh, and I officially entered "The Whitehall Affair" into the Wattys 2022. As always, I'm never sure how my work will do, but I'm still feeling pretty confident after "Something Wicked" made the shortlist last year for mystery/thriller. They have even bigger and better prizes this year, but a much shorter application time. I should hear if it's made the shortlist in September or October. Cross your fingers for me!
But yea, that's life so far. Just focusing on working, finding more work and writing. Honestly, so far things back in the U.S. are turning out better than I had hoped. Now, to get out and make some friends so I can do cool things like beach trips and brunches.
Comments