Good news!

I am thrilled/relieved/amazed to report that my eyes are doing better! I have a few theories on why they’re doing better, but I can’t be sure... best case scenario, it’s because I started allergy shots a few months ago and the shots are working. Worst case scenario, the past few weeks have been a complete fluke. My best proof so far is that on Saturday night, I spent a few hours outside on a friend’s porch and drank a single beer and my eyes only looked mildly pink the next morning. Hooray! Just a couple months ago, spending two hours outside, staying up late, and drinking any kind of alcohol would have turned me into an unbearably itchy, red-eyed monster, so this is definitely an improvement. I think it’s also helped that we’ve had the air conditioning on almost all the time that we’re home these days. I still have a ways to go—the whites of my eyes aren’t yet that beautiful healthy pale blue, no contacts yet, and I’m still on the allergy eye drop, but even small improvements are fantastic. (Seriously, sometimes I look at makeup ads in magazines and wonder if the whites of the models’ eyes have been photoshopped because it’s been so long since my eyes were that clear.) And believe me, the contacts party is still on if I make it that far!

The other interesting/exciting thing that’s been consuming my time lately is looking for a townhouse. When Josh first suggested it a few months ago, I scoffed at the idea because—come on—only grownups buy houses! We’ve been looking primarily in Reston, which is a wonderfully green, outdoor-oriented city a few miles east of where we currently live. I’ve fallen in love with a couple of places that we’ve looked at so far—one was a top floor condo on Lake Thoreau with an amazing balcony overlooking the lake and a dock for us to keep our own kayak (!). But it was a foreclosure, small, and needed A LOT of work. I loved how much potential it had, but it would have quickly stretched home-repair skills and budget, even before the $300/month condo fees. Josh was not amused.

The second place was a contemporary townhouse a couple miles west of the south Reston lakes. It was HUGE, very well maintained, had a beautiful deck and yard, and backed up tons of mature trees and running trails. Plus, we met several neighbors the couple times we were there to look at the house, and everyone was extremely nice. The icing on the cake was the turtle Josh found in the backyard. :) We had a couple reservations though, so while we debated the merits of this house for a couple days and the “oh my gosh, are we actually going to do this??” another couple swooped in and made an offer, and the sellers accepted it. I was really disappointed.

Unfortunately, everything else we’ve seen since then hasn’t lived up to the turtle townhouse. We found another place this past weekend that’s possible, but we haven’t fallen in love with it like at least I did with the other two. The size and layout would work very well for the two of us, but it has a few potential resale issues and it would require some work (although nothing too involved). Still, I like the area and it meets a lot of my top criteria... we just haven’t fallen in love.