It's a Housewarming, Charlie Brown

Hi there!

2020, what a year right? 

Mine has been weird, and sad, and hard, and great. I assume yours has been weird, and sad, and hard, and hopefully great. I hope despite the 2020-ness of it all that there has been joy along the way. 

I had a lot of plans for how I was going to share this information, but surprise! I’m just going to announce it on a blog that I rarely use any more. I’ll get to the announcing bit, but first I want to give a bit of back story. 

I am single. I have been single most of my life. And while I am quite content with how my life is panning out, there are certain rites of passage that I have not, and may never, get to enjoy. I have never had an engagement party, a wedding, or a baby shower. I have never “had a reason” to host any event that calls my family and friends to gather from all their various locations to share advice and well wishes as I transition from adolescence to adulthood or from one phase of adulthood to another. 

Against my intentions or better judgment, these circumstances led me to view my life as extended adolescence. Then I started coming up on my 30th birthday. The weird thing about turning 30 is that it feels like such a grown-up age. I have vivid childhood memories of my parents and other adults who I admired that all took place while they were in their 30s. That realization prompted me to pursue crafting a life that, for me, felt like fully embracing adulthood. 

I jokingly started referring to myself as a single-person family and chose to focus on three things that, to me, feel like the epitome of adulthood. I fully realize that this will look different for anyone, single or otherwise; but for me, those things came down to building a home, living by integrity, and investing in family. 

I can talk at length about any one of those three things, but for now I’m just going to focus on the building a home bit. 

I bought a home. And by home I mean townhouse/condo dwelling, but who cares—it’s mine! It seems like such a funny thing to want to announce, but here’s the deal, as a single person there are few celebratory moments afforded to you. So in honor of taking one of my adult steps I am choosing to make a big deal. 

If it weren’t 2020 I would invite you all over. I would make a fancy charcuterie board and have a punch bowl and ask you all to come with advice for how to save money on home improvement projects, how to develop a decorating style, how to get yourself on an HOA board, and how to optimize a storage closet. I would ask you to tell me stories that you associate with home and I would make a million notes in my head for things I want to bring to my space. I would force you to look at the pictures on my walls while I told you stories of my own. It really would have been a fun time, I promise! 

However, that is not the atmosphere we live in right now. Regardless, I will not be deterred! I’m hosting a virtual housewarming party, and since there is no rulebook for these things I’m just making it up as I go. 

Here’s how it’s going down:

JARINETE’S VIRTUAL HOUSEWARMING PARTY

Honestly, I’m not even sure if it is a party. Soiree? House-a-palooza? I don’t know. It’s a celebration that is a choose your own adventure list of activities, and it’s online. 

Virtual Tour

Who doesn’t love a good home tour? We all love these right? Since I can’t take you on a home tour in-person I will be doing a video in the style of MTV cribs. You’ll get to see the whole house, and if you send me questions in advance I’ll be sure to answer them. We’re filming the video next week, so get your questions in. I’ll post it live no later than November 1st. 

Raffle

Since I can’t spoil you with food and drink, I decided to host a series of virtual games and hopefully still get to spoil you a bit. Here’s what’s on the table:

• $25 gift card for the person who comes up with the best name for my place, because houses deserve names too. 

• Deadline to submit: Oct. 24

• $25 gift card for home improvement/project advice. 

• I will printout all the submissions and pull one from a hat on the video tour. 

• Deadline to submit: Oct. 24 

• $10 gift cards for the first three people to send me a story about home. 

• It can be about your childhood, something your grandparents did, a comfort food, or a favorite blanket. I don’t care what it is, I just want to know what home feels like for you. 

• You can call and tell me the story, type it up and email it, send it by carrier pigeon, leave it as a comment here, whatever you like. If you send by mail just be sure to give me a date and time stamp of when you wrote it.

• Only the first three submissions will get giftcards, but I will accept these stories whenever! 

Registry

Gifts are not required to join in this celebration. However, many of you have graciously asked if you can send something to commemorate this moment. I don’t even know how to accept such kindness without being an awkward mess, just know that I appreciate you honoring this moment in my life. You can check out my registry here: www.zola.com/registry/jarinete. (And yes, I did use a wedding registry website because the functionality was too good to miss out on.)

Sending love to all of you! 

Jarinete