Note to Self

If, five years from today, when the rate on the brand-new ARM I just signed 72 different papers to acquire is released from its 60-month locked rate and is free to jump around essentially at will... If, at that point, I'm still living life in my spinster shoebox house in Northeast with no plans to sell and move elsewhere... If by then, Jimmy Carter-era rates have returned and my rate does, in fact, shoot up to 10.5%, and I'm envying my friends' safe and traditional 30-year fixed mortgages and wondering why I ever traded my own 30-year loan for an ARM, remember this...

I did this so I can buy new shoes or make an impulse buy at Target without feeling a tightness in my chest... so I can pay for an unexpected car repair without counting the months until my next tax return... so I can go out for a movie and drinks with friends without thinking we should have just stayed in and rented a DVD instead... so I can take a weekend getaway without worrying about how much it will cost me... so I can put money into savings more often than I take it out... so I can stop making jokes about Smack Ramen and Carl Buddig lunchmeat.

I did this for five years of living life like a normal person again.

Note to self: Remember that.