It's not even officially on the market

And I had someone come by to look at it today. Seems they were just about to submit a contract for the one down the street from me, and my realtor told the other realtor that she should see my place. They were here for an hour. A good sign.

And then I talked to my realtor and she said another person wanted to look at it. The MRIS listing isn't even up. I haven't even seen the photos!

So, maybe it's gonna sell? I hope so!

I'm taking a day off and going away. M doesn't feel he can go, but our mutual friend and I are going. He showed an iota of sympathy this morning and I started crying. So, I need a day off. And I'm taking it.

Last day of work

Ah, last day of work.
Tired from cleaning, hiding stuff.
Wonder if I'll work.

The nicest room in the house

Well, so far. After three and a half hours of staging. I have shit everywhere that needs to disappear before Friday AM. I have to mow the lawn. Install the cabinet doors. Maybe eat and sleep. We'll see about that. Oh, and my last week of work. And the burrito I had for lunch has been attacking me all evening, and also my realtor by being in my vicinity. OK, off to work I go.

Moveku

Preparing a house
Cleaning up, hiding papers
Really hope it sells.

Ku

Training replacement.
Now my career moves forward.
The end of a job.

My weekend, with help from friend, BF, and brother

- paint three rooms (dining, living, computer) and basement ceiling (primer and color)
- move all the tools into the shed
- scrape off shiny stuff in kitchen on the cabinet
- front doorstep - crumbling

Tired.

New Home

We have the top floor. 1437 square feet. Which is the size of my whole duplex, on one floor. I hate telling the other people no though. I asked M to do it.

High Anxiety

Can't sleep.
- I haven't had my anti-anxiety meds in two days. Can it really be making this much of a difference? Or is it all in my head? Har.
- We're juggling the two residences. We decided on one and now he's decided he's no longer chatty. Arg
- I just gotta let it go. But I don't want to lose both!!!! To me it's clear we're stalling on both. People aren't stupid. OK, we were stalling. Now I just need a piece of info from one and he's not answering. Arg. Letting it go. Letting it go.

Now I will go and try and sleep. Friend coming into town for a day to help me paint. Now THAT's dedication. Or silliness.

Assorted and advice sought for colleague

- still a tad crazy. hope to get to visit blogs today.
- evil Laura wants me to get both places so we have to choose. well, already seem to have one in the bag. gotta hear from the other. stall stall stall!
- I think it's pretty funny that one of my FB friends that I've never met (got through WFMU) wants me to start a blog about my adventures moving west
- it's amazing what you can learn by experiencing bad management; actually, not just bad, but spiteful management. I had to talk to a colleague for 45 minutes to assure her that it's not her, it's her manager. (she got a bad review, made up because she stood up to her boss, who is a known and certified nut case - meant in the non-discriminatory way (it's more than just a mental illness)).

actually - what would you tell her? she's been on the verge of quitting for over a year. she actually put in her letter of resignation and was begged to stay by many people, including at least one of the team of three that supported this bad review. she's received excellent reviews for the past 8 years, and takes on extra projects, and does them well. her boss is known not only for being demanding, but for flying off the handle for very little reason. and a workaholic. and a whiner. but very smart and gets a lot done, so, no reason to make her go. she was stunned with the review, and so when they asked her if she had a response she had none at the moment. one of the them cried out: "let it go on the record that she has no comment!"

I told her:
- do not quit tomorrow. at the minimum do a work slowdown
- write an email today or tomorrow saying you want indeed to respond, you were just shocked with the review
- ask for examples of each and every negative thing that was written about her. have responses ready when they are listed
- give examples of the extra work she has done and its success
- put responses in writing, and summarize everything she has done so this also goes into her permanent record
- work slowdown some more to give time to find a new job
- if do not find a job in a month, quit

The San Francisco treat.

I actually saw some rice a roni in the supermarket tonight...

Back home. Billy is happy to have me back, which is nice. I'm tired, and going to bed. Still have not had time to read, sorry.

So, we went to the single family home. Funny because we scoped it in the AM and we were thinking, hmmm... should we really go back? But when we went back in the afternoon it turns out there's a north and south which we knew, but the dividing line was not where we thought, so we were at someone else's house. No wonder the guy fixing the fence looked at me like I was nuts. It also might have been because I didn't speak Spanish.

So, a 1911 house. Single family shotgun style home. $100 more than Chatty Chuck's. HUGE-MONGOUS back yard, with strawberries currently growing and very yummy. Lots of storage. AMAZING built in china cabinet. HUGE kitchen (with lots of wasted space) and a really old stove that still works. Really nice owners. We applied for that one too. And we are soooo torn about which one we'd want if given the choice of both. Believe it or not, Chatty Chuck's is way better inside.

So, we'll see. After seeing the house, I went back to Chuck's to take a few more photos. His son won his baseball games, which was good. And he's keeping the closet doors we told him not to get rid of. And apparently the woman we saw when we were leaving who cast an evil eye our way (she really looked like a witch) said to him 'how can I make it happen that I get this property to rent'? What can I do to get this - implying she'd give some sort of bribe. Chatty Chuck doesn't play by those rules.

Sigh. I hope one works out. But maybe not both. Because then we'd have to decide. But there are worse things in life. I really don't want to have to go back there for another search. I really really don't.

Rice a roni

Good morning! Today is the first morning I've felt half awake... Better fly back east before I get completely accustomed to the time.

We've had an exhausting couple days. Something like 16-20 viewings in two days. Running the gamut of types of places - from apartment communities to single family houses to shacks in the beautiful hills with amazing views. Meeting the gamut of people - from Chatty Chuck and Gleeful Glenn to staid, sitff apartment managers (though one did give a recommendation for an excellent cheap restaurant on the water which we've been to twice) and really good and not so amazing real estate brokers.

It's expensive here. Duh. Our minds move forward to 'will we be able to afford a place when we want to buy?' but we push that away. The present is ever busy. I can't believe we're only 1.5 months away from moving! Exciting but also ugh. This trip of course makes it much more real. And I must say I am excited. Though boy I'd better get a job fast!

The place we want and put an application in for is an a 1908 building. Beautiful details, including an old dumbwaiter, and a great landlord (Chatty Chuck). We're looking at another old building today, but single family. We'll check out the climbing gym and the local airport and so on.

It's been nice staying with the friends too. They have two great dogs, though one is only recently adopted and was a stray, so tends to growl at us. But ultimately a great dog. I could even live with dogs like those - but we can't babysit, given Billy Boy.

OK< I need breakfast. I hope everyone is well. No time to read blogs right now. How selfish of me.

Peace or Freedom

I am so fascinated by the TV series Supernatural. Over the last couple years it's been amazing. They moved from a zombie/demon killing show to one with real meaning and allegories. It's heavily based on the Bible, and shows the good and bad sides of both angels and the devil. The parallels - two brothers who are vessels for Gabriel and the Devil (he has a name, doesn't he? I forget). Armageddon is the fight between the two heavenly beings. Can one stop what is supposedly pre-ordained? Why does God do what he does? What is faith and how can you keep it? Can mortals teach heaven a thing or two?

The season finale ended with a question: If you had to choose between peace and freedom, which would you choose?

I thought about it all the way to work (I walked). I asked it on FB and got a wide range of answers. I really don't know how to answer, and maybe even what the question means. The book that came to mind was Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, which I've talked about before. To me, if you truly want freedom, you have to be willing to accept conflict (ie, sometimes a lack of peace). But, can you have both? Can you have a free, peaceful society? Or is mankind 'human' and thus it cannot be perfectly peaceful? In the series, even heaven is not peaceful, but it also is represented as not free.

What do you think?
I'm off to San Fran to find a place to live. Won't be back until late Tues, so not sure if will blog. All the best to you all.

Reunion

The rest of my weekend worth writing about was Saturday night's unofficial reunion of high school friends. It was all serendipitous - two friends were in town from way far away (Hong Kong and Italy) and so the party was organized. I have not seen some of these people in over 25 years! Ah, the power of Facebook.

I was a little bit nervous, but at least this time around I have an interesting life to talk about. (I went to a small itty bitty reunion last summer - recently divorced, no friends, etc.) I had a great time. Funny how people change but they don't.

I got there about an hour into the appetizer time (amazingly enough and unfortunately mapquest was right in terms of it taking at least 4.5 hours). Walk in the door and all I could say is 'this is ODD'. All these people!!! And when you're the newest person walking in the door, you don't get very far. One at a time people say hello. I just wanted a drink!!! :-) kidding.

Everyone was very excited to hear I'm moving to San Francisco, and I think I may get more visitors than I bargained for! Actually, I think no matter what I'm going to get more visitors than I bargained for. I've already made a rule in my head that I'm not going to the tourist attractions with every single person - especially the ones that cost money like Alcatraz.

Since everyone had a great time, there's talk of making it more frequent. One person seriously suggested next weekend. While they are great people, it's not high school anymore. But I never liked big groups anyway and like my independence. So, good thing I'm moving away. I sound so curmudgeonly...I think it's just the waking at 4:45 and not being able to get back to sleep. I'm no good with lack of sleep.

Off I go to try and do work.

Wednsku

Clara, my neighbor,
Died. I did not feel well. Slept
Eleven hours.

Recipeku

Recipe for love:
Equal parts warmth, lust, intrigue.
Mix thoroughly. Serve.

Cabbage Salad

1/2 head red cabbage shredded
4 spring onions chopped
3TB sesame seeds
1/2 c slivered almonds
1 pkg ramen noodles, uncooked

Dressing: 1/2 c sesame oil or saffron oil
3TB sugar
3 TB wine vinegar

Mix dressing.
Toast almonds and sesame seeds
Break up ramen noodles in package.

Combine all right before serving.

You blink and it's gone

Living computers
take what you write and make it
literally real.

You blink and it's gone

No matter what it is.

The days until your job is over.
The number of years it has been since you've seen high school friends.
The time that mom is 100% there.

Bittersweet weekend, in part because of the ending. One part of that is sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, playing cribbage. She tells a long story related to the goobly thing that's in an egg and she takes it out because my sister has always wanted it that way from when she was young. Five minutes goes by, and she tells me the same story. Kinda like when I'd say I was going to go visit for mother's day weekend every week for a month, and she'd get so excited because she didn't know.

I hate to see her decline. I seriously almost wish she dropped dead a year or so ago. Boy that sounds horrible. I experienced what it's like to have a parent drop dead (literally) and don't really want to experience another extreme. But, 'tis not my choice to make.

I feel bad about leaving, in part because it's one less person around to help my sister take care of her. It's going to get to be too much soon, and that's when the hard decisions come.

Funny how titles of posts take over. I blinked and all of a sudden all the text I had written was gone. Thank god for the BACK button. Or CTRL Z. The best commands in the world. As long as they work. You can't command time to back up and your mom to be 100% there.

But it was good to see and be seen. Much more happened on the weekend, but I'll save that for later. Bedtime calls.

Lunch

Went outside to refresh my brain and sat on a curb in a park. Watched a sparrow hop off the curb across the way and hop towards me. Then it hopped off to the left of me and joined another sparrow eating some crumbs. It only ate a few and then jumped into the grassy area and shoved its beak into dandelion that had turned from yellow to white but had not yet gotten into blow-able form. It pulled out a tuft and chewed off the seeds. Shoved its beak back in, and more seeds. I thought I understood then why the bigger one was bigger - eating carbohydrates rather than protein. But then the it finished the crumbs and jumped up to the dandelion and pecked the other one away and proceeded to eat the seeds. The smaller one was lower on the pecking order and had to go find something else...

I had a funnier way of telling this, but lost it...

Joking in an interview

A colleague here went for an interview yesterday and likely she'll get the job. Good for her! She mentioned that she made some sort of joke towards the end - wasn't concerned since as she said "that's me!".

It reminds me of the time I went for an interview after returning from Zimbabwe. I had brought my backpack, and it had a pink real rabbit's foot on one of the zippers. I forget who gave it to me, but at the time it was important!

The interviewer asked if it was a real rabbit's foot. I replied that they had pink rabbits in Zimbabwe. He looks at me - "really?" I laughed and said, no, I was just joking. He kinda laughed in that embarrassed way.

Despite that, or because of it?, I got the job.

Interviews are good
Even if they decide it's no.
Experience it!

(no go with interview today...but a good one anyway)

Make it stop!

I have literally spent thousands of dollars on my teeth in the past 5 months (root canal, crowns, night guard). I used to have an overbite and had a retainer for it, and the night guard is supposed to keep it the way it is supposed to be but I fear that when they took the impression it wasn't in the right spot so it's not going to keep it in the right spot. I sit here and think that there are things wrong. My bite is wrong. There's random pain (small small pain - is it really there?). My front teeth are hitting my lower teeth (overbite). AAAAAAHHHH! Not sure if any of it is true. I think I fear leaving my dentist behind. AAHH! Waaahhhh.

OK, I should go focus on something else. WHAT???

Sigh. Maybe I'll take more anti-anxiety meds. Pop them like candy. Ha.

Dave

Isn't the president of the United States always supposed to be referred to as Mr. President, or President Obama? Even if they are former presidents? I ask because occasionally I hear on the news someone saying Mr. Obama, and for some reason it offends me.

It reminds me of the time when I lived in Germany and we went on a field trip to Italy. I lived in a college with 49 Germans, and it was run by a Jew. Interesting place! And boy did I learn German.

In any event, we were in a church waiting for a tour and the director of my college walked up onto the alter. I instinctively said 'you can't be there!' to get him off. He looked at me with amusement but of course respected what I said. It was just so instinctive that it was so wrong (I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school until 7th grade).

So, why did I name the post what I did?

Do not go there. Please.
Don't stand so close to me. Ha.
Instincts said out loud.

Wednesday update

- Just saw my dentist for the last time. Night guard. Sad a little. Gave the hygienist my email so she can visit if she goes out to SF - we got along very well.
- I have a job interview Friday! Would be a good job, but found one I'm applying to today that would be PERFECT. I really wish I could say in the cover letter - I am perfect for you.
- Inspection on M's place is Friday. Cross your fingers that they don't back out of the contract (3 strikes would be BAD).
- I have two people looking at my place this week. One has a 6 year old, and another has a dog. Which one would make more of a mess of my place? :-)
- Just because people can't see you doesn't mean they can't hear you fart.

Wednesday update:
Life's moving along nicely.
But let's not jinx it.

Quote: I do want it all, to be right

While in science many problems are difficult because they are complex, in life many problems are difficult because they are simple, but we are human and we want everything.

Salon.com article

Life is complex
So is nature. I sit and wait
for serenity.

$94 lesson

The furnace and the air conditioning unit are on separate breakers.

Ignorance is not
bliss, all it's cracked up to be.
breaker one breaker.

Monday

Hi there! How was YOUR weekend??

Mine, well, guess. Yep. House house house.

Saturday M's - bringing documents to shred (M has all his dad's old stuff - receipts back 30+ years). Going to Habitat ReStore to drop off a load of stuff (including two children's chairs I got a while back for free, and a couple bought them immediately - woo hoo! $10 for Habitat! I also bought some brown paint for the triangle thing in my basement ($1). When I opened it up, it looks like molten chocolate! OMG. Then washing windows - PIMFA. He has the old style pane glass... ugh. Not washed in 10-15 years.

Sunday brought my house. The air conditioning didn't work - it's getting fixed today I hope. M installed all the vents - I prepped them before he did that. He urethaned a few areas in the basement. I mowed the lawn. I started painting the dining room (around the windows). He primed the fixes in the lr ceiling. I prepped dinner and started it. What's funny is that we had good steaks again, and we both felt like having hot dogs. But we had to eat steak, dammit. And to be quite honest, even though it was local and all that good stuff, it really wasn't all that good.

Great BBQ plantain recipe though. I cooked them in the skin, so it didn't quite work, but it would be really tasty on skewers.