I'm sorry I've lapsed into infrequent blog updates. I'm up to my eyeballs in work stuff, and awed by the tools and information I have to work with here. It's the polar opposite of the Asheville market that I still adore and miss every day. I have so much more to absorb, and so many more wonderful sources of information at my disposal, but which are themselves tools I have to master, it's stupefying. I really do miss Asheville and I am in touch with my former colleagues there, and I keep up with my favorite places and people on Facebook. But work-wise, being here is like being on a different planet, and I am learning a whole new skill set on top of the stuff I'd barely had time to absorb in AVL. The market is interesting and nowhere near as grim as the national media may make it sound. There are some fantastic deals to be had, and prices have actually adjusted to where a young family earning teacher-sized paychecks can buy a nice home. My daughter and her husband are very aware of this, and Girlmama and I have taken to house hunting whenever we can work in a mutually free afternoon. For me, it's previewing, for her, it's a leisurely house hunt. They aren't ready to buy yet, but when they are, they will be well prepared.
I will never be the smoothest, slickest, sales-iest person a customer will meet. I drive Baby the Hardworking Subaru, not a Lexus, and my listing presentation is woefully lacking in pizazz because I hate that stuff about talking about the Awesomeness that is Me and Selling Myself! I hope to present myself as someone who is straightforward and competent and who follows up and returns phone calls. I will never pretend that I know everything about everything but I know how to find answers when I'm stumped, and I am well aware that all of this is a huge freaking deal to the client. I will treat it that way. That's my entire mission statement. See? Lacks salesy-ness.
But becoming that person who knows the market and has the answers and is confident that she can do right by her customers is eating a whole lot of hours, mostly spent online when not showing houses or hosting open houses, and I actually have to peel my butt away from the computer and do other things. I haven't knit a stitch in a long time, and Supergirl's replacement afghan will be ready by next fall, and the blog is getting neglected again. Sorry!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
OMG, it's been a week since I've updated!
The head cold from hell didn't put me in the hospital (which is a good thing, as I am now on cheesy self-employed person insurance). I snorked and sounded disgusting through Wednesday, when I had to go to a class at the Board of Realtors. (They fine you if you sign up and then don't show up. They are harsh.) The class was worth the trip, though I coughed and snorted through it from my seat in self-isolation on the back row.
But on my way to the class I was sitting at a traffic light and suddenly had an epiphany - I remembered the last time I'd had a cold of this caliber, and remembered ordering hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant, and waking up the next day greatly improved. Had to be a coincidence, right? But I couldn't taste a damn thing at that point, and figured a dinner of hot and sour soup and a spicy something entree delivered to my door was better than wasting my time and money on more cold meds which clearly were not doing jack.
So I splurged on takeout and dined on a cup of hot and sour soup and about a third of a generous container of kung pao shrimp, with plenty of both left for a second dose the next day. I could actually taste it, and it was good. And then I went to bed.
And I woke up the next morning breathing freely, and realized that I hadn't coughed or snorked once all night. Seriously. I am a believer - at the first sign of the next cold, I am ordering that soup.
I will not claim it was a miracle cure and totally got every last drop of snot from my sinuses - I'm still in a sort of slow draining mode - but I am not sneezing or snorting and can speak without coughing, and I feel 97% better. I haven't even bothered with cold meds since Wednesday, nor did I reload on the soup - the Wednesday/lunch Thursday leftovers dose appears to have done the job.
The adorable little snotty baby who gave me the plague recovered by Thursday on her own. Her immune system is stepping up to the job, yay! Mine will catch up eventually, but now I have a secret weapon to call upon when she gets me again.
Otherwise - it's hot here. It's summer hot. We skipped both winter and spring, and went from a hot Christmas to two or three random cold days, about a week of spring-like days scattered between hotter days, and now I really need to pick up a can of hornet spray tomorrow, because those little bastards are staking out claims around my garage door and on my front porch. The A/C is running, and one of my notes for the week is to call the management company to get a pool key. I am not looking forward to August.
But on my way to the class I was sitting at a traffic light and suddenly had an epiphany - I remembered the last time I'd had a cold of this caliber, and remembered ordering hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant, and waking up the next day greatly improved. Had to be a coincidence, right? But I couldn't taste a damn thing at that point, and figured a dinner of hot and sour soup and a spicy something entree delivered to my door was better than wasting my time and money on more cold meds which clearly were not doing jack.
So I splurged on takeout and dined on a cup of hot and sour soup and about a third of a generous container of kung pao shrimp, with plenty of both left for a second dose the next day. I could actually taste it, and it was good. And then I went to bed.
And I woke up the next morning breathing freely, and realized that I hadn't coughed or snorked once all night. Seriously. I am a believer - at the first sign of the next cold, I am ordering that soup.
I will not claim it was a miracle cure and totally got every last drop of snot from my sinuses - I'm still in a sort of slow draining mode - but I am not sneezing or snorting and can speak without coughing, and I feel 97% better. I haven't even bothered with cold meds since Wednesday, nor did I reload on the soup - the Wednesday/lunch Thursday leftovers dose appears to have done the job.
The adorable little snotty baby who gave me the plague recovered by Thursday on her own. Her immune system is stepping up to the job, yay! Mine will catch up eventually, but now I have a secret weapon to call upon when she gets me again.
Otherwise - it's hot here. It's summer hot. We skipped both winter and spring, and went from a hot Christmas to two or three random cold days, about a week of spring-like days scattered between hotter days, and now I really need to pick up a can of hornet spray tomorrow, because those little bastards are staking out claims around my garage door and on my front porch. The A/C is running, and one of my notes for the week is to call the management company to get a pool key. I am not looking forward to August.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
My Granddaughter Makes Me Sick.
Seriously. I love her happy little self to bits, of course, but I watched her for a couple of hours yesterday while her mom ran some errands. She is happy, smiling, playing with toys, bouncing in her bouncer, and sticking her hands in her mouth and then in mine. Yeah. Her nose was running in a spectacular fashion again (my daughter has figured out that her two companions in the baby room at day care have older siblings in the snot-full preschool). Miss D is only slightly distressed by her runny nose (it's a pain when eating). Otherwise, she's all smiles and sunshine and in the process of developing a robust immune system, and her runny noses now mean she will be one of the healthiest kids in preschool and kindergarten. Grandma's immune system is out of practice, but will catch up. I hope.
Anyway, I watched her for a couple of hours yesterday, and then today my daughter and I and Patient Zero spent a couple of hours looking at houses and went to lunch. They've decided they don't want to buy my house, and that's fine. They do need more space - Son-in-law is a musician, and really needs a music room/man cave. My house doesn't have that kind of space. They are many months out from buying but when I have nothing else booked, we'll go explore neighborhoods and debate floor plans - I'm previewing, she's contemplating areas they will focus on when they are ready to pull the trigger, and it is a wise use of a free afternoon all around, except my throat and head are both hurting, and I'm hoping to sleep off my latest case of Adorable Baby Cooties. When I picked her up today she greeted me with huge smiles and drool and snot, touched my face with her precious little germy fingers, and then sneezed and wiped her runny nose on my shirt, and gave me a sunny, toothless grin. I'm developing a robust immune system myself here. But not quite yet - my throat and head are both sending up minor intruder alerts.
Lest this sound like an indictment of day care - not at all. My other granddaughter has not gone to day care or started preschool yet, but has had her fair share of colds and such. Children cannot be raised in bubbles, and Miss D is just getting a lot of the usual childhood snot fests out of the way. She is sunny, cheerful, and already enjoys touring houses - her mom carried her around and showed her the big patio, the nice kitchen, the...oh, that's unfortunate, what were they trying to do with that? We saw some houses with real potential, in great neighborhoods. Only one had a challenging floor plan, the others were just begging for someone to love them.
Then we went to lunch and I ate meat for the first time in many weeks, and it wasn't a thrill and is still sitting in my stomach like a concrete block 7 hours later. I think I'm a vegetarian in my ripe old age.
And BTW to any real estate people who happen by - we are not looking at occupied houses, only REO properties and vacant short sales. I am not going to ask a family to clear out for a showing when they are a long way out from buying. I am thoughtful that way.
Anyway, I watched her for a couple of hours yesterday, and then today my daughter and I and Patient Zero spent a couple of hours looking at houses and went to lunch. They've decided they don't want to buy my house, and that's fine. They do need more space - Son-in-law is a musician, and really needs a music room/man cave. My house doesn't have that kind of space. They are many months out from buying but when I have nothing else booked, we'll go explore neighborhoods and debate floor plans - I'm previewing, she's contemplating areas they will focus on when they are ready to pull the trigger, and it is a wise use of a free afternoon all around, except my throat and head are both hurting, and I'm hoping to sleep off my latest case of Adorable Baby Cooties. When I picked her up today she greeted me with huge smiles and drool and snot, touched my face with her precious little germy fingers, and then sneezed and wiped her runny nose on my shirt, and gave me a sunny, toothless grin. I'm developing a robust immune system myself here. But not quite yet - my throat and head are both sending up minor intruder alerts.
Lest this sound like an indictment of day care - not at all. My other granddaughter has not gone to day care or started preschool yet, but has had her fair share of colds and such. Children cannot be raised in bubbles, and Miss D is just getting a lot of the usual childhood snot fests out of the way. She is sunny, cheerful, and already enjoys touring houses - her mom carried her around and showed her the big patio, the nice kitchen, the...oh, that's unfortunate, what were they trying to do with that? We saw some houses with real potential, in great neighborhoods. Only one had a challenging floor plan, the others were just begging for someone to love them.
Then we went to lunch and I ate meat for the first time in many weeks, and it wasn't a thrill and is still sitting in my stomach like a concrete block 7 hours later. I think I'm a vegetarian in my ripe old age.
And BTW to any real estate people who happen by - we are not looking at occupied houses, only REO properties and vacant short sales. I am not going to ask a family to clear out for a showing when they are a long way out from buying. I am thoughtful that way.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
And Happy Birthday, Supergirl!
You might be a lousy housekeeper...
if a day of serious housework scares your dog. Poor Sophie didn't know what was going on yesterday. I was feeling out of sorts and like I needed to get my environment under control. I walked in the front door the day before, and was struck by how I'd managed to strew work stuff and catalogs and magazines on every horizontal surface. The dining room table was cluttered with work related stuff, the counters were full of catalogs and junk mail, the furniture was covered in cat hair and the carpet needed vacuuming. It was just all grubby and in disarray. I can tolerate a mess for a while, but eventually it reaches critical mass. I know it also puts me in a foul mood, and I was IN a foul mood. I'd spent several days in a row hunched over the MLS and in various webinars, and I was sick of sitting at the computer and very, very irritable. I needed ACTION.
So I launched a day of REAL cleaning - not just my usual quickie "pick up the clutter and run the vacuum" style cleaning. I dusted and polished furniture, spot-cleaned carpet, vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed, organized paper and trashed junk, and felt my stress level drop. I even cleaned out the fridge.
But while I worked like a madwoman I grew concerned about Sophie, and worried that she was getting sick. She refused to go for walks when invited, and would only go as far as the nearest patch of grass to take care of business, then turned and headed for the house. She didn't finish her dinner. Mostly she just watched me with a distinctly morose expression. I finally figured out that she saw this burst of activity and was worried, because obviously Something was Up, and she didn't know what. I spent the evening giving her reassurance and love, and today she's her happy little self again. But it does say something about my housekeeping that an old fashioned day of serious cleaning made the dog freak out.
I also picked up the New Camera and snapped some random pictures. All of these pictures were taken in basic point 'n shoot mode, indoors in natural light, without flash. I do love this camera.
I've had a Zappos box in the corner of the bedroom for a couple of months now - I saved it to ship Supergirl's Blankie 2.0 (which still isn't completely assembled, mea culpa). Higgins didn't notice it until I moved it, then of course he had to check it for cat-worthiness.
NO, I didn't grab the tape and seal and ship him. But the thought did cross my mind.
Murphy's old harness got to be too big on him - he's THAT tiny now - so he's sporting a spiffy new x-small chihuahua-sized harness. He appears to be feeling fine despite his shrinkage, but he does seem to need the prednisolone all the time lately.
And here's some shots of my tidy and de-cluttered house.
This is just a random shot of the moon rising over the golf course at dusk - taken through the balcony screen, obviously.
This camera can do so much more than I am capable of doing with it yet, I really need to just carry it around with me for a few weeks and mess with it.
Oh, and it's a good thing I took a few pictures of my fresh and immaculate home, because Higgins walked in and noticed it was looking too tidy, and threw up on the carpet this morning.
So I launched a day of REAL cleaning - not just my usual quickie "pick up the clutter and run the vacuum" style cleaning. I dusted and polished furniture, spot-cleaned carpet, vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed, organized paper and trashed junk, and felt my stress level drop. I even cleaned out the fridge.
But while I worked like a madwoman I grew concerned about Sophie, and worried that she was getting sick. She refused to go for walks when invited, and would only go as far as the nearest patch of grass to take care of business, then turned and headed for the house. She didn't finish her dinner. Mostly she just watched me with a distinctly morose expression. I finally figured out that she saw this burst of activity and was worried, because obviously Something was Up, and she didn't know what. I spent the evening giving her reassurance and love, and today she's her happy little self again. But it does say something about my housekeeping that an old fashioned day of serious cleaning made the dog freak out.
I also picked up the New Camera and snapped some random pictures. All of these pictures were taken in basic point 'n shoot mode, indoors in natural light, without flash. I do love this camera.
I've had a Zappos box in the corner of the bedroom for a couple of months now - I saved it to ship Supergirl's Blankie 2.0 (which still isn't completely assembled, mea culpa). Higgins didn't notice it until I moved it, then of course he had to check it for cat-worthiness.
NO, I didn't grab the tape and seal and ship him. But the thought did cross my mind.
Murphy's old harness got to be too big on him - he's THAT tiny now - so he's sporting a spiffy new x-small chihuahua-sized harness. He appears to be feeling fine despite his shrinkage, but he does seem to need the prednisolone all the time lately.
And here's some shots of my tidy and de-cluttered house.
Oh, and it's a good thing I took a few pictures of my fresh and immaculate home, because Higgins walked in and noticed it was looking too tidy, and threw up on the carpet this morning.
Monday, March 05, 2012
Monday's Horoscope:
Good to know. I think I'll spend today cleaning.Monday, March 5, 2012
By Rick LevineYou would prefer a simpler solution to your current dilemma, but today is a day when the best and worst of things are wrapped up in the same complicated package. Aiming for the middle ground won't help as your feelings change quickly, bouncing back and forth between the extremes. Letting go of control can relieve a lot of the tension. Rest assured that the stress will resolve quickly and you'll be on a smoother path by tomorrow.
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