Tag Archives: Phoning It In

Feb 14 2009

Just In Under The Wire

It is 10:26 p.m. and I am just catching my breath. I am posting just to post right now.

I had a youth retreat training all day today until 6:00, and immediately met buyer clients afterward at a house they were interested in. We found out yesterday (Friday) that someone else had written an offer on it, and the agent called me to let me know, since the sellers were not immediately happy with the offer they had.

We met at the house, and they decided to write an offer to compete with the other one. I had to leave the house and race back to the office, stopping at the store for something to eat, since it was after 7:00. My buyers sat in my office chatting with me while I sat across from them, alternately answering questions and eating a vegan black bean burrito I had heated up in the microwave!

So I got the offer scanned and emailed to the other agent, and here it is almost 10:30. This is the post for today.

But don’t let me forget to post pictures of a) the amazing purse I got at the consignment store because I found out what a truly outrageous deal I got on it; and b) the cute boots I got at Target this morning.

Jan 23 2009

And The Meds Kicked In…

Sorry kids.  The meds kicked in early tonight and I am just exhausted. 

I am literally falling asleep at the computer and it is 7:41 p.m.

Tomorrow. I promise, I will post more tomorrow.  About beans and tortillas, or new lunchboxes, or the vegan chili scours, or the clutter in the office, or what kind of carpet my parents had when they first moved into their house.

I might even blog about the sound a rotary dial phone used to make, or the fact that we listened to an all-volunteer radio station out of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when I was in high school.  “KILI–Rockin’ the Rez!”

Maybe I should write about the snow we got today, or the stupid things I saw on the nightly news. 

I don’t know.  I do know that if I don’t go to bed soon, I’m going to fall off this chair and suffer a blog-related concussion.

Jan 21 2009

Overload

I have inspiration, joy and happiness overload from the inauguration.

So naturally, today I am cranky because nothing in everyday life changed, even though Obama signed a proclamation telling everyone to work together for the common good.  Nobody seemed to have gotten the memo, except maybe the new termite inspector in town, who showed up at our office bristling with new homemade business cards and somehow seemed to think the new spirit of community meant that I would arrange for our broker to let him give his sales pitch at our next meeting.  After I got him out the door, I went back to my office and hid at my desk.

It’s just weird to go from a day like yesterday to today, an ordinary day.  To sit down and start making phone calls and speak to people who are not weeping for joy.  To log on to my e-mail and see the same tired jokes and spam.  To grin and say “HI!” to the lady at the gym on the machine next to me, and see her recoil in alarm.

I know yesterday was exceptional, and I couldn’t live with that kind of joy every day.

I just didn’t know that today, I’d need hair of the dog so soon.

Jan 6 2009

A Giveaway

Dudes and dudettes, I am nearing a milestone. Two milestones, actually. But the first one is this: we’re getting close to reaching 3,000 comments on this blog!

THREE THOUSAND!!! COMMENTS!!! ON THIS blog…okay, you get the point.

And I just decided right now that the three thousandth commentor will receive something very fun from me. It’s a surprise. Even to me, because it is almost 10:00 and I’m sleepy and forgot what it was I wanted to send, but if you are the 3,000th commenter (commentor? I’m exhausted), I will let you know and then bestow upon you a lovely piece of kitsch or treasure for your very own.

This is just a stopgap post; tomorrow is my mom’s 80th birthday, but every time I start writing about it, I start crying, so that post will probably be a day late.

xoxo

Dec 31 2008

Phoning It In With Three F’s

AND THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS THE POST THAT OFFICIALLY MEANS I KEPT MY 2008 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION TO POST SOMETHING ON THIS BLOG EVERY DAY. 

IT TOOK ME UNTIL I WAS 40, BUT I FINALLY KEPT A RESOLUTION FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR.

Facelift
 
For those of you who subscribe to this blog on a reader feed, you may not have noticed that the blog has had a tiny little facelift.  Just a little botox, took out some blog blemishes, enhanced the feed, etc.  Same header, just a different wordpress theme–a lot like the old one, but with better differentiation to the links, different font, that kind of thing.  And it is SO MUCH EASIER to change themes in WordPress than it was 6 months ago when I was on Blogger, it’s amazing. 
 
Food
 
I’m hungry.  We are planning to eat healthier in ’09, which I started back in November.  And even though I haven’t locked myself in on the vegan wagon, I haven’t fallen completely off of it either.  Now that we’re in our 40′s, we’re realizing that there aren’t a lot of “do-overs” with health, and we’ve noticed that eating healthier makes us feel better, and we’ve also learned that it’s not all nuts and twigs and leaves.  Even PC has admitted that it would probably help him to change his diet, and while he’ll never go vegan, he’s tasted some of what I have prepared and liked it, and that’s a step in the right direction. 
 
I want to get more into the slow food philosophy.  When we rush to throw something together, it’s usually unhealthy and just tastes like crap.  And it doesn’t have to be expensive or complex–food cooked with love, surrounded by family who are getting along, in a home we love?  Why wouldn’t we eat like that every night we possibly could?  Last night, standing there in front of the griddle, flipping over flatbread while PC emptied the dishwasher and Rabbit put plates on the table, it felt like the center of the universe and for that window of time, I was so content I felt like my bones had melted.  It was pure magic.
 
Friends
 
Brace yourself–I’m going to try to be in better touch.  If you are a blog friend and live within a few hours of me, I would love to meet you sometime.  I doubt I will make it to BlogHer, but it would be nice to have a midwest version for us po’ folk!

Finally, A Word (or more) To The Past Year

So long 2008!  Now that you’re on your way out, I feel it’s safe to tell you I dislike you greatly.  You stuck around too long like a lonely party guest, and it’s time for you to go home so the rest of us can open the champagne and celebrate.  Out with the old, you piece of crap year, and welcome 2009!  Hey ’08, don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.  Adios sucker!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Aug 8 2008

Nice Housey Housey

I’ve been showing houses all day and my clients and I wrote an offer at the office just a little while ago. We’re desperate to get this house and be done with this part of the process. 

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Oh, you nice house.  You nice, nice house.  Come here, house, we won’t bite you.

Yes, you’re a nice house.  Yes you are.  You don’t smell like mildew.  You don’t have heaving concrete in the basement.  Your counters are clean.

I know.  I know.  Yes.  Your wallpaper IS ugly.  But we’ll get rid of it, and give you a nice coat of neutral paint.  Don’t cry, housey.  No….you don’t need hardwood floors for us to love you, but you also don’t need to pretend with Tarket laminate, either.  You didn’t have to go to the expense, but we’ll squint and pretend.  Let’s just be friends.

Oh, housey, don’t run away.  No…no…we were only joking about the terrible orange shag carpet in the basement and the smoked glass mirrors in the basement bathroom.  We know you were built in 1972 and you’ve aged beautifully, all things considered. 

We want you to join the family.  We’re tired of looking at houses that smell like the inside of a can of peas.  We’re tired of scrappy lawns and sagging fences, chewed-up siding and gutters that sprout seedlings along the roof line. 

Yes, I do see that other Realtor calling her clients to come back to see you again.  No, it’s not nice for her to try to steal you out from under my clients.  We’re going to chase her away, housey.

Yes, we are.

Feb 9 2008

Drivel, Drivel, Drivel…I Made It Up Today

I got a new cell phone today. PC got my old cell, and his cell phone went into a donation box for the local domestic violence shelter.

Our friend Andrew’s mustache ended up on CNBC’s Fast Money program this week; apparently someone bought it so that the proceeds could go to a mock write-in presidential candidacy for one of the show’s anchors. Andrew seemed pleased to see someone holding up a Ziploc baggie full of his former facial hair on cable TV, and I figure it’s a fitting finale to the auction.

Tomorrow is the Caucus for our state. I plan to attend, even though I’m not exactly sure how it works. There hasn’t been a presidential Caucus in our state in……I’m not sure if we’ve ever had a Caucus, actually. Primaries, yes, but Caucus, no.

PC’s younger brother will be in town tomorrow with his wife. They are coming to see a friend of theirs who will soon be shipping out to Iraq.

I’m done searching for a replacement for my ruined purse, but am now on the hunt for a laptop case. Flower, Rabbit’s kitten, peed in the case when it was on the office floor (without the computer in it, thank God) and then Hazel, our old grouchy cat, threw up on the padded insert the laptop is supposed to go in (again, the laptop was not in it!) So it’s back to square one. These animals do NOT want me to take the computer out of the house.

Rabbit is getting a haircut tomorrow. I’m showing houses for part of the afternoon. Sunday I have youth retreat training.

I warned you this blog would be boring if I posted every day.

 

Jan 18 2008

A List. Because I Want To

I’m running on empty tonight. But even so, I can fall back on the old standard: Make Lists.

Four movies I want to see
“There Will Be Blood”
“27 Dresses”
“Juno”
“No Country For Old Men”
There are others, but for some reason, I’m drawing a blank

Five Things That Can Instantly Depress Me
Anything after the first 35 minutes in an antique store
Seeing old people grocery shopping alone
Seeing old people eating by themselves
Those clumps of frozen slush that gather behind the wheel wells of cars in winter
Once, at a filling station in Wichita, Kansas, we were at a gas station and a three-legged dog was slinking around the gas pumps and he was all skinny. Every time I think about it, I get depressed.

Five Guys I Will Always Stop Channel Surfing to Watch on TV
Michael Symon (the new Iron Chef America)
Anthony Bourdain
Mike Rowe
Hugh Laurie (“House”)
Jon Stewart

Books I Could (And Have) Read Over and Over:
“A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving
“Peace Like a River” by Leif Enger
“Traveling Mercies” by Ann Lammott
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
The Narnia Series, the Harry Potter Series, the Little House books and Trixie Belden mysteries (I seriously loved those Trixie Belden books so much when I was a kid it was an obsession!)
So that’s more than five books. It’s my list.

Ten Movies I Could (and Have) Watched Over and Over
“Fargo”
“Sling Blade”
“Gone With The Wind”
“Moulin Rouge”
“The Sound of Music”
“Strictly Ballroom”
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail”
“Napoleon Dynamite”
“A Christmas Story”

Ten Things That Make Me Laugh Out Loud
John Cleese in the Monty Python sketch “Ministry of Silly Walks”
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Reading my siblings’ comments on old family photos on a website we share
The Orbitz commercial where the guy isn’t swearing so he yells “What the French, toast?!”
“Most Extreme Elimination Challenge” on TV
“The Office” on TV
And yes, it’s occurring to me that I watch too much television
Ann Lammott’s book “Operating Instructions”
Being with my family, especially my siblings
Being around the kids from our youth retreat program
Anything written by David Sedaris

5 Movies That Made Me Cry
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”
“Moulin Rouge”
“My Life”
“The English Patient”
“Awakenings”

10 Songs I Play Over and Over on my iPod
“Come What May” from Moulin Rouge

“Call the Police” by James Morrison
“Apocalypse Lullabye” by the Wailin’ Jennys
“Paperback Writer” by the Beatles
“Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd
“Dear Mr. President” by Pink
“Up To The Mountain” by Kelly Clarkson with Jeff Beck
“Dimming of the Day” by Bonnie Raitt
“Down to the River to Pray” by Alison Krauss
“Over the Rainbow” by Eva Cassidy