House hunting Stepdad
A few random thoughts, laugh at will...
I hereby refuse to ever buy a magazine that has more ads than actual articles.
My 69 nine year old Father
should not have a subscription to
Esquire! That bothers me. Greatly.
I absolutely detest that 'Can you hear me now' guy. I'd seriously consider going to jail to make him shut up. Notice I didn't speak the name of whatever cellular company he does ads for?
A public service announcement: No matter how cool you think you are or how cool you think you look, unless you are going on stage playing in front of thousands (not 20 people at the bar down the road), you are
NOT a rock star. Therefore, you do not party like a rock star, nor do you drink like a rock star and you don't dress like a rock star. As a matter of fact, you certainly don't dial like a rock star. Yes, that incredibly stupid collect phone company commercial really bugs me.
Ahh, I had forgotten how therapeutic having a website could be.
|
It's Friday!
Of course, that doesn't have as much meaning when you are starting out in a new career and are working six or seven days a week. But, I love my job in Real Estate and you have to put in the hours to make it. I had my first closing Wednesday, and it was a rollercoaster ride. It all started out when I got a call from the buyer's agent asking if I had the final WDO (wood destroying organism...are you taking notes?) inspection and I said 'HUH?' but went to the person here who handles all of that and was informed that the Inspector had gone out that morning but hadn't called back, which she
assumed to mean there was no problem. But we called and left a message with the Inspector and within three minutes he had called back and told us there was no final WDO because when he went there
nothing had been done. Yup, my first closing, nothing on the first inspection had been fixed... I could feel the grey hairs popping out all over. What's worse is that my first listing was my best friend's house, so I
assumed that when she said everything was fixed, it was fixed. I called the Buyer's Agent and et her know we might have a problem and headed over to the property to go over the final inspection with her.
Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Everything but three things had been done and the buyer was happy with the deal, so the closing was on, as long as we held a chunk of money in escrow to pay for the repairs left. By this time, the buyer, his wife and daughter were in the house, and it was ungodly hot, even for Tallahassee in the summertime. So, one of us brain surgeons said, 'Hey, let's turn on the AC, we have to inspect it anyway'. So, I walked into the hallway and turned on the AC.
Nothing Not only did a lot more of my hair turn grey, I'm sure some of it simply fell out. Remember, this is my first listing ever, I had no idea what to do or what to say but I noticed the Mom was having problems. Her eyes were bulging out of her head and several veins on her neck and forehead were prominently sticking out. They were buying a home for their three triplets to go to school, so you can imagine all the emotions she was dealing with.
Just as I was sure she was going to physically attack me, the phone rang. It was my best friend/the seller. I asked her to head over since we were having a problem with the AC. She did and the AC didn't turn on when she tried it, either. Just to illustrate the panic that was starting to set in: it was three o'clock, the AC didn't work, the closing is scheduled for four o'clock, all of the participants for the closing are drenched in sweat, the Mom is still having the bulging eyes and vein popping out problem and the seller is saying there is nothing wrong with the AC...she had it on three days ago.
The seller calls her electrician and wonder of wonders, they say they will be right over. This is at three o'clock. At three thirty five, the guy shows up, it takes less than five minutes for him to fix the problem. Seems that they had a light switch under the house as a breaker and in the work that the seller had done, someone had inadvertantly switched it off.
This means the closing is
ON. Except that the closing is all the way across town. And the Father/Buyer is covered in dirt since he crawled underneath the house to inspect it (I'll do that for B when I buy her a house!), the rest of us are all sweaty and probably quite stinky and the Mom is still suffering from some bulging veins, although her eyes had stopped bugging out.
We all made it to the closing and it went nicely. I sat there and looked like I knew what was going on. I got the file (with the check!!!) and then it was over.
|
I love this time of year...
Football (go Dolphins and FSU, of course) is on TV as I post this, but it's the third quarter of the preseason, so it isn't as if I'm missing anything. It's also about to get cooler, I have never been a hot weather type of guy (I liked when I lived in Nome, Alaska, that was cool...) and the beginning of football season means the end of summer is near.
This will be my first football season as an official stepdad but I'm looking forward to taking B. to a couple of FSU games. As long as they aren't important games, I'd hate to miss good action waiting outside the little girls room :)
Tonight B's Grandma bought her some cd's and she asked me to go in her room and listen to one of them, Avril Levine. I love when B picks me over her Mom and Grandma. I mean, I know we have a great relationship but it's nice to be shown I am special to her. I think B is going to be a punk rocker, which is cool with me since I was (am!! cries out my conscience) but she will definitely be her own person. Of that, there is no doubt.
We went to see Freaky Friday on Jen's birthday. That movie was awesome, not as awesome as Lord of the Rings or Daredevil, but awesome in a feel good love your kids kind of way. Leaving the theater B and I decided we were going to get guitars and play in a band in our garage (have to get one of those soon). Mom and Grandma weren't too thrilled with that plan. Jen was even less thrilled that we decided Baby Thigpen (due on December 20th (my first!!!) ) will be the singer. Ah well, she can always learn to play the bass guitar or keyboards or something :)
|
Why is news of Rosanne going in for
surgery worth mentioning on CNN.com? At least they moved it to the entertainment section...well, actually, why is she in the entertainment section?
|
Must....stop.....bookmarking....interesting......Blogs......Also
....must......come....up....with....some.....other......name.....
than.......Blog!!!
There are some really cool Blogs out there, I've bookmarked several that I thought might make for good reading.
Here are some I liked enough to bookmark. Granted, they may not be your cup of tea, but some of them are quite funny and maybe one or two I bookmarked because the name of the Blog was too cool to lose.
I do think I misnamed my Blog, though. I don't have any of the words 'random, hate, forlorn, despair, goth, death or love' in the title. Hmmm, how does 'Random Forlorn Love Death Stepdad' sound as a name?
|
Ok, the hit counter doesn't want to work, so I'll worry about that later. Not like I have hundreds of people reading my witty and insightful prose anyway. Yet.
I like this Blog (but absolutely hate that word) I've missed having a forum for writing whatever I wanted to, whenever I wanted to. However, I have quickly found out that there is an hidden, evil, sadistic side effect: I am already totally addicted to reading other people's Blogs. It all started innocently enough, on the main
Blog site, there is a column of newly updated Blog sites. So, being surious about what other people with Blogs might be saying, I clicked on one that sounded interesting (or at least, didn't sound like it was full of typos and whining or odd odes to Sun N Surf Barbie) Well, needless to say, an hour later, I was still clicking on newly updated Blog sites. These things are better than any reality TV show (hmmm, but what isn't?) and some of them are extremely well written and funny. Some of them are not well written or funny and some of them are downright scary. I won't link any of them now, you guys ought to give it a try. Go to Blog's site and click on a couple of the newly updated Blogs. Interesting stuff.
|
|
Good morning, working on a hit counter, cause it's cool to see if anyone is finding this site. Hopefully, it will work.
|
So, about me, you ask? I guess it wouldn't hurt to give a little information about myself so some of this might make a little more sense. Let me talk about myself before I met Jen and B. and became a Stepdad and Husband and all around awesome guy. Well, I have always been an awesome guy, just ask me.
I was married once before and for too many reasons, it didn't last. I'm not blaming her any more than I blame myself but you know, communication never hurts a relationship. In retrospect, coming home and telling me to leave was the single best thing my exwife ever did for me. It forced me to grow up and move on. I hope she is as happy as I am now but that's no longer my concern.
I had been very interested in Real Estate for a couple of years and after moving to Tallahassee, Florida decided to get my license and work my ass off and sell real estate... I had nothing else to do, why not? However, I got a job with the State halfwayway through my class, so I did that. Steady pay and all that.
A few months ago, I was Jebbed... laid off. My then soon to be wife encouraged me to go into real estate and since the situation was right, I did. I've been working my ass off for the last two months and am doing very well. My first closing is tomorrow and that will be sweet! That means I get my first check next week, and that will be even sweeter.
So, we have my marriage history and my job choice. What else is there? Well, that will just have to wait a bit since I'm late for an appointment. Thanks for reading, more later.
|
|
Morning. After work yesterday, I picked B up from her Grandma's and met Jen (Mom and Wife, respectively) at the local Super Walmart to get B's school supplies. This was a first, there are going to be a lot of firsts in the next few months. It went well and we had a blast; B's backpack is half as big as she is but she liked it because it had lots of pockets. It was cool, she's almost 8 and on the edge of saying goodbye to the cutesy kid stuff and wanting to look cool and sophisticated. Pink was never her favorite color but when she turned down a backpack that had flowers embroidered on it and picked a more stylish backpack, I knew that was something to file away and let her Mom know about. That's how it works, I file away things B says and run them by her Mom.
Anyway, time to get some work done ( I love my job) but I think a little later I'll give a brief bio about myself.... it's the least I can do, right?
|
Well, obviously, this is a new Blog and that means I'm new to Blogging, but I'm not new to web sites. I have run a personal site for around seven years. It was a gamer's site and was fairly successful, in my opinion. But, times change and people grow older and I have a new game...
I got married recently and am a Stepdad. Wham. There was no test, no classes, no papers due...just say 'I do' and there you go. My new wife and I had lived together for over a year so we were all used to the family. But, still, there is a change. The wedding really effected my stepdaughter, B (of course, not her real name). I didn't really think it would have much of an effect, since we had been a family for over a year but officially being her stepdad has certainly earned me some brownie points in her seven year old mind.
Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea to put some of my thoughts on 'paper' and since I love hearing myself type, I decided to give a Blog a chance.
What to expect? Not much :) Well, honestly, it would be great if my Blog and writing made you laugh and made you think.
I thought it would be cool to also write about what I see in the 'normal' world but the main focus of this Blog will be my
experience as a brand new Stepdad.
Thanks for reading and please send me an email or message (are message boards allowed here??)
|
