Friday Night (sorta) Update

It's past midnight, but in my mind it's still Friday, and what a hecka day it's been.

**WARNING** Rambling overview/rant follows. Jump to the "summing up" section below if you wish to save yourself some pain.

Here's what we had scheduled for today: nothing. And so, foolishly, I gave up the car to Matt so I could stay home and catch up on the piddlin things of everyday life, like... oh, say, making Halloween costumes for my kids in time for Saturday's Trunk or Treat, or maybe getting Stake Choir stuff pulled together before Sunday rolls around and I have another disastrously disorganized rehearsal to wade through. And I made a lot of headway.

And then....

Around ten in the morning it occurred to me my cell phone had seemed suspiciously quiet, so I went and got our home phone from our bedroom to check messages, just in case. Seemed almost a silly idea. I mean, I leave my cell number right on the outgoing message. Anybody who needed to get me would just dial that, right? WRONG. At ten in the morning I discovered two messages from realtors saying "I'll be there with my client at ten." With me still in my slipper socks and Joseph still in his pajamas. "So this is what Cookie meant about inexperienced realtors calling me directly," I thought. "I'll just call and say 'Now's not a good time, please call my agent.'"

What I got were two voice mails, so I left panicked messages saying Don't Come Now, then I ran to put up a note on my door saying Don't Come In, then I scrambled to get my kids ready so we could leave. And as I'm tying shoes, the phone rings again. Realtor Number Two (Tony from ReMax, and if he's your agent, FIRE HIM) has taken exception to my being home. You wouldn't believe the crap he gave me over the phone. And what sucks is, you can't just say "Well then YOU'RE not allowed in MY house!" So I begged him (begged! RRGH!!) to allow me 15 minutes to finish getting my kids ready, which he reluctantly agreed to. And by the time I left, his client was already hovering out in front waiting for him. I bet they have to do that a lot, because TONY FROM REMAX IS A BIG HUGE JERK JERK JERK. Which Cookie later verified for me. Told us to ignore him.

And just to top off that little adrenaline rush (I hate and stink at any and all forms of confrontation), I realized that not only did Matt have the car, but our stroller was in it. So off I walk with two very small boys and only one arm with which to keep the both of them from running into the street. Whee! Thanks, Tony! I hope you find a flaming lunchsack on your doorstep on Monday!

Realtor Number One, by the by, called while we were walking and was as understanding and considerate BIG JERK TONY FROM REMAX wasn't, so not all realtors are nasty.

Also on our walk, Cookie called and said we had been CounterOffered back, and advised us to just accept and sign. Meeting at 5:30. Done! I finished my walk with the boys (took them to Borders), waited for Matt to come pick us up, and headed back home for lunch. And this time, we took him back to work and kept the car, just in case. And I changed my outgoing message to make plain even to people as DUMB AS TONY FROM REMAX that they needed to call me on my cell if they wanted to show the house. And boy did those calls come! "Between 12 and 1," "Back at 2:30," "I'll be there at 1:30 but I lost my key and need you to let me in" (real professional!), - and may I interject that none of these people came when they said they would. Mr. "Back at 2:30" was there at what was supposed to be a brief moment of down time when I brought Ben home from school at 1:15, not at all convenient for us - and then we were able to finally come home at 2:30.

I had my trio of violin students set to come at 4, which meant two things: 1) I had 90 minutes to work on costumes and finish preparing my students' music, and 2) Tony from ReMax called at 3:45 wanting to show my house at 4:15, and was - surprise! - a big fat jerk about me not cancelling my lesson for him. "You may come after 5," I told him, and after many terse repetitions of this from his end, it finally seemed to etch in his big thick skull. Then two more calls, which meant our house would be shown at 5, 5:30, and 6:15. Hooray! Dinner out tonight!

So after the lesson I grabbed the kids and we got Daddy and headed to Cookie's office to sign the counter-counter offer, only we had to chuck it because a better offer had come in the meantime. But apparently we needed to counter that, too. Don't ask us, we're just along for the ride. So counter we did (and by "we" I mean "Cookie and our signatures"), and the guy has accepted already and our house is going to be inspected on Monday. That's the part we're really dreading. Doesn't the guy realize Monday's THE most important secular holiday of the year??? Also we fear what they may find for us to bring up to minimum government somethingruther. AND we may have to put off pumpkin carving! Sheesh!!

Summing up:

- We've got an accepted-on-both-sides offer and we're waiting for this inspection on Monday to tell us if there are any heinous hangups before we can call it a done deal.

- Tony from ReMax is a huge jerk.

- I am not built for nomadic life.

- I will DEFINITELY be around for the Christmas Concert. Unless I'm in prison for libelling Big Fat Jerk Tony From ReMax.