Realizations

No. 1: The Real Work Has Only Just Begun

This is not a political post, but it starts with a story that involves politics. And then it moves on to some whining. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I was an Barack Obama supporter from the get-go. I was quite nervous that he would not succeed in getting the Democratic nomination, not because he didn't deserve it but because Hilary Clinton had such strong support, such great experience, and such name recognition. I remember the day Obama got the nomination and the happiness and relief I felt that he was on his way to becoming our President.

That euphoric feeling lasted about two weeks. Then, one day, it occurred to me that he might not win the general election. That thought had honestly never crossed my mind until that point, daft as that sounds. I had been so focused on whether or not he could secure the party nomination that I had completely forgotten that that was the tip of the iceberg. 

I feel much the same way about my condo right now. I had to do so much work to get it ready to list—emotional and physical—that it never occurred to me that once it was on the market, it might not sell. I know, I know. Laugh all you want, as you'd think, given the current economic situation in the U.S. and the state of the housing market, it might have crossed my mind that I would not be able to sell. But it really didn't. It's starting to now.

My condo has been on the market nearly a month. This past weekend was the third weekend of open houses, all of which have been well attended. Buyer's agents have been brining people through. Yesterday, a woman who had spent quite a bit of time at this past weekend's open house went back with her agent, then sent my agent a long list of questions about my place. Maybe this will turn into an offer? It's the closest I've gotten.

Perhaps a month isn't very long. Or perhaps it's long enough and I need to drop my price. And therein lies a big dilemma. My condo is listed at $45,000 (yes, that's FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS) less than I paid for it three and a half years ago. That doesn't even account for the $15,000 (yes, that's FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS) worth of improvements I made during the time I lived there. So I'm already standing to lose a big chunk of change. On one hand, heck, I'm already going to lose a ton of money? Why not drop the price, get it off my hands, and lose MORE! On the other hand, that's a lot of money!

It's of course not the concern of the buyer how much money I stand to lose. The buyer is concerned only with getting the best possible price. I understand that. I'm just feeling frustrated and impatient is all. And a little stymied and unsure. I have yet to determine my breaking point on the price. No matter what I decide that point is, what will I do if I can't sell at that price? Move back in? Ugh.

I need to think about how long I can take the limbo. It's a status that's never been comfortable for me, and this is no exception. My gut sense is that it's not quite time to lower the price and that I need to take this as a lesson in patience. There's been a lot of interest in the place, and the price is not a secret when people decide to come by. My sense is that if the price were really way too high, no one would even be coming by to look. Of course, I'm not a realtor. That's just my sense. So I will wait a bit for now, keep mulling it over, and hopefully an answer, or an offer, will come to me.

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No. 2: I Need to Exercise

Totally unrelated to housing, two nights go, I was inspired to put my Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred DVD into the player and give it a go.

Jillian Michaels is trying to kill me.

It's a good kind of killing, though, or at least that's what I'm told myself as I flailed around again last night, pretending to jump rope, doing endless jumping jacks, and heaving hand weights. I've been out of the exercise loop for a while now, and it does feel good to be doing something—anything!—rather than kidding myself that living on the second floor and doing a lot of lifting of 35-pound toddlers makes my life qualify as a workout. Now if I could just revamp my eating habits, too, because I've been eating a lot of the following lately:

Random List of Awesome Food I Have Recently Eaten

Cadbury Mini-Eggs (the brilliant CV heats them up in the microwave, yum)

nachos

Jell-O instant pudding (chocolate and butterscotch and that neon-green pistachio)

cottage cheese

JIF peanut butter (I'm usually a natural, organic, no-sugar peanut butter kind of gal, but I had some JIF the other day and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven)

Diet Coke

Friendly's chocolate soft-serve with peanut butter sauce

Chee-toes (the baked ones, practically health food)

Girl Scout Thin Mint ice cream

I'm totally in comfort-eating mode. I've also eaten some fruit and salad and such, but much of my diet has been rather, shall we say lacking in freshness as of late. Perhaps the shredding will inspire me to get back to my more usual ways.

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No. 3: It's not Spring Yet

OK, yes, according to the calendar it's spring. But just because it's late March and the sun is shining does not mean that it's warm outside. I keep pretending that it does, though, and not wearing my scarf and putting on short-sleeved shirts and sending the kids to daycare in sweatshirts and no coats and then regretting it.

This morning is was 28°F. It's not spring yet! Evidently my brain can't process that information.

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No. 4: I Feel Dull

I've been quiet on the blog front not only because of being busy at work, but also because of feeling dull. I feel drawn inward lately, weighed down by work stress and condo stress and a sense of plodding along without really getting anywhere. I don't feel unhappy, and I've done many fun things lately, but I just feel slow and thus rather uninteresting and uninspired. I've felt this way before and it will pass. I hope soon.