A small example

All year I have been dealing with some weird dysfunction in the yearbook room. Here is a small example of what I mean.

Yesterday I said to the senior staff: I must have all of the people pages printed with the correct page numbers by tomorrow morning. Period.

Today: No pages printed. EIC says Oh, I forgot. She gets them printed. Shows me then takes them away??? Leaving an index editor sitting in my office for an hour with nothing to work on.

We have 12 days to finish the yearbook. Completely. Period. This is what I am dealing with.

Well, it's not ALL bad

So about a week ago I was still in the "things can't get any worse, my life is terribly NOTHING is going ok" then God reminded me that my car had been working just fine cause I got hit with $1500 to get it working again.

Now, the house that I'm not even sure I want anymore has FINALLY been approved by Citibank (the seller's bank) to sell. Yip freaking pee. Next stop: inspection on Friday to see if the house being sold AS IS is in good enough shape to be worth buying. Keeping my fingers crossed and the prayer lines open.

The insanely crazy mother of a student who desperately wants me to be fired is at bay for the moment. I hate having her daughter in my class because it's like walking around on glass to be sure I don't say anything that could be misconstrued as negative...who are we kidding? I have to not say anything. Sigh.

I did get an email from the air marshall saying Happy Valentines day and he wanted to talk but he was flying to France would I be around this weekend. Ha. As if I do anything anymore. Clearly he's not reading the blog. hahahahahaha I don't want to think too much about that either. My feelings for him haven't changed, but I know that things aren't going well for him yet either. So, I don't know what that conversation holds. Gonna try to not obsess over that too. (Let's be honest, he's not a thinking deal, he's an obsessing deal.)

The yearbook staff is working. Pretty consistently at the moment. THANK YOU GOD. They have to get 45 pages in by this Friday and then another 20 next and final the book Feb 27th. If they pull it off, it will be a miracle but we need a miracle to get this book out on time. Never have we been so close to failure.

I spend most of my days trying really hard to NOT think too hard about any one part of my life. My brain flits around all topics constantly reminding myself to stay calm and trust in God.

In the meantime, I don't want to talk about ANY of it because it ALL stresses me out. I went out with friends the other night and literally said, "You can not be overly nice or solicitous. I will cry." I should call my sister, but I can't because we haven't talked in months. I don't have the energy to either catch her up or listen to her talk about her life. It takes energy to act interested. I haven't put a lot of thought into that before now, but it's true. It does. And all of my energy is being used up. I want to take a day off. But what would I do? Sit at home and stare at Pete and Mona? haha. No.

Ironically, it probably stresses out everyone around me to have me not wanting to talk about anything, but really I am doing the best I can at this point. I am like a marathoner just trying to make it to the end. I don't have a lot of witty banter in me. I don't have any fun stories. I don't have a lot of idle chit chat. All of that takes energy. Energy I don't have.

Right now, I feel like the end of my marathon is March 9th. If it goes through, I'll close on the house. The new yearbook staff for next year will be chosen. The main book will have been finaled. The real estate book will be off my plate until the next step in June, and I'll be able to focus on moving forward.

Today, I'm just focused on breathing in and out and staying vertical. I mean it.

Why we watch the Superbowl.

The commercials. Of course. Well, Hyundai opened things nicely with the "I give up" and Rocky theme response from actual employees in one of the plants.

The florists finally used what we all know. Flowers get men laid. Sure, we may not want that to be true. But we know that's why they send them, and it works often enough to keep them ever hopeful. (Whether we, as women, want that to be true or not.)

Madonna did a hell of a half time show. Of course, I love Madonna, so I might not be impartial in that assessment.

Clint Eastwood manages to inspire us even though I'd really rather have a BMW or an Audi.

Ok, the Drew Brees commercial was totally adorable.

The chevy truck surviving the apocolypse...and twinkies. Hahahahaha

I love the Volkswagon and the dog commercial. Very cute.

And, having watched the commercials online...I'm now ready for bed. Goodnight.

Now, I'm a Tweaker

Poverty forced me to stop drinking the SLAM I was getting from Avocare. That and being too depressed to actually make the purchase of the Slam happen.

A couple of days ago I started hearing on the radio about this product called Tweaker...much, much cheaper than the other options on the market.

And you know, it doesn't taste half bad. And it amuses me to no end that now I'm a "Tweaker."

Definitely feeling the rush from drinking this stuff. A rush, I most definitely need.

Altruism isn't actually a popular incentive

I'm watching 60 Minutes. The segment is on the rare and endangered animals hunted in Texas. Because ranchers are allowing them to be hunted, they are saving the animals from extinction.

I'm thinking lots of things in life are like this. Certainly in real estate it is every man for himself. Currently, I'm yanking the chain of the seller's agent. Mainly because I can. And I'm getting to do it without putting an effort forth. She sent an email late Friday, and called my agent shortly there after asking if I had a response. Since it required the assistance of my mortgage officer...no, I have no answer yet.

Even in education where there certainly is a degree of altruism, it is NOT completely altruistic because we all have to pay our bills.

The basic principals of capitalism are strongly at play in most situations.

I couldn't make this crap up if I wanted to

So, Tuesday morning I get a phone call that the seller of the short sale property has "changed his mind." **&^%^^*(I'm totally annoyed, but what am I going to do? So, I start looking for new properties.)

The process since then has been very frustrating. I do a ton of research on the internet, but I want access to MLS and all of the realtor info when I want it. I don't want to have to wait, or beg, or not get what I want.

I have now found two more than I think have huge potential. This afternoon (late) I get a text from my friend/agent forwarded from the sellers agent... the seller has once again had a change of heart. And my agent hadn't ever forwarded the buyers termination.

So, I am looking at the property again tomorrow and the other two. I am dragging Blondie with me so that I have a voice of reason helping me decide what to do.

In the meantime, I've decided to get my real estate license. I figure, esp since I'm pretty sure I won't get to go to Europe this summer, that it'll cost the same as what I spend in Europe, and I can do it this summer.)

step right up, I have plenty of time

Do you ever look up and realize that you have signed on for way more than you actually have time to do? And, then realize that it only takes one or two "unexpecteds" to totally rock your world... yup.

I have been working on the Real Estate Book, I know, I know. That darn thing just won't go away. They want to re-print the coffee table book in another year. At any rate, we are recreating "the Tree" and the "History" (spreads within the book) and I am scheduling interviews with the latest two recipients of the award.

I also got contracted to work on US Government through the FVS. They of course chose now to start sending me stuff.

The counseling department finally accepted the fact that really it was easier to just give me the Academic Planning Guide than to pretend that I wasn't doing all the work as I trained a new person almost every year. Good, cause I'm actually getting paid, bad cause they said oh, we need this now. Grrrr.

And in the middle of all of this, I got the news that I needed to start the new house search. Holy Crap batman, that's a lot of stuff at once.