Saturday, March 09, 2002
CALGON! Take me away!
Yesterday was one of the most miserable days in recent history. I’m too tired and too miserable to make this story as interesting as it should be, but I’ll at least explain why a 3 hour hot bath is in order (and a 12 day nap.)
We went to look at a house that recently came on the market. I’ve become entirely disenchanted with the whole house buying process. As one woman said, “It’s completely thrilling for the first weekend, but after that it’s a tedious chore you just want done and over with.“ Exactly. After the sting of not even getting a response from the offers we put in for on the last house, we’re at the point where we’re weary of even bothering with putting in an offer. Besides, we hadn’t really found anything that suited us well enough to want to buy. This house held promise. High promise, actually, or we wouldn’t have gone all the way up there and back in the same day.
Unfortunately for us, our realtor was only available before 3pm and only on Friday. Saturday wasn’t going to work for him, so we took Devon out of school and hauled our butts out of bed at 7am. Those who know me know that beyond a doubt, I am not a morning person. 7am does not exist in my world. It just doesn’t. Anything before that exists only if I stay up that late, but never because I get up that early. Let me point out that I stayed up until 4:30am talking with a dear friend, so I completely missed out on any chance at resting up for this big trip. So, not only am I up at a time that doesn’t exist in my world, I’m exhausted and irritable besides. Great start.
The messy details of getting everyone out the door (a half hour later than we had hoped, no less) are too frustrating to recount at the moment. Let us just say that if all my mornings went so poorly, I would throw myself into the sea. Still, my hopes were high that the house would be our dream house and that things would go well, so I tried to keep things calm and once we were on the road, I thought we’d do alright. Sadly, one child was crying, another was whining and the other was just complaining loudly. My beloved husband was irritable and mean and decided that lashing out was the appropriate measure to take.
Despite being irritable, tired, (oh and sick besides) - I was expected to be the sweet, good natured, loving mommy. For the sake and good of everyone else, I was forced into putting on my best Mary Poppins mask and keeping the family together. Talk about stress. Talk about a major undertaking. It was just too much for me. Before we ever got there, tears were stinging my eyes and I was pulling out maps trying to find the closest sea in which to toss my sorry self. Thankfully, at least two of the children improved their dispositions upon arriving to the agreed upon meeting place where we waited for the realtor. The boys got out and blew bubbles. Jenica was frustrated because she wanted to climb around in the parking lot, but it just wasn’t safe to let her roam, so her frustration and sour mood grew exponentially.
The house itself is lovely. We put an offer in at full price and have high hopes, but I don’t want to jinx myself like I did with the last one. Until we have a definite answer, I refuse to even post photos or anything. We need to have this come together or else I am going to be stuck here playing Single Mom of Three for at least a month or two, and we’ll be paying for two households at the same time. In any case, when I feel more comfortable and sure about the house, I’ll write more about it. Not now.
Ah, on to my fun filled day. Yes, well, we decided to fill out the paperwork for the offer right then and there. It was easier than going back to the realtor’s office and faster than faxing stuff back and forth. The realtor knows we’re tired of this process and eager to be in a home.
The fact of the matter is, this house suited us better than any other that has been on the market in more than six months, so we really couldn’t afford to let it slip through our fingers. Unfortunately, children have no understanding for these things and their patience leaves much to be desired. None of them wanted to sit still. They were bored and antsy and eager to explore, but the house is being lived in at the moment, so I couldn’t let them freely explore as they would have liked. Besides, it just wasn’t safe, especially for the baby. Things got ugly very quickly and I was so close to losing it. I held together, signed paperwork and did my best to invent games to entertain the children. The realtor did his best to keep things moving at a rapid clip. Thank heavens.
Back to the car and on to lunch. Aside from the fact that Sebastian wouldn’t eat and Jenica wouldn’t sit still, lunch was the only really good part to the whole day. I had an excellent veggie sandwich on wheat with sprouts, guacamole, mustard, mayo, tomato and pepperocini peppers. YUM. I also grabbed a bag of these weird “Veggie Chips”, which claimed to be made with real vegetables. They were good, but not what I was expecting. The “real vegetables” were merely potatoes and powdered tomato and spinach. Weird. Whatever. It was good food and a nice change from sitting in the car. Getting everyone loaded back into the car… ugh. More frustration I’d rather not get into.
The trip back was miserable. I cried almost the entire way. In a last desperate attempt to try to pull things together, we stopped at an outlet mall and walked around a bit. It didn’t solve everything, but it was so nice to stretch our legs and have some breathing space. I finally stopped crying and while my mood was still less than perfect, at least the kids were quiet on the trip back and I was able to discuss the house with my husband in peace and quiet. It was nice to reconnect a little, but the tension was still high and it was all I could do not to run into the house and collapse into bed when we got home.
Oh. Wait.
Nevermind. That’s exactly what I did.
Jenica woke up just before midnight in a hysterical fit of screaming and crying. I had a killer sore throat anyhow, so I got up and got her some medicine and tried cuddling her. When that didn’t work, I gave her over to her father and he went to bed with her. I’m now high on a good strong dose of that delicious Guiatuss AC liquid (Robitussin with motherfuckerawesome CODINE… God, I love saying that) and I think, I hope, I pray I can go to bed and stay there until the next 7am has long past. I never want to see 7am again. Ever. EVER EVER EVER!
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