Clearing
I got most of the fallen tree/bush cleared off the neighbor’s property today; I’ll need a saw to take apart the biggest parts of the trunk. While I was clipping the branches into smaller bits so they’d fit in the yard waste bin, it started pouring. So I gave up after a while and came inside. By the time I got thoroughly busy doing something else, it was sunny. And, of course, by the time I was finished with *that* and ready to contemplate going out into the garden again, it was dark.
Such is winter in the PNW!
So there was nothing else to do but lie on the couch and read. Poor me. 
So. Tired.
When I didn’t have a “real” job, I kind of lost the difference between weekdays and weekends–except that weekends were, annoyingly, the times when suddenly things would be closed when you needed to go there (like the post office), or crowded when you needed to go there (like Trader Joe’s).
On the other hand, weekends were the times when friends were more available to do things, so that kind of made up for it.
But now! I am having a huge TGIF thing going on. And it’s not even like I’m going into an office all day, every day; but this week did feature rather too much setting-the-alarm, getting-up-early, dressing-up, going-places (in the rain and floods), etc.
And the fact that I don’t have to set the alarm for tomorrow? Oh my god. I remember this from before. Friday nights were when I was entirely out of gas. Saturday mornings were for sleeping in.
That sounds awfully good to me. It’s been quite a week.
_______________
We had been tentatively planning that I would go to Seattle this weekend, but for a number of reasons (not the least of which being all the road closures because of power lines down, and snow/ice everywhere, and more flooding predicted), plus the fact that Mark is coming down here next weekend–and earlier than anticipated, as one of his friends is performing next Friday night–I’m going to stay here. I already told work I couldn’t do an open house this weekend, and you know? I’m going to leave it that way. I’ll do two, maybe three a month; but this weekend, I think I just need to recharge batteries.
And maybe deal with that fallen-down tree. The only progress I made today was taking a picture of it. It’s larger than it looks in the photo, but, okay, maybe not as tall as the house. (As tall as the *neighbor’s* house, anyway!)
That’s her porch it’s kind of leaning against, but mostly it’s just in her side yard, and it doesn’t look like it’s damaged anything. Even so. I bet she wants it out of there.
It’s Raining It’s Pouring
Well the snow ended, alas, almost before it started; today was the day that we got all the rain we were supposed to have all winter up till now.
(And, in extreme weather weirdness, I note that Seattle (which I pay some attention to) has been twenty-plus degrees colder than Portland, and is having all kinds of snow, and ice, and freezing rain. Very peculiar–we’re usually within a few degrees of each other.)
Today I had to drive out to Gresham; the roads were flooded in many parts, it was very exciting. And when I got home, one of my smallish trees had fallen over–snapped off right at the base–and is slumped into the neighbor’s yard, almost onto her porch. (Well, not really a tree; but a butterfly bush that is as tall as the house, so I call it a tree.) I tried to pull it away, at least move it back onto my property, but couldn’t budge it. And now it’s dark and wet out. Perhaps tomorrow if it lets up a bit, I can go out there with my big loppers and try to take it apart some… Yikes.
And that’s all I got for you today.
Goodnight, Internet
It will be weird to have a day without internet, but you know? It will be fine too. I have hard-copy proofreading to do, a novel to write, real estate homework to do…
Oh and we might be all covered in snow. Here’s what it looks like now, after raining all day:
Dark, but hey, that’s what happens at night.
Here’s the Miata:
Lovely! It’s like a postcard out there. A dark one.
In other news, I am rather exhausted, because I slept rather horribly last night, and had wretched dreams. So I did not go into the office today, alas. But, in better news, I made The World’s Most Delicious Soup for dinner: taking Trader Joe’s black bean soup and riffing mightily on it. Le Yum!
And so, to bed. See you all back here on Thursday!
Spreading the Word: Two Things
I just registered for FogCon, which is a totally fabulous new genre con in the San Francisco Bay Area. Last year was its first year; I attended and had a great time.
My friend the Ogre has asked that I share the official blurb:
“Friends of the Genre (FOGcon) is a literary-themed San Francisco Bay Area SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon and Readercon. This year our theme is “The Body”, and we’ve two wonderful Honored Guests, writer Nalo Hopkinson and writer and artist Shelley Jackson. We will be building community, exchanging ideas, and sharing our love for the literature of
imagination. FOGcon takes place from March 30-April 1, 2012. Visit www.fogcon.org for more information.”
So there you go! Register right now, and I’ll see you there!
_______________
But wait, there’s more!
I’m on the board for Cascade Writers, which is now taking registration for this summer’s workshop, July 26-29. We have an awesome lineup of instructors and guest speakers–click through to see them all! This workshop always fills up, so be sure and get your registration in soon. This year we’ll be convenient to the Portland airport. Summer in Portland–perfect!
And, if you have any specific questions about the workshop, feel free to ask me. I’ve been attending since its inception and have always found it incredibly valuable. Hope to see you there!
Whew
The open house went really well! Despite the fact that it snowed like crazy! In fact, during the heaviest snowfall, when the whole world was a giant snowglobe, was when I had the most visitors. Go figure! Well it gave us all something to talk about.
Seventeen people came through (but that counts the owner, and My Dear Miss Q, who generously came by just in case I was going to sit there for three hours by myself). Some people were obvious lookie-loos, but most folks were engaged and interested, and the last couple were all WE LOVE IT, CAN WE BUY IT? I was all, Yes please do!
(Not that this would be my first sale, if they did; this wasn’t my listing, and they already have a broker; but even so, it’s cool!)
My worst moment was realizing that the house key was no longer in my pocket, where I had put it after I had opened up. A few minutes of panic ensued, until I remembered I had cleared some trash out of my pockets…and, duh, cleared the key out too. (This was mere moments before the owner showed up. Whew.)
I got contact info for a few people, so I’ll be following up with them tomorrow.
I was so wound up that I didn’t get hungry (despite thinking to bring soy bars with me). So when I got home, at nearly 5pm, I suddenly realized, Jeez, I haven’t eaten since breakfast! I fixed that; then H. and I went out to dinner and I fixed it again. Then we went to dessert after that and fixed it Real Good.
So: on balance, very positive. I’m sure I’ll settle down as I do more of these. I do like open houses–going to them has been my hobby since college, and it’s a large part of what attracted me to real estate in the first place. I’m VERY tired now, but, I expected that.
Honcho would like me to do at least two open houses a month. I think I’m good with that.
Invisible Progress
I didn’t get a chance to work on Hobgoblin yesterday or today, but I had two really important thoughts/insights about the plot, that will help so much going forward…at least I’ve jotted them down, so that when I DO get a chance to write again, they’ll still be there.
The days have been busy, little-bits-and-pieces busy. Lots of errands and buying things that I’ll need as a realtor; prep work for tomorrow’s open house; three four freelance projects; a mammogram; a conference-call board meeting for the Cascade Writers; keeping up my exercise as much as possible; and then a nice break yesterday evening, when My Dear Miss Q and I went to a few neighborhood wine tastings (on our way to Office Depot to purchase realtor supplies). And then delicious soup at her house afterwards, plus cheese and chocolate to die for.
And I thought I’d miss San Francisco’s foodie culture! Ha.
Anyway…they say it’s going to snow tomorrow. Our first of the season. That should make the open house interesting… Do I leave the door open, as one does? Will anyone come? I’m bringing something to do, you can be sure.
You Guys!
Wow, everyone who commented on my “LOOK AT MY SHAMBLES OF DESK AND TABLE” post was distinctly unimpressed. “Bah!” you all said. “That is nothing! My levels of chaos laugh in the face of your measly little stacks of cutely organized randomness!”
And that is terrifying!! Doesn’t the universe just fly apart when things are that disordered? Or….is it just me?*
Anyway. I made some progress on the organization–I made file folders for a lot of it, although now I need a new filing cabinet, so the folders are sitting on the table. But that’s better! And a new thing or two came in; but I did manage to put a few things into already-existing folders in the drawer; so it all looks much the same but feels somewhat better. If that makes sense.
Today was a busy day–I went to the office and met with the Boss Man, who isn’t really my boss, in the traditional sense; perhaps I should call him the Honcho. Anyway, we spent a lot of time talking about my upcoming open house; and I got fliers (with my photo on them!) and OPEN HOUSE signs and forms and whatnot; and I went to visit the house, letting myself in with my new lockbox-opener; and that was all cool.
Except for the part where I opened the fridge in the garage, and realized too late that the agent whose listing this is had stocked the fridge with lovely Mexican Cokes in glass bottles, and one of the bottles was leaning or something, because it flung itself onto the concrete floor and shattered into a million pieces of glass and sugar and caffeine and caramel color, onto my pants and new boots. And, of course, the floor, which I had nothing to clean it up with, so that’s another item for my list of “things to bring to the house”.
I will open fridges in empty houses much more gingerly going forward.
In other news: Here is what the orchid which was spiking so weirdly is doing now:
Yes, it is going to make four entire spikes of blossoms off one stalk! Also, it has a second, unrelated spike, which has two small branches coming off it. It will be CRAZY WITH BLOOMS! I took a photo of that spike too, but the camera decided to focus on a chair in the background and not on the spike, which makes a nice metaphor for something, I suppose, but a crappy photo. So you’ll just have to take my word for it.
_______________
*And my mother is reading this right now and laughing, a slightly hysterical laugh, because she despaired at my bedroom when I was a teenager. Suffice it to say, I like tidiness now, and that was a preference and a skill I developed later in life.
Meanwhile…
Where is the Organization Fairy when I need her? Currently, the dining room table and my desk look like this:
And each of those pieces of clutter is something that needs to be dealt with…
I did get a lot done today, but some things (like orchid-watering) are being put off till tomorrow. I’m EXHAUSTED. Maybe having my second personal trainer session had something to do with that…we concentrated on lower body today, with a million billion jillion squats. Squats are awesome, of course, but OMG tiring!
So I’ve been lying on the couch reading my old Tintin books. I’ve gotten through them all, over the past week or so…and there are two missing! “Tintin in Tibet” and “The Red Sea Sharks”. I suspect–no, I shan’t name the suspect, so as not to tip him off. But he did share my childhood delight in the comics, and he did suggest the whole family go see the movie over Christmas (which we did, and thought it was fabulous).
::shakes fist in air:: I’ll get you, thief!
_______________
Close-up of desk clutter, with meta-meta image of this blog post, plus tragically empty wine glass
I’M A REALTOR NOW!
I have a black blazer and a lockbox key!
Oh, and a subscription to RMLS, and a membership in EMAR, and an office bill…my credit card is about to burst into flames. FLAMES.
Onward!