On Saturday while we were at the parade, I received a call from a Realtor wanting to show the house. I told her no, but felt sick about it. I had that “What if this was our miracle-two-days before-it-goes-off-the-market offer and I just missed it?” feeling. But our house was just a mess. And we’d set the alarm before we left for the parade and neither of us could remember the guest alarm code. Plus MonkeyMan had decided to rip up the master bathroom shower within hours us us returning home from our trip and it was still in pieces waiting to be recaulked. So most likely, the showing would not have brought in an offer and would have scared people from ever coming here again. But I still felt bad.

We still have signs in the yard since our Realtor hasn’t come out to retrieve them and her fake plants that she gave us for “staging” which I’ll be happy to see go! The continued presence of signs hasn’t stopped the TWELVE male Realtors from calling me up to inform me that my listing has expired and try to persuade me to hire them instead. I find it interesting that they are all male, and that most of them are very aggressive on the phone. To the point where I’m starting to either screen calls or answer with “I’m aware my house is no longer on the market and I’m happy with that decision.”

I’m not sure what we’ll do, but I’m guessing we will relist after the first of the year. Maybe choose a new Realtor, but probably not one of these vultures that are circling our “fresh meat” property. I don’t mind having it off the market, since I really don’t know where we should move to next and making a too-fast decision last time is what ended us up in the location we are stuck in now.

MonkeyBoy is going to be so excited to get his toys back, though. I packed up half of them when we listed the house and now they are coming back!

The house has been on the market for two weeks, for a variety of reasons. We’ve only had one showing so far. They went with another house, so no offer forthcoming from that. If the house sells, that would help make some decisions about what I should do about employment. We’ve got an evil open house coming up later this month, if it doesn’t sell before then. I’m not a fan of open houses, but this one comes with a marketing twist that makes it more acceptable to me.

Two days ago, we signed up MonkeyBoy for a mother’s day out (MDO) program. After seeing him excel without hovering parents during Vacation Bible School and watching how much he enjoyed interacting with the other children he met in the cruise ship child center, I was convinced that MonkeyBoy would really thrive in and enjoy the two half-days a week program. (MonkeyMan has always thought it would be a good idea, I was on the fence.) MonkeyBoy asks daily if he can go to Bible School and cries when we head out in the evenings and run errands instead of driving towards church. I guess he thinks Bible School is an every day activity and I’m keeping him from going, instead of realizing that it was a one week a year kind of thing. One of the things friends and family say about MDO is that it gives the mommy some “me” time. But I was planning to just spend that time at the office, so I won’t have to do any work from home as I usually do. So it doesn’t really give me any “me” time, and won’t really give me any job hunting time until February. So I don’t know if it’s still worth the expense.

Another expense I’m unsure of is some concert tickets that we bought to celebrate our upcoming milestone wedding anniversary. My favorite performer will be in concert that evening, someone I haven’t seen in concert in 17 years. The tickets were embarrassingly expensive and seemed like quite the extravagance. I had actually put them on Craigslist a few days ago just because I was feeling so guilty for spending so much money on them. I got a few hits from buyers but couldn’t bring myself to follow through with selling them yet. Now that I am facing possible unemployment, I wonder if it is better to sell the tickets and recoup some money.

Sometimes being a grown-up is no fun.

I think MonkeyBoy and I have talked on our phones this week more than we have all year combined. My poor phone needs charging at least once a day with all its use. Tonight I got to call my credit card company to alert them to fraud. Unless in my recent sleep deprived haze I did actually order thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and pet products. I’m guessing not though, since we don’t have pets and I rarely wear jewelry. This doesn’t seem to be related to my recent ID theft, but I sure am curious how my credit card was hacked. Fingers are currently pointed towards tourist bilking on the Hawaii trip.

An era ended today – the 1970s. Today we sold off MonkeyMan’s gold crushed velvet couch. It was a hangover from his dorm days and his bachelor pad. It was the couch that we used to make out on when we were dating. MonkeyMan used to describe it as a “nap-sucker” – you’d sit down on the couch and immediately be sucked into an afternoon of blissful slumber. It was held together with duct tape.

We are downsizing. It was time for the couch to find new owners. I put an ad on Craigslist and within hours there were three interested parties. One of them stood out with her title of “I have the matching chair!” The couch is going to a new home where it will have new friends. We have a new friend, too. President Grant. And the 70s aren’t completely gone – not until my beloved radio/LP/8-track player spins its last platter.