Conversations with Myself

Oct 27 Taking the train to Chicago, upper deck, yellow tinted windows, cloudy day, hint of blue, hint of rain. Metra trains have a weekend special- $5 pass to ride anywhere all weekend- a steal of a deal! So here I am. I’m not really sure where I’m going from here though.  Not sure what I’m in the mood for, it was hard enough getting myself this far!  Feeling lazy.  Yesterday we unloaded the Uhaul at mom’s new place.  It actually went quickly- we were done in just over 2 hours. That night they accepted an offer on their old (Walpole) house.  By Dec 14 it should be a done deal and they should both be happily settled into their new house.  Exciting!

I don’t want to generalize, but I will anyway.  Real estate agents, I trust them about as far as I can throw them. I actually had no opinion of them either way until last night.  Basically, mom’s real estate agent was encouraging mom to accept an offer that was much too low.  Its bad enough the agent readily agreed when mom suggested lowering the initial price after only 21 days (trust me when I say that compared to more of the similar houses on the market, theirs is definitely one of the nicer), but to want to accept an even lower price ($40,000 lower than the initial price) was just outrageous.  I suppose in a slow market, any money is better than no money, but I still think that’s pretty crummy.  The agent should be having the customers best interest in mind, not her own!

Okay, rant over.  Alls well that ends well.  Anyway, soon the stress of buying and selling will be completely over and they can focus on the stress of renovating their new place.

(a little later that day) Iced coffee goes down way too easy. Before you know it, your drink is gone and in 20-30 minutes, its diuretic effect is kicking in.  I treated myself to a large hazelnut iced coffee from McDonalds and before I knew it, 1/3 of it was gone. It’s pretty darn good.  Thank you McD’s of the Future (their claim, not mine) at the Navy Pier.  I’m waiting for the Buccaneer show to begin on the Family Pavilion Stage.  This is preventative medicine. I’m been walking since I got off the train, however far away that was.  I’m not too tired yet but give me a chance, I soon will be.  I have no plan for the day, which is why I probably ended up here. Since I didn’t know where I was going, when I hit the streets I unconsciously headed toward what was familiar and obvious.  First I ran into Millennium Park, which had some fabulous sculptures. Not knowing where to go from there, I headed toward the lake, which conveniently had apath bordering it.  Decision time- Field Museum or Navy Pier? Cheapness won out. Freebie Pier it is, saving the Museum for another day?  I have no plans after all and a week ahead of me!