Stay awake

[muckefuck]

I haven't had a satisfying night's sleep in over a week and I don't really have any but myself to blame. I never sleep too well when visiting my family, even when I'm not making poor choices like Ethiopian at 9 p.m. or pizza on top of 40 ounces of beer, a fast-food burger, and a Ted Drewes concrete. I blame the overstimulation of being surrounded by attention at least fifteen hours of every day. Monday, of course, I had to see monshu when I got back (and catch up on e-mail) and Tuesday night he wanted to go out. I probably would've been okay had the mole at La cocina de Frida been less spicy than I was expecting, but I can't bring myself to regret that particular decision. (Man, that place is going to be fabulous when it's temperate enough to sit out on the extensive back patio.) And then last night we weren't meeting Realtor Candidate #1 until 8 p.m., which meant we weren't quit of her until 9:30 or so. Afterwards, I was too wound up to get to sleep for another several hours. Stupid monkey mind!

She seems perfectly fine and I don't doubt that she could sell our places and get a good price for them, but I'm not so sold on her that I don't want to check out some of the candidates y'all have generously put forward. For one thing, she didn't make it to my apartment until 8:15 and only then because monshu went down to fetch her. (She didn't call up because she thought she'd left her cell at home when she hadn't.) That did undercut her pretensions of professionalism (bolstered by a freakin' sheaf of supporting documents) a notch. She really lit a fire under monshu with her suggestions and advice, but I don't know that she told me much I didn't already know: We're already in the hot season (such as it is this year), I don't need to do much--and shouldn't anyway because I'll be lucky to make back my purchase price as it is, the clutter needs to go, etc. And on that last point, it's already hard enough for me to accept the message "You have to completely change your lifestyle in order to please complete strangers I'm going to lead tramping through your personal space" even when it isn't delivered a bit patronisingly. Although she's very personable, I still can't shake a certain creepy American Beauty vibe, but that simply says more about my own hang-ups than about her character.

Is it nap time yet? I want my graham crackers and milk.

Comments

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Sadly the American Beauty vibe works so well at being creepy because it's so true. It's particularly true here in the south. There is a certain breed of middle/upper class woman with the perfect coif, the perfect and slightly overdone makeup, the tasteful tailored clothes, and the outgoing mannerism positively oozing friendly confidence and reassurance that just gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. And a lot of them work in real estate.

In CA we worked with a very mild-mannered man who was nonetheless a nice guy and good at what he does, and in TX I worked with a practical and slightly snarky lady from NY, but there were a lot of discards of the other type before finding either of them.

[peredur-glyn.livejournal.com]

I probably would've been okay had the mole at La cocina de Frida been less spicy than I was expecting

You eat moles? Is that an American thing?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Oaxaqueño, actually. (Or did you know that and you're only taking the piss?)

[peredur-glyn.livejournal.com]

I'm too clueless to take the piss. I've not heard of this type of Mexican cuisine (I live in Bangor and exotic to me is a curry from the local Indian restaurant), and thought you were eating a cooked version of the little gentleman in velvet. I mean, there are archaeological finds that suggest that Anglo-Saxons did sometimes dine on mole, and I thought...maybe...never mind.

I am also confused as to how you ingested "Ted Drewes concrete". To me, this implies that a dude called Ted has a driveway with big chunks missing out of it. I assume 'tisn't the case.

Hm. Maybe I should start a dysgu_americanaidd group for people to explain trans-Atlantic differences for me ;)

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Transatlantic? Isn't Bangor in Maine?

[heads over to Google]

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Or just make liberal use of Wikipedia! (Ninth item in the second list.)

I'm sure innerdoggie has run into this, too: People discover you grew up south of the 40th parallel and they automatically assume you grew up eating critters. So I thought there was an outside chance of you playing on this.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

Note that "concrete" as a frozen custard-based dessert is a regionalism even in the US; I'd never heard of them till I went to St. Louis. Though there's now an expanding restaurant chain that sells them (renamed "concrete mixers", no doubt for trademark reasons), so the term may start to spread.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What was it moominmolly once said? "Whenever I see a word I don't know in one of muckefuck's posts, I assume it's just some exotic food I haven't heard of." Something like that.

When we were in line at Ted Drewes, the server inverted a cup for the customer ahead of us to demonstrate the amazing clinging properties of properly-made frozen custard.