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I thought this post could be a benchmark in among the last few weeks, and not mention real estate at all … well, maybe just to say James loved the house, and we’re going to bid at the auction. But onto more important things.

It’s interesting how life just goes along the way it does, and the more you try to impose your will on it, the less you’re able to. For a control freak like myself, that’s disturbing. Now I look back over the last few weeks, there’s been some kind of grand plan in the works - just not my own. One of the coolest things I’ve been experiencing is renewed enjoyment of the house I’m living in now, having disconnected myself from it altogether. Part of the renewed enjoyment has been housekeeping - I let the place become a disturbing rats nest of horror. Yesterday I weeded the garden - some of you who know me may keel over in shock (yes, Ria, I’m talking to you!), but my garden is now weed free - unless you count parsley, and frankly, if you do, don’t come to visit. Miss M helped me, and remarked “some of these are taller than me”. I soon realised some of them were taller than me. That became particularly clear as I had to use a spade to shear through root systems that went deeper than I’d imagined possible. So now my rubbish bin is full of green waste, and I can see all the way to the back gate unfettered.

The other thing on my mind is dressing to go out. We’re having work drinks on Friday night, and I normally bail out due to lack of child care. This time, I have an inbuilt babysitter, as my delightful mother is coming to stay. I’ve discovered it’s not a great idea to ask a precocious eight year old for fashion advice, because they might be a little more insightful than you’d like. At one point, after I’d suggested I just wear jeans, Miss M asked me how many times I’d gone out recently. I hedged my answer, and she told me I needed to be more experimental in my clothing choice. Knowing she was right, I pushed my jeans to the back of the drawer with a heavy sigh …

Today I’m loving: Ria’s coming to stay!

I’m constantly intrigued by the realisation (my own) that when things are busy, there is nothing to post about. I wrote a post yesterday, read it back and thought man, that is sooooo boring! But when things are just average, there are always hilarious stories to tell. Go figure!

Anyway, I finally have some things to report: Miss M and I checked out a house last night, and it seems pretty damn good. Now it’s all down to James as to whether he feels he could live there comfortably with an older sister and eight year old niece (plus cat & dog). I’ll know sometime between 11-11.30am tomorrow.

Before seeing the house, we’re going to talk to the bank. I’ve never had much to do with banks or lawyers before, now I’m happily discussing Section 32’s, making appointments, asking hard questions of real estate agents … disturbing, really.

My gorgeous friend Jo is in town from LA, and we had lunch at Camy today. It’s been “renovated”, which seems to be code for moving the tea urn to the other end of the restaurant. Don’t know if that took the six months it appeared to be closed for, but if it did, I’m happy we didn’t buy that warehouse shell and build into it. Jo has just finished training as a yoga teacher, so we shot the breeze about classes, and now I have to go out and buy this month’s Vanity Fair which has a huge spread on LA’s most famous yoga gurus, one of whom teaches just down the road from Jo.

I made a fantastic aromatherapy blend to wear as perfume yesterday, with lots of ginger and citrus. Quite wonderful. It especially came in handy when the tram I was on today became redolent with the smell of a very unsavoury human being who stood right in the doorway and thus in a strong breeze.

So no doubt the upshot of the house will be written about here within the next couple of days. Happily, whichever way it goes, I’m feeling well adjusted.

Today I’m loving: Tea. I’m sure my coffee machine is feeling rejected.

I’ve looked at more properties in the last week than I have since I started on the initial renting venture (memories of a house smelling far too much of urine, and many, many ads stretching the truth about everything) months ago. Last weekend I went to look at an apartment which was the last depressing nail in my solo buying coffin. It became seriously apparent what I want is not possible with the budget I have. Coming home, I surfed domain.com and found a fabulous warehouse shell in Abbotsford. I was daydreaming about how great it would be to be able to buy it, and build from scratch, and I came up with an insane scheme involving my brother buying into a property with me.

Amazingly, he loved the idea. Sadly, the shell was already sold by the time I spoke to the real estate agent. Ditto another property in the same street, which I loved because it had a home theatre. Shallow - me?

I’ve found us another place, which I’m going to look at tomorrow evening. It looks like the best of the bunch so far, since it has two separate living areas, is super close to work (a little further from Miss M’s school than I wanted, but that’s unavoidable), and huge. Auction is 9th June. Remaining unattached, it will be interesting to see what happens.

So it’s all work, finding a house … repeat daily. But it’s good.

Today I’m loving: eBay success!

I’m going to start this post by inserting a heavy sigh right here. Then I’m going to move on - notice the bright, happy tone of my typing?

Those of you who read my last post will probably gather things didn’t go according to my hideously overly emotionally involved plans. I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to pull myself back together, and not burst into tears at inappropriate times. One of the bad things is all my beautiful clients were so interested in what was happening with the house, I’d get asked up to twenty times in one day, so it followed there would be at least ten (brief) moments of tears. Interestingly, sometimes I could talk about it quite rationally, and converse intelligently with no emotion, others I would lose it totally. I can almost call it funny - almost.

I realise now that as I was riding into work on Tuesday there was an omen I should’ve paid more attention to, which maybe indicated things wouldn’t be going my way. It was 8.55am and full on peak traffic, and as I headed behind the CUB I noticed a little caramel coloured dog prancing through the traffic, obviously lost and oblivious to potential danger. I pulled over to do something about it, then realised I had no way of containing the little animal, and that I would be horrendously late for my class if I stayed. A woman who’d pulled up in front of me headed off as a rescuer, so I felt okay about leaving. But for the rest of my ride, I felt hideously guilty thinking about how I should’ve helped the poor little thing.

A couple of hours later I was riding home to see another client - and running late. The prancing dog was still there, this time on the footpath. I felt relieved it wasn’t dodging traffic, but again, I had the same problem of containment and time constraints. After I trained my client, I rode back to the scene with a large backpack to put the dog in, but I couldn’t find it. I’m hoping it’s owners found it, or some kind person helped it. It probably wouldn’t have liked being shoved in a backpack much, even if I’d shoved it nicely.

I’m not saying if I’d helped the dog things would’ve gone differently, but I had a horrible feeling all day because I didn’t help it. However, that feeling was soon replaced by another, far more horrible feeling. And that brings me to today, which is my most tear free day yet - like one of those AA badges - “12 hours without tears”.

So now I’m spending my time checking out the progress of my eBay auctions (my username is tigermissmaya - if you’re looking for vintage clothes, check out my auctions!), various real estate sites, and trying to make some order out of the chaos I seem to live in on a daily basis. Also trying to sleep.

Today I’m loving: that a day off is less than 24 hours away

Please refer to the title of this post.  That is all.

I made my offer on the little house today, and now find myself in a state of excitement/terror. As soon as it was done, I felt like I either needed to throw up or have a heart attack - possibly both at once. Now there’s nothing else I can do except wait, and try to remember I’ve done the best job I could … just please, let me get that house, dammit!

Mr Dog came to yoga with me today, and lay in the sun while I taught the class. Well, after he’d cried outside in the most disruptive manner possible, I finally brought him in and he was happy. During the relaxing portion of the class he licked me, then wagged his tail loudly on the ground. I couldn’t help but love him though.

This afternoon Miss M told me she wants to quit Karate, and in the spirit of a terrible stage mother, I’m not going to let her. We’ve struck a deal where she finishes the rest of this term, then decides if she wants to have a break. I’d be so disappointed if she gave it up, but I know if she really doesn’t want to do it, there’s absolutely nothing I can do to make her.  Part of the problem is she seems to be having terrible growing pains, and often complains about some part of her body aching, especially her legs and heels. I used to think the whole growing pain idea was a total old wives tale, but apparently it’s a known phenomenon, and is now becoming well known to me.

I’m looking forward to the next couple of days being over, and knowing my position a little better as things unfold.  Ganesh, don’t fail me now!
Today I’m loving: roast chicken

My family have never really been big on celebrating Mother’s Day. I suspect part of the reason is we’re all fairly open about showing we love each other, so the idea of a prescribed day for showing that love seemed slightly odd.

My feelings about this changed when I became a mother. Or rather, when Miss M was old enough to bring home the sweet handcrafted gifts commemorating Mother’s Day. The first is from daycare, a gorgeous painting (abstract of course - she was only two) with handprints, buttons on the frame, and copious amounts of glitter. A couple of buttons have been lost over the years, but I still love looking at her tiny handprints, and comparing their size to the giant capable hands she now has.

There are cards she’s made in Greek, with Cyrillic script I can’t decipher, cut out teapots that once had a teabag stapled to them, and terrible poems made up by various teachers over the years, but I love, and have kept, all of them.

Last year Miss M’s school had a Mother’s Day stall, where children could buy presents for one or two dollars. Even if children didn’t have any money, there was something they could have, which I thought was very egalitarian, and extremely sweet. Miss M bought me the most gorgeous cards which featured birds and butterflies, and came with envelopes. She told me how she’d looked for ages, what else there’d been, and how she’d come to her decision. The thought she’d put into her purchase was quite amazing.

On Thursday, as I wrote in a previous post, she was very unwell. The Mother’s Day stall happened that day, and she’d forgotten to take any money. So she borrowed some from Deb, the gorgeous woman who runs the office to buy me a present. Apparently it’s a white (my favorite bed linen colour) sheet, because she thought we needed some new ones. I’ve been planning to buy white sheets for some time, but have been waiting for Kmart to have pure cotton ones at 25% off. Miss M’s probably won’t be pure cotton, but I think it’ll be my favorite.

The presents don’t end there though, as I’m also getting a Mother’s day makeover: “not because you’re ugly Mummy, just for fun”. When I told one of my clients who’s appointment is on Sunday afternoon, he begged me not to remove the results of the makeover, because he’s quite keen on the idea of his personal trainer looking like a drag queen.

Today I’m loving: Ria, but that’s an every day thing!

I’ve been caught up over the last week with more details to do with the little house, work, and being a half way decent mother. I’m looking forward to next Tuesday, which is when offers have to be in on the house, since I’ve been waking up at hideous hours of the early morning from dreams where someone else has offered hundreds of thousands more than I can afford. There’s nothing to say it won’t actually happen, but whatever resolution occurs, baby, I’m ready for it.

Poor Miss M had to come home from school yesterday, after throwing up on the way to the library. Normally this wouldn’t be such a drama, but she missed out on the lunchtime disco (after having dressed up as Missy Higgins), and the opportunity to dance with the boy she has a crush on. She’s managed to keep her cool about it though, and is taking solace in the idea there’ll be a next time. Privately, I suspect it’ll be all about a different boy by then.

She spent most of yesterday unable to eat, and quite worryingly hot. She refuses to take any kind of remedy, even when I explain it can help with temperatures or make her feel better. Happily, her trend of recovery on the next morning continued, and I could tell by the first word she said she was okay again. Well, also by the request for sausage following soon after.

Today I’m loving: too many things I have to get rid of!

On Friday, I dealt with two different lawyers who both told me things I didn’t want to hear. Having never been a client in this sense before, it was, to say the least, a hardcore day. Possibly the most hardcore element was sitting in an office and crying with my nose running, and not being offered a tissue. I quickly discovered there’s no easy way to pretend you’re not wiping your nose when you are. I told Miss M about my experience later that night, and said I’d ended up with snot on my hand. Her reply - did you eat it?

I’ve got myself back under control now (and have tissues well stocked in any bag I carry), and decided how to deal with both instances, but as I was riding back to Richmond on Friday night, I realised the value of having someone to go home and talk to without actually having to talk, if that makes any sense. I have fantastic friends and family, but couldn’t really summon enough energy to recount my tale in any detail, so instead I hung out with my snot loving eight year old who bought me a soft serve from McDonalds. I guess she fits the bill better than I initially thought.

Yesterday, it was finally Miss M’s party - thanks to disorganised parenting, it was two weeks late, but it didn’t seem to matter to her in the least, and in fact, I like to think it was as though she had an extra birthday. She and several of her friends bowled, ate, and played video games, and seemed to have a good time. Our party host was a young girl wearing devil’s horns, and at one point we ran out of sauce - an integral ingredient of any Aussie party. The children discussed how to get more, and Alex casually said “we have to ask the devil”. Luckily I wasn’t drinking anything at the time, because I may have choked while laughing.

After the party, I went to see the little house again, this time with my neighbours, who very kindly measured, inspected, had Miss M and her friend Madelyn jump on floorboards to see if they creaked, and generally gave it their seal of approval. I liked it even more the second time. Ditto the real estate agent since I patted his dog while talking details after the inspection. It’s probably a total ploy, but a dog wins me over every time.

Today I’m loving: Pilchen, who is purring more loudly than a small cat should

Do you ever find there’s heaps of things happening, but it seems like there’s nothing to say? Me too. Having seen the apartment I’ve been hanging out for, and deciding within a matter of hours it wasn’t suitable, I’ve found a house which is awesome, and have been consumed by inspections, plans and so on and so forth over the last few days. The documentation has been sent to a lawyer, but I got a message from her this evening saying she’s found something which concerns her, and not to make any offers until she’s done some research tomorrow. I have a terrible feeling there’s yet another big “but”, coming up, which seems to be attached to any and every property I’ve seen thus far. Or perhaps every property in general. I’m just not sure.

My knee is almost fully recovered, I ran on Tuesday and felt great. Once my brain had processed the idea it was okay to do it, that is. Now my brain’s insisting it’s tired, and wants to go to bed quite soon. Shut up brain, remember who’s boss. Although my body seems to agree quite happily, so I’m not sure which bit of me that leaves as the rebel.

Today I’m loving: adding the words “like a fox” to any random sentence and making myself laugh.