Well, you know the way I roll: there’s no sugarcoating from me! Today was a shit day. OMFG. Yesterday, I actually took the day off, bc J’s eldest sister came to town for his youngest sister’s 40th blowout weekend. J had been asking whether I was going to spend the day with him and E in Sonoma, and I was hemming and hawing… Why? Bc like I’ve been saying: I am in startup mode. I am in that phase where I don’t want to eat and I don’t want to pee. I just want to focus on work. Now, I know that any normal human being would really jump at the chance to hit up wine country for a day: I mean, gorgeous setting, fine wine, delicious food, great company… what moron would even have to give this two seconds’ thought?  What can I say, I am a rare bird. The fear of losing out on potential opportunities to build my business eats at me. Maybe it’s an irrational fear. I dunno, but I have to succeed at this. As I have been reiterating all along: this is my last chance at success.

Needless to say, I did take a step back on Tuesday night to re-examine my mental position on all of this. And one good thing about me is that I have self-awareness and I’m willing to call myself out on that shit. I see that my work obsession is not healthy and obviously, I know (via my parents) that work intensity has serious social/family consequences down the road. So, I decided to just chill the fuck out for a day and do Sonoma with J and E on Thursday.

Indeed, it was a great day. We did so much: ate insanely tasty foods, enjoyed the slower pace, the beautiful rustic scenery… I’m so glad I spent the day with them. That said, it made for a LONG day, and after I got home, my THIRD laptop had delivered and needed setting up. Just a quick debrief on the tech situation: As you know, my Acer laptop (4 y/o) crapped out during my first transaction in July. I then purchased an HP Envy 13. I loved it but then the audio kept blipping out. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting– uninstalled, reinstalled, blah, blah. HP said to ship it back for repair for 10 business days. In order to still have a working computer, I purchased a second HP thinking I could move my files to the new one and just return the defective one. After I got the second HP all set up, I experienced the same exact problem as with the first HP– defective audio component. That really fucked my confidence in the brand and the model. So then I wiped the second one back to factory settings and returned. I then ordered a Dell XPS 13.

Long story short, I was up until 1am last night setting up the new Dell: installing all my extra software, setting up email, bookmarks, Office, etc. Everything was done except that I could NOT get Microsoft OneDrive to work. With all my laptop woes, I had moved all my work files to the cloud, and OneDrive was my go-to tool. I’d been using and loving it since July. But I could not get it to sync on the new machine! I spent hours with online troubleshooting. WTF?!?!? OneDrive worked fine on my HP. Finally, I went to bed. Up early again the next day and still no resolution. OMFG. Why is this happening?

I proceeded to spend another 2 hours this morning on the phone with Dell then with Costco tech support. Dell had me “register” the new machine for like 30 minutes only to learn that they wouldn’t provide free support for software issues. They kept trying to upsell me on some tech package. SMH. I was really at the end of my rope this morning. Finally, I wiped the new computer operating system to start again.

Then I went to the office, taking my HP. At the office, as I was trying to print out my open house files, OneDrive suddenly stopped working for the HP. WTF is going on today? I look online and turns out OneDrive had been down for the last 24 hours. ARGH!!!! And I had already wiped all my work on the Dell. Seriously. It was one of those days.

Then, I had a colleague who’s been clamoring to go door knocking together. She’s scared to go door knocking, bc she thinks people will abduct her into their home. Yes. Meanwhile, she’ll readily host open houses ALONE and not worry about her safety then. Makes no sense. Whatever, I tell her I’m going door knocking/flyering today and she can join. She ends up bailing and then I don’t get to the open house until late. I had already printed out so many flyers. So, in 15 minutes before my house was set to open, I hit up like 15 houses on the same street. Then, the open house began…

I got about six parties. I worked with a new lender whom I met recently. She’s a Vietnamese loan officer with US Bank, and we get along really well. I’m thinking she’s going to be my new go-to co-host. We talk about everything: real estate, loans, makeup, shoes, bags, purse organizers… the whole shebang. Funny thing: she remarked last weekend that she has co-hosted open houses with so many agents and she has NEVER met someone who has an Open House Kit. She likes that I’m organized. Also, I earned some big time props last weekend for co-hosting an open house in Seven Trees, San Jose. Before my house (with the bathroom debacle), I was helping my colleague open up a fixer upper in a shady part of town… So I was telling this loan officer how it was a major dump. Turns out, she is familiar with the area bc her father lives near there. She told me today: “Girl, if you are hosting places like that in the ghetto, you are definitely low maintenance.” Haha, music to my ears. Of course, I was very nervous and uncomfortable the whole time. You see, I had seen the pics of the dive beforehand and knew it was bad, but then I was trying not to be all “princessy.” Shit, when I arrived on site and walked up to the house, I could have sworn the place was being occupied by squatters. SMH. Never again, I tell you.

Tomorrow, I’m hosting the same 3/2 ranch home I hosted last weekend. The owner just lowered the price $25k. Hope I get some buyers for it.