They took the offer for the condo, woo hoo!!!! Of course this means chaos is my next two months. 

Thank god this week was quiet at work since I was simultaneously trying to get my loan application correct, the contract into attorney review, and an inspection lined up. Normally this would be simple, right? My realtor knows what she's doing, but my loan officer keeps not correcting what he needs to like THE ORIGINAL EXPIRATION DATE WHICH WAS YESTERDAY, which should now read Sep. 30th, 2026. 

It also doesn't help that you can't go in person, walk into the loan officer's office with an appointment, sit down, hammer out details, then finalize it together. Electronic things are good when everything's done correctly, but if changes need to be agreed on and viewed by more than one party, it pays to be in the same room.

So next week I'll do it all over again (boo!) and see if they get it right this time around. At some point I may just ask to meet in person and see how that goes if I get fed up enough. 

First offer? Yanked by me. The realtor was so incompetent AND her agency was representing the seller so it would have been a dual agent situation which meant even breaking as a buyer I couldn't get away from these people. They screwed up a basic contract because more than one person had to sign electronically and they kept sending copies that keyed to the wrong person. After 5 days of torture, I finally said "no, we're done." We still hadn't received and signed any contract because they couldn't get their shit straight.

Since the beginning, and I do mean the very first open house we went to see, it was in a complex that I really liked, with a pool and small but not too small amount of condos. In retrospect I should have bought that one, but oh well. There aren't many things that I believe in making a decision on how it feels, but looking for a place to live, and choosing a shelter pet, and two of those things.

I like this place. It has front & back windows, but is still only 2 floors instead of those monstrous 3 level townhomes they keep building everywhere. I've carried groceries up a full flight of stairs (and from the back parking lot) for over 3 years now. I have no desire to climb from the garage to the kitchen with 30 lbs of groceries. The bedrooms are all on the second floor, but as I've seen in most other places, that's the non-retirement community way to build. At this is one fairly straight flight, so a chair lift or extra bannister could be an option if my parent(s) move in at any point.

And best of all, the price is more reasonable. There are some updates I may do eventually, but nothing pressing, and it's really in move-in condition. Again, is it ideal? No, ideal has come and gone, but I have a very positive feeling about this place, and I know I can work the financials on this property much better than the other complex I love where it's a hard stretch price-wise. I'm moving to a more blue-collar town, but I have blue-collar type of money from my white-collar job where we're lowest on the bank's totem pole. 

That's always been me though. I hate drawing attention, I hate promoting myself, and I hate management as a career, so I stay in the background, get compensated decently, particularly for my profession, but my salary reflects that. It's hopefully enough for now, albeit with the help of my parents.

I made my first offer on a condo this weekend. I doubt I'll get it, since I went in $50,000 below asking price and the market around here is hot as all get-out, but it's a valiant effort and an introduction to the process at least, since I've never done it, and my parents last house-hunted in 1984 (their current retirement home was built from a model on demand). 

 If I do get it, however, I would be absolutely ecstatic, even if it's not 100% perfect (bent garage door, no tub, only showers, overly finished basement, etc), but it has to be affordable for me. Yes, I live in a community with a lot of rich people. No, I'm not rich, sadly.

 So even if I don't get it, it's not the end of the world. I've spoken to the property manager and if my search drags on, they will work with me when I would need to get out of the lease. And if something comes up with my requirements/location, and I hopefully could get something even more reasonable price-wise, I'm ready to pull that trigger. 

So the answer apparently is no answer as to why I'm not losing weight, so I have to start tracking what I eat better, I guess. I don't know, I'm already down to 1/2 of what I used to eat to get this size. Oh well.

Next week I'm heading into the office for our bi-annual meetup and in this case, a colleague's retirement dinner. I'm going to miss her; just like Gary was my mentor at LIB, she was mine at SIB. Of course I'm happy for her, and knew it was coming, but I do miss (most of) my coworkers when they leave. I'm still leery of having a random hot flash/exhaustion, particularly since it's summer so I'll already be trending hot, but all I can do is bring water, protein bar, cooling towel, handheld fan, and try to get rest the beginning of next week, even at the expense of my exercise for a day or two.

I do envy people who never have health issues, but I know I have to save my spoons, and sometimes it's still not enough. Fingers crossed. 

On Wednesday I'm going for a check up with my primary care doctor, and I am glad. I've been trying to limit my diet and increase exercising in addition to managing hot flashes, poor sleep, and general stress of life. I had my bloodwork done and it's stable/normal, but as an indicator of how I've changed my diet, my cholesterol went from 211 in January to 160 now. That's crazy pants difference for 6 months, but basically I eat oatmeal, yogurt, granola, and whatever I made that week for dinner (although now I'm limiting that so it's more like 2 meals & 2 snacks in a day).

I really wish there was a Pre-Menopause, Peri-Menopause, Menopause handbook (or one for each stage), since with all of this healthy crap, I've gained 5 pounds. WTF?! I don't know what else to blame this on because every other metric seems to be flashing go except my waist diameter. I really hope my doctor has some helpful hints 'cause I'm pretty much not sure where to go next.