Any readers left?

So, I figure due to my slacking with blogging as of late, there are probably only 2 people who will read this. So this is for Beth and Jenna.

Let me start by saying - god damn Rod Barajas! As I type the Phillies game has just ended in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays. I was out to the movies tonight so I missed the game. As they were about to roll the credits, the "player of the game" was named - Rod Barajas. I was confused, because I knew he wasn't playing for the Phils anymore (Thank God! I would have traded him for a sack of balls!) and to be honest, I wasn't sure he'd be playing anywhere these days. But apparently not only is he catching for the Blue Jays now, he brought in 5 of the 6 runs they scored, with one at bat being a grand slam! Are you kidding me?? WTF!??! It was a good day if he didn't make a costly mistake when he was with the phils (like waiting for a guy to come at him at the plate with the ball in his glove, then standing up with his legs wide open with a straddle as he allows the guy to slide through his legs and score - pure brilliance this guy). I'd be amazed if I pulled up his stats to find he batted over .150 with our team. Couldn't stand him! Still can't stand him.

Anyway - what a week! It started out as a cold, windy, rainy Monday. I was working from home because my car had been broken into the previous Friday in the lot I park in at work, my passenger door window had been smashed. The earliest I could find someone to come and replace the window was Monday - and I had no intentions of driving into Philly and parking anywhere without a window. So while i'm waiting for the auto glass guy, i'm trying to get some time sensitive work done when my phone rings. It's my mortgage company. I'm very nervous when I see the number on my phone because it's 2 days before i'm going to settlement and as far as I knew, they had had everything they needed from me. Both I and my realtor had followed up with them several times the week before - and the week before that, but heard nothing.

But of course, because I already had this black cloud over me after my car got broken into, this couldn't possibly go smoothly. It started out with the loan closer needing me to resend my HUD from the sale of my NY coop because it's legal size and got cut off in the letter size they received - as well as some pages that were missing from one of my bank statements. Only problem was, I was at home, and all these papers were in my office. So I asked my financial manager at work to fax the documents over for me. Crisis diverted - or so I thought.

Then, I spoke with my realtor, who was going over my checklist with me for closing, and he asked about my condo insurance. I told him I wasn't planning on purchasing it until I would actually be moving in - which was August - since its mainly just a contents and liability insurance. But then he suggested I look into getting a Landlord type of insurance - I hadn't even thought of that. You see, the sellers were willing to settle early with me, so I could lock in a decent mortgage rate, but asked to rent from me for a little over 2 months after settlement, since that is when they were scheduled to move to San Francisco for his next residency. So I started calling around for different quotes. Meanwhile, i'm still trying to beat my deadline for work as well as try to find out the ETA of the guy who was coming to install the new glass.

While all this is going on, I get another call from my mortgage company. I had filled out my mortgage application on March 21st. As part of that application, I sent them a copy of my sales agreement, with all addendums, including the lease agreement. So despite having this document for close to 2 months, they (my mortgage company) decide to read it 2 days before settlement, and subsequently decide that this is an investment property, therefore they will not approve the loan as this agreement stands. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! So while my realtor and I talk about our different options, I get a call from my mother to tell me my Aunt's mother died that morning. I just wanted to crawl into a dark hole. Why was all this happening in the first place - and why all at the same time???

And wait - it's not over. I'm not sure i've mentioned anything about the feral cats we captured back towards the end of December. A Feral cat had a litter in our backyard sometime in the fall. We were able to catch two of them right around Christmas - we think they were probably at least 3 months at that point. We've been trying to socialize them, but no luck. They'll play around and explore the house and even come up to sniff me, but they won't let me touch them. The plan was to keep them inside during the winter, get them fixed, then let them back out when the weather got nicer, and continue to feed them outside.

We found a place nearby who fix feral cats and give them shots/tests fairly inexpensively. They lent us two cages to bring them in. We would have to drop them off between 7 - 9 pm on Monday night and pick them up between 7 - 9 pm Tuesday night. We realized it would be difficult to catch them both in the same room - once one of them set the trap door, the other would run. So we seperated them in different rooms. We caught Nita no problem. Westbrook on the other hand, was more difficult. She kept trying to run back into the back room (which is their home so to speak), repeatedly banging herself into the sliding glass door. Then, she hid somewhere - we couldn't find her. And time was running out - so, we took Nita to get fixed. I was so distraught - poor Nita was petrified -and poor Westbrook was probably hurt and scared as well and we couldn't find her. I was emotionally exhausted by the end of Monday.

I don't want to make this a novel (I realize i've already submitted the mini-novel version), so in the end, everything worked out. It was stressful and busy up until settlement on Wednesday at 3 pm - but by 4:30 pm that day, the condo was mine. The auto-glass guy came in the later part of the afternoon and it's all fixed now. It was a hard week for my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. The funeral was on Friday, the cemetary was 2 hours away (in North Jersey) from the church (in the Oak Lane section of Philadelphia). We had family come and stay from Maryland. I somehow made the deadlines at work only being in the office 2.5 days because of all these other issues I had to tend to. And both cats are back in the backroom, back to their old selves (although we are going to try to catch cage Westbrook next week to get her fixed).

This week was a bit extreme, but the type of week that it is has been somewhat typical for me since I began working for my new job the end of February - only I would be spending the most of the time at work or events for work. Notice the one thing I didn't talk about is my training. The biggest struggle for me. I'm lucky if I get in half of the workouts that my coach schedules for me each week. I feel like i'm gaining more weight and my progress is moving backwards in regards to my athletic performance. My first Tri of the year is scheduled for tomorrow, May 18th, in Columbia Maryland. With all the events of the week - mostly due to the funeral and out of town family visiting - I emailed with my coach and told him I just don't think I could do it this weekend. Physically, I feel incredibly unprepared, but what's worse is mentally and emotionally. I'm just not there. The one thing he told me is that I could go and finish any race I wanted to right now - but it's the difference of "just hoping to finish" or having performance goals. He also told me to ask myself why i'm doing this and mentioned what would be the point of doing it if I didn't enjoy it but instead just had it cause me more stress. Of course he's right on all accounts - so while I hate feeling like i'm a quitter, I decided I needed to regroup and spend time with my friends and family this weekend.

So, i'm not sure what to take away from the tough week, but i'm glad to have experienced it and survived it, and i'm glad to put it behind me.