It's mine, mine all mine...

After signing my full name onto a whole bunch of papers, and being once again overwhelmed with all the information going by me, I was handed a set of keys, a booklet full of legal paperwork, a $50 check, and a condo was mine! Now, my realtor and loan office might say I stole it, but I'm still having difficulty with the fact that I just paid like $50K for a 1+1 condo than a 4+2 house back in Texas... but hey, apparently I'm in Florida, and people really want to live here.

Not to take away from the fact that I now own my own home (and the 30 years of payments that go with it). I have a whole bunch of freedom to do what I want... I just gotta move into it. My goal at the moment is to be moved over in 3 weeks. Now that I'm closed (yeah!), I'll get to plotting/planning my move. That, and I've got a whole bunch of addresses to change.

For now though, I think I've still not gotten used to the idea that I owe the place, nor that my loan officer isn't going to call/email me wanting to know what some withdrawal was last month and wanting some kind of documentation for it.


And I walk right through the door,
Walk right through the door.
Hey all right! If I get by, it's mine.
Mine all mine!

I've crossed the last line, from where I can't return

Today has not been a terribly good day. The loan approval inquisition continues (warning to potential home buyers: don't spend any money for the 2 months before you start closing--you'll save yourself), but my stress is most due to the fact that I don't think I'm going to close on time. (Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition, nobody!)

I'm supposed to close on the condo on Monday (7/31), but since the loan isn't approved yet, it's not looking very good that I will close then. The way I figure it, if the loan doesn't get approved tomorrow morning, the closing will have to be delayed. This is mostly because the money I have to pay the closing cost (due at closing, hence the name) is in Texas and it will take at the least a day to get here oh-so-wonderful Florida. So, I need to know the closing costs by Friday afternoon, so I have Saturday to get the money moving here. The closing costs, however, can't be determined until the loan is approved. Added to this is that I can't move the money until after the approval (as well), because if I do then the approval will get delayed (even more) because they'll want to know where the money went, where it came from, what mint it was originally printed at, how the stars were aligned when it was born, etc.

I'm at the point now where I don't think I'll be approved tomorrow: there's just too much left and I've not had any indication that the problematic areas are waning. All of which wouldn't bother be so much, if there wasn't such a major penalty for late/delayed closing specifically addressed in the offer agreement I've signed (which my loan officer and realtor both seem sure the seller won't impose on me--but I don't know).

So, I'm bummed about it all. I didn't even make it through swimming warm-up tonight before I got out because of the mood I was in. And the icing of it all was that while I should've still be in the water one of my friends decided to give me crap (over text) about not being a home owner yet, when the closing date that is most likely going to be delayed isn't until Monday! Hell, he didn't even recognize that I texted him when I should've been in the middle of practice...

On a lighter note, speaking of hell, the copy of Dante's Infero that I ordered came today (very quickly, I might add: I only ordered it from amazon on Monday night)--I told my loan officer that it would help me identify where I am today...

Hopefully tomorrow'll be better.


I've crossed the last line
From where I can't return
Where every step I took in faith betrayed me
And led me from my home

Watchin' our every move, hope some day they might approve...

The wait for loan approval continues, and it sucks. My closing date is a week from today, and hopefully, hopefully (hopefully), things will work out. And hopefully I won't have to provide the bank with a detailed account of every waking second of my life for the past 2 months, as well. We're getting closer, but still not quite there. And I've not even met them! (Hmmmm, maybe I should--I'll have to ask my loan dude about that.)

The weekend went alright. It started on Friday just after work with a dash over to my loan dude (not to be confused with the Dude), to pick up some paperwork, and get a status report. The paperwork necessitated a mad dash to the bank, at which I arrived at 6:03 p.m. The worker standing behind the counter, on the other side of the locked outside door, moving his finger across his next in a cutting fashion, pointlessly re-iterated to me that they closed 3 minutes before. So, after that I went at vegged at home for about an hour before heading out to see Clerks II (which was good & funny, in the Kevin-Smith, try to be gross funny, that is it; and so not a movie for kids, really).

Saturday and Sunday I woke up way-too early (for a weekend) to go help out at a swim meet here in town. I got to learn how to use a Colorado Timing System (ooooh, aaahhh, I can hear you saying now), which almost made up for the fact that I was told to be there 30 minutes earlier than I probably needed to be. After the morning session of the meet each day, I was free. Saturday, I went into work for 4 hours to clean up some stuff. (Do you know that the College of DuPage uses the acronym C.O.D.; which I find amusing both for its cash-on-deliver meaning and its fishie variant--particularly since I was looking for swimming team information?)

I also went on a fruitless trip to a mall, went on a much more productive but tag-along trip to another mall, ditched out of a third (semi-pre-planned trip) to a third mall (cause I was too tired), and got to have a Sydney's Sinful Sundae at Outback on Saturday night (and some nice hang-out, cool, dinner conversation). Oh, and I caught Psych on Friday (he grew up in San Antonio too), Fallen and the 4400 on Sunday night (somewhat impressive, given they were on at the same time). So all-in-all, a good weekend.

Oh, and from last Wednesday, Vincent should have been "auf'd" (but I'm not terribly upset that Malan got the boot instead, tho I don't understand why they can't all just get along!).

All they seem to do
Is be checking up on you, baby (baby)
(Craig David)
Watching our every move
Think someday they might approve, maybe (maybe)

Some people stop at nothing, if you're searching for something...

I believe my official conversion to a Florida resident has been... maybe started (?): I went today to the DMV (not to be confused with the DPS of Texas--way cooler), and got a Florida driver's licenses (and had to sacrifice my Texas license to do so). My visit managed to live up to most stereotypes of frustrated government service employees, so all-in-all a rather interesting way to start my morning...

Now, I will give Florida some props: they allowed me to schedule an appointment to get my licenses, and let me fill out the application online. However, they still didn't come out ahead. The pre-set appointment allowed me to jump ahead of 3 people in a line, so I saved about 10 minutes there. They lost points, however, when the first scheduled appoint time was 8:30 a.m.; and when I showed up at 8:00 a.m. they'd already been open for an hour (and I would've actually have gone in earlier, had I known I could, so I could get to work on time, but the hours weren't posted online for me to know).

Now, had that been all, I would have been ok; but it wasn't. After the initial check to see if I was prepared for transferring my license (having my passport--like you're allowed to have--in lieu of a Social Security Card almost threw them), I got into another line. That was ok: only 2-3 people deep, and I had things I could be doing. And on top of it, a worker from an empty line came over and pulled me into her line so I didn't have to wait more. Sweet... err, not.

I handed the nice work the printed copy of my application form, which hand been kind of a pain to print, as I hand to transfer it from the computer I originally downloaded it on to one with a printer on it (ok, not a gigantic deal)... anyways, the DMB work took the application, and then proceeded to ignore it entirely. It just sat there, beside her keyboard, as she asked me every question on there... I don't know maybe it was to test to see if I really knew what it said. Who knows.

Anyways, after it started to become clear that she was asking me the questions I'd already answered on the form, I made the then-unknown mistake to try to point out the form to her. In attempting to do this, I physically reached over the waist-high (I'm tall, remember) divider, and which point she completely froze and said words to the effect of "get your hand/arm out of my desk space" (almost to the instant I reached over). She then handed me back my passport and driver's license, thinking that was what I wanted. After taking them, and waiting about 30 seconds, I asked if she needed/wanted them back, to which she said yes and question whether I wanted to look at them. When I said no, that I actually was trying to look at the paper (with all the information she needed), she just kinda shrugged, and we were ok afterward...

But what sealed the DMV's fate was their employee next to me. An elderly woman and a person who I assumed was her son, were at the agent next to me. At one point, the son had to come up as the agent had something semi-complex to explain (the woman was being charged $5 for the test she'd taken on a previous visit to another DMV office, and not for what she was doing that day; however, he couldn't give her the stuff she was there for today until the previous $5 charge was paid). So the agent attempts to explain this to the son, who doesn't understand it (the explanation wasn't very clear), and which point, the agent loudly states, "You did indicate English was your first language. You do understand English, don't you." He then proceeded to slowly give a similar, unclear explanation of the charges, in a louder voice...

And the icing on the cake, was that when I asked for voter registration information (which I thought the DMV site mentioned should be available), I was instructed to go to the county courthouse for it... so much for motor-voter.

Anyways, I was getting my FL DL so I can establish residency here, and for condo-purchasing stuff. (I'm now awaiting to get loan approval: all the paperwork is in, and they're trying to figure out whether/not I'm worthy of a loan. I may find out by week's end.)

Enough ranting, the D List is on, and I'm missing it! Hasta...

Some people stop at nothing
If you're searching for something
Lay down the law, shout out for more
Break-out and shout, day-in, day-out

Ain't that America, we're something to see...

Life has been kinda crazy of late. Over the weekend, I made an offer on a condo, which was rejected. However, on Sunday, I reached an agreeable sum with the sellers, and I’ve now entered try to land a mortgage-mode. That, and I’ve got over 100 pages of legal text to get through in the next 2 weeks (oh joy).

On Sunday, I swam in a Masters meet, and swam right about where I wanted to (4IM-5:03, 8fr-9:19, for those n-d-no). So that was good, particularly since it’s my last meet of the summer--which I’m bummed about. No Masters Worlds, and now, due to timing of the closing (July 31 is the targeted day), no meet in Raleigh later this month (freeze on major spending, never mind needed to stay to get stuff done).

But, new place in the works, here’s a pic…

(the middle door, on the ground floor, next to the stairs)
(and on a side note, another property option was pink...)

Oh, but ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, we're somethin' to see, baby
Ain't that America, the home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

Well, you don't know what you might find, why don't you come with me little girl...

On a magic carpet ride...

So one of my friends, Heather Sherman's her name, went up to see the shuttle launch on the Fourth of July. She took the below pictures, and I thought I'd share... thanks Heather!

Some plume smoke pics... (also Heather Sherman).

Hush now, I see a light in the sky...

...a new day has begun

So I woke up this morning to the sunrise (at left; picture quality down due to windows and me not being completely awake). Was surprised that sunrise was happening as I woke (just after 6:30), and then got Celine Dion stuck in my head for part of the day (oh joy). Why it couldn't have been Simply Red's Sunrise, I don't know... though some might argue there really is no difference.

To backtrack new home search is going ok. I've managed to get myself a pair of real estate agents and a pair of mortgage brokers, although completely separate. And my second mortgage broker, as I learned earlier is way more aggressive than I would like them to be... I think.

As for the 4th of July, it went well. Hung out at a friend's party for a most of the afternoon, and then attempted to head to a second party only to get confused about where to go and then got stuck in traffic on the way home. Didn't do much scouting for places, but was pretty tired of doing that after spent most of the weekend looking.

And on that front, I may be very near a decision... things are down to 2 properties and there doesn't look to be any other entries. Could have a decision by the end of the weekend, pending some minor things...

Oh, and Emmy nominations are out!

'Cause you were born on the fourth of July, freedom ring

The holiday weekend goes alright here in Florida. Not too ridiculously hot, and it hasn't rained really.

There was some light stuff yesterday while I was scouting neighborhoods for potential (new) places to live, but otherwise, nada. (Not much luck on the search front, although I did find a rather cool-looking house that's probably only a $300,000-$400,000 out of my price range. C'est la vie....)

Today was rather uneventful. No work (yeah), so I slept in, swam at noon, and then spent the afternoon waiting around for my real estate agent to call (he didn't). Did some minor cleaning, and then dodged a freakin' u-haul to get out my parking space (pictured above... guess they couldn't see the white line). I just chalk it up to crazy Floridians... and now I get to head home and see if I can park.

And the city 4th of July party, which is happening down the street, isn't until tomorrow!


'Cause you were born on the Fourth of July, freedom ring
Now something on the surface it stings
I said something on the surface
Well it kind of makes me nervous
Who says that you deserve this
And what kind of god would serve this?