The moment I walked out the door of my home this morning, I could tell the temps had gone up to the point of being around freezing, and since we had to endure these recent bitterly-cold days, today’s temps were to the point of making me feel a bit toasty, which is why, as my day progressed, I wasn’t wearing near the number of winter bundle-ups I had been. By mid-afternoon, I was walking from my car to a building without even a coat or gloves on.
Once I had my early morning office routine completed, I finished preparing a file I’d been working on for a meeting I was to have later this morning, and after giving it a good looking over, I figured it was as good as it gets. While always attempting to be the forward-thinker, I made sure to have all bases covered, should I be asked a question I wasn’t prepared for, and thank goodness I was, because during that meeting, there were several asked which I just happened to have the answers. Thank goodness I went overly-prepared.
After my meeting ended, I headed over to an attorney’s office to drop off a legal document that needed some tweaking, and while waiting for the attorney to come out of his private office, I managed to have a long-overdue conversation with one of the secretaries whom I’ve known since I first started selling real estate. It’s a good thing the attorney was late coming out of his office, because his secretary and I had a whole lot of catching up to do. It was all good.
With it already approaching Noon, I headed over to Hardee’s and picked up a small burger which I took back to office and had for lunch. Of course with all the sweets I was gifted for Christmas, I had a small one with my Noon tea. While paging thru a periodical, the UPS guy showed up at my front door to deliver that package I’d been waiting for. Ugh! Another box of expensive chocolates from a past client. I think I need to put out an all points bulletin saying I’m not a big fan of sweets, and especially those filled with more sugar than anything else. Of course there’s one exception, and that’s the to-die-for fudge I’ve been making and gifting which is silky smooth and filled with freshly cracked black walnuts. Once again this year, I’ve been getting rave revues from the recipients.
Since I didn’t have another appointment until around mid-afternoon, I headed back to my cleaning project, just so I wouldn’t be behind the eight ball in getting it done, and especially since the first of January isn’t but four days away. While there, I had to keep telling myself not to be so particular, just so I’d be able to get it finished-up in time. I can’t believe how hard it is to find reliable cleaning people who’re not booked-up for weeks, which tells me, even more are creating messes, but not willing to clean up after themselves. Truth be told, you’d be shocked at how very un-clean homes some of our so-called prominent citizens are living in, and especially those who’re part of our meritocracy. My dear friend and I have shared some pretty scary stories regarding a number of them over the years.
I got back to office in enough time to get over to my mid-afternoon appointment, and when that was finished, I headed out to First Citizens Bank with card in hand, for Dawn Braun’s retirement party. As I suspected, there were a great number of people there, and still arriving. They sure had a large spread of hors d’oeuvres which was quite the sight to behold. The management of First Citizens Bank, certainly went all-out for Dawn, and I’m glad they did because she’d been a workhorse for their mortgage loan department for many years. I’m sad to see her go, because there’ll likely not be another who’ll be able to fully fill her shoes. Without question, she was always one who worked for the best interest of first-time buyers, as well as the subsequent repeats. Truth be told, I’ve never had a buyer complain about the job she did for them, and believe me, that’s saying something. Before leaving, I wrote in her retirement book, a few lines of well-wishing.
While there, I decided to seat myself with several real estate colleagues whom I’d not spoken with in months. Somehow one of them got on the subject of my so-called “steel-trap” memory, by bringing up so many examples, I dare say I was beginning to blush. After insisting I don’t possess total recall, I did mention that if I’m fully focused on a person, place or thing, it becomes hard-coded. As a footnote, I did mention that after my mother’s passing a number of years ago, I realized that I am my mother’s son, in more ways than one, which of course is a good thing. There’s no doubt I got hit with a good dose of morphic resonance from her. While walking out, I was happy to have made the choice to attend her retirement party, along with a little smile to myself when believing she’ll think the card I gave her was the best.
Speaking of cards, I’ve always found it amazing how people really don’t take the time to search for appropriate cards to give others, which is why I nearly always get heart-felt compliments from the recipients. My thing is, if you read what’s in the card, and feel like you’re saying it to the face of the one you’re giving it to, then it’s a keeper. Make sense? There’s been a not so thoughtful “reli” or two of mine who’d pay no attention to the body of cards they’d received, but rather look to see how much the giver paid for them. Now isn’t that pretty tacky on their part? Whenever getting one from them, I wouldn’t even pay any attention to the price paid because I just figured it came out of a “croaker” box at one of their local thrift stores. Yes, I fully-well remember.
After I left First Citizens, I had several calls to return before calling it a day and heading home. Thank goodness the streets are becoming more clear of ice and snow.
Tonight’s One-liner is: It is imperative for some to come out of retirement and actually do something meaningful.
