Can't Sleep

I've decided to blog about why I can't sleep tonight. Quite honestly, I'm just annoyed by Tong. Ok, I have to admit that these entries will usually be about negative things that happen in my life since this is my way to vent...at any rate, so today Tong and I briefly talked about what to do on one of our listings. The house was listed for 145K and the best offer so far, after being on the market for 2 weeks, was an all cash offer at 130K. The agent emailed me to ask if I've had a chance to review his client's offer with the seller. I told Tong that I replied to this agent telling him that we'll get back to him soon. Tong proceeded to tell me that whatever I decided to do was fine in this particular situation. As we know, the best offers usually come in the beginning, and this property doesn't even show well at all, so I said ok, we'll have to work with the 130K offer then. My thinking behind that was we're not likely going to get a better offer the longer the property sits on the market...that's the traditional thinking anyway. So he suddenly makes a comment about the offer being too low. That just annoyed me a little so I said maybe we should reconsider our strategy of underpricing our short sale listings. The reason we do that is to generate interest on the property, but I think it also hurts it sometimes because I have to spend so much time explaining to other agents and buyers that we're just pricing it low, but expect a market value offer, and on top of that, when you're dealing with buyers, it's hard for them to understand why they need to come in so much higher than the asking price to get an acceptance. It is true that all good offers are based on fair market value/comps, but unfortunately, not all agents are able to get their buyers to understand it from this point of view and they end up basing their offers on the list price. On top of that, we also get cash buyers who automatically want to come in below the list price already, so in some ways I think the underpricing of our listings creates an uphill climb for us to get a viable offer. Anyway, it was just a suggestion, but of course Tong wanted to get into a debate over it in the work room while I was in the middle of trying to get something else finish and there were other people in there trying to work, so I just told him I didn't want to discuss it and we can talk about it later. The truth though is that there is no sense in discussing it because Tong is always right in his mind. Sometimes I wonder if he asks me for my opinion just so he can debate the opposite. In this particular incident, if I had said 130K wasn't high enough for me to work with to get bank approval, he probably would have said it's the best offer we're going to get because it's such a horrible property. He started telling me that while we normally underprice our listings, this one was actually done at market value, so I if that was the case then we should be fine with the 130K offer since it's not too far off the list price and it's all cash. But it didn't matter because at this point, and usually at any point, anything I say to him regarding real estate is going to be met with opposition. I don't even know why he ever asks my opinion or thoughts since he's always going to find reasons to oppose everything I say. It's extremely annoying! For how much he claims to be innovative and open minded to trying new things, especially when it comes to business, he sure gets offended if I make a suggestion that is slightly different from his approach! We haven't discussed it yet, but really there is no point so I'm just going to tell him, what he wants to hear....that he's right and we'll just do it his way, whatever it's going to be, because frankly I don't know. I will never know because whatever I say...will be wrong.

Science Fair Project

Jr has a science fair project due soon and he has barely gotten anything done. He finally did his trials yesterday, and today I asked him to recreate some of his results and take pictures of them for his display board. (He's testing how far ping pong balls fly using a catapult and different size rubber bands). He whiningly asked "why." I was so annoyed I could barely explain to him why. Told him that doing a report is not just about words, it's also about visuals and presentation. He reluctantly did it, but it was too late...I was already irritated. He also just got back from his school camping trip on Friday and I told him to download the photos from his digital camera so he can use that camera to take photos of his project. Later I found out that he just deleted all the camping photos to make room for the project photos. I asked him why he did that and he just looked at me like a big ol' dud! I asked him if it was that he did not understand my directions, or if he just didn't know how to downloand the photos, and if that was the case, why didn't he ask for help. He said he didn't understand what I asked him to do. I told him he must not have cared that much about the photos if it didn't prompt him to ask me for help. It's just so typical of him to not care for or value anything! All his projects he gives minimal effort to, not caring about neatness or presentation, and now even something that I thought he would cherish, such as photos from camp with his friends, he didn't even care enough about to save!! Flabbergasted by why nothing seemed to ever mean anything to him I continued probing him about why he didn't ask me for help on downloading his camping photos (I was even feeling bad, wondering if he felt I was too upset with him that he didn't feel comfortable asking), he finally admitted that he didn't really care for the photos. That just made me even madder because here I was feeling all bad that he had to make the choice to lose his photos rather than ask me for help in fear I would respond badly, but really he just didn't care for them, yet he didn't say that right off the bat and told me it was because he didn't understand what I meant earlier instead! At any rate I told him I was done helping him with this project. I'm just so fed up caring so much about his stupid assignments when he barely seems to care himself. I told him if he needs anything else relating to this project he can go to his dad or the teacher. I think he just takes my efforts and my involvement for granted. He needs to understand what it feels like to have to figure things out yourself and not always expect me to be there to help and guide him along, at least not about school work that is his responsibility. I told him I was done stressing about his projects and it's time he started stressing over them himself. I feel lik sometimes he's just waiting for me to tell him what to do or perhaps even do it for him, but I'm done with that. If he showed a little more initiative, I wouldn't mind continuing to help, but it's been like this with every project this year...me pushing him and reminding him of due dates, and giving him ideas...I'm not going to do that anymore. Let's see how well he does! I told him too, that if he doesn't get at least a B, he'll be in big trouble and get a spanking.

Reconnecting With My Old Blog

Wow, I didn't think my blog was still up after not having been accessed since 2008!! I didn't keep up with it because I just didn't have time, and then when FB became really popular, I started using that instead, but today I realized that sometimes I just want to vent and I don't want to put that on FB because it's too "out there." I haven't been updated my blog for so long I don't thinkk any of my family members are even following it anymore so I guess I can use it more as my personal outlet without worrying about others finding my posts and reading them. I guess I would be doing this more for myself now...Anyway, I did a lot of venting in my hand written journal, but I just wanted to say that sometimes I just get so angry at Tong. I hate to sound self serving or self righteous, but you know, sometimes I think about the dynamics of our relationship and it's a damned good thing that I am so easy going. I don't think a lot of women these days would be able to put up with him. I love him dearly and we have a really fun-loving, happy marriage, but there are also a lot of times when I have to consiously bite my tongue to avoid arguments and fights and let him say or do whatever he says or does just to keep the peace. Regardless how old fashioned thinking or how close minded it may be. He's just so strong willed and strong minded that he's the type of person not worth arguing with because when they're in that argumentative state, only what they say is right and what they believe makes sense, no matter what. There's just so much to say on this topic and the feeling is so strong that I just can't find the right words or enough words to properly explain how I feel. I'm just at a moment where I want a break. I'm just tired. I feel like I just want a getaway for myself. Maybe I can explain it better another day, but there is tension and there is some resentment on my part. I'm trying not to let it get to me, but I just can't stand how all his ideas are fine because their his ideas, but if I have an idea he doesn't agree with he gets so antigonistic and tries to make me feel stupid for saying or doing whatever it is. Sometimes I don't agree with his ideas, but because he believes in it so strongly, I support him and I don't second guess him. I just wish he would have the same faith in me sometimes is what I'm trying to say. Even if he doesn't have faith, at least let me get it out of my system and I'll learn for myself if it was a worthy idea or not, you know??