The Life & Times of B

Before I begin, a quick update on the house situation:
Ours: SOLD
New one: PURCHASED

So yeah... we found out on Sunday (the 10th) that the buyers had agreed to buy our house for list price. So that means, our house sold in ONE WEEK. Just another example of how crazy the market currently is.

Because of that, we spent Sunday afternoon looking at a couple houses... one of which had an indoors hot tub and a couple sun rooms but needed some work done on the walls, and the other was in great condition and a very nice house. My mom was very excited about the 2nd one and decided to put in an offer on it, but we found out the next day that someone else had put in a bid $5000 over list price... and she couldn't go there (financially). So... she spent much of this week looking online for more houses and printing out the listings and such.

Yesterday morning (Wednesday), she calls and wakes me up to ask if I want to come check out another house that's about 6-7 minutes away. I reluctantly agreed... and wasn't all that impressed with it. We left there, and decided to go look at another one nearby... only to find out that it had already been sold. So... having nothing else to do, I came back home. A few hours later, my mom calls me and tells me she's gonna look at a house in Classic View (it's a gated neighborhood really close to my high school), that had only been on the market for 2 HOURS! I get another call a short while later, telling me she loved the house and was planning on putting in an offer on it. We found out last night, that they had accepted our offer! That means, that their house was only on the market A FEW HOURS! INSANE!

So yeah... since I hadn't seen it yet, I drove by there today to check it out. I had a little problem with finding it (cuz the street that was listed online doesn't exist), but I talked to the neighbor across the street and even the homeowners... and they were all VERY nice people. I'm excited to move in now. Anywho... I thought ahead and brought my camera... so that means pictures for you loyal readers. Here ya go :)


The front of the house


The kitchen


The large, dual-level back deck


The path between a couple rose gardens on the side of the garage


Whatcha think?

Okay, so our house has been on the market since Sunday (July 3rd), right? We've already had 5 different couples come look at the house (one M, T, W, and 2 today)... and the second couple today made us an offer that is 98.3% of the list price (I don't want to reveal how much that is cuz I don't know if mum will like that...).

FOUR DAYS after it went on the market and we already have a pretty solid offer, if you ask me. I'm encouraging my mom to take it... so that I 1) can help pack/move MY/our crap (I actually kinda like doing that), 2) will have something to do other than yardwork for the next few weeks, 3) will get high-speed internet, and 4) won't have to worry about leaving every frickin time someone wants to come look at the house (that's SOOOO annoying). We'll see how things turn out in the next few days though...

And, as for my Independence Day...

I started it off by going to my friend Bryant's house for a BBQ, then we played some Xbox and just hung out. At about 7:30, I headed over to Shannon's aunt's house in Spanaway for a country themed partay. Of course, I was all decked out in my new cowboy hat and new dancing shirt (Whatcha think?). Shannon's aunt, who was a little trashed by the time I got there, absolutely LOVED my "outfit" and seriously offered me a shot of some sorta alcohol within a couple minutes of my arrival.

The party was pretty fun though... we played a game of "backyard" volleyball, there was a "horse" in the backyard (it's was a few bales of hay with a saddle on top, as seen in my picture), and of course, lots of fireworks. Not only did I get to hang out with my good friend Shannon again, but my friend Nick (who I've known since 1st grade) was there cuz he knew Shannon's cousin, and I got to know Lauren (Shannon's best friend and maid of honor) and John (Shannon's fiancee). They're some cool kids... I can see why she likes them.

It was a low-key 4th, as far as me and fireworks are concerned (compared to years past), but still A LOT of fun.

Now, if we could only work on our terrorist relations to eliminate future happenings of today's events... :(

Sometimes a friend will ask me if I want to get together. Me, being a person who thrives on relationships with other persons and yet has related with hardly anyone so far this entire summer, am generally happy to oblige and respond in the affirmative.

But then comes the dreaded question. "So, what do you want to do?"

Nobody wants to answer that question. My problem is that I'm most happy when I'm spending quality time with people. And quality time can mean anything, from the planned outdoor activity to laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling for a few hours. I appreciate being in the presence of people that I care about and I want them to be happy. What we're doing truly has little bearing on how I feel about the situation.

This lends itself to a problem, however. Because my response has a habit of being something along the lines of, "Oh, I don't really care, what are you in the mood for?" I think that, to many people, this kind of response tends to convey the idea that I am uninterested or don't really want to spend time with the person. If I can't even come up with something I'd like to do, I can't really care if the interaction takes place at all, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Absolutely brimming over with wrongability. The fact is that the context of quality time means so little to me that I would rather leave the decision up to people who might be more affected by it. I just think that it puts a lot of people off when I don't care about the setting or the activity as much as the fact that I'm just spending time with people.

Those are the words of my dear friend Ryan Scott Douglas (there's a link to his blog on the right, in case you didn't know), and they couldn't be more true for myself as well. That's not such a good thing, considering many of the people that I spend most of my time with are the same way... but oh well. It's the quality time that matters, right?


Anyways... I don't really enjoy writing a recap of my life's events, nor do I have time to actually write it, so my posts are likely to be few and far between. I'd expect one sometime soon about moving (as in, houses) though... since that's what's currently transpiring.

I'm going to alter the GUESSING GAME for this entry, and make it a "GIVE ME A NICKNAME GAME." You should be able to figure out what to do...

Oh, and this is for Peter: If we could just keep the comments more appropriate from now on, that'd be great...

All right!