Had a 3:00 showing at my listing and then went to the Home Show at the Bayside Expo Center. Not bad. It's smaller than the one at the World Trade Center but it was still good. You should see some of the retro appliances they have now--bright red, yellow, green, made to look old but have all the new conveniences. Very nice.

10:00 am showing at my listing. Then a 1:00 showing in Taunton. The Taunton house is a multifamily for one of my buyers. It sounded good on the listing sheet. We met at my office and all drove down together. And, of course, we got lost. We finally connected with the listing broker on my cell phone and he talked us through it. We were only able to see 2 floors. We started with the 3rd floor. It's in the middle of being rehabbed. It has potential. Then we went down to the 1st floor. The tenants let us in. Oh .... my .... God ....! I have never seen such a mess. They were cooking lunch--not sure what it was but it consisted of a lot of fried grease on the stove. There was a woman and 2 kids at the kitchen table. I think the kids were coloring. The man, long hair, camoflage pants, t-shirt with a snake on it that says "don't tread on me," was the one at the stove cooking. I wasn't able to see the bathroom since it was too crowded in the area. Stacks of newspapers and magazines everywhere. Then, we had to go into the next room. The doorway had a sheet over it instead of a door. We go through there and it's filled with more people. At least 4 more people and a lot more junk. We could barely move through there. I noticed what I thought was an aquarium but soon realized that there wasn't any water in there--just a large snake. We went into the "bedroom" off the living room. I don't think it is supposed to be a bedroom since there isn't an actual closet. There were at least 2 bunk beds in this room, possibly more. It was hard to tell since there were several clotheslines strung across several areas of the room. They seemed to serve several purposes. One was to hang clothes from and the was apparently to provide some privacy or divide the room up. And they didn't seem to own any bureaus or chest of drawers. Instead it was just boxes of clothes and piles of clothes, literally from the floor to the ceiling and covering every inch of space possible. That's in addition to all the toys everywhere. There was another bedroom and this was almost as bad. Another bunk bed, piles of junk and clothes everywhere. It was a fire trap. And, there were more people in each bedroom. I lost track of how many people were actually in there. It's all so sad. The buyer couldn't wait to get out of there.

My mom's birthday is today. Happy Birthday Mom.

Had an 11:00 am appointment to show my condo listing. Why isn't this selling??!!! Come on people!

Had to have my buyer of the condo re-sign a revised Purchase and Sale today. That meant that I had to run to his place to have him sign, run back to the listing brokers office to drop it off and then run back to Brighton to show my listing to another person. So much driving around... Could be worse--I could be stuck inside an office sitting at a desk all day!

Resumed my coaching sessions with Mina today at 12:30.

Then had to quick run out to my listing in Brighton at 1:45 to show it again.

Later I met S.E. at the Stockyard for dinner. I hadn't seen her in quite a while so it was good to catch up. Plus it's one of my favorite restaurants.

11:30 am appointment to show my listing in Brighton. Then I had to run back to Stoughton to do my "up time." After that, I went home for a while and then back to Brighton at 6:00 to show my listing again.

Met up with P.S. in the office today to discuss the First Time Home Buyers Workshop that we want to run.

Of course, another storm is coming today. People were being let go from work early because of the snow. And, of course, I had a 6:00 pm appointment to show my listing again. I debated all day whether I should cancel. I kept checking out side and the snow is piling up like crazy. But, I went and met up with the buyer and her broker anyway. And you know what? I had no problems. By this time, all the traffic was gone and it was quite an easy commute. All that worrying for nothing.

By 2:00, an offer arrived for my listing. It was the buyer from last night. Good think I went to the appointment after all!

But, since things can go wrong and I had already scheduled the appointment I had to run back there and show it to someone else at 2:30.

Had a 12:30 appointment to show a multi-family to my buyer Hector in East Boston. It was quick to get there and from the outside it looked great. But, then we went inside. It's amazing what some people live in. Someone had tried to add closets and extra rooms but, by doing so, the hallways were barely wide enough to walk through. Doesn't seem quite legal. He didn't like it but at least it wasn't as bad as the place in Taunton! Then we went to an Open House at a multi-family in Dorchester. This one is in the middle of being worked on but you could really see the potential. And the price was great. Apparently others thought so, too, as they were putting offers together right there. I could tell Hector liked it so we walked down the block and talked about what he wanted to do. He decided he wanted to put in an offer so we went back inside and filled out the paperwork. But, they forgot to bring their checkbook so his wife had to run back home to get it. I don't think I mentioned that the heat was not on in this place and the front door wide open because so many people were coming and going. It was FREEZING in there! At some point, my feet went numb. Anyway, we filled out the paperwork and handed it off to the broker. He really seemed to like my buyers so I felt good that he would put us at the top of the list as far as presenting to the sellers.

Then I had to run back to Brighton for the seller of my listing to sign the offer that came in yesterday.

12:00 inspection for my listing today. First, though, I had to run to the management companies office to pick up the key to the boiler room. I got back before the buyer showed up. Pretty soon everyone arrived and we started with the inspection. We figured we would start with the boiler room so we went to the back and found the staircase into the basement from the outside. Still a ton of snow back there and oh so cold. Anyway, the inspection went well, even the hot water was hot enough. Whew! At least I had been up front about the water situation with each person I showed the condo to.

P.S. and I went to Starbucks in Sharon today to chat about the workshop we want to run. And just to relax a bit.

12:30 coaching session today.

Met with J.U. at the Starbucks in Westwood today. Then we went over to the Westwood office so I could introduce myself to everyone there since my picture has been appearing with theirs in the Westwood newspaper.

Up time from 11-1.

It's been a while since I've been grocery shopping so I figured I'd go today. I don't know WHAT I was thinking!!! For some reason, I assumed since it was during the day, that it wouldn't be too busy. But, a snowstorm had already begun outside and we were expected to get quite a lot of snow. That should have been my first clue to stay away since everyone out here panics when they hear we are having a snow storm. Every time. Amazing. But, there I was--like the idiot I said I'd never be. It had already started snowing outside and about 2 inches had accumulated. I found a good parking space so I wasn't too concerned until I got inside. It was jam packed. But, since I was already there I figured I'd continue. I filled up my cart and tried not to get too annoyed at all the people. Luckily I ran into some people that I knew so I stopped to chat for a few minutes. As I finished up, I tried to make my way to the checkout lines. It was difficult to find the end of any line and almost impossible to figure out which line you were in. We all tried to laugh about it and have some fun so in the end it wasn't as bad as I expected. But, I'll never do that again! I went home and cooked up a meat loaf--good old comfort food.

The bank appraisal for my buyers condo was supposed to be today at 9:30 but they canceled the appointment due to the snow. It was a lot of snow--about 30 inches--but it shouldn't have been impossible to get there. My 4:00 MIT appointment was canceled as well. At least it gave me an excuse to take the day off and just relax.

The MIT meeting was rescheduled for today at 11:00. This is where I finally get to meet the other authors of the book. I gave myself plenty of time to get there early. Unfortunately, thanks to the snow, there was no place to park. I finally decided to go to the parking garage at the Marriott but coudn't find any place to park in there, either. I drove around and around and up and down and around some more. I literally drove around the parking garage for about 45 minutes. I called the admin at MIT to let her know my dilemma and that I would be there as soon as I could. I finally just parked it illegally inside the garage and went off to my meeting. They had already begun the meeting as I slinked in and took a seat. Jeff introduced me around and we continued the meeting. You know how there's "one in every crowd?" Well, he was definitely at this meeting. This persnickety professor who likes to argue just for the sake of pissing everyone off. And he wouldn't really listen to what you say, he would just take a piece of that and argue it relentlessly and quite rudely. I could picture who worked on which chapters based on the condition I had gotten them--easy to compare the personalities to the work now. He's the one that waited until after the last possible deadline and then gave me piles of handwritten pages. Everyone else gave me Word files. And I only had about 2 days to enter it all in. I was so pissed! But now I see why. I think he had them all along, he just wanted to create some drama. Everyone else was very kind and quite funny. Especially this old guy--what a great sense of humor!

After that meeting I had to stop at my seller's lawyers office to pick up the Purchase and Sale from him so I can drive around and have everyone sign it.

5:00--time to drop off my taxes. You know, I barely made any money last year and I still have to pay in this year. It just isn't fair! And I had so many write-offs, too. It just never seems to matter. So frustrating. I hate taxes!

Met up with the buyer of my listing to have her sign the Puchase and Sale. (Her broker is on vacation so we had already arranged for me to do his job--yeah, I know, what a sucker I am!) We met at her mortgage company's office in Newton Corner so she could sign it. She had forgotten her checkbook so I drove her to her current residence in Watertown to pick up her checkbook and then drove her to the bus stop in Watertown Square.

At 8:00 pm the seller finally signed the P&S. Whew.

Dropped off the buyer's copy of the P&S at her broker's office in Brighton and then went into my office for up time from 3-5.

K.A. and I went to the Home Show at the World Trade Center. I like this one best--it's bigger and better. The special guest this weekend is Frank from Trading Spaces so we went up to hear him talk. You know, he is so cool. I hadn't really thought that way about him before but he was really cool, funny, interesting, and very politically correct but with a wink. Someone made a comment about one of the other designer's designs--Hildy. He said that you have to understand where she is coming from--she lives in a 300 year old house in France (and even has ceiling fans!!), the pearls she always has on are very real, her shoes are almost always $1500.00 Prada shoes, etc. At her wedding, most guests arrived in limos. And when someone had asked her how to keep silk flowers clean, she wasn't joking when she said you give them to the maid to clean. He also said she does not care at all what anyone thinks of her and just does her own thing and lives in her own world. Hee. Anyway, Frank is my hero now.

The bank appraisal for my buyers condo has been rescheduled for today at 10:30. That finally happened without a hitch. Had to work my up time from 5-8 pm. That was weird to work that late.

Had my coaching session with Mina today. It was pretty cool. My homework is to come up with a Plan for each of my contacts in my database. Also to come up with personal and professional goals.

At 6:00 pm, I finally arrived at the Miracle of Science Cafe in Cambridge. I drove around the block about 4 times looking for a parking spot. Finally found one but had to walk several blocks in the bitter cold. I walked in and there was Fred and another guy who I didn't recognize. His name is Guillermo Chang and he used to work at AspenTech but was laid off right before I came on board back in 1986. In fact, he has the high honors of being the very first person at AspenTech to ever get laid off. Just a fun fact. Pretty soon Dale showed up and some of the others followed: Joanne Kiley, Susan and Ben, and Tom Schrama. What a fun night! I wish some more people had been able to stop by but I'm sure nobody wanted to get out in the cold.

Up at 6:30 a.m. Met with J.U. and R.R. at Starbucks in Westwood by 9:30 to discuss our new marketing campaign. Then we went over to the Westwood office to grab some papers and print out the Rules and Regulations for our campaign. The campaign we've come up with is that for anyone who buys or sells a home through one of us 4, in Norfolk County, for $300,000 or greater, gets their name put into a hat for a future drawing. The drawing will be when we have 30 entrants in the hat and we will give away a car that is $30,000 (MSRP) or less, of their choice.

Afterwards, we went on the Westwood caravan. I haven't done a caravan since I left Coldwell Banker. What fun! I ran into a lot of my old colleagues and had a great time. We saw 2 houses and then went to another house for the Broker Open House/Luncheon. I miss the free food, too. Got to see some more of my old colleagues that have gone over to the Walpole RE/MAX.

Then I came home and did some work--faxed condo docs to a mortgage company for my buyers A&V, made a few phone calls, sent a few emails, that sort of thing.