CATCHING UP

and my anti-hiking agenda

Hello all,

I miss writing in this newsletter. I tried to write new episodes a few times, but looking back I was PMS-ing to the max or something. Here are some excerpts from one of the drafts:

“I love traveling to Mexico. Just kidding. I’m not sure why traveling derails me so, but it does. Probably something to do with all the people breathing and coughing near me.”

“One thing about me is that I’ve historically been uncomfortable most of the time.”

“Billie Bob Thornton said OCD is exhausting.”

I read it back and was like jeez Charlotte, lighten up will ya. I’m fine now. Happy even! Mercury is out of retrograde (it was comically bad- everything in my apartment broke, not hyperbole, and I lost all my credit cards and ids), I’m working a lot but not too much, I’m in a happy relationship, and I have working AC in my apartment now! Not even the persistent head cold I’ve had for the last week can derail me.

I think my newfound happiness may be due to the fact that I cut my hair shorter and went Tate McRae Bronde. You see, I’d gotten hair extensions a year ago (not in a Kristi Noem way, in a more practical, subdued way) and they totally transformed me and gave me confidence. However, there are many rules to follow with hair extensions. You can only wash them once or twice a week and when you do, it takes 45 MINUTES to blow dry and style your hair. By the end I felt like I was lugging around a suitcase of hair on my head. It was ridiculous!

I’m easy breezy now and settling into my real estate career relatively well. I’m currently sitting at one of our listings in Silver Lake monitoring a gardening venture. It was a bit of a comedy of errors because I contacted a gardener to come clean out the pool shed area and the owner of the home did the same thing. Both gardeners arrived at the same time and both the owner and I told our respective gardeners they could leave as the other one would do it. So both gardeners left and I was like hmmm…

This listing has been fruitful because we’ve had many people stop by the open houses. One of the major things I’ve learned by doing this for a few months is that everyone is strange. Some are strange and cool and some are strange and off-putting. More of the former, but those latter guys are a tough crowd. At open houses, people will try to test my real estate knowledge and dunk on me. Little do they know… I’m very dunk-on-able since I haven’t been doing this very long!

Another thing adding to my happiness is that my boyfriend enjoys doing many of the same things as me. We see shows and movies together, watch as much TV as possible, laugh our asses off, and most importantly, we don’t hike! Growing up in Montana, I thought hiking was just going to have to be part of life. I’d have to suck it up and just do it, because for some reason, everyone was obsessed with it.

My mom hikes a mountain in Missoula every single day. My dad not only hikes, but trail runs. My sister hikes in 100+ degree heat in Mexico. Part of me thinks there’s no way they can possibly enjoy it and that they’re simply doing it to feel superior, but perhaps they do somehow like walking uphill endlessly in the dirt. Regardless, it’s nice to have confirmation that it’s ok to not be hiking.

Let me know in the comments if you actually like hiking or if it’s just a performance.

Ok, that’s all. Sorry I abandoned you guys for so long. I’m back now!

xo,

Char