58. The Hunt

The Seller: 

Why are we selling?  Don’t tell her about the divorce, that makes it look like the price is negotiable.  Just say he accepted a job transfer.  That’s a good reason, yeah, say that.   

The Buyer: 

Price seems high—for the location, I mean.  It’s definitely more than I’d like to pay.  I can afford to offer full-price, what with my inheritance, but they don’t need to know that. 

The Realtor: 

My clients are firm on price.  It’s a good value, well-maintained, nice neighborhood, good schools.  Have you seen the comps?  The price is where it should be.  When are you writing the offer? 

**********

trifecta writing challenge:  same story, 3 points of view  

57. See It My Way

The teacher’s perspective: 

He interrupts constantly.  He is so needy, so clingy, it drives me totally insane.  I love teaching, but kids like Peter push me to the brink.  He obviously gets no attention at home.

The mom’s perspective: 

I’m so glad we adopted Peter.  We try hard to engage him.  I suspect he’s a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome.  I haven’t told the school:  I don’t want him to be labeled. 

Peter’s perspective:

I love my teacher.  She always helps me.  I wish I could understand things as fast as the other kids.  My mom says everyone is different.  I just want to be the same.    



*****
trifecta writing challenge:  same story, 3 points of view

56. Travel: Zurich

Have you ever been somewhere that you’d heard about, and in the cobwebby corners of your brain you had secretly worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype?  You had maybe read about the place in a travel magazine, and thought it sounded too good to be true.  And then you arrive at the airport and once you clear customs you walk through the luggage area toward ground transportation to get a taxi to your hotel and that’s when you see it:  a random postcard display in the gift shop.  And you think, Well, they’re just postcards.  Postcards are airbrushed and photoshopped.  Postcards lie.

You arrive to your hotel and that’s when it hits you:  Zurich is a postcard, only better. 

Postcards do not capture the magic that is Switzerland, a postcard is like someone pointing to a ray of the sun in the sky and saying, “The galaxy is like this.” 

A postcard is like someone giving you a few rocks to hold in your hand and declaring, “Now you know what the Grand Canyon is like.” 

Your mother splurges and takes your family to Zurich one Christmas.  The movie reel of your time there is permanently embedded in your brain.

You ski. 

You sample local food.   

You sightsee.

You even send a few postcards home. 
You find a postcard years later, when you are organizing some stuff in your office.  There it is—Switzerland.  This tiny shred of paper transports you instantly back. 


MOV

55. Travel: Yosemite

My sister, Oakley, and her husband live in Yosemite. 

They have been begging us to come visit them there.  They wants to take us camping. 


I am not fond of camping.  Here's why:   

After a night of freezing my extremities, I do not want to see bear fangs at 6 AM. 

Here is what I would rather wake up to on vacation:  

I want to visit Yosemite and take advantage of all it has to offer, but more in a let-me-take-photos-of-everything-and-then-go-back-to-my-hotel kind of way. 

I have done some research and found out there is a lovely (and historic) hotel in Yosemite called The Ahwahnee Hotel: 

Here is the lobby:  

Here is the dining room:

Yeah, I think I'll stick with the hotel.  Sorry, Oakley. 

MOV

54. Travel: Xhausted

Why do I keep noticing keyboard imprints on my right cheek when I wake up? 

Traveling is exhausting.  I did it for 10 years. 

Here's what the experts say: 

Drink lots of water: 

Eat healthy food:

Try to stay awake in your new time zone:

But none of that works. 

Sometimes, what works best is to stay home for once. 

MOV

53. Travel: Washington, D.C.

My younger sister, Oakley, went to school at Georgetown, which gave me an excuse to fly out to visit her. 

At the time, I was working for Continental Airlines and based in Denver. 

Oakley took me on the whirlwind tour. 

We saw the White House …

Went to the Smithsonian ... 

Took a ride on the carousel ...

Went to world-class museums on the Mall ...

Ate out …

Saw the cherry blossoms …

Walked around the cobblestoned streets of Old Town, Alexandria …

I was afraid I would never get a chance to see D.C. again, so I tried to soak up as much of the Capital city as I could.  This is like trying to soak up the ocean with a sponge. 

I needn’t have worried.  Five years later on graduation day from the United Airlines training center, they told me, “Congratulations!  You’re going to be based in D.C.!” 

MOV

52. Travel: Vancouver

When Continental Airlines hired me to be a flight attendant at the ripe old age of 24, I never had any intention of doing the job for more than one year. 

For this reason, I made sure to take full advantage of my flight passes.  I mapped out where I wanted to go, picking a dozen places that I would slowly check off my list. 

Vancouver was one of those places. 


I invited my dad, and we had a wonderful time.  My dad had done some research about things to do in Vancouver, and he really wanted to go up in a sea plane. 

So we did.

We got some great views above the harbor. 

Later, we ate lunch at the Granville Island Public Market.  

I ate cake.  No need to stray from my normal eating regime just because I was on vacation. 

We rented bikes and went for a bike ride through a beautiful park.

The weather cooperated and we had some nice sunshine.  

Overall, it was a great visit!  I can't wait to go back!

MOV