Washington D.C. Airport - Stop before Zurich


It’s 2:50pm, and Rana and I have been in the Washington D.C. Airport since noon, waiting on our next and final flight to Zurich, Switzerland which departs at 6pm. This will be an overnight flight and we are scheduled to arrive at Zurich airport by the next morning. I can’t tell you how clear-minded and relaxed I already feel at the airport terminal far, far away from the daily work, schools, agents, chores, and people in general. Rana slept and ate while I worked on my new pink 120 Sudoku puzzle book with my new pink Washington D.C. “Madame President” mechanical pencil. Sudoku, a Japanese number puzzle, has recently been my obsession. I keep telling myself the rules are simple and it shouldn’t be that hard. It still gets me on how challenging these little puzzles can get. I am determined to crack the Sudoku secret. Rana joked that I would be the next Sudoku-pani. The word pani means “the master of” in Sanskrit language, therefore Sudokupani means “the master of Sudoku”! As of now, I’m still breaking the “easy” level.

The weather in the United States have been mostly calm and clear throughout the country, however Switzerland have been forecasted for showers for the next 6-7 days. Nevertheless, I am keeping my spirits high and have been enjoying my quiet and uneventful time at the airport terminals. In this airport, there is a strong political theme of governmental parties concerning the upcoming (next year) presidential election. The airport shops were filled with Democrat and Republican playing cards, pencils, T-shirts, mouse pads, pens, magnets, bumper stickers, and key chains. There were some really cool “Barak Obama” and “Hilary Clinton” for president T-shirts however I have yet made up my mind on who I will ultimately support come Election Day. I tend to lean in with the democrats however the presidential candidates for the Democratic Party all have their pros and cons. In the end, if either gets into the White House I would be very pleased. Also at the airtpart, there were “White House” bath towels, hand towels, and an entire "White House" bath towel set that momentarily caught my eye. Then there were the “White House” toilet paper. Yes, you heard me right, it costed $7.99 for a roll to wipe your @$$ with it.
So that’s where all our tax money has been going to. Rana had asked if there were any “President George W. Bush Jr.” toilet paper for sale.


Home

The condo finally finalized but it didn’t go without a kick. My agent, who was great by the way, called it “the contract from hell”. The last week before the closing and processing date, the weather had accurately forecasted seven consecutive days of thunderstorms and rain. It was the week when Greenburg, Kansas was pretty much wiped out by 2 passing tornados, and 50 other tornados were spotted in overnight. Needless to say it “rained” havoc for moving day. My family -bless their hearts for helping, I would have never made it without their hard efforts and time- and I moved the remaining items and furniture two days in the rain…heavy rain. The buyers and their agent went through the home the second to the last day for their last walk through during middle of the day while my mother and I were in the mist of moving. We saw them leaving as we arrived from our second round of household transfers. Their agent had immediately contacted my agent complaining that the home was in an unacceptable condition. There were still items left in the home and she, the agent, felt the home was not clean enough. I was a bit frustrated that they came early to begin with and we were already working as hard as we could. I had stayed till midnight clearing out the home the night before the signing. The next morning my agent walked through the house before I signed the final papers at noon. The new owners were to finalize the sale by 1:00 pm. At 12:50 am, the buyer’s agent once again contacted us informing us that she had walked through the home once again and had found in still unacceptable. Because the contract had stated the home should be transferred to the new owners in a clean condition, she threatened to delay the signing till tomorrow if I didn’t do the following things:

Dust the window blinds
Scrub the basement floors
Do a better job cleaning the half bathroom
And on top of that, hire a cleaning service to go over the home, which was estimated another cost of $200.00

My agent was surprised and I was infuriated at this. My agent had seen the home and found it clean and my mother, who helped me clean, clean homes for a living. In a sense she was the professional cleaner. I told my agent that I was more than happy to purchase a toothbrush for her to scrub the basement floor to her delight. Joe, being my wonderful and very patient agent, resolved the problem by paying the buyers $100.00 of his OWN money to supplement the cost of a professional maid. I was grateful and I was drained of money. We knew the buyer’s agent was only getting revenge from before when I had initially rejected and terminated a counteroffer by them, which called for over $1000.00 of worth of conditions. In my opinion, it was one thing to look after the good of their clients; however, this particular agent was getting personal and unethical.
Now as I sit in the airport waiting to leave the country all those past events are not a blip on my memory screen. Switzerland here we come!