Are We Having Fun Yet?

In a little over 51 ½ hours, I will be starting the final exam for the Pre-Licensing Class at Go School; earlier this week (and much of last) I was really stressing, but now am feeling a bit less anxious and more excited about the prospect of a new career in real estate. There are some challenges ahead regarding my launching this new endeavor, but I remain hopeful about my prospects. What has been adding to the stress of all of this though, is that it seems there are things going on to conspire against my successful completion of this goal. Allow me to explain how ‘life’ seems bent on throwing if not roadblocks, at least bumps in the road to make this more ‘interesting.’
On July 10th, I was driving on I-40 after leaving Go School and I happened to meet a young man driving a red Honda; our meeting was less than advantageous as he was so enthralled in speaking (and looking at) his passenger (his mommy) that he merged into the side of my car. Thankfully we were able to safely get to the side of the road where his mommy began to tell me that I had merged into their lane! The young fella had nothing to say (mommy was doing such a good job), so we awaited the arrival of Durham PD. The officer, after a brief exit from his car to speak to each of us (without examining the damage to both cars or ‘investigating’ what may have occurred); got back into his air-conditioned vehicle to compose his report. His only comment to me was that as we both had conflicting stories, we should contact our respective insurance companies; with that he drove off. Lovely! Thankfully we have excellent coverage with State Farm and they are picking up the tab except for the deductible, but this was NOT something I needed to happen as I approach the testing phase of my pursuit of a Broker’s License.
Several days following this attempt at violating the laws of physics, I awakened (as is my habit) early in the morning and when I stepped out of bed noticed a soggy carpet underfoot. My initial thought was that one of our cats had missed the litter box by a WIDE margin, but the area that was wet made me think that all of them conspiring together could not produce the area covered. Further investigation showed me that the ‘damp rug syndrome’ was present as well in the guest bedroom adjoining ours and then I recalled how the hot water heater is located in an external storage room (don’t ask!) right through the wall. I went outside and opened the door to that same storage room and was greeted by a humid, wet mess! After pulling all the boxes, bicycles, etc. out of there, I saw at least one place where water was leaking (thankfully at a somewhat slow pace) and called our landlord to advise them. The repair (actually replacement of the hot water heater) is ongoing as the initial job was incomplete (some OLD piping was left to provide more business at a later date, but our landlord has convinced the party who came to finish the job, which they will do, no doubt, at the most inconvenient time to maximize the disruption to my preparations for the final and state exam.
Another challenge appeared in the form of a molar choosing this most propitious time to fracture into pieces; the dentist Kathy goes to is excellent, but in Greensboro (she began going to him years ago while living in Winston-Salem while I was a ‘guest’ of the state). I’d planned on finding a local one once some other upcoming medical expenses were out of the way, but now am forced to have this taken care of, hopefully before my final and the state exam that will follow.
Are we having fun yet? The same sense of humor that saw me through my sojourn in ‘corrections’ has kept me from losing all of my mind, but I have to confess that this is not how I pictured spending the time leading up to these two crucial exams. I can’t help but remember an old television commercial (and here I will be dating myself) regarding a bath powder product called Calgon® in which the lady pleads when confronted with the challenges of life as a housewife, “Calgon®, take me away!” I’m uncertain if she put them in the water of her bathtub or ingested them to ‘take her away,’ but I can definitely identify!