minority types
just got back from dropping dr. wintermute off at the airport. she's headed to vegas for a chicks weekend. first time there for her. will report on the results in in a few days.
when i last blogged, dr. w and i were trying to find our way to dc, our soon-to-be home, for some house hunting. the airports had closed and we were trying to get creative. we both wintermuted our way on to flights the next day. dr. w actually first coined the phrase of using my name as a verb, based on my uncanny knack for improvising and negotiating my way through tight spots, especially when it comes to airports. as one of my profs at the big h said, negotiating is the art of letting other people have your way. ben on lost does it pretty well, though he seems to cross the line into pathological territory.
anyway, we finagled flights to charlotesville, where dr. w's brother lives. the plan was to arrive on early flights and then have him drive us to dc (only 2 hours away). however, he was tied up with school stuff (he's getting his phd in chemical engineering there. yeah, dr. w's family is really into the doctorate thing). so plan b (what am i saying, we're now on plan d) is that we rent a car and drive. no sweat. i had called avis and made it a point to tell reserve a car with my wizard # and preferred renter account. it makes things a lot quicker and easier, and i knew we'd be pressed for time once we got there.
dr. w gets up early (like 3:30 am) and heads to the airport (she's in soflo; i'm in atl) to catch a 5:20 flight to charlotte, from where she's supposed to connect to Charlottesville. i grab an 8 flight to cincinnati to get my connection. just before i get on my flight in atl, dr. w calls me. she's landed in charlotte, but her flight to c'ville has been cancelled, no apparent reason why.
fukstix. so she gets in the customer service line. us airways has actually stopped answering the phones because they are so overwhelmed. i land in the nati, call her, and she's STILL in line for customer service. she waits in line for four hours. and amazingly, she gets a seat on a flight directly to national airport! unbelievable.
i get on my flight c'ville. i go to get my car, and unsurprisingly, they have forgotten to put in my preferred status. so instead of going straight to my car, i have to wait in a slow line, provide my credit info, license, etc. avis costs more, but i don't mind paying because it's more convenient. when they fuck this kind of shit up, it defeats the purpose of not renting from dollar or budget. i point this out to them. the girl behind the counter is too overwhelmed with customers to do anything.
meanwhile, dr. w's flight to dc has been delayed two hours, but it still looks like she'll make it.
i get to dc in two hours and meet up with our first agent. the new plan is that the chief (with whom we're staying) will pick up dr. w and drop her off wherever i am with the agent.
the first agent is super nice and very cool, for a mom. in fact, she's kind of like the mom everyone wishes they had. i have a good rapport with her. my only hang up is that she's not well organized. despite traveling for about 20 hours, i arrived within 8 minutes of when i said i would. at that point, she starts calling houses to make sure they're available and printing off cut sheets that summarize the properties. uhh, couldn't you have done this anytime this morning before i got there? it's called preparing ahead of time. i freaking hate people who waste my time.
well, anyway, i still like her. dr. w lands and meets up with us about an hour later, but she doesn't dig this agent so much. well, we see about 12 places and call it a day. we're exhausted. by the time we eat dinner and kill a few drinks and get back to the chief and chief chick's place, dr. w has been up for almost 21 hours straight.
the next morning i haul ass to get the rental car returned by 9 am (we're meeting the next agent at 9:30). 10 and we still haven't heard from him. at 10:30 he calls and says he didn't realize we were meeting at 9:30. are you freaking kidding me? you mean, besides the 7 emails we exchanged during the week to set this up?
he picks us up at 11:30 (which is very nice of him, to come get us). he then proceeds to give us a 30 minute geography lesson while driving around bethesda. he rattles off every street name as if that will mean anything to us.
while seeing a few places, he keeps referencing that 'minority types' live here (and uses quote fingers. uggg). after several repetitions, dr. w has finally had enough and asks him what the hell he means by 'minority types.' turns out he's referring to the fact that there's a lot of section 8 housing around. fine. just say so. dr. w points out that i am a 'minority type' (something to that effect, but not as confrontational as i've made it sound). he mumbles something awkwardly. the weird thing is that he's a minority himself (well, he seems to be very, very gay. i realize that i don't know that for a fact).
weirdly, dr. w kind of likes him. i don't like him at all. minority type comment aside, the geography lesson was a complete waste. and showing up two hours late without an excuse (even saying, "gosh guys, i just missed it," or "you know what, i misunderstood you" would have been better).
we've just about had enough. we really want to call it a day, but agree that as long as we have another appointment, we might as well keep it. this guy is a referal from a section mate of mine from the big h. turns out he's a big h alumnus himself.
dr. w and i like him immediately. he's smart, organized, and analytical. we spend the entire two hours discussing the market and a strategy for working together, rather than just trying to pound pavement. he's very data oriented, and shares in a not-show-offy-way that he's been ranked the # 1 agent in his realty company (realty companies are loose confederations of small companies), by sales in 2006. we like him. he seems trustworthy.
so we're done. we accomplished our goal of picking an agent with whom to sign an exclusive contract.
of course, the way home wouldn't be complete without some adventure. our flight is delayed two hours. then they can't find the flight crew. then the crew shows up, but they've forgotten to clean the plane ahead of time! then we load the plane. well, it's gotten so late that we're past the airport's curfew, and the plane is too heavy (i have NO idea how these two things are even related). so they make seven passengers get off the plane! this is the last flight of the day. it's now 11 pm. tomorrow's a work day. if they asked me to leave, i'm not sure what i would have done. well, nothing actually, because brown skinned people shouldn't do anything strange on a plane.
we land at 1:30 am. mission accomplished.
when i last blogged, dr. w and i were trying to find our way to dc, our soon-to-be home, for some house hunting. the airports had closed and we were trying to get creative. we both wintermuted our way on to flights the next day. dr. w actually first coined the phrase of using my name as a verb, based on my uncanny knack for improvising and negotiating my way through tight spots, especially when it comes to airports. as one of my profs at the big h said, negotiating is the art of letting other people have your way. ben on lost does it pretty well, though he seems to cross the line into pathological territory.
anyway, we finagled flights to charlotesville, where dr. w's brother lives. the plan was to arrive on early flights and then have him drive us to dc (only 2 hours away). however, he was tied up with school stuff (he's getting his phd in chemical engineering there. yeah, dr. w's family is really into the doctorate thing). so plan b (what am i saying, we're now on plan d) is that we rent a car and drive. no sweat. i had called avis and made it a point to tell reserve a car with my wizard # and preferred renter account. it makes things a lot quicker and easier, and i knew we'd be pressed for time once we got there.
dr. w gets up early (like 3:30 am) and heads to the airport (she's in soflo; i'm in atl) to catch a 5:20 flight to charlotte, from where she's supposed to connect to Charlottesville. i grab an 8 flight to cincinnati to get my connection. just before i get on my flight in atl, dr. w calls me. she's landed in charlotte, but her flight to c'ville has been cancelled, no apparent reason why.
fukstix. so she gets in the customer service line. us airways has actually stopped answering the phones because they are so overwhelmed. i land in the nati, call her, and she's STILL in line for customer service. she waits in line for four hours. and amazingly, she gets a seat on a flight directly to national airport! unbelievable.
i get on my flight c'ville. i go to get my car, and unsurprisingly, they have forgotten to put in my preferred status. so instead of going straight to my car, i have to wait in a slow line, provide my credit info, license, etc. avis costs more, but i don't mind paying because it's more convenient. when they fuck this kind of shit up, it defeats the purpose of not renting from dollar or budget. i point this out to them. the girl behind the counter is too overwhelmed with customers to do anything.
meanwhile, dr. w's flight to dc has been delayed two hours, but it still looks like she'll make it.
i get to dc in two hours and meet up with our first agent. the new plan is that the chief (with whom we're staying) will pick up dr. w and drop her off wherever i am with the agent.
the first agent is super nice and very cool, for a mom. in fact, she's kind of like the mom everyone wishes they had. i have a good rapport with her. my only hang up is that she's not well organized. despite traveling for about 20 hours, i arrived within 8 minutes of when i said i would. at that point, she starts calling houses to make sure they're available and printing off cut sheets that summarize the properties. uhh, couldn't you have done this anytime this morning before i got there? it's called preparing ahead of time. i freaking hate people who waste my time.
well, anyway, i still like her. dr. w lands and meets up with us about an hour later, but she doesn't dig this agent so much. well, we see about 12 places and call it a day. we're exhausted. by the time we eat dinner and kill a few drinks and get back to the chief and chief chick's place, dr. w has been up for almost 21 hours straight.
the next morning i haul ass to get the rental car returned by 9 am (we're meeting the next agent at 9:30). 10 and we still haven't heard from him. at 10:30 he calls and says he didn't realize we were meeting at 9:30. are you freaking kidding me? you mean, besides the 7 emails we exchanged during the week to set this up?
he picks us up at 11:30 (which is very nice of him, to come get us). he then proceeds to give us a 30 minute geography lesson while driving around bethesda. he rattles off every street name as if that will mean anything to us.
while seeing a few places, he keeps referencing that 'minority types' live here (and uses quote fingers. uggg). after several repetitions, dr. w has finally had enough and asks him what the hell he means by 'minority types.' turns out he's referring to the fact that there's a lot of section 8 housing around. fine. just say so. dr. w points out that i am a 'minority type' (something to that effect, but not as confrontational as i've made it sound). he mumbles something awkwardly. the weird thing is that he's a minority himself (well, he seems to be very, very gay. i realize that i don't know that for a fact).
weirdly, dr. w kind of likes him. i don't like him at all. minority type comment aside, the geography lesson was a complete waste. and showing up two hours late without an excuse (even saying, "gosh guys, i just missed it," or "you know what, i misunderstood you" would have been better).
we've just about had enough. we really want to call it a day, but agree that as long as we have another appointment, we might as well keep it. this guy is a referal from a section mate of mine from the big h. turns out he's a big h alumnus himself.
dr. w and i like him immediately. he's smart, organized, and analytical. we spend the entire two hours discussing the market and a strategy for working together, rather than just trying to pound pavement. he's very data oriented, and shares in a not-show-offy-way that he's been ranked the # 1 agent in his realty company (realty companies are loose confederations of small companies), by sales in 2006. we like him. he seems trustworthy.
so we're done. we accomplished our goal of picking an agent with whom to sign an exclusive contract.
of course, the way home wouldn't be complete without some adventure. our flight is delayed two hours. then they can't find the flight crew. then the crew shows up, but they've forgotten to clean the plane ahead of time! then we load the plane. well, it's gotten so late that we're past the airport's curfew, and the plane is too heavy (i have NO idea how these two things are even related). so they make seven passengers get off the plane! this is the last flight of the day. it's now 11 pm. tomorrow's a work day. if they asked me to leave, i'm not sure what i would have done. well, nothing actually, because brown skinned people shouldn't do anything strange on a plane.
we land at 1:30 am. mission accomplished.
posted by Wintermute at 11:15 AM
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