A Bit of a Rant

Have you ever had someone call to set up an appointment of some kind, only to call and cancel or change the time? I have. Many more times than I'd like to try and count. We are moving into our new house soon, and need to find someone to take our place in this rental. The landlord has yet to post an ad or put out a sign, so I decided to place one myself. We graciously informed her more than a week ago that we would be leaving in 30 days. Therefore, after eight days of lost advertising face time, I was getting a little annoyed, not to mention restless. Now there are only twenty-two days until we plan to vacate the premises. Apparently she's not as gung-ho about getting someone in here as I am. Even if she thinks it will rent quickly, I would rather have someone lined up now rather than wait until the last minute before we know whether we will have to make yet another useless rent payment. (don't get me started on rent vs. own).

Having been listed online for a little less than a day, our home got it's first interested inquiry. The guy called me this morning asking if he and his girlfriend could come see our place this afternoon around 6:30. As my eyes panned the overly cluttered, hugely messy room, I reluctantly agreed while my mind immediately started planning a course of action to get this place in ship shape and ready to show. There was much to do, and extremely little time to do it. His call came in around 12:30pm. I know that a little more than six hours should seem like plenty of time for a little organization. However, my house is full of four young offspring and their mountains of toys, clothes and shoes which were so delicately scattered throughout the entire house when he called. It seems as if when I'm sick for a day (like I was on Sunday) the whole house seems to go to pot.

When it comes down to it, a little more than six hours was just what we needed to be ready to showcase our place. Unfortunately, 6:30 came and went with no ring of either of our two doorbells. 6:34 turns and the phone begins to ring.

"Hello?"

"Hi Ashleigh, it's ****. I called about coming to see the house at 6:30."

"Yes."

"Well, it's 6:30 and I'm not there."

"I noticed."

Would it be possible to come around 8:00 instead?..."



And so on. The conversation continued as he began to try to explain away his tardiness. As it turns out, it was fine. We had not planned on leaving, or turning in early or anything. Eight is our boys' bedtime, but we thought we could show them their room first, and then put them down for sleep while they saw the rest of the house. They did end up coming at eight, and we did show them the place and pass along our landlord's information. That's not really the point. The point is: What if we HAD planned on leaving? Or what if we normally put our kids to bed at seven? Why couldn't he have called earlier so we weren't racing around thinking we had less time than we actually did? I'm sure his father-in-law didn't hurt his back that very minute and ask him to come pitch hay right away before the storm hits (which is where he said they needed to go between 6:30 and 8:00). Storm? Wait a minute. The skies are perfectly clear...

In short, JUST BE COURTEOUS, PEOPLE! You are not the only one in the world, and your actions never affect only you.

Now that the venting is finished. I can go enjoy my immaculately clean house for the next few minutes before I need to go to bed. And that's probably all it will be because as soon as the kids wake up, the toys, clothes, shoes and other clutter will magically reappear before I have a chance to blink. I love my kids, but they sure are messy.