I'm Back!

After nearly a month of slacking off and being a loser blogger, here I am. Let's just say that I've been busy. I knew that it was going to take us a good three months to feel settled and confident in our new job, but managing an apartment building is much more to wrap one's head around than we originally thought. It's easy enough once you get the hang of it, but getting there is a lot of groping in the dark - and not the good kind! A few major sacrifices have had to be made along the way. The worst of that was missing my cousin Ashley's engagement party in Seattle on the 3rd of this month. Guess what people pay between the 1st and the 5th? RENT. And guess who collects all of that rent? WE DO. All of the tenants slip their rent under our door and then we deposit the money and fill out a greensheet. Simple enough, right? Actually no. It sounds simple, but then day after day from about the 25th (early birds) to 11:59 pm on the 5th (last minuters) every time you walk past the door, or open the door after getting home from work, or return from just popping down to the laundry room, they're there. Checks. Everywhere. Big ones. And there are notes with them asking for this and that. One person's stove has a burner out, another person wants their phone number updated in the intercom system. It happens all at once, like a flood or an attack. The paper under the door attack. We scoop them all up and put them with the strange metal filer thing for doing the greensheets. Then it's actually time to do the greensheet and it's confusing, and time consuming. So many columns, so many carbon copies to line up. Several hours later, the first one is finished. Checks keep appearing. Aaaahh! Next month will be easier, but the first one? Tough! So finally, by 4pm Saturday afternoon, I had done the bank deposit and finished the greensheet and making my way up to Seattle at that point was out of the question. It was also not very convenient that Joel had a work function that day and could neither entertain the idea of going to Seattle nor any help with the greensheets. Then I tackled all the maintenance requests, updated the long-neglected spreadsheet for the entry intercom and proceeded to push buttons like a crazed maniac on the intercom system for a good 15 minutes. Constant beeping. Must it beep so much? Phew! It's getting easier and more automatic as we go along. To be perfectly honest, it's actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it. As of today, we're down to one vacancy. A very adorable vacancy, so it will go quickly. Rah!

On another note, I'm doing a yoga challenge. It's for Living Yoga and I'm fundraising so get your checkbooks ready! The money goes toward bringing yoga to low-income populations and other populations that would otherwise never get to benefit from the amazing health boost that yoga is. More on that later! You'll sponsor me, won't you?? :)