Doing the Math, and My New Favorite Bank

Note to self: one day plus four hours is 28 hours, not 32. So it was at 32 hours and about ten minutes (not 36) that John called to say that Lender Number Two "said yes." He says it's a done deal, and that we will likely close next Monday, maybe Tuesday. Enormous relief all around. But since I haven't seen anything in writing from anybody yet, I have only exhaled about halfway. I'm like that. When it actually happens, I will shout to the rooftops the name of this paragon of banking. In the meantime I will note that our mortgage broker/relocation lender is nearly as p-o'd at "BOSA" as we are. And, interestingly, yesterday morning BOSA pulled all of the credit lines of its "Countywise" mortgage customers, claiming financial difficulties. So it seems that perhaps if our loan sale had been in front of any other bank but this one, the fact that our 2008 tax return was filed late might have been no biggy, rather than potential financial meltdown.

I do remember that I said I'd feel silly for all this gloom and doom and angst if Lender Number Two said yes yesterday. And I do. Eight days of worry, and I fall apart and start spilling my guts (and sort-of online, no less, even if this still isn't live) on day two. But the anxiety and anger had to go somewhere, and infinitely better that it went here than on my sweet, relieved husband, or on our hardworking mortgage broker. John and I came through it as a team, provided one discounts my literary incontinence, and the broker got us this new loan so fast, she says, because she felt she owed it to us for how nice and constructive we were when things went bad. Thank John for that. I was polite, but I was not-so-subtly playing bad cop to John's good with both the broker and our incredibly patient, calm and cooperative sellers--for whom the lack of loan was nearly as bad a fact as it was for us.

And "the lesson" is not so illusory after all. We aren't entitled to this just because we've experienced loss. We were foolish and self-indulgent and it nearly cost us hugely. We're lucky--knocking on wood--and we won't forget it. And we won't forget that as long as we hang together, everything else is gravy. Given that this started to be a blog about decorating a new house, I suspect I'll be reminding myself of that frequently as I repeatedly defer buying "the" perfect rug for the living room (it really is...!) until we get our financial house in order and have some savings again.

My stomach still hasn't unclenched. I think it's going to take keys in hand, maybe even my son tucked into his bed in his "for keeps" room, to do that. That's probably okay. I need to lose some weight anyway.