Our family was in Paris, we were on a day trip tour. There was this very cute couple in their late 20’s and I made small talk with them here and there. After lunch, our family was outside and taking pictures when the young woman walked up and asked if we would like her to take our picture - sure! My DH chats with everyone so he started asking where she and her DH were from and when she asked where we were from she said, oh my dad is from there, named the suburb. My DH said, what is your dad’s last name…after she said it he said - your dad is my cousin! He knew from the background she gave about her and her DH’s careers and and where they’d lived and grew up - he sees his cousin when he’s in town with her mom but he hadn’t seen her since she was a little girl.
We then got a whole new picture of all of us and the family back home was in shock!
I always laugh when my DH gets chatty with people but had he not been we would never have made this connection.
I’ll jump in. When I was in my 20’s, I was skiing at a ski hill in northern Michigan. I sat on the lift with an older gentleman (younger than I am now, but …). We started chatting and I mentioned that my mom was from a small town up north. He said that he had also grown up in a small town up north. It turned out that he was not only a member of my mom’s graduating class of 23 people, but they had dated in high school. Small world!
I was in my mid-20’s living in Los Angeles and was asked to look out for a call from a cousin I had never met (from London) because she was moving to LA and it would be nice if I showed her around etc.
I waited and waited . Finally after a couple of weeks the call came. She had delayed because she felt that she was living kind of off the beaten track and wanted to wait till she had a car so she could drive to me and not be an inconvenience.
Ok, great. I start asking questions to determine where she is living — this was before Google and ubiquitous GPS apps — and after a while we realized…our backyards touched kitty-corner. I guess she hadn’t needed to wait those couple of weeks till she got a car!
(Of course, we were both young and just starting out so we weren’t going to be in Beverly Hills, but there were still a LOT of places in LA where we could each have ended up, not just where we did).
My “something good “ is related to health insurance. I had a sore throat, headache and rash a few weeks ago. I went to urgent care, where they did strep tests (rapid and not-rapid). I have not yet met my Medicare Part B deductible for the year. I found out today that the strep tests are 100% paid by Medicare, and I only owe for the office visit. With all the insurance payment problems I’ve had over the years, this was a nice surprise!
Aidan Hutchinson (Detroit Lions) is awesome - he has been there through everything that’s gone on with a young man battling cancer the past two years. Thank you to Aidan and to all the athletes who give of themselves by being there for kids who are battling through extremely difficult health issues. They make a difference.
I’m continuing my purging of stuff (see ‘Bag a week’ thread). Last night I was doing the cabinets under the bookshelves and found about $100 in coins. My mother was convinced she was going to make a million in state quarters and Kennedy half dollars and gave all the grandchildren books of them at Christmas. These must have been the extras.
I’m not sharing any money I find with my siblings. They don’t clean, they don’t get any quarters.
I’ve started a new volunteer gig through the local senior center driving people to medical appointments. I’ve driven two people so far and both were appreciative and nice.
I’m not allowed to accept any tips or other tokens of appreciation but one of the clients accidentally left a couple cupcakes in my car.
My friend drove people to appointments at the Cleveland Clinic (from Port Clinton). He really enjoyed it. He’s since moved, and he misses that volunteer gig.
DS and his GF are about to move in together and found a spacious condominium rental in a very desirable location in Manhattan. He can walk to work; it’s about a block to her train. They’re both strong applicants with good income and stellar credit, but the broker informed them that there were over a dozen other applications.
His GF’s charming cover letter attached to their applications might have been what pushed them over the top. They got it!
My DIL wrote a letter when they purchased their townhome. I think it may have pushed them into the top spot also. I know some places/people don’t allow them, but if it works, yay.
My niece and her H wrote a letter with a photo of them and their adorable kids. I think that helped them clinch the deal as there were other offers for more $$$.
The last time she applied for an apartment, my daughter wrote a letter and attached her resume. I was told by the realtor that she got chosen over some who were offering over the listed rental price. The landlord went to the same college she did and had lived for a while in the same state she grew up in.
When we sold our home a few years ago, our realtor said no “love letters” with the bids.
For D and SIL it was suggested that they write a letter (which did help) – but they were explicitly told to not include a photo with the letter in order to avoid a potential racial discrimination issue.
My realtor told us NOT to write a letter when we bid on a condo. We were able to get it at below list because the seller was very motivated. We feel we got a great deal and the seller was happy because we had a closing date only 25 days after the counteroffer was accepted, all cash. It worked.
Real estate is a very strange thing—markets can be hot and then cold. Specific properties can be hotly desired while one very similar isn’t at all. So nice when things work out for us and our loved ones.
My brother sold his condo last year. The offers were coming in so fast he couldn’t keep up. Finally just told realtor to accept one of the cash offers. He had no interest in picking a favorite offer.
For a rental, it may have been different since that’s a continuing relationship. He originally thought about renting the condo (it’s at a ski resort) but didn’t want to deal with 25 year old ski bums. He took the cash, bought himself and his two college age sons new cars/trucks, and moved into a 400 sq foot ‘apartment’ located on the property of the place he works on Friday and Saturday nights. He’s happily retired.
We were in a bidding war in June. I wrote a letter to go along with our cash offer that was $24K over list. There ended up being 9 offers and unfortunately for us, they chose the offer that was $45k over list.