Some Mean, Petty Venting

Brace yourselves. I absolutely can't get past doing some mean, petty venting right now.

Up until this point, our house hunting woes could be chalked up to bad timing, confusing paperwork, limited resources on our part, and demanding competition out there by other buyers. Our competition was always "them." Those other people. Sometimes we imagine them as investors - heartless people looking to make a buck by "investing" in real state rather than buying a home to raise a family. (I know, I know - totally unrealistic and unfair. Plenty of people do this and they're not heartless. It's just that we need bad guys to compete against.) Then there are the other families out there looking for a new primary residence. These people aren't heartless because they're just like us. But there's too many of them so we hate them anyway. You get my point.

Then, yesterday, we went house hunting yet again and saw THEM. I couldn't believe my eyes. In all my imaginings of those other people we're competing against, I hadn't considered that we would be up against THEM again. Oh, we know these people well. We've competed against them before. I've known them since high school. I've competed against them to get into college, and then throughout college, and even to graduate college. Then Lee and I competed against them for our wedding and our house to rent. It feels like we've been competing against them for ages.

They're the cute, baby-faced young couple whose wealthy parents will buy them anything.

Okay, okay. I know, I know. That's totally mean and harsh. Yay for them if they have well-meaning parents who have a little extra cash laying around that they can hand over with a red bow on top to their beloved children. Yay for them to have that little extra help out there to set them on their feet. Yay for them if they don't abuse it and can now hit the ground running to a prosperous life for themselves. Yay for them. Whoopdy F-ing Do.

Ooooo, I HATE those kids.

I was surprised when we walked out of a modest but clean home to see a group of people standing in the driveway politely giving us space and time to finish looking at the house. I could not believe it when I saw the baby-faced teenagers smiling happily and wrinkle free of stress and worry while wealthy mamma parent chatted with wealthy realtor lady. I couldn't believe it when wealthy daddy parent pointed with a well manicured finger at the structural interests to the overly tanned teenage husband. They all smiled with super straight, gleaming white teeth.

Then the well-saloned, wealthy mamma parent smiled at us and exclaimed, "What a beautiful toddler!"

I wanted to punch her in her pretty face.

AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, I think I feel better now. Whew! I needed to get that off my chest.