Engaging in the real estate game can permeate the fabric of one’s daily existence in many, many exhausting ways.

On this particular Friday night, there seemed to be countless options for fun outings around St. Louis, especially for lovers of live music. Even though I’m almost adjusted to temporarily eliminating this part of my life, I have had that nagging sensation the past couple of hours … that I’m totally missing out on things.

Which is undeniably true, to some extent. Though my reasons for focusing on home and family are being emphasized now more than ever for numerous reasons, it is still very difficult. Especially given the fact that I am not aging with quite as much grace as I should. I’m scared, intimidated and exceptionally sorrowful about nearing the age of 40. I have some gray hairs! Man …

As I carry the burden of these tangential thoughts, it is the central topic of “home” that dominates the reason why I am not only living a currently muted social life but am essentially preoccupied at all times.

Now, we do love our super cool home. Been here for 9.5 years. But, as my family attempts to sell our house and move forward with our destiny, we have been dealing with incredible highs and lows. It is a perpetual pendulum that is beginning to swing too wildly for my sensitive preferences.

Example: I started my new job this past Tuesday. What was to be great day turned into a marathon of productivity, responsibility and controlled chaos. As I left for the office in the morning, I received a call from our Realtor that our house was to be shown at 4pm. Say what?!

About two hours later, I receive a call that our house is to be shown again at 630. Of course. Some might say this is an example of Murphy’s Law. Not sure about that, but I do know we have a huge, furry cat named Murphy that weights like 25 pounds and hides when she knows she has to be removed from our home. I guess that is her personal Law.

So, this is the kind of thing that happens when you are selling your home. Bottom line: you have to completely depersonalize your home, clean it to a state of realistic perfection and stage it so a potential buyer can imagine living there … and not picture the current owner in any form or fashion. And remove your pets. Even the super big furry ones names Murphy.

After several open houses/personal showings, I have figured out it takes about five hours to prepare our home for a showing. How did we pull this doubleheader off while I started my new job? Well, fortunately we had a showing just two days previous, and I was working a split shift (1030a-230 / 630p-1030). So, I busted my ass home and my wife did the same that afternoon once I was off work and my daughter’s day at school ended. Just needed two hours to get this show rolling …

We got the house ready (somehow), and she went back to work and I drove around with my 3-year-old daughter and cats … and a car full of crap that we had nowhere to store in time for this showing. I did have an hour at home between the two showings to restore some sanity, then drove around aimlessly until our home was all clear … then once my wife got back home, went back to work. So, we did pull it off.

One potential buyer was a couple. They narrowed their choices to our house, and another house. They chose the other one, even though our house has unlimited positive mojo. Well, crap.

We have another open house in two days, so I’m focused on that, among many other things going on right now. So, no going out yet again. I give up. For real this time. In fact, I may re-define going out. Rather than bars, concerts, house parties and actually seeing friends, I am going to begin defining going out as those occasions when I can slip out and drink beer and eat chicken wings alone and watch sports for an hour. With everything else so elusive, I’ll just settle for the excitement of being in a public place that is not a grocery store, gas station or Target.