July 18, 2007

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18, 2007

The hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition. In the first instance, we cook the dish to our own appetite; in the latter, Nature cooks it for us. - Oliver Goldsmith

Even with a contract and a back-up, I'm still biting my nails. Prospective buyer #1 cannot close in less than 45 days, so we've agreed that if all of his financing is not fully in place by the 31st of this month, I'm moving on to prospective buyer #2. Things are looking good so far, but the wait is killing me. It's actually worse now, with a contract, than it was when I didn't have anyone looking at the house. I keep thinking it's either gonna go to Hell at the last minute or I'll suddenly find myself 10 days out from a firm closing date and running around like a lunatic trying to get all sorts of stuff done, sold, bought, signed, paid for, etc.
On the up side, the attorney in CR will have the last of my and India's papers by next week and the last steps toward residency will be complete. The time, money and effort it has taken to assemble all of the necessary documents has given me my first clues to what getting anything done down there will probably be like. In the 25 weeks since I began gathering the papers, the Costa Rican Embassy's requirements have changed three or four times. More than once, I got the paper I was told I needed and showed up at the consulate for a stamp, only to find that now I needed the document notarized or certified or some other time consuming and/or costly step had been added.
I sent my police certificate to the Florida Secretary of State three times only to have it mailed back each time after a couple of weeks with some notation that it was missing something or something was done incorrectly. The third time it came back, I stood in the kitchen reading and re-reading the attached note informing me that the notary failed to sign in the right place. I burst into tears and cried for half an hour. The next morning I went out and bought a huge maple-pecan danish ring, went back to the police station and, slipping the danish through the slot under the bullet-proof glass, calmly asked them to prepare and notarize yet another certificate using the detailed list of instructions I had typed. The officer on duty for each of these visits has asked that I send him a post card when I finally get to Costa Rica. This past Monday, the Sec. of State's office finally sent me the authenticated document and the consulate finally stamped the sucker. It's the little victories that are keeping me from coming completely unhinged.
So, for now, I can only wait and hope for the best. A closing date that doesn't get moved, no hurricane warnings so the closing isn't postponed, temperatures below 85 degrees after 7pm so my dogs can fly out with me and the endurance to get through all of it without crawling under the coffee table and curling up in a ball from the stress.