Someone Asked Me What Home Was
“Someone asked me what home was, and all I could think of were the stars on the tip of your tongue, the flowers sprouting from your mouth, the roots entwined in the gaps between your fingers, the ocean echoing inside of your rib cage.” ~ E. E. Cummings I’m a Cummins, not a Cummings. And I think, sometimes, that I’m pretty good at writing about…
Top SF Realtor POV: Balanced Life, Balanced Cycle
I have always hated riding my mountain bike uphill. I much prefer going fast, downhill on the narrow trails at Mammoth Lakes, California, where I am now as I write this. Before this latest trip to my family’s cabin, I traded in my 20-year-old bike for a new one with all the latest cranks and gears — et voila! I discovered I’m not a terrible…
Teatime: Meet Shelly Sutherland
Cynthia Cummins has been interviewing everyone on her team and here’s the one she did on me. It’s a fun read! This week’s Kindred Teatime interview is with Shelly Sutherland — voracious reader, former beach volleyball competitor (seriously, she played for Cal) and most-valued colleague at Kindred. Visit ShellySutherland.com to learn more about her work as a Realtor. Name a book you loved as a…
Top SF Realtor POV: City Living 2020-21
Never before have I considered bocce ball or horseshoes to be a highlight on my social calendar. Nowadays, I get giddy when planning, organizing and motivating friends to meet at the new bocce courts or the very old horseshoe courts, all in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The park is looking amazing, thanks to my city’s understanding its citizens’ need to congregate and socialize. The…
Top SF Realtor Perspectives: 10 Tips to Support Our Seniors During the Holidays
In my previous post, I shared my internal conflict of whether to attend Thanksgiving with family members. I caved and ventured to my family home to be with my mom and aunt mostly because I wanted to break up their monotony. Honestly, I could have been projecting my own feeling of boredom! The risk was worth it to me: according to the CDC, “social isolation is associated…
Les Miserables 2.0
Sharing a post from Cynthia who brings to light the contradictions in our society. This is a post from two years ago and today, there are more people than ever in need. kindredsfhomes.com Keep it in perspective, dear people. A few snapshots: Bank-sponsored luncheon at a high-end downtown hotel. Eating most but not all of my salmon and crab cake entree with broccolini on the…
Top San Francisco Realtor Perspectives: Playing the Card
Planning for Thanksgiving with my mom, who lives in Southern California, the conversation goes like this: Me: Are you feeling ok about me traveling to see you for Thanksgiving? Mom: What’s the problem? Me: I do not think it is safe. Mom: We will sit six feet apart at the dining room table. Me: But we are inside! Mom: It’s too cold outside Me, silently: (Really?…
Let the Whole World Belong to You
Land-grab, chess play or a dance: how negotiations unfold in real estate as interpreted by my colleague, Cynthia. In the Bill Bryson book At Home, archaeologist Brian Ayers talks about how, after the collapse of the Roman empire, Germanic tribes swept into Britain and claimed the real estate as theirs. “It didn’t…involve a lot of slaughter or bloodshed,” he says, “Probably one day you would…
Top SF Realtor Perspectives: The Artist Within? Maybe Not
I’ve had all year to work on a hobby. That’s my view of it: “working” to get a hobby. Not a great mindset when I’m supposed to tap into my creative brain (left or right side?!?!) and enjoy the process. When the pandemic launched, I told myself to choose from the following list: 1) improving my Spanish 2) painting classes 3) percussion lessons 4) bridge re-boot. As…
Turn That Frown Upside Down
When I’m grumpy, my boyfriend facetiously says to me “Turn that frown upside down” which irritates me even more. I’ve been more than grumpy these days: the AQI readings have been bringing me down. The Covid numbers, the political hucksters, the racial tension…so much bad news, right? Everyone has had moments this year when they unexpectedly “turned their frown upside down”. Recently, my euphoric moment…