August 29, 2009

• “An Uncommon Life”

  I’m toying with the idea of trying my hand at options.  I did some with commodities but now I’m thinking about stocks.  My commodities broker talked to me yesterday about an October sugar option. 

  He thinks it’s a buy.  I looked at the chart, which had gone straight up, and I thought it looked like a sell.  I don’t know anything about how sugar acts going into fall or if the time of year even matters.  You’d think it would but I didn’t see any reflection of that in the yearly charts.  I tried to find stuff to read about the sugar market but couldn’t. 

  Stocks are so much more familiar to me.  I spent a long time yesterday going through my extensive watch list, seeing what was still up on a not great day.  I’ve been keeping track of  the ones that are at or close to their 52-week highs with the idea that I’m gonna get my nerve up to short them.  I’ve started watching the tape the last couple weeks and listening to CNBC again. 

  The stock market seems to be driving the price of oil instead of the other way around and since volume is so low and nobody has much conviction either way not much is happening.  Which is good because I need some time to plan my moves.  I’ve sold five stocks, raising cash for the beach house I was going to buy.  But I’m thinking maybe I should put some of that money to work.  It scares me just thinking about it.

  Today I spent in “The Pearl.”  It’s the district where most of the overpriced restaurants and shops are.  There are trendier neighborhoods but none more urban.  This is where all the cool lofts are and it’s where this year’s Street of Dreams was held.  Instead of homes in a new development we looked at condos in refurbished buildings.  

  My favorite room was in The Encore.  The condo was called “An Uncommon Life.”  Almost 2,000 sq ft for $1,640,500.  Altogether, we saw nine condos in four buildings.  I say “we” because these two ladies and I kept bumping into each other.  At one point the three of us were in a bathroom listening to three sisters who had run into friends of theirs in the bedroom.  The sisters have decided to live together when their husbands die and they thought this was just the type of place they’d like.

  I didn’t relate to much of the decor and disliked all the kitchens but the two buildings on the river had killer views.  And most all of them had really cool living rooms.  I go for that open feeling where the kitchen and dining room and living room all spill into each other.  Wrap-around decks were visible and accessible from every room — Well, not the bathrooms or kitchen– and floor-to-ceiling windows with sections that opened brought the breeze in. 

  I had a hard time dragging myself out of the last one in The Encore.  Somebody with soul lived there.  You combine that with good taste and lots of money and you’ve got yourself a boudoir that feels like no other room you’re likely to find in this state.  By now you know I don’t take pictures but this room is etched in my memory. 

  I ate at a little Italian bistro out on the sidewalk and thought about the people who owned those places we’d all traipsed through, the difference between us.  I see no reason why I shouldn’t live in that kind of luxury. 

   

  • 12:39 am
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