Tuesday, October 29

 I woke up around 9:30; I was going to work from home. Coffee, standup at 10. I’m productionizing my debug tool: cleaning up a piece of code that I never planned to use seriously; luckily that I finished the beacons project last week and have this less demanding task now.

We sent the attorney information to SH in the morning. She called and told us to start thinking of the board application soon. It’s super easy, she said, one of the easiest applications she had ever seen for a coop: one year of tax returns, three paystubs, three months of bank statements, and two letters of references, one personal and one professional. And a cover letter. Very easy she says. And finally an interview with the board. She seemed she didn’t know the building was Cabal. I saw it was Cabal pretty much right away; but I’m familiar with this neighborhood. I googled the building; I googled its residents; it’s clearly Cabal. You need to use special keywords and passphrases. The hope is we can fit in in Cabal; don’t we deserve just a little slice of Cabal with all the work we’ve done? The hope is that they look, that they think, that they may not think we’re one of them, that they see our keywords and passphrases, maybe not properly used, but they think we have good potential; they take us in. And they don’t scrutinize us. Cause we’re not 100% there on paper, with all the requirements that they put; we're not Cabal. But they look and they think we have good potential; and they take us in in Cabal. And we will not talk about Cabal much; we don't talk about being now a part of Cabal. We will know we were very lucky to get a slice from Cabal, but we won't talk about it. That's the hope.

Then I tried to work, but really my mind was adding numbers and projecting them into the future. Selling some stocks. Tesla went up, suddenly, 272, then 268; I set the limit to 270, but it was not selling; then it went down to 260. Hell with it, I thought and sold it for 260. It’s better than below 200 not that long time ago. I sit in the office; I refactor a piece of code, make it build; then, I switch to the broker website window; I look at how the orders are doing; then I go back to the build, to the code. 

2:15 called K from Amalgamated. I called. “Who is that?” – I heard an unfriendly voice; I thought I got the number wrong. We had the call scheduled, I said, is it K. Oh, yeah, it was K, she remembered. K turned out to be a Fran Leibowitz kind: wry, grumpy, and knowledgeable. We went through my application. I explained that I found an apartment of interest and was shopping for rates. I explained how I was surprised by the rate jumping 5.25 to 5.75 in one month at another bank. Yes, the rates are up she said; this morning it went up again. Ten-year Treasury yield is what I want to watch; not the exact number, but the curve correlates with the mortgage rates. I looked: a month ago it was quite a dip over the entire year, indeed. She educated me about the rate, then started talking something about financial markets, and then she said "uhm, and the elections next week". I held my breath. "Uhm, the elections. The elections mean the bonds. The bonds market will definitely be affected." I was afraid to ask in what direction it would be affected. "By a lot," – she said. Finally, she gave me the rate: 6.50%. That was way too high. That's cause B had a low credit score, she said; why is it so low? B was inspired by digital minimalism not long time ago and closed down all her not-used credit cards, I explained. She's kind of a foreigner; didn't know how American finances work, that if you close credit cards you lose in credit score. Then, she went on into coops requirements: 18 to 24 months of safety net that they want to see on your accounts. Well, I got the 401k, don't I? They will want you to withdraw that, and because you can't withdraw more than 50% they will reject you. What the hell, I don't want to withdraw from 401k unless I really need to; why would I do that? Then they will reject you, she said, and you'll lose money on the fees, and you'll waste your time on this.

I started thinking why did I even get into all of these? I'm clearly not from Cabal. Why do I pretend I'm from Cabal? I texted SH: will they make me withdraw from 401k? "No!" she texted back. "Let me speak to the agent to make sure but this is not a strict board. They only ask for 2 or 3 bank statements to show the ending balance," she texted. It took them at least 20 minutes to converse over our case. SH called back. You will tell them you don't want to withdraw from 401k cause it's disadvantageous to you. You'll tell them if you need to you'll withdraw, but you don't need to and you will tell them you don't want to withdraw. It's not a strict board - focus on the cover letter, and find good references; I've done this before. This is totally doable. She said. Okay, fine, I thought. We'll give it a shot, and if not – it was worth it. 

Then I tried to work, but haven't done much, since I had the head full of doubts. Slept by 1 or 2.