This is the time of year we always go see Dave Mathews Band as they do their Summer Tour in Florida. We are huge fans and I personally have only been going to see Dave in concert for the last three years.  I am not sure what I was waiting for because this band is amazing in concert. They are all about the action and bright lights, musical instruments and pleasing the fans.  DMB puts on an amazing performance year after year.

The last few years it has rained without fail during every show we have attended. Rain or shine we are always there. There is something about getting drenched while hearing jamming music just makes it all that more entertaining. This year we decided to go to two shows; one in Tampa and one in West Palm Beach. The Tampa show was first on Wednesday and we did not get rained on during the whole show amazingly; however that caused it to be miserably hot will dancing around in the crowds. Still no stopping us… They played 19 songs and it was mostly their new songs which if you have not heard their new CD it is a must. It is called Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King, 2009.

The following Saturday morning we got up early to drive to West Palm Beach which is three hours from home and we rented a hotel room on the beach so we could spend that day and the next on the water. We made a nice little weekend getaway around the whole concert. By the way when I keep referring to “we” I am talking about my boyfriend, his brother and wife. We love going to concerts with each other as no know gets grouchy or wants to leave before anyone else.  Anyhow we arrived in West Palm and check into the hotel and then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to get ready for Dave. During the week when we see DMB we always miss the first couple of songs because we are going right after work of course, but this time we wanted to get there early so we could see the start of the show. 

On the way to the show it starts to down pour like cats and dogs. I was getting really bummed because I did not want it to be raining as we were walking in. Not to fret little one because the rain stopped just in time for us to walk up to the show and find a nice seat on the lawn area. The night starts to fall, people are gathering in closer and closer as we all wait in anticipation… Drums…screening….guitars...and the fans go wild. This show was fantastic and extremely up beat as it was the last show in Florida for this summer. They played a combination of both new and old songs. DMB has only 5 CD’s I believe so we know every song there is and we sing right along with everyone they play.  They played 19 songs that night which is a lot for one show and we sang and danced around the whole time…until the end.  Oh and by the way we did get rained on during the show, but it was only for 5 minutes. By that time it was nice and refreshing. Well until next year…We Love you Dave!

I told you that I would keep you updated with me Real Estate schooling so here it is – I finally finished the school which was a total of 63 hours in two and a half weeks. It doesn’t seem bad when you look at it like that, but with the amount of information that gets crammed into your brain during this time is unbelievable.

So they give you a practice test to take before the first test and the practice test covers all types of random information from the text.  The questions are pretty hard and geared towards real life scenarios and the tricky part is they will have one correct answer, one answer that is partially correct and then two wrong answers. Tricky – well I didn’t do well on the practice exams so I freaked out. I had one more day left to study and needed to pass this exam so I can take the state exam which will be 10 times harder.  Needless to say…I called in sick the next day which I never do by the way, but needed this time to really study. See that was the challenging part of all this. I was attending the classes, going to work, working on my degree and trying to get sleep so I could make it through each day. What I didn’t have was time to truly study.

I spent the next 24 hours studying for the exam the following day. Once I finished my studying I was feeling much better than the day before, however I was still very nervous. They really talk up the test and scare you so you do not know what to expect. We had 3 hours to finish the test and of course the first question was difficult. I needed to get a 75% in order to pass. Now it is on…I went through the exam and the ones that I did not know right away I circled and saved for the end. By the time I got everything finished and went back over the ones I had circle there were 14 questions I was not sure about.  Out of that there was one I knew the answer to, but was a little iffy.  I finished up the exam to the best of my ability and went home for the night. I had not even passed the test yet and I just felt a huge relief of pressure release from my chest. It was like I was floating on a big white cloud. The test scores will be ready before noon the next day…the suspense sets in.

Well…I passed! Wahoo!! The funny part is I actually missed 13 questions giving me an 87%. Now I will never know if they were the 13 that I did not know or if they were a different 13, but it doesn’t matter at this point. I am now waiting for the state to approve my application so I can take the State Exam. Once I get the okay I will be on to the next one and then I will finally have my real estate license. So stay tuned…

As if attending class online for Rasmussen is not enough I signed up for the Florida Real Estate course a couple of weeks ago.  In order to obtain a real estate license in the state of Florida you have to complete a 63 hour course and pre-state exam. Well being my life is extremely busy as is with regular class and working fulltime I went with the night and weekend classes over a period of two and a half weeks.  Let’s just say I did not know what I was getting myself into.

As I am getting near the end I will say it was well worth it, but I had no idea how intense the class was going to be. I did not realize how regulated real estate is until now. I knew there was some government involvement, right because they are involved in everything, but they are all over real estate. It’s good because they are here to protect the public without a doubt and their own pocket of course.   

The class is teaching us about everything from principals, practices and the law. I thought I had a upper hand because I worked in a law real estate law firm for 7 years, but I must say the correlation was very small amounts far few and between. I did recognize some areas when talking about Fair Housing Acts and Civil Rights Act from 1866, but again very small sections. This class did provide me with a lot of history knowledge regarding laws and why the laws were developed. I also learned about financing and mortgage markets, plotting, mapping and zoning. This class also contained a lot of math which makes sense now, but I had no idea in the beginning.

I still have a few more days of class to attend and lots of studying before I take the state exam. I have had many tell me the state exam is not easy and it can take many times to pass. I however would like to pass the first time so I will be wise and utilize all the tools and resources to my advantage to make sure I am fully prepared to pass the exam. I have to get a 75% to pass so I am a bit stressed at this point. However before I can take the state exam I have the exam from the class that I have to pass first. That is the one I am worried about the most right now because I have limited time to study.

Which means I have to run for now, but I will keep you all posted as I pass exams and move along to the next event… If anyone has any stories they would like to share or pointers on preparation and passing feel free to share. I would love to hear what others went through.

 FLORIDA