Great news at the Sloane (and Fran) and Puffy household! We finally signed the initial contract to buy an apartment. The same one that has caused so much drama in recent weeks. We sat down at a table with the sellers and our combined real estate team of four people and got out the contracts. Here, a sale typically starts with (after the offer), a sales contract where the buyers agree to buy and the sellers agree to sell, and a down payment is made and there are penalties for reneging on the contract or any delays not cause by the bank or government officials. Next comes the evaluation and all the other bank stuff, and the papers and whatnot, and finally you sign in front of a notary and get the deed after a few weeks (or months, but hopefully weeks).

So what was the most stressful part of this whole preliminary signing transaction? Thinking about BUYING A HOME? Thinking about the PRICE? No, none of that. The most stressful part for me was physically signing the papers. The contract was not that long — about 6 pages maybe — but it was in triplicate and every page had to be signed. For those outside Mexico, let me explain that Mexicans are super demanding when it comes to signatures. You must sign EXACTLY the same way each time, the SAME exact way you signed in your passport.

In the past, both of the following have happened to me:
- Trying to buy furniture WITH my passport and my credit card: "Wait, this isn't your signature." (I was like, "see the passport? That's me, right?" and they reluctantly agreed to accept my money.)
- Trying to take money out of the bank when the ATM was broken: "Ummm... can you try again? Signing EXACTLY as you did in your passport?" (The problem is that in my passport, I use a middle initial for some odd reason.)

So, of course I was terrified I would sign wrong, turning the whole apartment sale on its head! The pressure! Plus, I was getting a cramp in my hand AND I felt the eyeballs of everyone staring at me. OK, that part I probably imagined. But I am going to have to practice before we go to the notary, because that is going to be a lot more signing... for posterity.