I had a deal fall apart at the closing table. Literally at the table. Buyers and sellers both sitting there, title company ready to go, and the seller suddenly announces she's "having second thoughts" because Mercury was in retrograde and her astrologer advised against major financial decisions this month. This was after forty-seven days under contract. After the inspection. After the appraisal. After I coordinated the buyers' moving truck that was already loaded and parked outside their apartment. The seller's agent looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and die. The buyers started crying. The title officer just kept clicking her pen over and over, which honestly might have been the most stressful part. We all sat there for twenty minutes while the seller called her astrologer on speakerphone to "re-consult the charts." The astrologer, bless her heart, told her that actually Venus was providing protective energy for real estate transactions that specific afternoon. Deal closed. But I aged approximately fifteen years in that conference room, and I now have a Google alert set for Mercury retrograde dates so I can mentally prepare myself.