2011: The Good.. The Bad.. The WTF!!!

… I know, I know!! It’s been far too long since I had the opportunity to just sit and blog. I should just MAKE the time but it’s the same old.. same old.. life happens, yknow?

Anyway..

I promise I will commit.. at least right NOW I promise to commit. You have to agree I need a reality show so just go easy on me!! LoL!!

Now.. back to it.

In the time honored tradition of ME101 .. let’s recap 2011

I may need a valium for this!

Okay.. the good stuff first:

After living without electricity for close to five months, we were finally able to move into The House Of My Almost Dreams. I say “almost” because we’re renting.. if I was paying a mortgage instead of rent well then.. you get the idea! But believe me, we were truly blessed to find this house. It was everything I was looking for LAST year when we thought we were moving to West Virginia.

But I think I told you all this already.

On-set Alzheimer’s. Throw me a bone, here.

Spaz started a new school and he actually has a friend. A NORMAL friend… well, as normal as anyone who would want to hang around Spaz can be. They’re kind of like the two misfits in the lunch room who sit with eachother because there is no one else to sit with. Believe me, I’m not being sarcastic. But his friend is a nice boy. Respectful and friendly. Lives close by and they even joined a school club together. Who am I to complain? It’s a step up. Believe me.

Spaz has also become a little LESS spazzy since we moved.. not ready for another nickname yet but he’s a lot better then he was so kudos to him. Being around his brothers is a WHOLE other story.. but we’ve addressed it. Told him that his attitude doesn’t get a free pass anymore because he doesn’t realize he has an attitude after spending time with them and that will be the end of it.

Did it sink in? Time will tell.

I did go back to work in May. Loving the job.. loving an actual paycheck now.. the company was sold to another company in October but so far there isnt anything to worry about. For now. But when God closes one door another opens so I’m just riding the “see what happens” wave.

My aunt bought another car and gave me her old one. It’s about 10 years old but still in great condition. The reduced rent made carrying another car on my insurance possible so now we’re actually using less gas because Chief doesn’t have to drive me to work and then pick me up. Bonus.

There may not be very many GOODS this year.. but what was GOOD is VERY VERY GOOD so I’m extremely blessed.

Now for the BAD..

When we moved out of our old house, the old landlord became very shady about giving us back out 2700.00 security deposit. Even though he gives slumlords a good name, he was fair to us when we needed him to be (think paying rent on time) and so we offered every opportunity to be fair to him. The security was suppose to be held in escrow but everybody and their mother with distant relatives knew that he didn’t have it available when he was suppose to. And if he would have just called us and told us that, we would have been cool but he decided to ignore phone calls, set up appointments for the final walk through that he didn’t keep, ignored more phone calls and then tried to pull a pile of crap out of his ass so we had to file a civil suit against him.

According to Pennsylvania’s Landlord / Tenant Act, if he didn’t return the security OR a list of deductions with the balance of the security within 30 days then he has to give us everything back. If we sued him for the original amount, he can’t counter sue us. If we sued him for double the amount (which we could) then he could counter for up to the original amount only. Either way, we walk out with the security.

We’re not greedy. We’re only suing for the original amount.

After he was notified, he sent us a certified letter outlining all the thing that we were responsible for (excuse me while I choke on complete fabrication) along with wanting to get paid for November’s rent. We were out of the house by November 1st. He’s clawing at straws. Either he really does think he has a case OR he never dealt with tenants who are actually literate and know how to read laws.

Either way, watch what happens.

The worst thing that happened this year.. actually the two worse things.. happened fairly recently and destroyed my heard.

Al .. one of our cats .. decided she wanted to be a complete outdoor cat when we moved. At the old house, she was outside 90% of the time but once we moved she decided there were far too many interesting things at the new place to waste time indoors. She stayed on the property.. had her condo on the front porch.. always had fresh food and water.. and was a happy camper.

The Saturday before Christmas Eve, Chief and I had returned in the late morning from shopping. As we turned in the driveway, Chief saw Al curled up at the bottom of the driveway.. dead. He rushed me into the house before I completely burst into tears and buried her under the japanese maple tree on our front lawn.

She wasn’t hit by a car.. and he had seen her early in the morning doing her morning yoga stretches on the front porch and she was fine. Beyond being upset, we were completely puzzled until the guy who exterminates my office building said it sounded like she had gotten into antifreeze.

Made sense.

The weather had gotten colder and I’m sure there were people in the neighborhood that put antifreeze in their cars and maybe spilled some.. hell, I could have spilled some. I don’t know.. but I sincerely doubt it was intentional. It’s just one of those horrible, hurtful things. The exterminator said that animals can’t resist antifreeze because it smells so sweet and that it can kill them in as little as 2 hours.

So let that be a lesson..

Al had had a litter of 6 kittens back in May. We kept one that we just started calling “Retard”. It’s a long story and if you’re offended then .. what can I tell you. My sandbox. But the name fit her and she was the most loving, friendly, comical, prettiest kitten you ever wanted to see.

The picture doesn’t do her justice.

She was more like a puppy, actually.. especially when I would come home from work and she would run to the door with the dogs to greet me.

About a month after we moved into the new house, she got out.

She used to follow Chief outside when he would be out there chopping wood or doing whatever.. but this time she went out the bedroom window and never came back.

We did everything that owners of lost kittens are suppose to do but nothing. Honestly, she is probably living large in someone’s house. She had no fear of people and if she wandered into someone’s yard, she would have went right to them.

that’s what I’m telling myself so don’t burst my bubble. I know everything I did wrong so you don’t have to bring that up either and it’s breaking my heart just typing this so I’m going to leave it alone.

So now we’re down to three dogs.. 1 cat.. and I pity the husband that tries to bring another animal into this house!! LoL

Now for the W.T.F!!

Believe me.. it deserves it’s own post so I’m going to run to the bathroom.. get a cup of coffee.. and set to typing!

That Time Of The Month…

No..

Not THAT time… hasn’t been THAT time in a LONG time ..

I’m talking about rent.

Ugh.

You know.. I guess it could be worse. While my landlord can be a real dick sometimes.. most times.. when push comes to shove he’s tolerable.

He doesn’t bother us.. we don’t bother him.. everybody’s happy.

So back some forever ago when we thought we were moving in November, we gave our two month notice. At the time, the King of Idiocy (that would be Chief) told me that the landlord was holding the last month’s rent and security.

I didn’t find out until mid-January that he was actually holding two months security so we owed him 1/2 a month for December (I had already given him 700.00 already for December) and for January (1400.00).

When it turned out that we were going to have to stay here for longer then either of us planned or wanted.. AND knowing that we were getting our income tax checks in by the end of February.. I called on January 23rd and left him a message stating that I would be sending him the money I owed him for December ( in two 350.00 money orders about a week apart) and that we would be sending him January’s and February’s rent as soon as Chief got his income tax check in mid-February.

I followed up that voice mail with an email with screen shots of the amount of his refund and estimated direct deposit date via Turbo Tax.

I also told him that we would be staying on, if that was okay with him, and explained that Chief got a job.. yada yada yada.

I never heard back from him. No phone call. No email reply. Nothing.

So on January 25th, I mailed a 350.00 money order.

On February 2nd, I mailed another 350.00 money order.

Again.. didn’t hear anything from them about nothing.

Today I get a phone call from the man himself saying to call the office. Immediately followed by a text message saying that it was VERY URGENT that I call the office.

And this made my heart race and my bowels loose.

What was “so very urgent”? He obviously knew about the financial time line..  if not, he would have called sooner, right? Was there some bullshit fine that the borough imposed because of all the snow we had and their officer who literally comes around with a ruler to make sure the sidewalks are clear enough? Or maybe it was that one soda can that blew onto our back lawn from somewhere else? Did we get a fine for that? Did he have another renter? Was he selling the place? Did he intend to evict us? What THE FUCK??

So it took me awhile to get my guts in order to call but I finally did..

He answered the phone.. told him who I was.. and that I got a message to call the office.

WHERE’S MY MONEY was his reply.

And not in a very nice tone either..

It caught me off guard.. according to the guideline, we still had another week before the income tax check came.

So I said, “.. wait, you go the 700.00 right?”

I hear him ask the woman in his office, “.. did you get the 700.00?”

I hear her say no.. I hear him tell me know.. and now I went into full out panic because I mailed those money orders and I NEVER mail the rent.. I always drive the 26 miles round trip just to make sure it gets there and didn’t get screwed up in the mail.

Now, I really go into full out panic and he tells me to talk to the woman.. pull out the money order receipts and go over the dates. She got both of them.. I tell her about the timeline.. yep.. she knows about it .. THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING???

She apologizes and confirms the dates on when we’re expecting the tax refund.. I also tell her that we’re probably going to include March’s rent.. it’s going to keep them at bay and take pressure off us .. and she was all fine. whatever.

Fine? Whatever? You just took ten fucking years off my life and all you can say is fine.. whatever??

I appreciate the fact that he’s kinda-sorta-has-no-choice working with us.. but my word, man.. can get brush up on your info before dialing the phone?

I can’t wait to get out of this freakin’ place…

Reality Check

You know.. I have a habit of saying that I need to get paid to live my life.

I’m serious.

A check would really, really, REALLY be helpful right now!

Anyway.. ok.. so…

Reality Check.

The real kind.

WARNING: Nothing you are about to read is made up. I can assure you that I am not sitting up in my double king sized bed surrounded by over spoiled lap dogs and tons of pillows getting annoyed by my assistant who keeps bursting into my sanctuary to take calls from various people listed on the Who’s Who of The World.

I so wish.

Anyway..

So we’re home from our road trip and I’m absolutely dreading Tuesday. Why? Because Tuesday is when my bank processes every transaction from the weekend. And even though I’ve been literally squeaking because I am very, very cautious when spending money since we closed the store we completely had to trash my account because of the Road Trip.

I was due for an unemployment check on Wednesday.. but it’s the next to the last one so this was NOT a good time to trash the finances. Necessary, of course. Even though we didn’t spend anything we absolutely didn’t have to.. we still spent more then we thought we would.

Still, I didn’t think it was going to be ALL that bad.. I thought that we were covered because I wrote a check for the $191.00 title/tag fee for Consuela. Remember I said that I could float that because by the time it was deposited it wouldn’t clear until Wednesday when my unemployment came in?

Yea.

No.

When I dared enough to take a peek at my account online, the check had already cleared. What? Wait… WHAT?

I know for a fact that my bank doesn’t have a local branch but  I guess the notary had some type of electronic gizmo that processes checks the same way one would process credit or debit cards. I know they exist and really, in this day and age why wouldn’t you have a gizmo like that when you accept checks?

So now my account was going to get hit with way more over draft charges then I originally thought and at 35.00 a pop, I’d be lucky if I was going to be able to remain in the black when my UC check came in.

Mind you.. I am not pointing blame at anybody else or playing a violin. I take full responsibility for the things that I did to make my account a mess… I just didn’t realize how much of a mess. Fact is, after all was said and done, I had around 400.00 after my UC came through.

Ok.. so not sooo bad, right?

Honestly, it wouldn’t be except that upon returning home from the road trip I found out that I had to pay the 128.00 cable bill before the 14th to avoid shut-off. I have to keep this current for 2 reasons.. one, Bubba and the whole cyber school thing and two, we are going to need service when we move and if I keep the bill current then there isn’t an issue with just changing the address.

I also received a 3 day shut off notice for the water. That’s 124.00.

So ok.. I’m not exactly jumping through hoops here but you know, at least I have enough to pay the cable and water and we’ll just have to make due because really, what ELSE is there to do?

And then I receive a call from my landlord.

I still owe him 675.00 for December’s rent and have told him that he will get that money. I’m not trying to beat him out of it or skip town or whatever. I may not have it RIGHT NOW but I filed my tax return so I will be getting a little something back (I had requested taxes taken from my UC) .. and Chief will be getting a nice return back but we can’t file his until the end of the month because the IRS hasn’t released one of the forms he needs yet.

He asked me where we were moving and I told him, honestly, I didn’t know. My fragile house of cards had collapsed and the only thing that I could do was leave it up to God. He asked if we would have to stay in the house another month. I told him that I still owed him money for December .. how could I do that?

Then he busts out with ‘.. and for January.”

Wait.

WHAT?

Apparently, the money that had been put up front when Chief had moved into this place was 1st month and 2 months security. This was NOT the information Chief gave me.. he told me that he put up 1st month / Last month / security.

Mind you, he got this house before I was ever in the picture and truthfully, I’m sure HE wasn’t the one who handled the transaction.. only signed where he was told to..

So now we owe our land lord ANOTHER 1400.00 for January and he told me he’d give me a call sometime next week to come see the house. Wonderful.

And it’s all getting a little too much for me to shoulder.

When I said that our little fragile house of cards had fallen, I wasn’t kidding and I wasn’t trying to get sympathy. It’s exactly the way it is.

The end of the month is fast approaching and we have no where to go.

West Virginia may be a probability somewhere in the future but it isn’t now. Even if the property was flat, it’s going to take more money then we’re going to have to build a foundation, finish paying off the double wide and paying to move it from where it’s at to where it’s going to go.

I ask you.. what the HELL were we thinking??

I’ll ask you again just for the effect.. WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING???

This whole journey from the day we closed the store has been nothing but us putting out money for places and things that never panned out..

And it’s more then a little discouraging .. especially because we are no closer to finding a place to move only now we have a lot less money to do it with..

It’s making my head spin.. keeping me up at night and doing things to my innards that are better left undiscussed.

Year ago.. when I was a kid.. there was a tele-movie on one night about a woman who found herself homeless. She did everything “right” in her life but I think her house caught on fire and for some reason it wasn’t insured or whatever .. that quick, she found herself homeless and it scared the hell out of me .. the thought that things could change in the snap of a finger ..

I thought about the movie (I think it starred Christine Laihti) in the middle of the night recently and it was all I can do to make the waterfalls keep from drenching my pillow.

Do I have the option of moving back in with my mom or with my brother? Of course.. I do have a way. “I” have a way.. but that would mean leaving my family .. and as much as I feel like I want to leave them sometimes, I really don’t.. and I wouldn’t.. not in these circumstances.

The boys could go with the Crack Whore.. no biggie. But my main concern is the dogs and cats. My mother would freak and my sister in law is high allergic. The other option is to move Conseula back to PA and possibly put it on my brother in laws property until we can get our shit together.

So I worry.. worry hard.. count down the minutes until we have to leave this house.. and then what?

Dunno .. but I do have faith.

As ridiculous as it may sound to those of you that don’t .. I know that God will take care of us and put us where we need to be when we need to be there. And while He does provide, no one said it would be easy ..

Road Trip

.. so right after Spaz leaves for school, we’re going on the road to try and get something situated before the end of the month.

First is the 4 hour trip to Lock Haven, Pa to pick up Consuela our RV .. the one that we almost positive runs.. but not much else.

We’re planning on staying over night in Lock Haven so that Chief can tinker on anything he needs to tinker on.

From Lock Haven, we have to travel 5 hours to West Virginia.

Me driving the wagon.. him driving Consuela.

This is the part that makes me nervous because 1) I’ve never driven that long by myself and 2) there’s the added stress of constantly having to look behind me to make sure Chief and Consuela are there and not pulled off on some shoulder a few miles back.

We plan on staying over in West Virginia.. and then leaving her there and driving the 9 hours back to our house.

Did I mention they’re calling for snow all across the state AND in WV?

I’m not looking forward to this trip .. if you’re prone to, please send massive prayers our way. We’re really going to need them.