To Deceive/Omit or Not to Omit/Deceive

Another solution to the OMG! low pay that I have been told to expect doing temp work here, is to apply for a job like I do not have anything coming up, that I am available for permanent until I die employment.

This could get me hired quite quickly given the skill set I possess. At what I presume to be a (much?) higher rate. I would still prefer not to look to law firms at this time. Legal Eagles are a pretty tight group. I don't want to piss off one attorney and find out when I am applying to another position that I already have a bad reputation. I prefer to build that slowly and deliberately.

My dilemma is....do I take the mercenary route and go for the most dough....or do I take the high road, spill my guts and take presumably lower OMG! pay?

Oh boy, do I suck at lying. Shoot, I suck at not telling everyone about the time I was in middle school and puked on Tobin's shoes at the choir concert. Or when I fell off the merri-go-round and broke my leg. Oh, and my middle school volleyball team, we called ourselves the Deadbeats, just in case you were wondering.

So....here is another interactive, audience participation post...WWYD?

How Low Can You Go?

I wore panty hose for approximately 7 hours today.

I went to 4 different temp agencies. I am so talked out.

My cat sat on my lap and leaned against me for a long time once I got home. She told me she missed me.

The last agency told me that I should expect $8-9 an hour.



I have an interview tomorrow in the next city over for a position that pays $10.00 an hour.

Small town. Limited work schedule. Must.breathe.deep.

So here are the facts, lots of administrative experience. Lots of legal experience. Fast typist, quick learner. I am in a town of less than 30K. I am only able to work for 2 months.

How low would you go?

Action!

I have 2 interviews scheduled tomorrow with the temp agencies in town. I am registering with those agencies since I will only be able to work until the end of July. I am going to Houston as mentioned previously for baby leave. I am shaved, searching for panty hose, resumes and references are printed. I am rearing to go, I do declare.

And you thought I wouldn't get around to it, huh?

Happy to Have Won the Cat Lottery

Flutters

A man that wakes up from a dead sleep, many hours before intended wake-up, to talk to his broken-hearted friend, makes my heart flutter.

Retrospective Introspective

This coming weekend is the ROT Rally . The largest bike rally in Texas descends on the streets of Austin. I may not seem like a biker chick, but I have been the last 2 years. Not “TO” them, per se, but in the city at the time. I am a bit disappointed that I will not be here this year.

Two years ago, I had just been promoted to the administrative chieftain of Busy Law Firm. Due to reasons I really don’t feel comfortable putting here, I did not have any assistance in the transition. I was plopped into the job with no training, no instructions, just thumped into a steaming ocean of invoices, billing and payroll. I was just a tad overwhelmed.

I have various ways to explain this next portion. At first, I always relayed that I was just a crazy Type A person that felt that having a brand new career dropped on me with no instruction wasn’t enough stress, I had to bring on more to make my crazy overstressed brain happy with the over the limit stressing. As time passes, as my once dormant religious side is starting to wake up, I now realize that I was being pushed into changing my life. Since I am a crazy linker here, here is a link that describes the process that I feel took place, quite well.

At the time, I was in a relationship of 6 years. A lot had happened in those 6 years, I had gone from being a hard-partying college student/waitress to a paralegal at a prestigious law firm. I had gone from falling asleep at 6 A.M. to waking up at that time. I went from a huge pile of debt to a modest amount of savings. I had metamorphosized into what I thought might be close to an adult. The other party to that relationship hadn’t undergone any changes. He remained stagnant through the years, same job, same schedule, same same same.

On Memorial Day Weekend, I woke up Saturday morning, went furniture shopping, bought a living room set from Mattress Mac . I then drove home and broke off the six-year relationship. I have to say that the night before, I did not know I was going to do any of this. I was unhappy, I was stressed out, some things had happened in his life that caused me great trouble, and I had been working 12 hour days. I was exhausted, went to sleep, woke up, decided that I did not have a choice, I knew what had to be done and I set out to do it. I feel that the furniture purchase was just a way to make sure I went through with it. Tangible proof of what had to be done.

The next week was very difficult, we were still living in the same apartment, I was working like crazy, it was madness. I intended to work that coming weekend to try and figure out how to do my job, because people apparently like to be paid, vendors like to receive payments and the Coke machine CANNOT BE OUT OF DIET COKES!!!! I had a lot on my plate. My friend was going to Austin to take a Massage Therapy Licensing test and if she passed, she was gonna become a certified masseuse master. She had asked me to come several weeks earlier, before my entire life turned upside down. I told her no mid-week, I had too much work to do, needed to find an apartment, needed to do the cat lottery to see who got what cat, etc., etc. Friday, I decided to go. I went home after work, packed some clothes, and drove to Austin. Met up with her, we got beautified for a night out and hit Sixth Street. (Actually Fourth to begin with…) We started at Foundation, a bar where she knew the owner. We walk in, got a drink, wandered around, spied some seats. And we sat. When she went to get another round, this guy sitting next to us said hello, and asked my name. His name was Craig. We started chatting. My friend came back, and we all continued to chat. It was already midnight, there were a few other bars that she knew the owners/bartenders/doormen…(I bet she knows someone related to everyone that reads this!) So I ask Craig to join us. And he agrees. We hit up The Library and then Treasure Island. At Treasure Island, the person my friend knows there gives us copious amounts of Jager bombs. We were feeling really good. Well, 2 A.M. has to hit eventually and as we are saying our goodbyes, I get Craig’s number, find out I completely misunderstood him that his name is NOT Craig. We program the proper names and spellings of each other into our respective cell phones and are about to split up. And we kissed. And now 2 years later, we live in Oil Capital, New Mexico with the 2 cats that won the lottery drawing.

I now believe that God was pushing me to the path I am currently on. He woke me up that Saturday morning (2 years ago yesterday) and sent me off to Mattress Mac. He told me that my future was in Austin, not in some office building in downtown Houston. He has led me on this path. Although people are going to say that I made those decisions, I have always firmly held that I did not have a choice that Saturday morning, there was nothing else for me to do but what I did. It did not even seem like a conscious decision that I made, just something that had to be done that day. Much like the laundry.

And I am extremely grateful.

Monkeys!

I found this link from Violent Acres quite amusing…and true.

Human nature captured in funny bits about monkeys throwing poo. And killing Frenchy.

I know that I am down on the area where I live currently. So maybe that is why I related to this article. Or maybe my town is full of feces flinging jerks.

This town is made up of people that were brought here by oil companies to pull the remaining bits of fossil fuels out of the ground. A great majority of the people here are not from the area, have no ties to it other than their paycheck, and do not plan on staying here long. I am a full-fledged, card-carrying member of this group.

The problem with this type of group makeup is that people don’t feel responsibility towards each other, they don’t feel a sense of community, their Monkeysphere does not include their neighbors because their neighbors are loud, take the good parking spot and they won’t be neighbors for long so who cares if I piss off my neighbors, I will be outta here soon enough. They don’t feel a need to help anyone out, they don’t care to return their cart to the front of the store, they don’t care if they run that red light, they don’t care if they litter. They don’t need to be kind, considerate or even just not flipping rude.

When we first moved here, the dear parked his motorcycle in a regular parking spot for a couple of months. We were going to take it for a ride one day, and found that the handlebar was damaged. It was apparent that the bike had been knocked over and then put back up. Who knows who did this, as the monkeys feel no need to confess, they will be moving on anyway and how stupid are we to park a motorcycle in the parking lot. Now, the bike is moved into the front of a parking spot and I park my little go-cart in the spot with it. We have taken my car places a few times to come home and find someone else has parked their car in that spot, where, if they pulled in an inch to far, they would knock over a heavy-ass motorcycle that probably costs more than their car. Several different people have done this. Damn inconsiderate (and stupid) in my book.

Maybe this one is my fault, I am a bit shy, but I smile, I say hello to all my neighbors each and every time I see them. Out of the people who live in the immediate area around our apartment, one has introduced himself. One says hello back to me. The others don’t even acknowledge I have said a thing. This has gone on for 6 months. But then again, maybe my town has an unusually large deaf population.

I am not going to rehash the apartment business. I do however feel that this is part of the Monkeysphere complex. We are in corporate housing and will be moving on, why treat us with any respect or fix a problem we may have. We will move on soon enough and get out of the fringe of their sphere.

I am used to living in both a big city and a small suburb of the big city. I am appalled at the unfriendly nature of people out here. I smile at people, I say hello, I say excuse me, I step out of the way. More often than not, these common courtesies are not returned. I truly thought a small town would be more friendly than a large city. I was wrong.

I don’t have any thoughts on correcting this, or making my town a friendlier, kinder place. I am just going to contribute to the problem and stay inside my own Monkeysphere. I will continue to smile, and say hello and practice all of the common courtesies I was raised with. Not because I am trying to change humanity. Just because it is the right fucking thing to do.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my rant. Have a nice day.

I am working very hard at not working recently. Things I have accomplished during the past 3 days:

1. Clean apt. a bit. (This means the living room...)
2. Really break the closet.
3. Made a beautiful pillow for my couch to relieve some of the brown-ness up in Herr.
4. Cleaned picture frames I bought at a garage sale and hung them.
5. Figured out that you can upload pics to Walmart's website and order prints for said picture frames. I have uploaded. Gotta figure out which pics go where.
6. Repainted toe nails.
7. Sold a single magazine for $75.
8. Broke a printer cartridge.
9. Watched the season finale of Heroes. Very disappointed.
10. Received an awesome gift from my oldest friend.

Whew. It is really hard to look for a job when you have so much stuff going on! My dear looked over my resume last night and I have made a few revisions today. I can't print it out because of said dead cartridge.

I have taken a few pictures for this weekend's Ebay posting.

I am gonna make a second pillow tonight, after my hard-working hours are completed today. Meaning once I get tired of reading blogs, Ebay forums and CNN.

I am ready to go back to bed folks. This day has been exhausting with all this worki-ness.

And make biscuits.

Utter and Complete Mayhem

Have I mentioned my Type A personality? Have I mentioned my clean freak nature? How about that I am a Virgo?

If you know the type, know me, know your Zodiac traits, you will understand why I am going completely freaking batty.

Exhibit #1


My living room.

Exhibit #2


The "Office" or the "Other Bedroom" or the "Crap Room".

Exhibit #3


My bedroom.

So let's start off with #1. My dear is building a new super bad-azz gaming computer. He got most of the parts in yesterday via UPS. However, Fed-Ex apparently had yesterday off. So the power supply is in Ft. Worth. I really would like to drive to DFW today and pick it up so the mess can be cleaned up. The rest is completely my fault. Ebay, Self magazine, cat bed that I picked up at a garage sale.

#2, well this is where I usually am ok with a mess. This room catches everything. So I can ignore that room because I can bask in my clean living room, or chill on my bed.

#3. If you have read anything before this, you would know how much I adore my apartment. It has kicking brown carpet, brown linoleum, a leaky roof, a moldy board under the sink, bird crap, and a few other very nice accoutrements. And....the latest and greatest feature, a broken closet shelf. This happened a week ago. We found it, moved a few things, looked at each other and simulataneously agreed to deal with it at another time. Well, that other time hasn't happened just yet. Maybe next week. So, in the meantime, this is my bedroom.

I honestly walked into the bathroom last night and took a deep breath.....ahhhhh a clean spot. I felt my stress level decrease a tad....but I couldn't stay in there all night.....but if I can't get this mess of a rundown apartment cleaned up soon, I will be living in the bathroom. May I just thank God for my laptop.

Let It Snow (Repeat Thrice)

This is Day 2 in a sweater. I am so happy about this. I am not ready for the warmth. I haven't been running due to that whole hip-py issue. I am not at my fighting weight. I found a sweater at one of the estate sales when I moved her that I just l-o-v-e. I lived in a city for 1/2 my life that froze for about 2 and a half minutes once a year. Typical cold winter weather was the 50's. I have a large box of sweaters. And I am not admitting the number of coats I own. Because if I count them, I am going to have to go through 3 closets and, well a bit of denial is nice on toast. I adore cold weather. (Except that whole snow thing, I was kinda joking....we don't really need that...just cold, please).

But, like a good Southern gal, I am wearing flip-flops with my big luxorious turtle neck sweater. Houston Style Baby. (I am now blushing at my dorkiness).

Say Anything

After typing in my last post how I love songs that make me learn the little intricate portions of the songs, I went and found the song that really made me think about that...In Your Eyes, from Say Anything.

Oh, Lloyd....



Here is another of my favorite scenes, at the graduation party, Lili Taylor (Corey) is going to play all 63 songs she wrote about her cheating ex, Joe, who came to the party with Mimi - Chynna Phillips! It doesn't include "Joe lies.....when he cries.....when he cries....."



This is the version I have on my Ipod, I know every second of this song by heart, including all the extra stuff after the 7 minute point. I wail it out along with the song, including Jean Claude's keyboards and Papa Wemba's monkey noises,


This weekend, we were laying around being lazy post-wisdom tooth removal. The male portion of this household had the remote and just happened to flip on to Say Anything. Without a word, he put the remote down. Grabbed my hand during the breakup scenes and at the end with the jail scene, where I still cry. I love that man!!

I Heart Neko Case

I was reading a blog this morning that I linked to off CAP. She mentioned Neko Case. I heart Neko Case. I only have her latest CD, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. I have listened to it over and over and over. I laughed at myself while watching the following clips....once they ended, I started up with the lyrics for the following song,. . . I have the CD memorized so thoroughly. I love musicians that are able to do that to me....that I know the offhand comments, the weird noises, whatever...that I know each second of a CD....love it, love it, love it!





(If you are keeping score here....my favorite artists tend to be redheads....I bet they are lefties, too!)

Whistle While You Work

I have decided to get a J.O.B. The reasoning?

E.U.R.O.P.E.A.N. V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

While we could go to Europe later this year without me working, we could also go to Europe later this year and have a bad ass time with me working. Currently, we might need to budget and watch what we do. If I make a couple extra grand, well, life would be much more enjoyable.

Where a dilemma begins is…where to get a job. First….a vacation in Europe for 10 days after being an employee for 2 months is usually not given. So…do I spill this tidbit during the interview? I do not expect that time to be paid, of course. However, I feel bad not saying anything and either spilling it later on or quitting the j.o.b. come August.

Dilemma Two: The person who filled my role in Busy Law Firm, is pregnant. She found out shortly after I left. The second question my boss asked her was if she would call me to see if I could cover during her leave. I have not discussed this with the firm since then, but I am willing to fill in for her maternity leave come Sept/Oct. So, not only am I going to go away on a 2 week vacation, I am then going to leave for 2 months shortly after returning from said vacation.

For these reasons, I do not want to apply at a law firm. I don’t want the reputation that this would breed to get around this small town’s legal community. I don’t want to work in a restaurant or retail or something where I will have to deal with customer service again. I worked in a restaurant for years and years and I don’t want to commit murder. Or suicide. Not cool once you are in your 30’s.

I am considering contacting the 2 temp agencies in town, just for temporary work, but I don’t want them to consider me flaky either. I have not seen legal jobs in the paper since I moved here, which leads me to believe that the firms in town use temp agencies. Or have zero turnover, which seems unlikely.

At this point, I need to call former employer and discuss the reality of the situation. Is it still going to happen? They will need to put me up in a hotel for 2 months. Are they willing to do this? I think they will given the sensitive nature of the position and their need for a person they can trust. However, I am not sure if this is a definite.

While I want to help the firm out and keep myself in good graces with them, I wish I didn’t have to go. I have lived in a hotel for an extended period of time and it isn’t fun. I don’t want to be away from my love for that period of time. I moved here so we wouldn’t be apart any longer. However, we have discussed it at length and have agreed that if they want me, I will go. We hope to get back to Houston within the next few years. This job gave me so much and is an ideal position for me. As I stated in a previous post, I bawled my eyes out leaving. I love the people.

I haven’t taken much action yet this week. I have my resume out, I am going over the options in my head. I am having the conversation with my old boss in my mind. I am sorting it all out right now. I don’t want to harm my reputation in the small community here by going about this the wrong way.

In the meantime, I am Ebaying away, to make some $$ in hopes that I will become a millionaire and can stop worrying. Wish me luck!

And send me some ideas about Europe. Been there? What countries are required? Where did you hate? We really have to limit our wish list as right now, we are visiting the entire E.U. in 10 days....

Where to start.....

I have a lot of things I want to put down here, but my ADD is in overdrive today. Maybe tonight....in the meantime, Cute Overload is killing me today!

Woke up to this:


Then....just posted....

Sleepy Head

(Can't embed for some odd reason....worth the clicking.)

A Bit Less Wise

The gentleman and I drove to the big city today. In our small town, you are unable to get Starbucks, sushi, ride a go-cart or get your wisdom teeth removed. All things I wanted to do today – except not get my teeth pulled – only his. One of his wisdom teeth had been really bugging him for some time as it had started to decay and was causing quite a bit of pain.

His tooth was pulled before I was half-done with one Sudoko puzzle. Super lightning fast. And for $84.

Let’s just say, my wisdom teeth removal surgery (albeit for all 4) took over an hour and a half, resulted in the doctor worried that I would have permanent nerve damage and cost almost 2 grand.

After his tooth was removed, we scheduled another appointment to have the 3 remaining teeth removed in a few weeks. And then we went to Best Buy, Comp USA and another computer store. At each place he discussed the plans for his new computer at length with several different people.

After my surgery, my friend stopped for gas and had I been able to talk without bleeding all over myself, I would have yelled at her, if my mouth would have opened wider than an inch.

I am jealous. My surgery was less than a year ago. The pain still fresh. I am sure I will be able to let it go soon. Unless he loses 10 pounds in 2 days by eating a soft food diet of macaroni and cheese.

Happy Half Anniversary to Me

It has been six months since I was an employee of Busy Law Firm, LLC. Six months since the alarm was going off because I had to face the day. Six months since I have received a paycheck. Six months since I cried my eyes out all day and then most of the way home.

I never thought I would be unemployed six months after leaving Houston. I fully expected to move here, get a job, work all day, come home, cook dinner and start it all over at 6 A.M. the next day. I expected to have a paycheck, health insurance and a 401K contribution.

Instead, I chose to stay home. My “job” is Ebay. A job situation where I have cried and moaned and pretty much drove my love insane. I have worked from the time I woke up until many hours after I should have gone to bed. I have contemplated and pulled out my resume several times in the past few months. Although, it took me 3 months to even look at updating it.

Instead of working 8-5, I have chosen to set my own hours, my own goals, my own priorities. In the process, I have learned a lot about myself. I am an extremely hardworker. Even when the payoff is small or doesn’t exist. I don’t accept failure. I have an amazing tenacity. I take my work very seriously. I lose myself in my work.

I have learned that my drive doesn’t always line up with my values. I have learned that I lose sight of the important things in my life in pursuit of succeeding or winning. I have learned that I ignore the people I love the most in order to get ahead.

I have a daily struggle with my decision. Should I continue doing something that may never pay me more than minimum wage? It is difficult for me to ask for money from my dear. He has no difficulty in giving it to me, he wishes that I would stop fretting about it so. I am very stubborn and expect to pay my own way. I am working on accepting that I don’t have to receive a paycheck to be a valuable member of our team.

I am still unable to reconcile my decision with some of my beliefs. First of all, I would not be doing this had I any debt. I have a cell phone bill and health insurance. Sure, rent, food, etc… but monthly bills coming in are just those two. I have not contributed to my savings account in sometime. While we were in transition from me leaving Houston to come out here, I did deplete my savings by a bit. Expecting to start working when we came here, it was of no concern to me, as I would quickly replace it. I haven’t. And, to my surprise, I am ok with that for now.

I expect a lot of people to have negative things to say in response to this post. My friends and family have said things that have hurt, why wouldn’t strangers? To be honest, I can be quite negative about the whole affair as well.

Why do I stick with it? Why haven’t I just sucked it up, polished up the resume, the shoes and gotten a job already?
Before moving out here, my love and I had a long distance relationship. I worked an intense day job, went to the gym, cooked myself dinner, kept the apartment clean and crashed, exhausted at the end of the day. On weekends, one of us would drive to see the other. We spent a ridiculous amount of the weekend sleeping. Exhausted from the week. I received late night and weekend calls from my boss. I worked on weekends. I stressed out on weekends, thinking about work. I dreamed about work.

I moved to where he was in training after I left Houston. I woke up when he went to work. Puttered about the apartment, cleaning, picking toes, worked out a bit. We had lunch together. I puttered the afternoon away. Then made dinner. We would have dinner, talk, watch TV and go to bed. For the first month after moving out here, our lives continued in much the same way. I set up the apartment, did a bit of decorating. Cooked a lot. Read a lot of books. I made excuses to myself as to why it wasn’t time to start looking for a job.

On weekends, we would sleep late, sure, but both of our stress levels had decreased tremendously. We enjoyed each other much more than we could during our rushed weekends of spending time, de-stressing and sleeping.

My replacement at Busy Law Firm called me almost daily at the beginning. The job I left was quite involved and completely new to her. I heard the daily gossip. I dealt with the drama firsthand at times. I received the stressful calls from my former boss. And when I hung up, I continued about my day, potting plants, dusting, watching trash TV.

I didn’t want this dream life to end. I wished that I came from a trust fund. I wished that I won the lottery, although I never play. I wished that I was smart with real estate and could flip homes. Most of all, I wished that there was a way for me to not change the ideal living conditions we had.

One day, I woke up ridiculously early, on my own. With a single thought - Ebay. I had sold on it before, things I didn’t want any longer. Things I found. Etc., etc. Why not make it my job? I could set my hours and the boss, well besides being hot, was really nice!

So I set about doing so. I am a Type A personality, extremely organized and detail-oriented. I made maps of the surrounding cities, mapped out all the thrift stores/flea markets. I went to the library each Thursday, mapped out all garage sales and estate sales going on. Created a list of the order in which I would visit each. I created spreadsheets. I read and read the Ebay forums. I poured everything I had into it.

After a month or so of selling, I created another spreadsheet, calculating the costs/earnings. And I cried. Oh, I cried. I had lost money. And since then, I keep the spreadsheet up on a weekly basis. Some weeks, I am ahead a bit, but then in bad weeks, I get behind a bit. I am definitely making better gains in the past month. I have opened a store on the Bay, I am learning what works and what doesn’t.

Will I become rich off this project? No way. Will I be able to pay my small bills? Sure. Will I be able to build my savings up? Possibly. Will my life be better for this choice? Absolutely.

I expect to return to a regular job sometime. But I cannot say this is just the part of me that is trained to believe you must work, you must be an employee, always on the big hamster wheel. Recently, I have been thinking I will stay out of the workforce for a year. But wow, if I am only halfway there... What an amazing 6 months we have in store. The last 6 months have been a huge rollercoaster of emotions.

I often think that I could go back to work and do the Bay as a hobby. This is a possibility, but I feel that I wouldn’t be giving my love enough time or attention, I would slack on other things to work on Ebay. And that is not what I want. What I have learned during these stressful months of self-helpy-ness, is that quality time with loved ones and quality time with yourself is what is important.

My values are becoming better defined. I may have tearful fits now and again, but I am happier now than I ever was working in Busy Law Firm. I am happier with my entire life than I have ever been in my life. And that is what is important to me.

Here Comes the Sun

Today is a rainy day. I love the sound, smell, feeling of rain. Except when it comes through the roof.

Last week, we found that the roof was leaking when we were going to bed. I walked into the bedroom, found a huge wet spot on the bed in the corner where the cat normally sleeps. At first I freak, what is wrong with my beautiful kitties that they pee on the bed! Then, I bravely smell it. Nope, not the cats. Ask the love, did you spill something on the bed? Nope. He points skyward. Ah...the light fixture. Shit.

We try and reach the apartment management throughout the next day. Their working hours consist of something like 1:21-1:24 daily. Well, we never got them. The next day, I call again, leave a voice mail. (Which has still never been returned btw) And then decide to call the emergency maintenance line. Speak with maintenance, he says he will see about it. Nothing for the rest of the day. About midway through the next day, I call him back. He advises me that the manager said they had to wait until it dried out to do anything. Ok. Fine. We are in the desert. It doesn’t rain much. I can be patient. These are the same people that took over a month to address a water leak under the sink that had completely rotted out the wood underneath. And then repaired the moldy wood, with bleach and a new piece of wood. Oh no, not removing the moldy wood, just putting a new piece of wood on top. Um. Not cool.

These are also the people that told me that if the USPS, Fed-Ex, my mom, drop off a package in the office, they will accept it. But they have no obligation to tell me that it is there. They can accept highly confidential documents from Busy Law Firm, but be responsible for them? Pwaah. They are also the guys who were too busy to fix the A/C. The lawns needed mowing! Come on now, do you really want the grass to get out of control or get heat exhaustion. Quit yer bitching and start sweating.

But yesterday, I am plugging along on Ebay, and I hear that there is a 50% chance of rain. I call maintenance man again. I say that I know he is under orders to wait until it dries out and the lawns really need mowing and wow, look at all the edging that needs to be done around the complex, but um, my roof, still leaky…water + electricity not good. So…please fix. He isn’t all that reassuring, stating he will look into it. I have heard this before…. After discussing it with the love…I write a friendly letter and drop it off in the apartment office. When I give the letter to the assistant manager, I reiterate that it is supposed to rain, and well, there is electricity involved. Electricity,…water…fire? Um…possibly?

Yes, I expected them to come out. Did they? Nope.

So it rained last night. Thunder made me jump out of my skin in the wee hours. Followed by an intense dread when I heard the pounding rain. And this morning. Not a drop of water. Did they fix it? Did they sneak up on the roof in the middle of the night and put a tarp down? My guess is the mold just blocked all possible entry points.



Or, bird poop.

Hiney is a Tingling

First it was Crazy Aunt Purl...now here goes Pioneer Woman, becoming all famous and making me think I may lose 2 of my favorite bloggers to the masses. Check out Ree's photography. It is amazing. I am headed off to take pictures of possibly alpaca, and um...the sky. She, however, is very talented. And had to get up much earlier than I. So give her some love. And plead with both Laurie and her not to leave us bloggie junkies. We need the fix.

Where I Discuss Cat Puke

I don't have kids. I am pretty scared of having children since I worry about my feline kids so much. I have a constant fear that something will happen to them. In particular, one of my main fears is that Yoda will suffer from an esophageal separation resulting in death. (I am pretty sure this is an actual cat affliction. In my mind, at least.) She pukes. A lot.

Last spring when I was really fearful of finding her dead in the middle of a pile of regurgitated cat food and fur, I went in search of something to, once and for all, solve this dilemma.

I had tried everything. I brushed her with various cat brushes. I gave her special hairball eliminating treats. Fed her the Indoor Cat Chow. I held her down and put Vaseline on her nose. And ended up with it all over me. I was at a loss. But I had to keep trying because I would get so upset over the possibility of her yakking to death.

And look what I found:


I also found 3 other brushes and bought them all....but they can be found at a Goodwill near you. And this brush is the topic.
Because it is amazing.
And I love it.

I went home. Locked the cats in the bathroom with me and brushed away. Brushed and brushed and brushed. Until I had 2 big handfuls of condensed cat hair, red eyes, itchy nose and the cats each had multiple bald spots. Yep.

I have been brushing Yoda religiously for 3 days now. I only today thought about sharing this great item with you, my imaginary readers, or these pictures would have double the amount of cat fur.

Yoda: "I love you, Bamboo"


Yoda: "Mine."


Exhausted from the vigorous brushing and enthusiastic purring

Nice tile, huh? This is the most modern apartment complex in town. Check that.