Friday, January 14, 2011

A Quick Question

So again I'm sorry I haven't been updating my blog lately but I'm going to start doing it every day.  But today I just wanted to ask a quick question.  Do you let your family/friends read your blog? 

I ask this because the other day my husband was on the phone and I was in the same room and I realized that I had an e-mail so I checked it on my phone.  Then I saw it was a comment on my blog so I started casually reading it.  I do this all the time on my phone, but then I realized that my husband was over my shoulder trying to read the comment.  So I started walking away from him quickly and he got mad because he assumed that I was writing something inappropriate on my blog and that's why he couldn't see the comment.  I tried to explain to him the best way without hurting his feelings that my blog is the only place I can write without him or anyone else who knows me judging me.  And that I felt that I could truly be myself on here.  So of course he took it the wrong way and was like, "so you can't be yourself around me?" and I was like, "no it's not that, it's just that I write pretty much every thought down like a journal and I may not tell you every thought that comes to my mind".  Then I tried to explain that a lot of women have journals, diaries, etc...that they write in and never share with anyone else.  So after he calmed down and after I ended up reading aloud to him the comment he let it go.  But my thing is when I finish writing and reading other blogs, I log off and no one sees it.  Now I have let my mom read selected blogs that I thought were funny but didn't make her look bad but I feel that I should be able to control who reads what on my blog.  Now I know it sounds crazy seeing that I'm sharing it with the world but you guys don't really know who I am, not really.  But I do keep it real and what I write is who I am. 

Anyway that's my opinion on the whole blog privacy thing.  What do you all think?  Thank you for listening and God Bless.

Friday, January 7, 2011

My Landlord Finally Got Off His Ass

OK, So in past posts I've complained about how ridiculous my landlord is and how everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.  To make a long story short, basically over a year ago, our hallway and 2 of our bedrooms were flooded because of a broken pipe in the laundry room.  They sent someone out who couldn't soak up the water because they just had a cheap carpet cleaning machine and it wouldn't handle that amount of water so they said they were coming back the next day to soak it up.  Well that never happened.  We literally let the carpet air dry which is horrible because there could be mold under there.  So we had been calling these people every week for over a year and they have lied and said it would get done but it never did.  So finally when my husband was at the store, he overheard someone talking about how they contacted the city inspector to come and inspect their house they were renting because the landlord wasn't fixing anything.  So that's what we did.  He came out and made a list of things including the roof that needs to be repaired and said that they landlord had 45 days to complete the list.  Well needless to say, the landlord still didn't fix anything after the 45 days.  So the inspector came by about a month ago and we reported to him that nothing had been done and that the landlord just keeps lying to us.  So he sent them a notice to appear in court and get this.  From the day after the 45th day to now, they are being charged $25 a day plus a $250 fine for not fixing it within the allotted time.  So after the court date, all of a sudden the landlord starts sending men to fix various things.  First he sent men to fix the front door but the problem is that he never calls to tell us that they're coming.  And maybe my husband and I are a little old fashioned but unless someone calls me to tell me they're here to fix something, if I'm here alone, they are not coming in the house.  I don't feel comfortable with 5 grown men coming in my home who I don't know unless my husband is here.  That is not cool.  My husband makes it a point to be here when they're supposed to be working.

So about a week ago, I hear a knock at the door and it's like 5 Mexicans at the door.  I have nothing against Mexicans, I think they are some of the most hard working people in the world so don't go there.  But no one called us to tell us that they were coming.  So they were like "the landlord sent us to fix stuff" and I was like "well no one told me that anyone was coming to fix anything".  And then I proceeded to tell them that my dogs were off their chains and that I wasn't going to put them on the chains.  Just to let them know that if they were some crazies that I had 2 dogs ready to defend me.  Anyway they said they were going to stay in the front yard and I was like ok.  Then they knocked on the door and they just said to me "we need power".  And I was like what?  And they were like "power".  So I'm like completely clueless so I started guessing.  And I was like oh, do you need me to cut the power off?  And they were like no we need it for our tools.  Well I don't have an outdoor outlet so they wanted to be let in to use their tools.  So my response was "Oh well no one called us to let us know that you were coming so when you call and my husband is here, then you can come in" and they were like ok and left.  I just don't play that.  You just can't trust people and again there were 5 of them.  Why does it take 5 men to replace a screen door?

So I guess after that, they started calling.  First, one showed up to fix the toilet.  This toilet as been running non stop to the point where our water bill is above $200 a month.  That's ridiculous.  Then he came the next day to replace a part on the toilet and to fix the drawer below the oven that is always jutting out.  Apparently it's a safety hazard and the inspector felt the need to add it to the list.  Come to find out that there was a Christmas ornament, not from this year, but from last year that was lodged in the back of the drawer and once he removed it, it closed fine.  Then today a whole crew of men came and they fixed this part of the wall in the bathroom was hanging down because of water damage and made it so the lent vent from the dryer goes to the outside and not into a cup.  You know the little cups that you can hook your dryer hose to instead of it going outside.  So they fixed that.  And I believe they are coming tomorrow to fix everything else.  But the crazy thing is that because it took so long for them to come replace the carpet, it is all dry now and there's no way to add it to the list of things to fix per the city.  But it's ok because everything else is going to get fixed.

So once the men got here, my husband was here and I actually took a nap in our bedroom because I knew that they didn't have to come in there.  Once I woke up, I let the dogs off of the chains, cleaned the guinea pig cage, had lunch with my husband, and took a shower.  Then I watched Private Practice with my husband.  You know it's funny because I never thought my husband would like a show like that but he's hooked.  I mean as soon as it comes on, we dvr it and watch it. 

Not to make this post too long but I wanted to briefly go over what happened yesterday.  Basically I had to go to the store to get the essentials like toilet paper, milk, etc... and I invited my mom to come because her car is messed up so I take her everywhere.  So sometimes my mom can be difficult, hence why I moved out when I was 19.  It's just better if we live apart.  Anyway we went to the pharmacy to pick up the rest of my prescription and then to dollar tree and then to Wal Mart.  So at some point before we got into Dollar Tree, my mom found out from an old co worker that another one of her co workers had passed away.  So I was telling her how sorry I was and seeing if she just wanted to be dropped back home but she seemed like she wanted to still shop.  So everything went fine in Dollar Tree and then we got to wal mart.  I had to get some cedar shavings for my guinea pig cage because for some reason, since the last time I cleaned their cage, it has really stunk more than usual so I was determined to clean it out.  But I usually get the smaller packages of it which is usually $3.  But wal mart only had the huge bags of it for $8.  So I only had a limited amount of money and I told my mom that I really didn't budget to have to buy a huge bag of it and I didn't want to switch to pine because it's bad for their lungs.  So she just explodes in the store telling me that I shouldn't have had a New Years Eve party if I didn't have enough money and so on.  So I told her calmly that we had more money, I just didn't have it with me and I didn't want to have to come back to wal mart the next day.  So she dropped it.  So then I pretty much got everything I needed and we got into the line to check out.   So then my mom starts mumbling about how she doesn't do something and I assume she's talking about buying expensive items and I say "yeah that's why I get my detergent at Dollar Tree because I would have had to buy Tide for $12, so that saves me money"  and she turned to me and just exploded while we were standing in the line.  First she starts talking about my friend and how she could "talk trash about me because I don't have a job".  Then I asked her about McDonald's because she mentioned earlier that she had some coupons with her.  So I was like "Do you have a few dollars so we can get some food at McDonald's"  and she was like "if you can pay it back to me".  So I wasn't sure when I was going to see her again so I told her I could but it may be the next time my husband gets paid".  Then she really blew up and started dropping F bombs right there in the line.  And I was like, "there are children around us, do you mind"?  Then she started talking about how I never give her money for my grandparents birthday presents and so on and how I should never have parties if I don't have the money.  It was a nightmare so I just told her "Look, you are no negative, I didn't even know if I wanted to pick you up today because I knew there was going to be some crap".  After that we didn't speak until today.  She claimed that she felt like her blood sugar was low because she had only eaten oatmeal earlier that day and she thinks that why she was such a bitch.  She did apologize.  But my thing is, I have helped her out many times with my grandparents gifts.  My husband and I still have money to spend after the party and it's none of her business anyway.  She's the kind of mom that still tells her daughter to "get your money out" (in a New York accent) when I'm putting my items at the checkout.  She has improved a little especially since I've been married now for 3 years but she still has her moments.  I'm not a little girl.  I'm a grown woman who keeps a household and is a good wife to my husband.  Not to mention I practically have a zoo in my house and I manage to keep it cleaner than most of my friends homes who don't have animals.  I love my mom and we're more like sisters than mother and daughter but even my mom told me today that maybe we shouldn't see each other as much and go shopping as much etc...  What do you all think about the mom situation?  Have you had similar situations?  Please share. 

Anyway that's my last 2 days in a nutshell.  Thanks for listening and God Bless.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I'm Feeling a Little Depressed

Maybe it's just my period talking but I'm so fed up with being unemployed.  I mean the obvious let down is the lack of money and thank God my husband has a stable job to support our household but I really miss interacting with people every day and knowing what my schedule will be like on a daily basis.  Now I just clean the house, play with the cats, watch TV, play video games, etc...  I'm just so bored with life and even though some of the places I've worked at suck, at this point I would take that over being bored and depressed all day.  I must have applied to over 600 jobs since I lost my job in July.  This is just getting a little frustrating now.  I mean I've had interview after interview and nothing comes of it.  Well I did get a job offer at Avis Rent a Car making a measly $8.75 and hour and knowing that I would miss every holiday and weekend until God knows when.  So I didn't take it because my husband frankly didn't want me working late nights for little to no money.  Neither did I.  So here I am again without a job and feeling just horrible.

I have a few things that stop me from getting any and every job.  One, I have a foot condition called plantar facitis that is an inflammation of the heel.  Well most of the time it goes away within months, but not in my case.  I've had it for over 10 years even with foot insoles, medication, etc...  So I can't stand for more than an hour without sitting.  So that excludes any warehouse, restaurant, retail, etc.. jobs.  Then I've worked at 3 call centers and each one I've had some serious anxiety problems.  I didn't have any anxiety problems until I started working at call centers.  It got to the point where I had to take anti depressant pills just to get through the day.  So most likely call centers are out because at some point they just get to be too much for my mental health issues. 

So I've tried all the search engines for jobs and just going directly to some job sites and nothing, just nothing has come out of it.  I've had a friend re do my resume to look more professional and still nothing.  I'm just in a bad situation and I'm getting to a point where I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs every second of the day.  Some days I'm happy that I'm a housewife (not by choice) and other days I'm just pissed.  Today I'm pissed.  Anyway I just wanted to vent.  Oh and BTW, today I cleaned the bathrooms and watched some TV with my husband.  Woo Hoo what an exciting day!  NOT.  Thanks for listening and God Bless.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Laundry Day

So today I woke up around 1 pm and started finishing the laundry from yesterday.  Then my husband and I had some leftovers from the New Years Eve party we had.  He was off today because his job made him work on New Years Eve.  Then I finished folding the laundry and focused on getting the house back to the way it was before the party.  For instance, to make space in my den, I moved all of the cat cubes and toys into our bedroom and I moved all of my husband's college books into our bedroom too.  So I got everything back in it's place so we can function normally.  Then I finally finished the dishes.  Usually if I have a party, I actually finish the dishes while my guests are still there so that afterwards I don't have to do them but this time because of the dookie episode as you can read in my last blog, I didn't have the energy to do them after this party.  So I finished them today and the kitchen looks great.  So tomorrow I'm going to do the bathrooms and call it a day.  Other than cleaning, my husband and I watched a movie called "The Lovely Bones" with Mark Walhberg and it was great.  I mean it was a little on the weird side but still good.  Then my husband went to sleep and now I'm just watching TV.  So not an exciting day but I'm glad I could spend it with my husband.  Thanks for listening and God Bless.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm sorry I haven't been on here for a while now but I honestly have been so busy with the holidays that I haven't had the time or energy to write on here.  I usually write late at night after my husband has gone to sleep because I have this thing where I can't read or write if a TV is on or the radio or any type of sound.  For instance, let's say I'm writing now, if the TV is on, I'll just start typing what the person on TV is saying and then when I look back at it, I'm like WTF was I writing about and then it hits me that that's what the person on TV was talking about.  I mean I discovered this when I was in high school writing term papers and I would start handwriting lyrics to songs on the radio or the news report that was on TV.  The same thing with reading, if I'm reading and I hear something, it's so difficult that if I try, I get a headache and I may get 2 sentences in before giving up.  So because I had to get up early on most days during the holidays, I didn't have the time I usually have to blog at night.  But enough about my weird brain patterns.

So Christmas was great.  My husband and I went to his dad's house in High Point, NC and to my mom's house here in Greensboro.  My dad went up north to NJ to spend Christmas with my aunt and uncle.  So I dropped of the presents for them the day before they left and got their gifts after Christmas.  But at my father in law's house, we had a great dinner and to my surprise, there were A LOT of people there.  Now you may not be able to tell by my blogs but when I first meet people, I'm kind of shy but really it's just my anxiety.  My anxiety level sky rockets when I first meet someone especially if I feel I have to impress them because this is the first time they're meeting the new wife, even though we've been married for 3 years.  Anyway, so all these people show up and I put on my nervous smile and we ended up singing Christmas carols and having a good time.  I watched my Celtics lose that day at their house after their 14 game winning streak.  But it was all good because it was Christmas after all.  But we ended up getting a $25 gift certificate to Longhorn Steakhouse from his dad.

At my mom's house, we exchanged gifts and my mom loved her gifts.  I just had been picking out things that I knew she would like at Goodwill and she loved everything.  We had a great meal there too but the weather was bad.  It actually snowed here and ended up making the roads very slippery so we slide a few times in between our destinations on Christmas but we arrived home safely. 

But before we went all over town for Christmas, on Christmas morning, Santa came for the cats, dogs, and guinea pigs.  The cats got way too many toys and some special canned food.  The dogs got toys and some treats and the guinea pigs got some fresh carrots.  Santa spent way to much money on the babies this year.  LOL.  The first picture is of Stripes, the second is Joy, then Jasmine, Amanda, and Chester, (the grey one) and Samantha.




Then I had a New Years Eve part at my house.  It was really fun and this year I was determined to get all the cleaning done before the day of the party and I pretty much accomplished that.  The only thing I had to do was to sweep and mop the kitchen floors.  Easy right?  Not.  How about, I opened a brand new mop that I had gotten from dollar tree which usually lasts for months and while I was mopping the pieces of rope started falling of of the mop.  Long story short, I ended up mopping my floors with 3 strands of rope.  But I got it done.  No more mops from the dollar tree.  Anyway the party started at 8 and I made hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, cheese dip, cupcakes, and other people bought meatballs, potato salad, chips, drinks, cake, devilled eggs, etc...  So the food was great and I decorated the house beautifully.  I got all of my party supplies at dollar tree.  I ended up using this silver and gold garland instead of a banner because it went with the new years theme and everything ended up great.  Also my furniture really helped because in the den, people played video games and in the living room, we sat and watched TV, listened to music and played cards so it was perfect. 

So after about 1 am everyone started leaving because we actually had a lot of family friends including some teenagers that came so they had to get home.  Don't worry, we don't drink or smoke or anything so there was no alcohol in the house.  So my husband had to drop off his nephew and I was in the house with a friend and I went to pick up this piece of dirt on the kitchen floor and it was dookie.  So I was like WTF, because there hadn't been a dog in the house and all of my cats know how to use a litter box.  So long story short someone had tracked dookie from the outside across my living room carpet and into the kitchen.  So I started freaking out because I had zero energy and now I had to guess where there was dookie on my carpet next to my new living room furniture.  So I found a leaf in front of one of the couches and when I picked it up, it had dookie all over it.  So that must have been the source.  So I scrubbed every dark spot I could find on my carpet and cleaned the kitchen floor and it's clean now.  But the reason why there was dookie outside is because I have a cat named Rosie that has been stricken from the inside of the house because she refuses to use the litter box.  Before I kicked her out, she lived in my home for 7 years.  It got to the point where she was just confined to one room for obvious reasons.  So we tried changing the litter, changing the food, and then finally we tried anti anxiety pills for cats.  That worked for about a month and then she started again.  So finally after 7 years of cleaning up after her, I had enough and I kicked her out.  Well little did we know that she was going to start pooping in the grass right in the front yard and sometimes she'll poop right in front of the front door.  So we think that's what happened that night.  I just feel sorry for whoever stepped in it.  Pee U!  LOL

So on another note my husband got me a $75 gift certificate to Catherines Plus Size store and I have already spent it online.  They had an amazing deal where if you bought 2 bras you get 2 free and that includes girdles and other intimates.  And that day that I went shopping online, if you bought $100 then you got $25 off which was perfect for me.  But overall I had a great Christmas and New Years with family and friends.  Thanks for listening and God Bless