Tempus Fugit

As usual when it has been a while since the last post and I have a lot to write I find myself resorting to the categories. So, in no particular order. . .

Car – Well, the good news there is actually in several layers. One, I have the greatest insurance agent ever. When I tried to reduce my coverage and raise my deductable, he told me no. (He knows me well, and probably figured I’d regret that at some point.) So, I still have my $250 deductable, rental car coverage and they did not total the car out. Broken windshield, wounded bumper and hood, and the real damage money wise . . . the stupid airbags.

It wasn’t that the damage was so extensive but that the car isn’t worth that much and they are only willing to go so high in repairs. Oh, and my diamond tennis bracelet that broke during the accident . . . not covered. Service King has told me the car should be ready some time this week. I am ready to have my car back! Fun side note: I found out today that Blonde (new newspaper adviser . . . drives a yellow Escape. Put her yellow by my Blue one and we are school spirit all the way!!)

School – I once again started the year off with a bang by getting a migraine Monday evening. It lasted through Tuesday AND Wednesday which never happens. I was popping pills like nobodies business. I’m lucky my liver is still functioning at all. Wednesday afternoon I got on the sub system request to see who I might be able to call if I still had a migraine on Thursday. I didn’t see anyone, so I got off. Turns out I had put the request in anyway. I showed up to school on Thursday, but I already had a sub . . . so I went home and slept, and slept, and slept.

School politics – This is always fun to cover. On the plus side, I adore Blondie (newspaper adviser) and JH (stucco sponsor). In that respect, I am very happy these days with school. Dept chair has left me alone although I think there is still great weirdness there. Not sure of what is going on or why she has been nastyish to me, but I guess if I can be left alone I should just be grateful for that because she appears to want to hound my Axx. The assistant principal that hates me continues to hate me, but the one that loves me continues to love me. All things remain the same there . . .

Home – I don't think I've shown the photo of the amount of crap I threw out when I cleaned the garage. In addition, there was paint on the wood floors EVERYWHERE. My poor mom and I worked our way through the house scraping a small portion of the floor at a time. I still find things that need to be done every time I walk through the house, but . . . Well, that bad boy is on the market!! It looks beautiful.(I believe my little tour proves it!) It’s a shame you can’t smell it because it smells damn good too . . . like cupcakes. Very, very expensive cupcakes. I don’t think it showed AT ALL this weekend, which totally stresses me out, but I guess I’ll try not to freak until it doesn’t show next weekend. Then look out world.

Current living arrangements – The day I was going to arrive at Mom and Dad's with the dogs in tow I realized that I had lost the keys to the storage unit that had the dog kennels in them. There was no freaking way that I was going to NOT have kennels, so I made a quick trip to the pet store to get portable kennels. Mom also made it clear that she did not want the dogs on the bed . . . the dogs were slow to appreciate the sincerity of her desire. Evidence as seen below of their intentions. Trust me, those have since changed. If I could describe the vigor with which my mother has gone after my precious dogs to show them who is master in that household, you would die from laughter. Anyone who knows my mother has of course wisely surmised that she is winning the battle. Dad is hanging in there by a thread. For some strange reason my dogs have always adored my dad. Every dog I have ever had has adored him. He ignores, speaks harshly to them, etc, but they still follow him around. No idea of why.

As a side note, last week I arranged for the dogs to be boarded for the second week so that I wouldn’t have to worry about them. I got a call on Tuesday that Buddy had kennel cough (contagious) and I needed to pick him up from school. Sigh.

In the meantime, it hasn’t actually been bad. I’ve had to work so much that I haven’t been home a lot, but I’m trying to walk the dogs when I can, clean up after myself and generally not be a pain to live with. Dad still loves the TV to be at full volume all night, but I put my IPod on and it’s not so bad. I am still praying the house sells quickly so my little menagerie can return home, but my parents are being totally gracious and I am forever grateful that they are letting us stay with them. It was also really nice when I wanted to die most of last week to get the TLC.

Boy: Oh, my. I say to you. Oh, my. The drummer is awesome. He opens the car door for me every time and waits for me to walk in front of him. He hasn’t annoyed me yet. At all. Sure, technically Saturday night was our second date, but we met at a friend’s house for dinner, I’ve been to see his band play twice, saw him at a pool party and went to his house last night to get computer help (I love, love, love that he is a drumming, computer geek!). So, we’ve seen each other a fair amount AND we talk on the phone for hours when we get talking. He moves at a turtle’s pace which makes me a little crazy, but I suppose I should be grateful that he is taking his time (read this as he is a gentlemen and moving slowly in THAT way.)

There are 100 reasons why I like him, I mean LIKE him as a person beyond the fact that I think he is really cute, and I’m totally enamored with him. No need to get all dribbly here, but I think this one has some serious staying power.

How to put it in words

WARNING: The following post is really just sad pathetic whining about an
existence that is totally and completely of my own making. I know this, I'm just
whining, cause I can.

How can I possibly put into words how utterly crappy everything is going? I take one step forward and two steps back. I am so tired I can hardly think. Just when I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel . . . it flickers and goes out. I feel like a little beat up puppy on the side of the road looking around trying to figure out who is going to kick me next. Pretty much the whole post is this whiney so you might now want to keep reading. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The list of things to do does appear to be getting shorter, but I tell you what is left on the list is a total beating, and everytime I turn around I see more that needs to be done. I can't put the house on the market until I have things like the front door looking good and, say, DOOR HANDLES on the doors. I realized two days ago that I have a corner of a kitchen cabinet that Buddy used to work on his chewing techniques. So, that has to be fixed.

So, yesterday was day 3 of long torturous meetings. I have a coworker who I swear is determined to get into power plays with me and exert her authority. I have no idea of what it is about but I know that Scooby is now gone, Blondie (who I love is in his place). So why now do I have to deal with someone new who appears to just want to jack with me?

At the end of the day I headed home. Of course I had to take a trip to Home Depot, make some exchanges, get more mulch for the backyard and that kind of thing.

I got to the parentals at about 8:30 or so. (Once the house was cleaned it was just better to not be here to keep it clean.) Mom had left me a message earlier that Dad had gone by my house and set off the alarm. Ok, no problem. Except that Dad was PISSED and vibrating with unhappiness that I had the audacity to forget to tell him the alarm had been set. So we got in a bit of a screaming match at which point I started crying. And crying. And crying.

I went to sleep crying. Clearly, I was getting close to the end. I got up early and headed out to school so that I could try to get some work done before heading to meetings again. As I sat in the morning meeting, again started spontaneous crying. Really a little creapy and kind of scary, I'm sure.

I left school at about 11:30 so I could go to the bank and get the money to pay the painter and house cleaner before heading over to a store to pay for the rest of my handyman's bill.

I left the bank and headed down Mockingbird Lane. . . wait for it. . . wait for it. . . so I don't know where my brain was, but light turns red, first car stops, second car stops, third car with driver not paying attention (yours truly) nails second car. Airbags pop, air is filled with smoke and I think, wow I'm screwed.

So, first driver et al, totally ok, second driver a little whiney, not even driving his car, P.O.S. and my car . . . evetually towed away. I have pictures, but I'm too tired to figure out how to get them over to the blog now. My diamond bracelet broke. I'm totally bummed about that, and, of course the airbags exploded and the car now sounds funny.

On the phone for an hour sweating as the really, really nice lady with Farmers took my report and then stayed on the phone as we called 5 different Enterprise rent a cars and the tow company. (I pretty much cried through all of this too.)

So to the rent a car place and then to Service King where my lovely service person reinterates what the Farmers lady said which is due to the damage that appears to have occurred a claims adjustor will look at the car and then determine if it will be considered totaled. I, of course, can't afford for the car to be totaled because I don't have any money, and I sure as shit won't qualify for any loan. Spectacular.

Headed back down to Dallas to take care of my debts, back to school to get some stuff done (Yeah, I guess I could take it as a positive that I missed the afternoon meetings, but I bet I get punished for that some how) and then back to my house to work, water and wait for Lorenzo the painter to meet me. He said he would be here between 7:00 and 7:30. . . I'm betting that he doesn't show on time.

Cause that is the way that my life is going right now. Ok, that's about all I got. Still tired beyond all recognition. Only now I have added my entire body is completely sore. It was sore before the accident so it is hard to tell how much of it was just from everything I've been doing, and how much is new. There is a ton that needs to happen before school starts on Monday. There is ton that needs to happen before I put the house on the market (obviously not today as I had hoped). And I am nothing but a mass of exposed nerves and I am standing dangerously close to the cliffs of insanity.

Oh, and I can't really bear to talk to anyone because I just want to start crying. That's just a fun little sidebar to my existence.

Why must my life be a cosmic joke?

T24 and counting until school starts in the morning. I am not as far along on house prep as I would have liked, but I am much farther along than I thought I would be at this time last week. I'm still hypervenilating, just not quite as much.

I rented the power washer and I think the house looks better. But I also did the back deck, and it looks FANTASTIC . . . well, except for the 5 ft side board that I apparently forgot to do. oops. It was a hellofa work out. Totally tired by the end of the day, I went to bed by 7pm and slept until almost 7am.

Friday was an interesting day. M & D came and helped some more (Bless their poor worn out hearts.) Dad worked on the closet door that wouldn't shut because of the new threshold. He stained the many new thresholds in the house and did various other odd jobs. Late in the day, he turned his eye to the kitchen. I had bought a new faucet for the kitchen, and D said he thought he could install it. The bad news is that about half way through he commented that he had forgotten how limber one needed to be to do plumbing. Water started dripping heavily onto his face (and hearing aids) . . . then he started feeling sick.

In the end, I called roto rooter out and got them to install it because there was a lake forming in the bottom of the cabinet. I had to trade out the faucet and we won't even discuss how much the $50.00 faucet cost to install. Yikes. Totally should have been a plumber!!

I had a date Friday evening, so I started getting ready at about the same time my sorry ass phone started screwing up. It was in a perpetual "hot sync" to the computer although it wasn't connected to the computer. I was going online trying to trouble shoot etc doing everything I could.

Before the drummer had even arrived to pick me up, the phone was totally dead.

Ah, but the drummer. He doesn't have a cell phone, and I'm not that sure he's a technofiend even if he is in the technology biz. Hmmmm I say. Luckily he has all sorts of other characteristics to redeem him. (For one, he seems to really like my dogs which does make him a standout compared to most of you yahoos.) We had a really nice time, and the date lasted about 6 hours. Suffice it to say I was very tired in the morning. No next date scheduled, but I am hopeful . . .

I also had a painter coming, a SOD installation scheduled, my parents were swinging by and I had no phone. Auuuuggghhhh.

Luckily I could twitter big sis on the computer and she then called the parents to let them know what was up. I just had to pray no one else was calling to confirm before arriving. Especially because in the end I lost all messages left for me between Friday evening and Saturday at about noon.

I went out to get the phone worked on as soon as I could, of course, as you would expect, phone no go. When I arrived they needed to see my driver's license. Had I remembered to get it out of the other purse from the night before? No, of course not. So, I had to go all the way home to get it and then go back. In the meantime, they don't even sell the battery to this phone any more, and the guy was pretty confident that it was the phone itself that was messed up because they have a history. As we all know, I hate that phone with a passion, so I wasn't suprised by the info.

I am mildly sick to my stomach at getting the new phone before I sold the house, but the thought of getting a cheaper phone just to turn around and get this one 2 months later didn't seem much smarter. So, on the upside, spending money made my stomach hurt. That's new and different.

Back on the farm, the painters almost immediately informed D that I needed to buy more paint (never mind that the guy that gave me the bid said he would buy any extra paint that was needeed) so I had to go to Home Depot. Because of that I missed the window to get to the bank to get the money to pay the painters. Luckily they didn't ask for the money yesterday, but I'll hae to work that into the schedule for Monday.

The SOD got laid, but it turns out there wasn't enough, so I'm going to call the guy and ask WTF how did it get so off and then I've got to try to figure out how to make it look less obvious.

The painter I hired didn't actually do the painting, two of his lackeys did. But they didn't get everything done that they were supposed to do, and now I'm really worried about the paint being dry etc when the cleaning is done on Tuesday.

My friend is coming over today, and she'll spend the night and go to Convocation tomorrow from my house, so after church my plan is to go through the house carefully figuring out exactly what I have left to do.

OH and I still need to
lay the stepping stones in the backyard,
buy paint to touch up the master bedroom (what, another trip to Home Depot?! oh goody),
do laundry,
take stuff to the parental's house,
call the electrician (I have a light fixture in the dining room to hang),
get all of my stuff to go to the dump to the curb,
clean the blinds
and make another trip to storage although there is NO room, so I'm not sure of how that will work.)

I'm tired just looking at the list. Especially since it really all has to be done today. No time for blogging people. Gotta go.

Mentoring Duties Begin

This morning I had to get up at the crack of dawn so that I could put on my "professional" attire and head up to the high school to spend the day with the newspaper new hire. We shall call her Blondie. I'll get a pic at some point. She is cute as a bug and a cool hair cut . . . I'm waiting for her to break out into "The Tide is High."



She's only taught for four years, and they have all been in video technology. But she will be able to relate to the kids and I think we'll get along.



More importantly I want to talk about what a long and dreadfully boring day it was. Torturous I tell you. Horrible. I am very glad it is over.



Tomorrow I must go up to school and start scheduling the kids and get some school stuff done. With any luck, I can get home by noonish and continue working on the house before heading back out to the student council dinner with the administration.



I didn't get much done this afternoon when I got home, although I did get my clothes organized for heading out to Plano, and worked a little on the closets.



On the other front, I was all excited about The Drummer, but it turns out for naught. Not a word from him. Oh well, I guess I'll be moving on to the next one.

I have officially hit a new low.

And by new low I mean, I am so tired and so worn out that I can hardly think or even breath. I am so stressed out and freaked out and worried. It is unbelievable in a world filled with so many people that it is still possible to feel totally and completely alone. I know I am loved and that people care, but there's a limit to just how much people can empathize and sympathize when they aren't actually there beside you. I know that I am dealing with the fallout from a problem and situation that I created. But it doesn't mean that I'm not paying for it, literally and figuratively.

I woke up this morning hungry, so I started eating breakfast before I had finished my medicine. I know better than to do that, but I did, and then I paid the price. I actually went back to bed and, luckily, my system cleared up by about noon.

I worked some more emptying out the back house room and boxing stuff up. I went to Home Depot, took care of a ton of returns, got some more outlet covers and then got some plants etc for the front of the house (you got nothing if you are missing the curb appeal.)

I didn't realize how much I have been counting on my parents' help until they told me they weren't coming until Tuesday. I almost hyperventilated. I am working Tuesday through Thursday. That would mean that they really wouldn't be able to do anything until Friday and school starts officially for teachers the following Monday. I realize that it is not their problem and I absolutely should not be expecting so much of them. When I heard them say that, I just felt totally and completely alone. I don't know if they felt my anxiety through the line, but they said they would come tomorrow, although I don't know when. I may still be misjudging how much I should/could really expect of them, but I guess I'll know tomorrow. There is a handy man company that I have used before that I think takes credit cards . . . I might be giving them a call very soon.

I know I am doing the right thing to sell the house, both because of how much this house is costing me monthly and because of how much I know I can make selling it. I have checked and rechecked comps, and I really do feel confident that I can make enough money to pay off my credit cards and free myself of the total and complete financial mess I have created for myself.

I am spending a fair amount of money to get everything done, but I am totally confident that I will get the money back when it sells. Maybe I am overconfident, but I don't think so.

Because the bathroom took so much freaking longer than it was supposed to take, I have started researching how much it will cost to take care of some of things that other people can do because there is soooo much stuff that can't be parceled out, and I am so totally running out of time.

I know that statistics say home buyers see problems and always over estimate the cost of repairs etc so you don't want them to start adding things up in their heads. After working on the kitchen floor so much I'm not sure if my hands will ever recover (or my lungs for that matter after sniffing goof off for a week), I finally realized I needed to get 3 estimates and just have a flooring allowance. Ok. Done.

I checked into the getting sod laid in the backyard, the cost of painting the parts of the house that I haven't taken care of yet, the cost of getting the windows cleaned and at the end, the entire house cleaned. Everything was rocking along until the painter (referred by someone who totally trusts him) told me it would be $1175 (1050 if I paid cash), and no he doesn't take checks. Let's be clear I have absolutely no money left. I am living off of my final credit card that hasn't dropped my limit to what I owe. I could try to find another painter (some one I have no references on) who may or may not be able to do it on the exact days I need it done and who I'm almost certain will cost more. Yup. Options are looking good. (Feel free to hear the sarcasm dripping.)

Ok, so let's look at what I need to do to put the house on the market:
Stain the thresholds between the rooms,
hang mirror in second bath as well as towel bar, toilet paper holder etc.,
hang chandelier in dining room,
repair the wood trim in first bath and paint it,
put up the towel bar and fix the screw that is stuck in the wall from when I tried to do the hand towel bar,
new string for attic door,
3 doors have no knobs, so they need to be installed,
I need to continue removing the random hooks, nails etc in walls through out the house,
I need a curtain for the master closet,
I have the world's smallest pantry so I need to clean it out and make it look roomy,
and clean out the kitchen cabinets,
curtain for the kitchen,
hang art throughout the house,
clean and paint the baseboards in the master bedroom
I need to touch up the paint in the master, 1st bath, living room, tv room and guest room,
even though I have mostly given up on the wood floors I still feel like I need to get some of the more obvious paint off of them, but I can only do a little bit at a time because my arms and fingers get so sore,
paint the backhouse floor. It has termite damage, and it looks bad, but I have extra dark brown paint, and I already plan to stage it, but I think it will really help to have the floors look really fresh,
I need to power wash the house. I can't do it alone because the washer is too heavy,
I have bought stones for the backyard to go to the back house and the back gate, so they need to be laid, and I need to plant the flowers for the front flower bed,
I have a shitload of trips to make to the storage unit,
I need help moving the stove so that I can pull the laminate up that is under the stove, again I know I am making a floor allowance, but I still don't want it to look hideous,
the threshold laid in the bedroom closet is too high so it needs to be sanded (how exactly am I going to do that without getting dust on ALL of my freaking clothes,)
remove the mexican light from the front porch,
change the air filter and clean the stupid vents,
paint front closet,
paint and clean the back door of the house,
clean the area rug on the front porch,
wash curtains,
and did I mention when all of that is done I need to go back and start doing the "staging" part, setting the tables making things look cutsy etc. Oh, and before the rest of the list of things that I haven't even thought of or realized yet.

Does it sound like a lot? Because I look at this list, and I want to throw up. I know that when school starts I am going to be exhausted and unable to do much of anything.

I know I need to get the house on the market asap and get it sold so that I can close 30 days later and be out from under this mess.

I know that all the money I am spending now are going to help make my house look ready to live in (even if the kitchen needs to be remodeled and one of the bathrooms needs to be updated).

I haven't even gotten to the part about what am I going to do with two dogs, a cat and a girl as I start having random people in the house doing work and as the house goes on the market. I guarantee you staging doesn't include outfits for the pets, it includes no signs of pets living here. And then I'm going to have to be soemwhere cause let's admit it, I'm a messy monkey and it will just be easier for me not to be here although totally stressful to be somewhere else.

Oh, and in case you aren't feeling my stess. . . as of right now I basically have 7 days (3 of which will be spent at school) 1 day the painter will be at the house so I'm not sure of what I will be able to do that day thereby bringing me down to 3 full days left. Yeah, feel free to go back and review my list.

Ok, strangely I actually feel a little better. I have no idea of why, maybe it is the macaroni and cheese I made for dinner. And just that whole theraputic writing thing. or the alcohol, could be that.

Matchmakers

So, my friends Randy and Diana are forever on the prowl for potential beau's for yours truly. This past Saturday they called and asked me to dinner at their house for Wednesday night. They had met the perfect guy for me AND set the wedding date to save time later. The date? June 10, 2010. I did mention that I'll be out of the country then, but they seemed unfaised.

Randy then sent me an email with a youtube video of "The Ultimate Pool Party". So, I got to see what my future husband looked like before I met him. (You can also see Randy and Diana.)

In addition to having a day job, he is also a drummer in a band. He showed for dinner about an hour late because he had some number issues and couldn't find the house because he had the wrong address. He was charming and lovely.

I didn't think he would actually ask me out, but he did send an email, but no call yet, so I guess verdict is still out.

His band is playing tonight, so I am taking a break from my home labors to go watch his band.

Oh, for those watching the twitters, the guy that I met for dinner at The Porch last week?, sure enough, never heard from him again. I am fairly certain my eating the spinach dip error which translated as an upset tummy was seen as a girl who doesn't eat which upset him. It's a shame, cause I just know he would have been impressed with

"Hi, I'm the Diva, I have gastro-intestinal issues and if I eat fat then odds
are good I'll be racing to the restroom and hunching over from massive stomach
cramps. Any issues you'd like to share before we continue the evening?"

Oh, what fun.

The new bathroom

If you remember, long, long ago, it was originally a pink bathroom. Terrible. Really. And the door was in the dining room. NOT OK. (I tried to go back and find pictures, of course, I have none.)

Then it was an empty shell.

Then progress began, oh so very slowly. I have a photo of Scott in the bathroom (proof I guess that he must have been doing something, even if, at times, I was certain that he was doing NOTHING.)

I will say that he does excellent tile work. I love the bead board, and the vanity is a little big, but I think it is important that it be a useful piece. So I went ahead and paid for a vanity instead of just a pedestal sink. Obviously the painting hasn't been done yet, but that is on the list of things that I have run out of time to do. The towel rod isn't up yet, the mirror isn't up, the switches aren't done and the plate covers aren't on yet, other than that, it is totally done.

Warning: Total whinefest ahead

Saturday, August 8. It has been a really long time since I've blogged. I've wanted to. I have sat down to do so, but I swear to you every single part of my body hurts, and I am dog tired.

One of the reasons that I haven't blogged is because my laptop that I love looks like it got hit by a baseball. It didn't. I have no idea of what happened. I know that I left it sitting on a chest when I went out. I returned, and it was sitting in the same place, but looked like this. Not the same. How does this crap happen to me? Of course I got back to town, immediately took it up to the tech guys, and I'm still waiting for the quote, to get the purchase order to get the new screen to get it fixed. Auuuggghhhhh

I have done a ton, but I have soooo much more to do. The bathroom I use has been painted and cleaned and decorated. I had a picture of the hell hole that was my dining room, but for some reason all of the pictures are corrupt. So, although I can show you how good the dining room looks, you really can't appreciate how freaking bad it looked before. Ah, but I can show you the boxes that are edging their way into the living room. I cleaned the garage and got it totally organized. Did I manage to get a picture of what it looked like before? Nooooooo.

The kitchen floor was horrifying. It had 3 layers of laminate that the dogs very sweetly began eating almost immediately. I got it pulled up, and then I started cleaning it up small bit by small bit. Goof off is some good stuff. A heady little high too I might add. Nose is permanently filled with the high of Goof off, and hands are in a permanent cramped position. Sexy.

I freaked out earlier this week when I realized that my plan for the glass table and chairs was total crap because the chairs were too big and didn't fit. I pulled myself together and put my wood chairs with the iron table. I'm not totally crazy for it, but it is growing on me. In the meantime, Scott, the handyman took so freaking long to finish the bathroom that he pushed me straight into back to school week. So, I started last week finding out how much it will cost to get the rest of the house painted, the back yard sod, the windows cleaned, the interior of the house cleaned. Scott, who I know feels very righteous about saving me money on his costs, has cost me such an incredible amount of money in paying people to do what I thought I would be able to do that it is shocking.

In addition, I still haven't cleaned out the backhouse, finished packing up the stuff in the living room (now) and the guest bedroom. I haven't finished all the gazillion last minute stuff that I have listed to do. I could just cry.