Monday, April 16, 2012

I've moved (hence the hiatus!)

Remember when I posted about being broke?  Well, I'm still broke - but I have a new job, so hopefully I'm putting those broke-as-a-joke days behind me!  I'd like to apologize for my lack of writing - things have been a little crazy for me!  I guess I should start at the beginning...

J and I have been trying to find a good, steady job for what seems an eternity.  I finally got a job offer, and we jumped at it!  But, it meant moving 4 hours downstate, so I was a little nervous.  We had a really hard time finding a place to rent - Craigslist was just downright sad.  I just assumed that living in a city would mean that we would have a slew of places to choose from.  Apparently, not so.  We finally heard of a house for rent in the village where I would be working - about twenty minutes from civilization.  The place was gorgeous, but expensive, and at the last minute I got cold feet.  I mean, what if the baby got sick and we had to go to the hospital?  Plus, the nearest grocery store was 10 minutes away!  There was another house in the city that fit our criteria, and my in-laws went and checked it out for us.  I figured if my stepmother-in-law would live there, then I would live there.  We agreed to rent it sight unseen.

Big. Effing.  Mistake.

We were supposed to move in on a Friday, but I drove down with Miss Toots on Thursday, to meet the new babysitter, and to see our new house in person.  It's February, and it's cold, but Toots and I get out of the car to wait for the landlord.  It was a long drive and we're cramped and cranky.  We walk around a bit, peek in the windows, and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Finally, I try to door.  Front door locked - back door open!  Huh, that's weird, but what the hell.  I walk in and give myself a tour.  It's freezing, but no one has been in it.  It'll be an okay place to live.  We leave.

I forgot to mention that my mom and dad were driving up to our old place to help J pack up and move.  Friday, everyone shows up at the new place to move in.  Everyone, that is, except for the landlord.  After calling him about 30,000 times, he finally calls back to tell us to just go ahead and unload.  However, the heat wasn't working.  The landlord, let's call him Douche-bag Dave, said that his heating guy was coming to take care of it.  At this point, we had been there for a few hours, Little Toots was freezing, and my nose was numb.  I had an enlightening conversation with the neighbors, who told me that Douche-bag Dave had just gotten out of jail, and that the house had been condemned!  AWESOME

My father-in-law went to check out the heat situation, and the boiler had been vandalized.  It wasn't just broken - it was destroyed!  We gave up waiting for the heat guy, and went back to my in-laws.

End of day one.

The next day, J and his dad went back to the house to wait for the heat guy and the landlord.  To make a long story a little less long, the heating guy said that there was no way he was going to be able to fix the heater so that we could move in.  Meanwhile, Douche-bag Dave keeps lying to us and demanding money from us.  Um....no.

Day three - Toots get the stomach flu.  We decide that we have to find another place to live.

Day four - My first day of work!  J finds us a new apartment, but we can't move in until the weekend.  He has to go back to work, and I'm stuck at my in-laws with the baby.

Mid-week: Father-in-law gets the stomach flu.

Friday: I get the stomach flu.

And this concludes week #1 of our moving tale.