The Trials of the Rain

So, to start with, I think I will tell you a little bit about where I am in life.

Currently, I am in limbo. Between houses, dealing with the worst landlord I've ever dealt with, and technically homeless. You would think, that I would be having a much worse attitude, but honestly, I'm really happy in life at the moment. So, how did I get here?

Well, it all starts about six months ago when it was time for my Brother and I to get a new apartment, we looked around and FINALLY found a two-bedroom place, in our price range that allowed my cat. So we signed the lease, with the promise that the repairs that the place needed would soon be under way. So we moved in, and in the first month, a bat and a flying squirrel both came down out of our ceiling. This is not a good sign. Then, the bank we were renting from sold the place. Our new landlord seemed competent and like a generally nice guy who had big plans for the place. So we were happy with the change.

Almost immediately the new landlord got a crew out to cut down a dangerous old tree and start working on the roof. Both good things, or at least, they should have been good things. However, our new landlord was cheap, he cut corners, and ticked off people. So they called the inspectors, and he was ordered to put on an entirely new roof. Which, quit frankly the place needed. Anyway, again he cut corners, and hired people with no qualification to do the job. Then he fired them, halfway through tearing off the roof.

At this point, both my brother and I were staying with friends for different reasons, but I was over to the apartment everyday to check on my LeStat (my kitty) and make sure he had food and water, and human time, ect. He was in good health, lonely, but fine.

So, the landlord fired the people working on the roof, and what happened next? It stormed. For two or three days. I went to the apartment as usual to check on LeStat, and was greeted with quit possibly the worst smell to ever accost my nostrils, and my ceiling was now my floor. My wet, moldy, deceased animal carcass covered floor. hooray. Disgusting. I call my brother, he calls the landlord. I check on the cat, make sure he has a way out of the apartment if he needs it, and head to work.

THE NEXT DAY. I go back, it had rained again, and there were more pieces of the ceiling on the floor, and low and behold, my cat was ill. Now cats are much more capable of recovering from mold poisons and things than humans, so I followed the advice of my mom, and set him up at a friends to watch for 24 hours before taking him to the vet. He didn't improve, in fact he died. We call the landlord to tell him about the toxic mold that exists in his house. We still haven't heard back from him about the ceiling yet.

That night, I head to my apartment to pick up some shower things, and to my astonishment the place has been "cleaned up". There are new tiles in the ceiling, a vacuum has been run, but if you look, you see that the moldy insulation has not been touched. Merely recovered. I call my brother again and tell him of the new development. We decide then and there, that it's time to move out. It's obvious to us that our landlord will not be fixing the problem. This was on Friday night.

Saturday morning I go to work, and I receive a phone call, from my landlord. In this phone call he tells me that I am lying about my cat being dead, and that if I'm not lying it has nothing to do with the ceiling. He also tells me that because we have not paid the rent yet that month he was going to be forced to lock our belongings up in storage. And lock us out. The call itself was longer than this, but I don't feel like writing it all out. By the time I got off the phone, I was irate, furious, to the point of tears. My boss sends me home, with the promise of help if I need it. I tell my brother what happened. He calls the Landlord, who FINALLY answers his phone. Now, with my brother it's different story. It's much more polite and professional, and we are given the weekend to move out. So we pack our stuff up in storage, and in the back of our truck, and make an attempt to clean the place up. Now we are waiting for the landlord to give us our deposit back so that we can put it down on a new place, hopefully at The Trace, they have a pool after all.

The other pieces of my life are just as complicated, but not as much of a story. I have started a band that is yet to named, created a music page(http://www.myspace.com/claraelizabethsings), started looking for new job, a new apartment, and returned to playing Ultimate. I've also developed and uber crush and very deep feelings for one of friends, unfortunately for me, these feelings are not returned. But that happens to everyone at some point I suppose.

So, even though I am currently without residence (I have a place to stay, don't worry) My life is pretty much on the up. My music is getting underway, I graduated college, and I have big travel plans for next year. And that is pretty much the update for my life so far.

until next time
DV