So here it is, the last nice Sunday of the year and I'm probably going to spend it inside. :( I want to read and right now would be a perfect time to do it outside. An early October day that's unseasonably warm. Not uncomfortably warm like it can be during the summer with all the humidity. But just wonderfully warm...I digress....
Why am I not reading outside? Because my back patio, as I have mentioned before, backs right up to a forest. Hello sunshine? Where did you go, all I can see are shadows from all the trees. Not bashing trees, it'd just be nice to be able to sit out back and enjoy the sunlight. Don't want to sit out front either because that's where my trashy neighbors like to live. Yes, I said live. I don't know why they bother renting a place with a roof because it seems as though they are always outside.
The multitude of kids that are over there (mind you, only two actually LIVE there) at all times are usually playing basketball. No, that's not a typo, I meant to write BASKETBALL in a small, four unit, apartment parking lot. I think some of them are confused as to the object of the game because rather than actually making the ball go through the hoop, they seem to think they are supposed to aim for cars by first bouncing it off the rim. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that ball bounce off of my car or Chad's truck (Sometimes when he's still in it!), well, we'll just say I'd have a lot of dollars.
And if they're not doing that, they're riding their bikes. No, not around the (sort of) wide open spaces of the parking lot, it is apparently more fun to circle cars and bump the handlebars into them causing eight inch long scratches. Oh yes, my car has one of those and Chad's truck has matching scratches on both sides. (No wonder no one ever wants to come here to hang out....) It's always nice to walk out to the car in the morning and see a fresh scratch of some sort on my leased car. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. The best part is that the adults/parents are usually nowhere in sight, and if they are, they're just sitting there calmly with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth looking like they don't have a care in the world. Love it, really, I do.
I should've taken it as a sign when I moved in here on one of the last days of January last year when they had their easily removed Christmas decorations still up (and they remained up until May). If I wasn't so desperate for someplace affordable, I might have looked elsewhere.
But I hold out hope that I will be able to buy a house soon. I've been looking and looking. I really shouldn't since I haven't tried to get pre-approved again since last fall and it's only good for one year. The city I live in (and want to buy in) has this great program for first time home buyers that give assistance up to $3,000 for half the down-payment and closing costs. I had that approval, sort of. To get it, you have to take this class offered by some neighborhood association. I never was able to take the class before I gave up and decided to wait a little longer. I can't even remember how many times I tried to take the class. The whole group running it is about fifty cards short of a full deck. The first time I tried to take it, they didn't even have me on the list. And then, as I sat there waiting with two other people, it was cancelled because the person leading the class didn't come in. The next time I tried to take it, they told me I was in the wrong class because I was already pre-approved. So I had to sign up for a different class. I can't remember what the deal was for that one but something happened and it was cancelled. Before I attempted to head back downtown the next time, I actually got a phone call saying the next one was cancelled because some drunk had crashed into the building about a week prior leaving it, "structurally unsound." So once again, I rescheduled for the class in December (started trying to take this class in August). Day of the class rolls around and I'm thinking it's finally going to happen. Until I get downtown, park my car and walk up to the building to find out it's locked up tight. I tried calling the lady leading the class (the same one that I've been dealing with most of the time) and got her voicemail. I'm at the end of my rope with this whole thing at this point and I left her....not a mean message, but not a nice one either. When I finally heard back from her, she told me the class was cancelled and that everyone was called. I was like, hello! No one called me! Then she told me they weren't going to be doing it for a few months, I can't remember what the reason was for that. And thinking back now, that must be why I gave up.
So in my efforts to get the ball rolling on all this again so I don't see another perfect opportunity house (three bedroom, one and a half bath, basement, two car garage, fenced back yard - all for $50K, it was a really cute house) get snatched up after being on the market for less than a week, I sent this lady an email to see what the class schedule is and what class I'd need to take since I'm not pre-approved yet. That was sometime last month. Do you think I've heard back from her? Of course not. I'm wondering if the group even exists anymore.
I decided to then start on the paperwork portion of this whole thing and forgot that I pretty much have to tell them everything about myself down to my blood type and what I had for dinner three years ago. I really don't remember filling all this crap out. And since nothing much has changed since then, I'm wondering if I can go back through my sent emails and see if I maybe sent scanned copies of all of it the first time. Usually I hang on to paperwork like that and file it. But I tried to look for it the other day and came up emptyhanded. Knowing myself, I probably chucked it in one of my cleaning fits thinking I wouldn't be getting a house in that time period anyway, so why keep it. Oh stupid me.
Anyway, I do need to get going on it though. Not just because of my crappy, disrespectful neighbors (who like to party in their minivan with the bass up all the way until 12:30am, yeah, that's their newest BS), but because I now have contraband. And by contraband, I mean a furry, little, charcoal gray, four legged furball with a squeak for a meow. I am no supposed to have pets and I abided by that rule until three weeks ago. I finally decided that if those morons can have a basketball hoop and cause property damage to other people's things, I can have one little, tiny kitten.
I got sick of waiting and waiting to get a house before I got a cat or a dog. I figured a cat would be easier to conceal for obvious reasons. And unlike my neighbors' kid's, little miss Roxy hasn't caused a lick of damage to the apartment. She's been using her litter box as she's supposed to, never once had an accident outside it (knock on wood), and I have those Soft Claws things on her so she can't scratch anything up. (I refuse to declaw her after reading the horror stories on that.) She provides a lot of comic relief when she's not up playing at 4:30 in the morning or waging war on my plant.
I have however, learned my lesson on gettting a super young kitten from someone off of Craigslist. She was about seven and a half weeks old when I got her. The girl I got her from said they couldn't keep her because the family was allergic and they didn't know until they got her. She had gotten Roxy (she named her Mya, but I changed her name because that is suddenly the popular pet name and I like to be different) from a friend who'd found a stray that'd had kittens. Poor thing was flea-ridden and the girl had doused her in flea powder which seemed to have gotten rid of most of them. She hadn't been to the vet yet for anything, so I made an appointment for her.
The first time I took her in, they found out that she had two types of worms. So I had to pay for two medications and the test to find the worms on top of the regular vet visit. Bye bye $120. I just took her back Wednesday of last week for a re-check and she had to have another round of one of the worm meds and got her first vaccination. Those and the visit cost me another $80. They told me she needs to come back in three week intervals for vaccines until she's 16 weeks - which means two more visits. Ugh! So much for a free cat! Next time I'm adopting from a shelter where I can pay less up front and have all this done. I haven't even had her spayed yet and the vet is telling me because they use a different technique where they make an incision on their side (instead of on their belly), it's just over $200 for that. Holy crap Batman! Little miss Roxy has turned out to be quite an expensive little kitty.
And here's the funniest bit - Mr. I Hate Cats (Chad) has been cuddling, snuggling, playing, petting, talking in a high pitched voice, and even kissing the cat. Yeah, he sure does hate cats alright.
