Beginning

Okay - So this is my first ever blog. I feel a need to catch everyone up to what is going on in my life at the moment. Currently, I have two jobs - one waiting tables and one as a fitness trainer at a local women's gym. I have a tiny apartment with 2 dogs, who love to pee and poop all over the place. One is a puppy that I have been too busy to properly potty train, and one is a 7 year old German Shepherd who has no excuse at all. I'm sure she does it to piss me off. So I woke up at 6:35 this morning knowing full well I had to be at the gym by 6:45. Luckily I live very close to where I work. This is also lucky because I am out of gas. I am broke. But I digress. Let's go back a year ago to when my life was great - or at least easier.
I was working for a major car rental company. The hours were awful, and God knows they didn't pay me enough, although I was making enough to do whatever I wanted to do. I had just moved into an apartment with Angela, a friend of mine. It seemed like a pretty great arrangement. We would split the rent, and it just so happened I got the bedroom with the big, attached bathroom. One tiny hitch - the previous occupant of my room WOULD NOT MOVE HER STUFF OUT!!! She had not lived with Angela for quite some time but was still paying rent. I offered to move in so she would not have to pay rent for somewhere she wasn't living. Angela and I thought this was a win win situation. This was October 2008. As it turned out, try as we may to get her to come get her stuff, this girl simply refused! Well, we made due with the situation and I struggled with the commute from Katy to Downtown Houston every day. Back to the job - I had applied and interviewed over and over for a promotion within the company, to no avail. Then, after taking a good long look at the people in the company who were all being promoted - it occurred to me that I may being held back due to the fact that I had been born with breasts. There were very few women in any position of power in the company, and the higher in the company you went, the less women you found. Needless to say, I started looking for other opportunities. This is where things start to go bad.
Young and new to the workforce, I foolishly sent an inquiring e-mail to one of my clients in regard to employment opportunities. Now this would not have been foolish if I had used the discretion to not use my work e-mail address. Yes. I know. Foolish. Stupid. I deserved the resulting loss of job. A hard lesson learned. This was November 2008. So, I had some money saved up from my employment with said company which gave me some time to search for a job. As it turns out, anthropology degrees are simply not all that desirable in the weak economy we are all facing. So try as I may, and apply for EVERYTHING as I did, I simply could not get a job offer, much less a decent interview. You know those spam jobs that you get when you are job searching? Those are the only people that were calling. Pyramid Schemes galore. So I did what I had to do to get money for rent. I fell back to waiting tables. For Landry's. EW! Terrible, terrible, terrible. This was December 2008. Anyway, I worked at Landry's and managed to pay rent and still be able to go out and do whatever I wanted because I tapped my savings dry. That was a bad choice.
Well, back to the apartment situation. The lease (that I was still not added to because the other girl involved - who I like to call the devil - had still not removed herself or her belongings for the apartment) was up in February. At this point I was pestering Angela on a daily basis to add me to the lease so I could renew the contract. Come the week before the lease ends, she attempts to add me finally. Too little, too late. But she also informs the Property Manager, that I have been living there anyway. So when I go in to apply, she already isn't fond of me. It turns out that my bad credit (I will save this one for a whole nother blog!) didn't help my case any either, and in the last 2 days I found out I had to move. Immediately. This was February 2009.
So luckily, a girl I worked with was kinda enough to offer me her futon. It was supposed to be 2 weeks tops, but ended up more like a month.
In April 2009, I moved back into Houston and into a new one bedroom apartment of my own. I went back to waiting tables at Guadalajara, thinking that would work around my schedule when I go back to school. This was a new development. What I was doing wasn't going anywhere and it was time to make a life-altering change. Nursing school seemed the best choice, so I set my heart on that. Back to the new place, it wasn't the nicest apartments ever, especially considering the apartments I had just moved out of were luxury. So, now I start going out to the pool and meeting my neighbors. Everyone seemed pretty friendly, and then one day I met an old man who introduced himself and started rambling about all kinds of things. I was thinking to myself - this guy is a little nuts, but he seems nice. Well, nice isn't really what Don turned out to be. Perverted comes to mind, sexual deviant comes to mind. Disgusting also comes to mind. After chit chatting about all kinds of things, I noticed he started making little comments to Mike (my boyfriend) and to me about how pretty I was. Next it was what a nice butt I had. REALLY?!?! Ok...he is a senile old man.....he doesn't know what he is saying....right? WRONG. Mike goes back to my apartment to shower off. I say I am going to catch a few more minutes of sunshine (I LOVE the summer. Really. I love it. I wait all year for it to be warm enough to get into the pool - not a long wait in Houston, Tx. But still.) Next thing you know Don makes a comment so outrageously insulting, disgusting, and perverted that I almost threw up. I won't repeat it, because it is truly that vulgar, but to sum it up he told me what he would like to do to one of my body parts in intimate detail. EWWW! I was so shocked that at first I didn't really know what to say or do. So I gathered up my things, and informed him I was leaving. He then starts to follow me, telling me that I need to break up with Michael, and that God intended for me to be with him (Don.) Oh my God. Wow. This guy is a freaking PSYCHO!!! At this point I go back in, and Mike asks why I came back so soon. I told him I was tired. Mike has a pretty volatile temper, and I didn't want the murder of an insane old man to come between us. Well, I start avoiding the pool if Don comes in sight, and even reached out to my apartment manager explaining what happened. She very wisely decides the best way to handle just such an occasion, is to wait until I am at the pool to go to his apartment (directly across from the pool) and cuss him out in front of me and everyone else. Well. Next thing I know I wake up and the peephole is missing from my door, giving an unobstructed view straight into my apartment, where I have been known to walk around naked looking for clothes. I FREAK! So I call the police, and they send someone out. Mike and I had just been out on a date so he is there and sees it too. Well, by now several other women in the complex have come to me with their "Don Stories," and the funny thing is EVERYONE seems to have one. Turns out, he is out of the halfway house, and he hasn't been evicted (despite MULTIPLE complaints against him!) because it is guaranteed money every month for the complex. Good Looking out there guys! So Mike and I wait for the police. I call my parents and tell them what happened. They are appalled needless to say. Dad wants to come beat the living you-know-what out of him, until he finds out it is an old man. The cop gets there, and to file my complaint, I had to explain to the very shocked officer what it was Don said to me. This is Mike's first time hearing the real situation, at which point he gives me quite the dirty look for not telling him before. My little brother brings his armory over (What people? I live in Texas! Don't we all have guns?) This is all in May 2009.
Well after the whole Don incident, I pretty much skip out on the pool. The summer months pass slowly, and I start to really struggle for money. My brother Daniel's girlfriend Becky works at a women's gym, and she informs me the location right by my house needs someone. I go in for an interview, and eventually get the job. Hourly pay, no benefits, but at least it is extra income, as my job search has still yet to yield anything good. That was August 2009. Now, here we are up to date in October. Still struggling just as much as before. How?? I have two jobs! Shouldn't I be better off than I was? I am still at a loss as to how this is actually happening. Anyway, my brother Shane calls me the other night, in the middle of the night. I was up playing video games anyway - Did I forget to mention? I am a game FREAK! My newest obsession is World of Warcraft - so I answer. He goes into a mildly frantic sounding explanation about how my Dad is threatening to kill my youngest brother John for waking him up, and Shane wants to move out, and can he come live on my couch. Oh Lord. One more thing. Absolutely. He is my brother. Plus, I figure Dad will calm down before it ever actually comes to him moving in. Dad has a fiery temper, but living with 3 boys that don't do anything to help around the house, and wake you up all night would be stressful for anyone. (Side note - I don't think he would REALLY kill them, but mom was all in tears and Shane was all pissed. You see - my Dad and I really are quite alike. We both let our tempers get the best of us and say things we don't really mean....or do we? No we don't! Most of the time.....) Well, no word from Shane by 3 the next day, so here I am thinking I'm in the clear. I get home from work at the restaurant, and have a ton of missed calls from my sister, Shannon, and my mom. Oh no. Now I figure I'm going to get yelled at for saying Shane could come live on my couch. That's how things work in my family. It's ALWAYS my fault. Anyway, I am relieved to find out my sister called about another adorable anecdote about my two sweet nephews. I call mom, and I can tell she is crying, but I try to play dumb of course.
Me: What's up?
Mom: What do you mean what's up? You should know what's up by now! Or have you not talked to Shane?
Me (Oh God here it comes....): No, I have talked to him, but why are you crying?
Mom: *sniff* It's just your Dad, telling the boys he will kill them. I just don't know. And telling them they have to move out.
Me: (tentatively) Are you upset with me for telling Shane he could move in?
Mom: No, I'm glad he has somewhere to go, I didn't want him to be out on the street...*crying continues*
So, woooohooooo! Off the hook. I try to comfort Mom, but she is very emotional, so I leave it to her to cry enough that Dad feels bad and everything goes back to normal. Next thing you know the phone rings again - It's Shane. He is on the way with all of his stuff. Bah. Ok fine. Mom calls back asking about Ninja, Shane's 100 lb lab. At this point, I get rather confused. WHAT? No. That dog can't come here. He asked if HE could live here, not the dog...
Little brothers. Oh I could kill him! So, he calls when he pulls up - come help me carry things in! At which point I inform he, THAT DOG CANNOT STAY HERE! Oh, it's just for a few days. Calm down! That was 2 days ago.
Back to this morning. I wake up already running late from work. Throw on my clothes, brush my teeth, and head to the door. When I see the poop. REALLY? It's 6:40 am. I should not have to deal with poop this early. So, I am picking up the poop, when I hear someone POUNDING on my door. WTF!? It is 6:30 in the morning! So I go and look, it's Shane. He had spent the night before at his girlfriend, Melissa's house. Well I angrily open the door only to discover my dog has left a little trail of "presents" leading straight to her kennel. Way to go Molly. As I am already running late, and I simply cannot take any more POO this early. I tell Shane to pick it up and rush out the door.
This brings us up to this exact minutes. Where I am sitting here typing my fingers off. 40 minutes until I close this place up. Gotta head to the restaurant at 4:30. Need to go home, shower, eat and play some WOW. I'll update you some more this weekend on the crazy events that have made up my life recently.