Once in a while in (W)hole

So, my life has been rather a lot like non stop catastrophes since May.

Kasin and I spent nearly 4 weeks in Fairbanks during June, and got back to the states on the 27th. We picked up Milo from Ross’s place in Montana and stayed the night there so I could do some skype interviews before we drove back. We stayed in a hotel that I booked online, and while it was a GREAT hotel and we LOVED IT, they ended up charging us twice as much as I was quoted online. Turns out, the website presents the totals in a skewed way, so I actually misread the quote and no one can do anything to fix/reimburse it for me. So now I’m basically broke until pay day, which is not until the 20th.

The 20th is also the day that we will be leaving Pocatello. My landlady is being a bit of a ..... about me leaving. My lease is technically up at the end of August, but I only have 2 more paychecks left from the school district here, so I am moving out July 20th and forfeiting my deposit as the last month’s rent. I tried to find someone else to take over the lease for the last month, but no one is willing to pay this much for such a run down piece of shit. She is honestly asking FAR too much for this house, especially when the tenant has to pay ALL of the utilities.

However, she keeps texting me telling me she expects me to stay until the end of August like the lease outlines, etc etc and that my rent is due July 20th and that she fully expects me to pay it on time and have the house back in the same condition it was in when we moved in by August 20th when we leave. Well, lady, I already told you I’m leaving July 20th. She seems to think that since I haven’t found anyone to take over the lease, I’m going to just stay for that last month. She would be incorrect. I know she’ll be entitled to keep my deposit, and that’s fine, but I just can’t give her any more money. When I moved in, she never did a move-in inspection, we never signed anything stating the existing damages or anything like that. So legally, she can’t hold me responsible for any damages at all, since there’s no proof that they didn’t exist before we moved in. There AREN’T any additional damages, but there are some things that were in disrepair when we moved in, and I sort of anticipate that she will try to say I am responsible for paying for those repairs. Which I am not. I just bet she doesn’t think I know that I am legally not responsible due to the lack of a move-in inspection. But I’m hep to the jive, sister. :P

Anyways. We had a great time in Alaska, and it was really hard to leave. I actually considered changing our return tickets so we could stay for an extra two weeks, but then Milo called me from Ross’s house (he stayed with his dad for the trip, didn’t come with us) almost crying saying that he wanted to come home. I also found out that the cost for changing tickets went up from $75 to $125, so for both of our tickets it would have bee $250. I couldn’t justify that when Milo wanted us to come get him so much.

While I was there, I stayed with Heather and her boyfriend, Don. Kasin stayed at his Gma Julie’s (my ex husband’s mother, if you’re new around here) except for one weekend when she made a trip out of town. One of the first days I was there, we had a little get together for my birthday and had a BBQ. It ended up pouring rain, but we had fun anyways. Don invited his best friend, Nick. Nick is tall and broad and bearded and sexy. Nerdy kinda guy, very quiet. We’ve been to a few other parties and events together in the past, and I’ve always thought he was rather delicious. Anyways, I guess at this BBQ I said something to him that he took as me hitting on him, and he asked Don if he could have my number. Don came home from work and asked me if he could give Nick my number, and I was floored. I was totally flattered, and of course said yes.

So then Nick texted me and said that he knew I was only in town for a few more weeks, but he would like to hang out and maybe go to a movie or something. I said I’d love to, and we went and got shaved ice and watched The Nice Guys. It was a Wed night, and we ended up back at his house afterwards. He was easy to talk to, funny, easy going. We had a really good time, and we ended up staying up super late and talking and fooling around that night. We went to breakfast together a couple days later, and then the day after that we went to movie and went back to his place to walk his dog and hang out. I ended up spending the night, and we kept texting each other during the week. I had about 5 days left of my trip when he suddenly switched from texting me at random to telling me that he thought we should “call it” since I was leaving. He said that he didn’t think things would ever go any further than they had, presumably because I was about to leave the state…

Now, I know this is unreasonable, but I had sort of expected that we would keep talking, texting, chatting, and keep getting to know each other. He has family in the Spokane area, and I have family there and in nearby cities, as well.. so I figured we could end up getting together over vacations and trips, if things kept going well. We really did have a good time and got along really well, I was feeling really good about it.. and I really liked him. I was sort of hurt, even though initially I figured it would just be a fun little vacation fling and then be over. I never responded to his message about “calling it.” I still miss talking to him, I keep going to send him a text or snapchat, and then being like “oh yeah. :" Heather says that she thinks he was getting too attached to me and since he knew I was leaving he wanted to quit while he still could. Still hurts.

While I was in Alaska, I got offered a job at a nearby city here in Idaho, teaching 5th grade. I said yes and accepted it, but once they got my file from the school district here and saw the horrible assessments I got from Mr. Johnson, they rescinded the offer. While I was in Montana, I had 3 more interviews and got 2 job offers out of them. One was to teach preschool in Spokane, WA. My parents live about 2 hours away from Spokane, so I had applied all over there. I also have an aunt and uncle and 2 adult cousins who live there, and I figured it would be nice to be near some family or at least near some people who I know a little bit. I always liked my cousin Jenny, who is a few years younger than me and recently got married. She and her wife, Lacey, are adorable. I got to have lunch with them and my aunt and uncle when I was visiting my mom for Thanksgiving, and they were super fun. I hadn’t really spent much time with Jenny since she was like, 12. But it was nice.

Anyways, I was considering the job offer when I got another one- the next one was teaching 2nd grade in Spanaway, which is about an hour and a half from Seattle. I was really excited and accepted the job right away, and started looking for apartments in the area. I was thrilled, and I told everyone all about the job offer. Then a few days later, they called me back and said they had spoken to Mr. Johnson and he told them I had received unsatisfactory evaluations. He also said I had a lot of potential and said some nice things, apparently, but they decided not to take a risk on me, and they rescinded the offer.

I was really depressed about this whole scene and feeling hopeless. The preschool job didn’t pay enough for me to live off of, especially being the only source of income for a family with 2 kids. I was devastated. I decided I would accept the preschool job, move to Spokane, and try to find low-income housing and/or public assistance. I was really not anxious to go back to that life, depending on food stamps and everything… but I figured it was what I had to do. So I started looking for apartments and wondering how I was going to afford to move…

Last night, I sent Jenny a message via FB and asked her about working as a substitute in Spokane. She told me that she had supported herself and her wife for a couple of years working as a sub, and her wife wasn’t working at the time. She said they were able to pay their mortgage, their car loans, their insurance, and live comfortably on what she made subbing. She told me the daily rate is between 115-120 bucks per day, and there is a SERIOUS shortage of substitutes in the district, so they need them BADLY, and they recently started giving bonuses to subs who don’t turn down jobs. Her brother, Mike, told my dad to look at these apartments, Mirabeau Parkside or something like that… so I checked out their website. The rent is reasonable and they look really nice, and they allow 2 pets. I’m calling them tomorrow.

My plan is to accept the preschool job for the time being, and then quit once the school year gets started, and sub full time. I’m going to make up some flyers to hang in the elementary schools advertising myself available for daycare on days that school is closed- inservice, spring break, winter vacation, summer break, etc. I realize that I should technically probably get a child care or business license to do that, but I have no intention of doing so. I’m also not 100% sure if the apartment building will complain about that, as some apartments don’t allow people to run any sort of small business operation out of their apartments. I’ll tackle that as I come to it. I intend to sign on for a 6 month lease with the apartments, and then I can look for a small house to rent instead, which would be easier for the babysitting gig. If I can get 5 or 6 kids on those days off, I’ll end up making the same amount on the days that school is closed as I would when they’re open and I’m working as a sub.

I think this will turn out okay… at $115/day, I’ll be making just about the same in Spokane as I made here as a teacher. Jenny also assured me that the folks in the sub pool often get hired for FT positions.

Moving dictates that we have to get rid of Paisley, the little black lab puppy we rescued in March. No one will rent to us with a dog under a year old, and since apartments all seem to have a 2 pet maximum, Mochi and Cookie have seniority. I’m hoping to just smuggle the cats in and see if they can go unnoticed. I figure they are much less obvious than the dogs, so it might work. lol… It would also be much, much easier to find them new homes in Spokane. Here in Pocatello the shelter literally gives cats away FOR FREE because there are so many in the shelter. People don’t get their cats fixed here, and the town is basically overrun with cats and kittens that no one wants. If we have to rehome them, I’ll do it somewhere else.

I’m also trying to decide if we can fit all of our stuff into a pull behind trailer from UHaul instead of renting a box truck with a tow package for the van. I can pull a 6 x12 ‘ enclosed trailer, or a “utility trailer,” which is typically intended for appliances and the like. It doesn’t have a top, so I would have to shrink wrap everything together to make sure nothing falls off of it. I’d be much more comfortable driving my van with a trailer behind it, I think, than driving the UHaul box truck with my van behind it. My only concern is that I have a king size mattress, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit it into any of the trailers that are available. We shall see, I suppose.

Ross is trying to find a way to come and help us load up the trailer or van or whatever when it’s time to move, that week of the 20th. Otherwise I’m going to have to pay some strangers from Craigslist to come do the heavy lifting for me and load up whatever we use to move with. There’s just no possible way I can lift a king size mattress by myself and load it into a UHaul. I just can’t do that, physically. Ross would be much preferred, though, because he used to take apart and put together furniture and do deliveries for work, so he would be fairly crafty at fitting the most stuff into a small space. I’m going to get rid of as much stuff as possible.

We are starting to pack and clean on Monday. My plan is to either pack or clean 1 room per day, and then we’ll be done by the end of 2 weeks. Wish me luck. I might be insane.

~Me