Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I'm looking forward to in the near future

1. Looking at SIX houses tomorrow with our fabulous agent
2. Getting to see Betsy and Henry!!!
3. My cousin Justin is getting married on Saturday
4. Getting to spend time on Saturday with my mom, family and maybe old friends from h.s. (i'm pretty iffy on whether or not I look forward to this)
5. Marie's bachelorette party on Saturday night if I get back from the wedding in time!
6. Finding a house and getting to move out of the apartments!
7. Not going back to work until Tuesday!!
8. My mileage check for this month
9. That it's almost fall!!
10. Football season starts for real next week!
11. The new season of HOUSE
12. The possibility of getting to spend more time at Kyle's grandparents' house on Lake Morse
13. My jaw surgery in December

House Hunting

Well we started out house hunt today, it did not go so well... Well that's not fair to say it's just soo tiring and takes a lot more work than I was anticipating. We basically spent the entire day being taken through houses and just driving through neighborhoods. The ones we went into are both foreclosed homes, which is fine because we've decided that we can get a much better deal, so we are focusing on these type of homes... I, however, was not expecting the mess that comes with those homes. The first one the house is absolutely lovely and the master suite was phenomenol but the stains on the carpet were unreal as was the dirt and disgust everywhere. Rather easy fixes but still not quite what I had in mind, haha. Anyway. Both of the ones we got to see today weren't bad at all just different. We are going to see a few tomorrow morning too. We basically have 15 days to find one and make an offer if we want to be able to close by October 1st and move out of the hood that we live in.
To prove it is the hood we saw a Carmel school bus parked in the neighborhood today and decided that either 1) they bring their kids to show them what can happen if they drop out of school or 2)were giving them survival lessons.
Speaking of our lovely apartment complex I called them yesterday to remind them that we STILL have a giant hole in our ceiling that was still leaking (given the bucket under the hole was filling up). So they came yesterday (amazing how fast they come when you call and complain) and we were assured that they were not leaving until the leak was fixed.... So I was expecting to come home to no more holes and no more leak... Instead a get a call as I was about to leave the office from one of the maintence workers to let me know that she accidentally dropped the bottle of "cleaner" that she was using on the pipes up in the hole and it got all over our couch........ But not to worry because she was doing an incident report and a professional cleaner would be here the next day to clean it... The "cleaner" which is not solely a cleaner we were told today definitely did not come of out the couch - did I mention that it's purple? So once again I got to call the office to let them know that the purple spots are now a permanent part of our couch. I'm not sure how this gets fixed but she said they submitted a claim to their insurance company and will get back with us. Oh and they did not fix the hole in the ceiling, I can see into the bathroom from our living room...
Have I mentioned that I want to move???
Anyway. Wish us luck with our house hunt!

Thursday Thirteen

13 Reasons why I cannot wait to move out of our apartment

1. No more KING KONG or worrying about cops with their guns pulled chasing people

2. No more having to call the cops on our hussie neighbors for having a huge party where they do nothing more than drink beer and scream about the injustices of beer pong (til 2 AM) -- yes we did call the cops on them --yes I felt incredibly old after we did.

3. No more MOLD growing on the ceiling in our living room

4. Hopefully no more cicadas/katy-dids everywhere for the dogs to eat(bc they love to eat them)

5. Having a backyard to let the dogs out to run in rather than taking them for 4-5 walks a day

6. Having a kitchen bigger than a bathroom!

7. Being able to get my furniture back!

8. Getting my dining room table back so we don't have to eat on the couch everyday!

9. Being able to invite people over and actually having a place they can sit or sleep

10. No more holes in our ceiling that drip for 5 days b/c they can't fix the leak that caused the mold (and neglect to come back and fix what is causing it to drip or the hole that they cut out). This is in the living room above the couch where we eat...

11. Just having more room in general

12. Not having to worry about what our neighbors might be doing (illegally)

13. No more dogs eating geese poo

A renewed vow

No not my wedding vows, although sometimes I think we should do that every single week to each other, just to remember our commitment to each other and the life we are trying to build as we go through the days of the week. Another story though.
Anyway. Two weeks ago one of my co-workers died quite unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. She was only 38 and had two daugthers; ages 1 and 15. To say that I was shocked is a huge understatement and absolutely heart-broken. Cynthia was one of my favorite people at work and we talked a lot about coming from a small town to this big city and feeling out of place. We both have the same degree and talked often about what we wanted to do with it or about going back to school. Which she was getting ready to do, by the way. Anyway not even a full week before she died she had been complaining of chest pain and feeling weird to myself and another girl at work. She even asked what a heart attack feels like for a woman and had said that she was going to the doctor the next day. I can honestly say though that I did not believe that she was having a heart attack or anything close to it. Who has heart attacks at 38? She was the picture of health... Didn't smoke, didn't drink, stayed active, was in good shape physically... What is really sad is that she did go to the doctor the next day and they told her that she had acid reflux and it would go away... She died 5 days later of a massive heart attack after laying down for a nap because she was having some trouble breathing. When her husband went to check on her she just wasn't breathing at all anymore. She was a gentle, kind and loving person and I cannot not even begin to tell you how much she will be missed. It is already the weirdest thing to not see her in the office, I cannot tell you how many times I've looked up expecting her to come in or to hear her laugh or her silly cell phone. Her daughters changed the ring-tone so that everytime they called her it would say "moooootttthhhher" over and over and over until she answered it and she could never figure out how to change it. Was the funniest thing and probably one of those stupid little things I'll miss the most about her not being there.
Anyway, my renewed vow is to myself and my health. I have taken a big step in the last year to getting healthier and I have lost 45 lbs since then, and I am proud of it! But it's not enough. I'm still overweight and not doing my own heart any favors with that extra weight. Sure I exercise, but not enough. Sure I eat right, but only hardcore the week before I go to get weighed at the nutritionist. Enough is enough, it's time to get healthy for my future and whatever that may hold. I have a relatively healthy family so I am blessed to not have that working against me but I have hypothyroidism among many other weird anomalies. Anyway. So this is my vow to myself and to my future that I am going to step it up and get my body and mind in the best shape they can be in.
Thank you Cynthia for all the laughs and conversations we had together this past year and for making me see again that life is short and we are never guaranteed another day. You and your beautiful smile will be missed!
Check out www.americanheart.org and learn more about being heart healthy and the warning signs of a heart attack for men and women. There is a walk in September here in Indianapolis, so expect to hear more from me about this as I attempt to make you either walk with me or donate money... :)

King Kong

You might be wondering what on earth happened to this car and why I would have a picture of it; let me just tell you that this is a good one....

So Friday afternoon I'm on the phone with Melissa who is sitting in her car outside my apartment waiting for me to get there to let her in. It was to be a most joyous afternoon because I was finally getting to meet Maddison (see pictures below). She had called when I was on my way there to tell me that I needed to come in the back way because the police had blocked off the road that goes directly to the 20 or so apartments that are on our "court". Weird but whatever. So we're on the phone chatting about stupid stuff with our jobs when she says well that's a big black man without his shirt on coming out of that apartment. Also nothing new around here. But then she starts flipping out but quietly and just keeps repeating that he jumped and is going crazy and how she's going to get shot. WHAT?? So this guy (we have affectionately named him, King Kong) barrels out of this apartment and comes straight to this car and jumps on but on his back and butt. Basically he just plants his ass on the windshield and then attemps to rip the doors off of the car, mind you Melissa is sitting in the car NEXT to this one just watching. I'm freaking out, she's freaking out and the police had left but apparently one was driving back by which sent King Kong running off. Which then caused a swarm of police to park and take off running with their GUNS after him... Melissa had to give a mini statement to the police officer and he so kindly informed us that he has already arrested this guy 4 or 5 times for cocaine, battery, possession of illegal firearms... Then let us know that if we see him around at all to call the police immediately........ You do not have to tell me that twice... By the way this is the girlfriend's/possible baby momma's car that the kersmashed. The police had been out here FOUR times already that Friday to deal with disturbances from their apartment. Let me, also, tell you that she is one of the scariest people I have ever seen and when she came and looked at her car just shrugged and turned around and walked off. She has two toddler boys that are adorable and it just makes me want to scream that they have to be a part of this shit. Anyway there is so much more to the drama here but I am exhausted and still quite irritable with the apartment staff. More to come..