Ang's Journal

About to go climbing.

Today was frustrating. I couldn't make progress on my unemployment claim. I thought I had a laptop being delivered, but no. I arranged my whole week to be home today to get that laptop, for nothing. I also found out that S* is still on my credit union account, even though we turned in the paperwork to have her removed months ago. ARGH.

But. I went to AA this morning. I walked Shadeaux & she got to play with a pair of cattle dogs. I ate three delicious, nourishing meals, including poached salmon for dinner that I made this afternoon. This *DESPITE* having pizza in the house. And I'm going to go climbing. 3/181.

Take that, stupid bureaucracies of the world.

Last week was a very slow work week for me, five days straight in the office. I didn't really have enough to do, so I came home early (around 3:00 PM) on Friday, planning to rest & relax out on the balcony & spend the last couple of work hours "working from home" (one of my favorite office lies).

Instead when I got home I found a "Notice of Lease Violation" tacked to my front door. According to this note, I never told the apartment management that I have a dog. Some background here: hotpantsgalore is good friends with M*, who was the property manager at our apartment complex when we moved in. M* gave us a sweetheart deal on our apartment, with our rent set at least $300 below market rate. We are paying $650/month for a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment that's about 900 sf. However, M* also short-cut us through a lot of the application paperwork, & we - not being anxious to look a gift horse in the mouth - probably didn't pay too much attention to which boxes we were checking "Yes" or "No".

Well, that lapse has now come back to bit us in the butts, because M* is no longer the property manager & the new management is starting to enforce everyone's leases - to the letter. We now owe a $200 pet fee (not a pet deposit; this money is nonrefundable); our rent is being raised $10/month, & we owe a $100 penalty for the lease violation. Considering the low rent we pay, we're still way ahead on the deal. But an unexpected $300 charge is never welcome.

Just a couple of days after that, we celebrated Shadeaux's first birthday on May 1st. Since she's a rescue, we have no idea on what day she was actually born. But we got her in mid-June last year, & when we took her in for her inital checkup, the vet said she appeared to be about six weeks old. Mid-June minus six weeks = born on May Day. So Happy Birthday to Shadeaux-Boxer, the de facto ruler of our household. Getting her has been one of the best things that happened in the last year. She's added so much fun & love to our little family.

It's probably because I love my own dog so much that I got sucked into yesterday's madness. I looked out from-
You know what? There's a long version & a short version of this last story. Here's the short version. Last night my neighbor N* (V*'s mom) & I captured two stray dogs that were running around in our apartment complex. We couldn't get Animal Control to pick them up (it was too late in the day), so the dogs spent last night on N*'s porch. Where they barked. All. Night. Long. No good deed goes unpunished.

Stacy hasn't been able to get any reasonably priced transportation to Greenville. USAir: $1,000 round trip for Philly to Greenville (I point out, with some acerbity, that Philly to London is currently $350). Amtrak: sold out. United: $897 round trip Baltimore to Asheville, NC. See, we were being creative. I've tried Travelocity. I've tried cheaptickets.com. Right now, we're holding out hope for priceline.com to come through. Otherwise ... no visit for me this weekend. And that possibility makes me a saaad panda.

While I'm waiting for Priceline's answer, I'm messing around with Friendster. effrontery, fizrep & chaosvizier, please approve me as a friend, m'kay? Everyone else: if you want to add me, my name is Angela Ledgerwood. There, it's out there now!!

UPDATE: let's hear it for Priceline! She'll be here Friday.