From Carrollwood to Mt Whitney

As I was saying in my previous entry, we'd had a really rough month or more at the apartment and for once it wasn't ijit's fault. We'd *just* renewed our lease and I was damned if I was sticking around for another break-in...especially since we suspected the next door neighbor of being the one doing it. It just seemed really weird that it was seemingly only our building AND theirs was the only one that wasn't burgled. After the last incident with the armed intruder across the hall, the complex *FINALLY* installed burglar alarms in every unit. It didn't matter to me. It was too little, too late and besides the apartment was really too small for our needs. So I looked and asked around.

We got word from a friend that said a friend of a friend had a unit to rent that was only a few streets away from where we'd started out. So we went and looked. We made sure to visit in the evening hours so we had a good idea what the neighborhood felt like. You never want to visit during the day if you can help it because most people are out working and the kids are in school so the area's quiet. If you go in the evening, you can hear how loud some of the neighbors are and see if you feel safe there. It was a nice half of a duplex. There was a fenced in yard and a big shade tree in the back. Our part of the unit was set back from the road so we had plenty of warning before someone came up to the door. The floors were...well a bit weird but looked easy enough to keep clean. I didn't need to worry about vacuuming (no rugs), didn't have to wax (no linolium nor hardwoods)....just a quick mop; plus it came with a washer and dryer (hallelujah, no more hand washing the clothes!). There were 3 bedrooms, plenty enough for each of us to have our own space....or so one would think.

Things started off nicely here. It was close to both jobs so there was no longer the complaint of having to drive any extra. We had our room and he had his space...I had mine. Or so I thought. After a couple weeks of getting a taste of his own medicine (me going into my room and not coming back out for hours and hours), he started with the "I just wanna say hi" and the "I'm lonely" visits every 10-15 minutes. Yet....if I stayed off the computer and watched tv in the livingroom, he'd be in his room all damn night. Excuse?? He really did NOT like getting a taste of his own medicine. I remember once telling him that if he'd just friggin leave me alone for 20 minutes that I just *might* be able to finish this conversation with my friend (a nice gal in Cali who lived near my folks) and then I'd be out to watch tv. Do you think this worked? Nope. I even went as far as to restart the clock back to 20 minutes when he kept interrupting. I swear the man has no common sense. I finally asked him, what would it take to get him to leave me alone so I could talk to my friends (I mean jeeez he didn't allow me to have any real, honest to goodness, in the flesh ones that I could have face to face time with for goodness sakes!) and the answer? Move the computer out to the kitchen so he's not sitting "all alone" (oh boo-hoo) in the livingroom. *forehead-desk-repeat* Ya know, the minute the computer got moved to the kitchen.... he started spending more time in his room again. EXCUSE???

The only thing I didn't like about this place, other than the roommate, was the fact that the neighbor in the adjoining unit had 4 very rowdy young children. It wasn't so bad during the daytime hours when I was out at work. However, if I was pulling a night shift and had to sleep during the day? *sigh* You could forget it because two of the bedrooms faced the backyard, where they played a great deal of the time, and the last room was right next to the kids' room (where they were when it got nasty or too hot out, which was every other day or so). In any case, you couldn't sleep if you needed to.

I'd say about 2-3 months into this new place, I got removed from receiving position at TRU. I simply wasn't doing as good a job as the boss had been hoping for. Well gee, what do you think? I'm improperly trained, had to learn most of the stuff on my own and I have a whiney-jackass at home making me miserable. I had a huge mess that I inherited and companies that didn't want to play nice regarding getting the problems taken care of. I did do the job to the best of my ability. I do know how to multitask however, when 3 things need doing and they're in 3 different areas of the store? It's down right impossible especially if I have no one to delegate to. So I got removed from my 8am-5pm "cushy" job to a mixed schedule in the baby department. Me, the one with no kids and absolutely no friggin clue what anything is back there. Why? Because the department manager was pregnant and they needed someone to take over when she went on leave. This did not sit well with the girls that had been in that department since the beginning.....