I’m out. Deliberately Avoiding Your Call.

That’s how I’m feeling about our current Presidential candidates. All spoons and no knives. As a matter of fact, we’ve become a nation of spoons.

It’s like everyone’s balls have dropped off. No one wants to be associated with people who say things or do things that might be considered controversial by some. God forbid anyone say “You people need to lighten up. We live in a country who takes pride in having freedom of speech. Even if we all don’t agree on the speech.” I’m tired of hearing the “{Insert political jerk off here} condemns the remarks made by {insert free thinker here}. He/she does not agree with those views/that language/those remarks and does not condone that behavior.” Jesus people grow a pair already.

You know, the energy policies and budget reforms and views on war aren’t on my radar right now and I’ll tell you why. The candidates are all the same. All their plans and policies will be the same as the previous president’s and as the next president’s. I don’t buy anyone’s talk about change. It’s all a bunch of horseshit.

What will really motivate me to get behind someone and vote is how they stand for the people they have chosen to be in their circle. Whether or not they’ll grant second chances to those who make mistakes or have temporary lapses in judgement. I know that sounds ridiculous and in a way it is ridiculous. But I’m tired of traditional politics and voting on the lesser of two evils. I want to vote for a real person with real feelings and a real view of the world and the people in it.

And right now we have two spoons. Two very shallow spoons. Get me a knife and then we’ll talk.

Next week I am on vacation. It’s actually a staycation. I had planned on getting everything in order in my house. I’ve been there for almost five months and still haven’t unpacked boxes, hung curtains or pictures or put my furniture in an order that makes me happy. Notice the operative word there is had.

My brother finally got a job. YAY! He starts Monday. Double YAY! He hasn’t signed his daughter up for daycare. Boo! He still needs to get information from his ex which won’t happen until next week. Boo again! He automatically assumed I would babysit. DOUBLE BOO!

So I guess my vacation will be spent babysitting. Lovely.

I’m such a sucker.

First off, let me start by saying how much I love my new apartment. It’s perfect. Beautiful craftsman style architecture on the outside, spacious and well layed (laid? I never know) out on the inside and a beautiful view of Mt Hood. It’s cute as hell and I can’t get over the fact that I was able to secure the exact apartment I wanted. I couldn’t be happier…except, I really could.

You see, I live on the ground floor. By choice mind you, seeing as I didn’t want to do any damage to our newly purchased piano and thought it would just be easier all around to be on the bottom floor. Of course that means you hear your upstairs neighbors walking around, and their baby crying at all hours of the day and night, but those are things I can live with. What I am having difficulty living with is the bitch on the third floor who smokes and then throws her butts over the balcony to land in my flowers and all over my patio.

I don’t mind if people smoke. Hell, it’s your body and you can do whatever you want to it. I’m in no position to tell anyone how to live. But I do mind when someone inflicts their gross personal habits on my space. Not only that, but we live in a non smoking building so she is technically not even supposed to be on the sidewalk that runs around our building, much less smoking inside the apartment (or on the balcony). None of my business mind you, but it’s starting to become a real problem for me.

I don’t want to be seen as the annoying neighbor who rats on her fellow apartment dwellers. I like keeping the peace. But I also don’t want to live with this problem any more. I have considered going out there, sweeping them all up and then depositing the whole mess on her doorstep, but that might start something I’m not prepared for, like physical violence. Or a grudge. No thanks.

Of course, I’m not very popular right now anyway, what with my almost burning down the apartment building with a pizza a few short weeks ago. So maybe I should just go and rat this girl out. What a mess.

On the upside, classes are going well. This pre-calculus is going to kick my ass for the next eight weeks. I hope I can pull out a passing grade so I can move on from that whole mess!

Yesterday, I came across this article telling me that single parents are a burden to taxpayers.

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.

Geez. I must have missed the memo telling me to quit my job and apply for welfare. But no worries, I’m all over it. Starting today I’ll be making up for lost time by quitting my job, applying for food stamps, health care and monetary assistance from the good old U.S. of A. I mean, if that’s what is expected of me, then hell, I’d love to stay home all day, eat bon bons and watch television all at YOUR expense.

Oh yeah, and making sure my kid has a miserable life…forgot that one.

“The study documents for the first time that divorce and unwed childbearing – besides being bad for children – are costing taxpayers a ton of money,” said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.

Seriously, this just makes me so damned angry. I hate group assumptions. Except for right now. Right now I’m going to say this group of people belonging to the “Institute for American Values” is a bunch of shitheads. Every. Last. One.

Cheese and Rice. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

So last week was all about getting the previous house ready for our move out walkthrough yesterday. I hired a cleaning company to come in on Friday, and a carpet cleaner for Saturday. I felt fairly confident things would be in tip top shape come Monday. Oh how wrong I was.

Friday ended up being a fairly busy day for me at work. I ended up only going to the house long enough to let the cleaning people in, explain what I was most concerned about, pay and leave, asking that they lock the door upon their exit. I was not able to return on Friday night to check their work, but didn’t feel too concerned because the guy assured me they “guaranteed” their work and would come back if necessary to finish anything they missed.

Saturday morning I arrived at the townhouse and walked into a sweltering pit. Turns out they cranked the heat up to 90 degrees and didn’t turn it off again when they left. As I got to walking around, I was mortified at what I saw. Seems like the things I told them I was most concerned with were the ONLY things they did.

They barely wiped the kitchen counters off, did not wash the back boards around the kitchen counters, turned on the stove cleaner, but didn’t wipe it out once the cleaning had finished. They did not wipe off any door frames (a natural dust gathering place), did not wipe down the walls where pictures hung (also a natural dust gathering place), did not wipe the dust off any vents or the ceiling fan or the ceiling around the fan. They did not wash any baseboards or bathtubs. They actually took one vent cover off the ceiling, but did not replace it, leaving it in the bathroom sink. They didn’t even touch the upstairs bedrooms (blinds mostly).

Not only that, the put a HUGE FREAKING HOLE in the wall behind the front door. It was the doorknob for sure, which is a mystery since the door has a stopper on it keeping the knob away from the wall by about two inches. I tested it and you would literally have to take the stopper off and push the door into the wall for it to happen.

After I calmed down a bit, I went into the garage to put the trash out for Monday, and guess what I found? That’s right, the cleaning crew’s CRAP piled up next to the trash can.

It was a pickle for me as the cleaning company does not answer the phones on weekends and my walkthrough was to be Monday. I ended up writing the rental company a long letter about the situation. Mostly because this was the company they told us to use. I gave them a litany of reasons this company sucks and why they should not be a vendor in good standing with the lease company.

I called the cleaning company and they told me they couldn’t get to it yesterday, but they knew the lockbox code for the rental management company and would be in some time this week to finish the job. Not concerned at all with the problems or damage they caused.

I can’t begin to tell you how angry I am. I have moved all over the world and these fine United States. I have had companies clean and I’ve cleaned myself. This is by far the WORST move out clean in history. And here’s the kicker: becuse they guarantee their work, I cannot demand a refund unless the job is not completed within 90 days. WTF is that about?

I’m completely and totally flabbergasted by this whole mess! Lesson learned: Always stick around to check work others are doing for you. Otherwise you end up with a big stinking pile of nothin.