I was pretty sure my roommate was 37 when I first started living with her but now I’m convinced that might be in dog years.

This chick is something else.  She’s got a really great paying job (seriously, she makes BANK) but I’m in a financial place that’s about 50 times better than she is.  She’s selfish.  She’s whiney.  And she wants to play the damsel in distrass ALL. THE DAMN. TIME. 

I have no tolerance for this.

Add to that the monster toddler she has and you have a portrait of DYSFUNCTION.  The kid?  Is beyond bratty.  I want to pinch his head off about three times a week, which is kind of a lot when you consider that he lives with his father 50% of the time.  I’m glad I won’t be around to see what kind of little bastard he turns out to be when he’s 10.  Maybe by then she’ll lose her custody all together and the kid will get some discipline from his father.

We aren’t on speaking terms right now.  We had a disagreement about the electric bill, of all things.  She can’t afford electricity.  Seriously.  Because of this our electric bill gets paid late every month.  The electric company has recently decided that they want a security deposit.  This sparked a conversation about conserving energy. She told me that the girls need to learn to turn off the ceiling fan, their bedroom light, and the TV when they aren’t in use.

And then proceeds to leave her son’s bedroom light on 24/7, even when he’s spending the night at his father’s.

Another thing she does that drives me batshit crazy is turn on the AC on days when it’s beautiful outside and all the windows are open.  I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve noticed the unit running when I’m outside with the dogs and all of the downstairs and half of the upstairs windows are open.

She’s also not a dog person.  Why anyone would agree to live with someone who has two large dogs when they don’t like dogs is beyond me.  Poor Chuck and Jezzy spend a lot of time on my side of the second floor.  I spend a lot of time in that area with them but they can’t have the run of the house unless the roommate, her son, and her boyfriend who doesn’t live here (but rarely goes home) are out. (She gave her boyfriend keys to the house without telling me…let alone asking if I mind…which I DO MIND.)

Is living with her better than my old living arrangement?  Yes.  But it’s not a desireable arrangement by any means.

As of this moment I’m in “Operation:  Move The Hell Away From This Crazy Bitch” mode.  I’ve cut back on stupid spending.  I’m not buying Starbucks any more.  I’m only buying lunch at work on Fridays.  No more shoe shopping, clothes shopping, book shopping. 

I’ll be calling my real estate guy first thing in January.  Hopefully the housing market stays in this slump so I can find a nice rental for a good price and nice landlords that won’t mind the dogs.

Wish me luck.

I know a couple who have been together for about 8 months.  At first everything was lovey dovey and sickeningly sweet.  But, as time goes on and real life starts to kick in things start to falter.

This couple has been arguing a lot lately.  (No, it’s not me and Rich, we haven’t known each other that long…and we don’t argue over stupid crap.)  Yesterday they broke up for about five hours but then got back together late at night. (Like 11-ish)

This couple irritates the crap out of me.  I’m tired of watching them.  I’m tired of the “woe is me” whining.  I’m tired of the cycle of tension that builds and builds until there’s a falling out.  I’m tired of the crying and the making up.  Tired, tired, tired.

I would love to speak my mind but I can’t.  It’s not my business.  So I will write it here.

To Him:  You need to cut your losses and move on.  You’re way too young to be dealing with someone her age (13 years older) with her problems.  She takes a lot more than she gives.  She will bleed you dry emotionally and financially if you let her.  I’m sorry for you.  You’re getting ready to learn a very expensive lesson and you’re probably going to have trust issues later. 

To Her:  You need to let him go.  You’ve got no business dating right now with your legal and financial problems.  You should be focusing on digging yourself out of the hole you’re in.  You need therapy, you are the poster child for dysfunction.  You’re self centered and spoiled.  You don’t make good choices.  The longer I know you the more I can’t stand you and I will dance with glee when the day comes that I don’t have to even think about you again.  I know you need me a lot more than I need you but I will have no problem walking away and letting you fall on your ass.  The level of your sense of entitlement is astounding, even with all of the curves life has thrown at you.  You haven’t learned a thing.

Damn.  I thought that would make me feel marginally better but it didn’t.  All it did was make me want to launch into a long, detailed rant.  I won’t do it though.  It’s one thing for me to post details of my life.  It’s another thing entirely for me to post the details of someone else’s, no matter how effed up they are and how entertaining they may be for an audience.

My voice is back!  I can talk!  (Insert Charelotte’s Web “I Can Talk” song here.)  It’s not 100% but it’s almost there.  Thankyajeezus!

Today at work my world came crashing down.  All of the jobs I’ve been doing that I’m finally mastering have been taken away.  Trade titles.  Inspections.  Maryland TriVIN.  All gone.  I’m now learning how to process “out of state” title work and let me tell you…it sucks.  I don’t like it at all so far.  Regs are different for every state…and even many counties!  I have to refer to the NADA book just to figure out how to go about getting my job done.  And as an added bonus I will now spend HOURS on the phone hunting down things I need to get deals processed before temp tags die. It’s got to be the most difficult job in the entire department.  Makes sense to hand it over to the new girl, no?

Stupidhead supervisor.

On a sunnier note…I had an evaluation today.  It went well but it was written weeks ago…when I had only been there for a month.  It was a satisfactory eval and it was notated all over the place that I’m new on the job.  My supervisor had to kind of wing it because I know a whole lot more now than I did when that eval was written.  The VP (the one who hired me) said that all of the feedback he’s gotten from people about me is positive.  (I don’t know who he asked but thanks!)  We talked about some of the job duties I’ve been doing and he asked me if I had any ideas on how to make it go more smoothly.  We talked for about 20 minutes just on ways to improve the department and the man took notes!  It could be that he took notes during all of the eval conversations but for now I’m going to let my head swell a little bit and get all stuck up about it.  I deserve it. 

I’m not looking forward to going to work tomorrow.  Today I mostly sat around and watched my co-worker do the job I’m learning.  I was able to take a stack of files and plow through them, finding the ones that somehow managed to be done correctly so they could be sent straight to DC DMV and sorting through the remaining ones to see what I needed to get in order to process them.  I did manage to clear up three within 15 minutes of picking up the phone (all for insurance issues) and my co-worker seemed to think it was a huge deal that I solved the problems so quick.  Maybe it takes her so much longer because she talks to people like she’s known them forever and spends way too long chit chatting about crap that has nothing to do with the reason she called.  I’m on and off the phone in less than two minutes.  Anyway, I see tomorrow being a repeat of today.  Blerg.

That’s all there is to report.  Tonight I plan to watch the fourth episode of season 1 of House.  I watched three episodes back to back last night.  If I could have kept my eyes open I would have watched the last one.  I love that show!

I’m sick, y’all.  For the last two days I’ve had no voice.  None.  Not even a squeak.  Yesterday at work I was whispering all day long.  And my co-workers made lots of comments about how quiet it was.  One lady said it was almost like I wasn’t even there.  Hmph.  My friend took me to lunch and we went to Potbelly.  She had to place my order for me.  She thought it was funny.  I was not as amused.

Last night Rich made dinner for me and the girls at his place.  Usually when he cooks I sit on the counter and talk to him while he works.  Since I couldn’t talk Amber took my place and I stayed in the living room watching TV.  Rich and the girls conversated without me during dinner.  

Today the girls and I ran some errands.  It’s hard to even check out at the store without being able to talk.  Amie had to do the talking for me.  I felt like an idiot.  At one point I was thinking about going to Starbucks but decided against it when I remembered that I couldn’t order.  So…we came home and I slept away the afternoon instead.

Tomorrow will be another quiet day.  Hopefully after three days of silence I’ll be better on Monday.

 

I was reading the Petfinder forums today and came upon this post:

Nicki was a beuriful senior husky, very quiet dog. She was viciously killed by a lab pit mix that was a stray that hung around our house for weeks during the hot summer days, we named her Jane and took her in got her shots and spayed. On saturday my daughter came home to find Nicki dead torn apart by Jane. Sorry to say I will never trust pits again.Jane looked to be a good girl loving weth big dreamy eyes. I never thought this would ever happen. Nixki is gone but so is Jane.I can never forget what she did. Thanks for reading.

Tragic.   I feel awful for this lady and her family.  And I feel worse for the dogs. Both of them.

This situation could have been prevented.  If this family had taken some basic precautions both dogs would still be alive today.

The golden rule of being a pit bull owner is never trust your pit bull not to fight.  That means always separate your dogs if they aren’t being supervised.  Most people will tell you to crate the dogs but I will sometimes leave Chuck and Jezzie in separate bedrooms when I’m not home.

After all I’ve seen in rescue I will NEVER leave two dogs, especially two dogs of the same sex, alone togehter. Not just pit bulls and rottweilers…I won’t leave two beagles alone together.  There are just too many potential triggers that could spark a fight.  A stray toy on the floor.  A bone hidden under the couch.  Or just an attempt to establish pack order between the two while the pack leaders (the people) are away. 

Chuck is very intolerant of other dogs.  He went after Brutus, intent to kill him twice.  I have no doubt that if I hadn’t been there to pull Chuck off of Brutus…Brutus would have been ripped to shreds.  The only dog Chuck tolerates is Jezebel.  He is actually submissive to her, which is kind of contradictory.   He loves her.  I’m confident that if he hadn’t known her before he hit maturity he wouldn’t tolerate her either.  I KNOW that if Chuck had displayed this behavior at the shelter I adopted him from he would have been deemed unadoptable and put to sleep.  I’m glad he wound up with me because I understand that dog aggression is a breed trait.  I also understand that his aggression towards other dogs has nothing to do with his love for people. 

Chuck is still shy with strangers but once he knows you he will knock you down in his excitement to say hello. Every time he sees Rich his ears perk up, his tail wags, and he spins around in circles trying to get Rich to play with him.  I think it’s safe to say that Rich now has two step-dogs. 

Jezebel is OK with other dogs as long as she’s introduced slowly.  She gets extremely stressed if there are too many of them around and she will snarl and bark and behave like a crazed lunatic.  But she can go from snarling to licking my face in less than half a second.  It would never occur to her to show any type of negativity towards a person.

People roll their eyes at me when I tell them about the dangers of leaving multiple dogs loose in the house while they’re alone.  I hope those people never experience the loss that the Petfinder poster did.

I’ll end this by pointing you to the BAD RAP blog.  The entry is a good one but if you aren’t interested in reading it please at least take the quiz at the bottom.  You might be suprised at some of the answers.

http://badrap-blog.blogspot.com/2007/10/lets-talk-about-dog-aggression.html

If you and your ex wind up in court to review child support, even if it’s HIS idea, DO NOT agree to an out of court settlement.  I have recently learned that if you and your ex, with your legal counsel as witnesses, come to an agreement… the party who initiated the review can later decide that he doesn’t really agree…and can pretend it never happened.

Sound like bullshit to you?  Yeah, it does to me too.  Yet somehow I’m getting screwed. 

I’m supposed to talk to my lawyer tomorrow.  My first question to him will be “Why the FUCK did you advise me to settle in the FUCKING hallway of the courthouse instead of standing before the judge who would have ruled in my favor?????”

Yes.  John (not his real name but close enough) is a shiesty bastard.  When you’re young you’re stupid…and marrying that asshole was probably, while not THE stupidest, was ONE OF the stupidest things I’ve ever done.  I don’t regret having my girls but I do regret choosing him to be their father.

I’m going to go to sleep now so I can dream about sending him through a wood chipper feet first. 

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