Random Thoughts of the Day

This quarter has been unrealistic. Yes, I used quarter because I am taking (online) classes from a local community college. I got ambitious and decided to take THREE classes, a full load, trying to finish my AA sooner. The quarter started out with 15 hours overtime week and went downhill from that point on. Everytime I thought I was all caught up some other ch*t happened and I was back to struggling to keep abreast again. Grrrrrr. The eviciton, hubby's job situation, his Navy reserve military training... how does that concern me? I'm a VERY dependent wife, so where he goes, I go.

Ever since the bad news about Hubby's job, he has been sending out feelers to a few other places. For some reason, he seems to be hot commodity wherever he goes. Grrrrr. Not that it's a bad thing. I mean, I certain don't want him to be unemployed, I'm just envious.

"Why do everybody like you (work-wise)?" I asked, pouting and stomping feet.

"Because I am knowledgeable," said him, clinically and rationally.

"Because you are lovable?"

"Because I am knowledgeable," he repeated.

"Because you are lovable?"

"Because I am knowledgeable and hard working."

"Because you are loveable and hot looking?"

Hubby said my mind was in the gutter. =.= My mind was in the gutter because I think my own husband is hot looking? :P

Apartment II

So it was really painful for Hubby and I to give up on the fancy apartment in downtown SJ but we've agreed that as soon as the lease is up on our next apartment, which we'll be moving into this coming weekend, and that both of us have stable job situations, we are going to move to the downtown apartment. :D The moving is, of course, going to be a pain. But by now we are already expert in moving. So, rest be sured, I'll be counting down till the end of lease.... Speaking of which, I wonder what's the penalty is breaching the lease. :D

 

Days left as of June 17, move in date: 288 days

Me Estupido Espouso

The first thing I asked my Spanish speaking coworker to teach me was "my stupid husband." At first she thought we were those type who were married for 10 years and were bitter at each other and called each other names constantly. At time went on, she realized that the real reason behind "me estupido espouso." Me estupido espouso just does funny things from time to time. In his defense, it really isn't his fault. It's that damned Y-chromosome. Yes, here comes the truth, behind the whole liberal front, I'm just another sexist. I believe that the two genders are not equal. We females are just the better of the two. Men, men are just talented in doing certain stupid things. Like I've said, they can't help it. (Mike: I am not having this discussion with you. We'll just have to agree to disagree. :P)

For example, Hubby insisted to have his coworkers help us move instead of hiring a moving company. Failing to convince him otherwise, I figured it really doesn't matter either way. I couldn't lift much heavy boxes anyway. :D So I thought to make life easier, we might as well plan out where we'll be putting the big furnitures in our apartment using the floor plan. That way we don't have to randomly throw things into the apartment during the move, and ended up having to rearrange everything after the big, burly White boys left. (Yes, I am racist too. :P I like them White boys.) Upon hearing my suggestion, Hubby happily started planning the interior layout of our new apartment and showed them to me.

"What are these two squares on both side of the desk?" I asked.

"Bookshelves."

Um... not exactly big furnitures, but okay.

"And what are these two smaller squares next to them?"

"Trash can and the shredder."

Trash can and shredder??? Who draws in such details? (Answer: my husband.)

Upon further inspection, there were also his two monitors, keyboard, and mouse right that goes right on his desk.

I laughed so hard he finally disgrudgingly erased his trash can and shredder from his master piece.

Honey, you really didn't have to do that. XD

The $300 Cat Litter Box

Last week was arguably the most stressful week in my adult life. "Adult" subject to definition. Nothing major really went wrong since the bad news about Hubby's job, but it just seemed that things kept happened one after another. We got the bad news about Hubby's job on Monday, he then turned in his resume to another job the same day. It's very conveniently now in this electronic age. He accessed his online resume; sent a copy to his friend; his friend handed it to HR directly. We figured since layoff could potentially be around the problem, it never hurt to have options. He heard back from the place the very next day, Tuesday. How was that negative, you ask. Well, the HOURS sucked. As if his hours right now is not bad enough. The company loved his resume, having the same background as his friend who works there and told him he could choose (to interview for) either the entry level or the supervisor level. Get this, the supervisory level has worse hours than entry level. Ugh. The wonderful world of blue collar workers. Even though it was just talk, it stressed me out big time. I guess at any point in life, I needed something, anything positive to look forward to -- nice place to live, more disposable income, more time with Hubby. I guess the crappy hours will give us significantly more disposable income, but I'm not sure I want the lifestyle of a widow. Is money really worth that?

So the apartment, compounded with the job situation (have I mentioned that I am waiting to hear back from this job I've interviewed for also?), compounded with the fact that I was having the worse PMS ever, compounded with the fact that I was slept poorly the entire week (which hasn't happened for the longest time), further compounded by the fact that I was carrying a full college class loads and that we had to go to Sacramento for the weekend, combined made the worse week for me. I never even knew I could be stressed to a point that I sleep poorly.

The trip to Sacramento was uneventful, barring the fact that I was exhausted the entire time and had to take two midterms. When we finally got home Sunday night, I heard Kitty meowing nonstop as soon as I walked into the door. Right away I knew she was stuck somewhere. Sure enough, she was locked in the walk-in closet the entire weekend. You can't ask the best behaved cat to not pee for two days. And you got it, she peed on the most expensive thing possible -- my newly purchased down feather comforter and Calvin Klein comforter cover, totalling USD$300.

The bright side? At least it wasn't on the carpet. And for everything else, there's always MasterCard, and ebay.

Hurdles

As life (fate?) unfolds itself, we (Hubby and I) came to realize that being evicted by our landlady wasn't the only hurdle that life (God?) placed in front of it. Before we've decided on the cute and cozy downtown townhome apartment, Hubby and I debated long and hard -- whether we should indulge ourselves and get a nice but expensive place, or just get a cheaper (but not cruddy) place and save up money for our next house. As I've said, after a long and hard debate (very, very hard, especially for me, emotionally), we've decided on the downtown one unanimously. We even put down our deposit, which subsequently gives us three-days time to change our minds. Low and behold, on exactly the third day, Hubby called with more bad news (bad, not worse) -- he could no longer work overtime freely, all overtime in the future must be approved explicitly. Being a skilled knowledge blue-collar worker, the overtime makes up a significant portion of Hubby's pay. Another round of debate thus took place. Shall we cancel the apartment that we loved so much while we still could. It wasn't easy. But sometimes in life you realize that the difference between those who are financially sound and those who are up to their eyeballs in debt is not necessarily their income, although that plays a big role also, but their philosophy and self-restraint regarding spending. Before we bought our first house, Hubby and I had agreed that we should not live beyond our means, so hard as it might be, we had no choice but to cancel the townhouse.

 

Nobody said life is fair. But to focus on the bright side, things could definitely be worse: Hubby could have gotten the news a day later, and we would have lost our $100 deposit, or worse, he could have gotten the news *after* we moved in and were stuck with the 8-months lease, or even worse, he could have gotten the news *after* we bought our next house.... I guess sometimes in life we should just continue to count our blessings. We both still have our health, AND our jobs, things could definitely be a lot worse.

Apartment

There! We did it. Finally found ourselves an apartment. Actually, I spoke too soon, we are still waiting for them to conduct the background check and give us the confirmation before we can start switching over our services and such.

We (hope we) got this cozy little two-story townhouse in downtown San Jose. I am abiding to my friend E's philosophy: Since we are just renting, might as well go for some unique experience. I've never lived in downtown. There's certain draw to that modern, stylelish lifestyle (key cards! tendom parking! pet rent!), walking distance to work, BlockBuster across the street, walking distance to many fine restaurants, a block from the university, and walking distance to performance art theaters etc. Right in the heart of everything.

Having something at the new place to look forward to is definitely helping to lighten to mood of being evicted. It's a nice 8-month experience (when lease end), then perhaps we, like many forefathers before us, will also take the big plunge and buy or own property in the god forsaken Silicon Valley.

Nest II

Today my friend E told me that birds, like humans, lay eggs regardless
and will always sit on them to see if they'll hatch. It doesn't
necessarily mean that those are fertilized eggs and that they will
necessarily hatch. :(( I hope they do.

She also said that doves are monogamous. I've never seen a second
(male) bird around the nest. This is not looking good. :(

Perspective

Cat from animal shelter: $27
Cat rent for apartment downtown: $25/month
The joy of living in downtown apartment with cat and hubby: priceless
For everything else, there's my biweekly paycheck $$$

Eviction II

For some odd reasons, everytime I tell someone we are being evicted, they act as though our landlord (landlady) is commiting this heinous crime towards us. I mean, a lease is a contract between two parties. Our 1 year least was up so we've gone to month to month, and in all honesty, while she didn't mention about renewing the lease, we didn't bring it up either, mainly because Hubby has been looking for jobs outside of this area.

After all, a contract has to be cancelled by one of the two parties. Why is it that it's okay for a tenant to "screw over" the landlord, but not the other way round? I don't even see this as a bad thing necessarily. Her husband passed, she decided to sell the house. It's not like she saw it coming. And heck, it's her house, she can choose to sell us regardless of whether her husband passed away or not. It's an inconvenience to have to look for a new place and move FOR THE SIXTH TIME IN FOUR YEARS, but definitely not heinous. And now that I've gotten into the mind set, I am kinda looking forward to moving to a new place, assuming it's a nice place. :)

A Thousand Words

They say a picture equals 1,000 words. I guess this is a 2,000 words+ blog entry then. :D The following bird had built a nest on the fence right outside our door. And it has TWO eggs in it! :) Hopefully we'll be able to see the chicklets hatch before we move. :D