Evil Rental Company

A letter to my evil rental company:

Yesterday on my way home from work I received a call from an employee of XXXX named Sarah. Sarah was kind enough to let me know that XXXX was going to be working in my apartment taking care of a maintenance issue and was asked to remove any of my personal belongings that I didn’t want to be bothered or damaged. I was pleasantly surprised that XXXX was notifying me before entering my apartment and giving me an opportunity to move things out of their way. On several previous occasions maintenance has entered without notifying me and they have left a mess.

When I arrived home my bathroom was a disaster. Maintenance had already been there. Many of my personal things had been removed from the shelf that they are stored on and were left on my floor. The floor was covered in grease, dirt and debris. The maintenance men that were in the apartment tracked mud and dirt through my apartment and my rugs.

When I called XXXX’s office and notified them of this issue I was told that the mess had been left because they were coming back. While I understand that XXXX needs to enter the apartment at times to perform maintenance it is unacceptable and inexcusable for your staff to leave a mess for me to come home to. To make matters worse the mess was left in the only bathroom I have. This is the third time that XXXX has entered my apartment and not cleaned up after they completed their maintenance activities. The previous two occasions were July 8, 2008 and once on Aug. 14, 2007. After each of those occasions XXXX was notified of this issue.

I understand that there is a maintenance issue that needs to be taken care of, however, it is frustrating to have to come home from work and clean up someone else’s mess. I do not think that you would allow a contractor into your home to perform work and not make them clean up after they completed their work. Please show me the same courtesy in the future and ensure your maintenance staff cleans up after they have finished their work in my apartment.

I sent this first thing this morning and have recieved no response. Obviously my rental company isn't XXXX.... I'll fill you in once I finally escape. 27 days and counting.

I fully expect to go home today and find they've ripped my bathroom apart and that there's more mud and grease all over the place. Seriously. I'd bet $100 on it.

Wanted to Share...

In my earlier moodiness I neglected to say how EXCITED I am about the new print I ordered from Wall Bank.



I hope it doesn't show up while I'm away at the beach.

I doubt it will.

It'll be going in my bedroom somewhere when I move.

I don't suppose I've mentioned going away to the beach, have I? Well I am. With my mom. I have uber amounts of hotel points from work. So I am cashing in and going to enjoy the beach. The sound of the ocean, the smell of the salt and sand... I leave on Sunday. Yay!

I have mentioned that I'm moving though. Less than 1 month... 28 days to be exact. But who's counting...

And even though it has been quiet at work, I'm getting a lot done. Which is what matters, right?

Rainy Day

Things are lonely in the office today. I work on the third floor of a building with 2 others (used to be 3, but one quit). The past few days have been quiet because the 2 gals I share a space with are on vacation. I didn't think I'd be lonely, after all, we're all busy doing our own work... but I am!

I decided to go out to lunch so I could get some human interaction. There's a grocery store in the Richmond area called Ukrops, and they have a salad bar/hot bar for lunch. I love their fried chicken so I walked in and they were all out. At lunch. At 12:30. Boo.

I got a microwavable pizza instead. I came back to the office and ate my pizza, and remember I'd stashed some pretzels in my desk! Yum! I opened them up and... I had bought the unsalted kind... :( Boo.

Murphy's Law I suppose.

Music

I am a huge music fan (who isn't?) and I really enjoy finding new stuff. I have my favorite bands and songs, but I still like a little variety. Besides, I like trying to fill my 120 GB iPod. Easier said then done, right?

You could feed the addiction by illegally downloading music...but let's say you can't or don't want to do that. Well- I have a couple suggestions for you.

1. If you have similar music tastes to me: Alternative Addiction. Lots of music news about your favorite alternative artists, but they also offer a great deal of free, no strings attached music. The free music is most unsigned bands trying to get their name out there. But just because they're unsigned doesn't mean that the music isn't good. I have found lots (and I mean LOTS) of awesome bands this way. Sometimes you can track down a full CD (sometimes you can't) but you still have some good music. There are also (sometimes) bands/artists you'll recognize. Right now, for example, there's a Chris Cornell track for a free download.

2. Swap a CD. This site is awesome. I've talked about it before, but its worth mentioning again. This site is great for anyone, no matter what you're musical tastes are. You send out CD's and in return you get to request CD's from others.

A few drawbacks-You pay for postage when you send out CD's, but in turn they (the other users) cover the postage on CD's sent to you. Postage (with the new rate hikes) is only $.81 so that's not to bad. Swap a CD also charges you a $.49 fee for each transaction. No one like fees BUT this covers you if the CD gets lost in the mail, gets damaged, or shows up in unusable condition. Really- the $.49 covers your butt in case something happens so you don't lose a CD credit.

SO- a CD from Swap a CD with postage and the fee will cost you $1.30. Where else will you be able to get a CD for that? And there are lost of new and hard to find CD's on Swap a CD too.

The other draw back is time. You can get an awesome selection of CD's from Swap a CD, but you have to wait for them to become available. When I first joined in January I added 100's of CD's to my wish list. Some of those wishes were granted quickly and there are others I'm still waiting on. Not all CD's have a waiting list. I got plenty when I joined that were just waiting for me. More popular CD's have a wait list. For example, I added the Killer's Day & Age to my wish list on 1/25/09 and I am only #12 of 52, but Swap a CD is telling me I'll be #10 in 2 weeks. So I'm getting closer, but I have to wait, and I'm cool with that.

My most recent Swap a CD acquisitions are:

The Matches- Decomposer
Green River Ordinance- Out of My Hands
The Afters- Never Going to be OK
Mike Doughty- Haughty Melodic

And Soul Coughing's Best of, and Spoon's Telephono are on their way to me. So I'm getting good music. It's worth it to me, but if you can't wait for your music or you don't want to pay for it, Swap a CD might not be right for you. It is still cheaper than iTunes.

Too Much Etsy

You know you've been on etsy to much when you start dreaming about it. Granted, it was a good dream, but still.

In the dream there was a mall (a real B&M mall) with all the stores being etsy stores. I had teamed up with another seller and we had opened up our own store in said mall. We were super busy and sold out, and at the end of the day we were named, "Best New Shop". It was a fun dream and then I woke up to go to the gym and my real job. Boo!

Etsy has been going well for me! I've had a lot of really big orders in the past few week or so. Pretty exciting. When I get home in the evenings I'm either making marble magnets, or photographing what I've already made. Do I expect to make tons of money? No. But I is fun, and the extra pocket money (and the excuse to buy fun paper) is nice.

Shameless self promoting:
www.sideproject.etsy.com

I promise, there is very little promoting going on here. I'm really pretty bashful about my shop.

My Sister is Getting Married

My little sister is getting married. I'm happy for her. Her fiancee is a nice enough guy, although he's screwed up a few times. I would not still be dating him, but I'm not my sister and I have more than enough problems with my own boyfriend.

My sister and I are not close. We are very, very different people. Once in awhile we'll go on an afternoon shopping trip, but even then we don't have similar tastes in stores. I like my sister, but she and I are wildly different. We're sisters, but we aren't friends. I have spoken to her twice in the last 3 months. Once when she told me her boyfriend had proposed and told me (not asked) that I was going to be her Maid of Honor. I'm honored she chose me, although a little surprised because, like I said, we aren't friends, and I live 4 hours away.

And the second time my sister has called me was tonight. She found her wedding dress and I'm happy for her. She went looking for a dress with some friends. She's chosen terracotta and latte for brides maid colors. She wants me, as her maid of honor, to be in a different color than the other girls. So I'm in terracotta- orange. I told her I'd much rather be in the latte (a light brown) but she said one of her friends wouldn't look good in orange, so that's why I have to be. Not that I'll look good in orange. :(

I'm feeling a bit petty I suppose. My sister calls to ask me my opinion and when I give it to her she doesn't like it, and tells me I'll be in orange if I like it or not because its HER wedding. That's my sister for you.

I said to my sister, "Why don't we just have all the brides maids in the brown? I'd know I'd rather have brown because I'd like to be able to wear this dress again if I'm going to be paying for it."

She responded, "It's a bride maid dress, you can't wear it again anyway."

Why would you spend so much on a dress that you can't wear again? It seems like such a waste. If I get married, I'll be in white, and the brides maids will be in a black or brown (or something neutral that can be worn again).

But like she said- its HER wedding. It isn't about me.

What a bright ray of sunshine I am today.

I've just felt like crap for the past few weeks.

My own love life is in shambles. I tried to break up with my boyfriend and he talked me out of it, but then he's turned around and been thoughtless all week.

I feel very alone in this world.

There's no one for me to call and talk to- just the world wide web to spill my feelings to. I'm pathetic.

Love & Hate

I have a love/hate relationship with the gym.

I like getting into the gym first thing in the morning. It really sets the tone for the rest of the day. I get on the treadmill and I run until I'm hot, sweaty, and tired BUT the rest of the day I feel like I've accomplished something. It also makes me feel refreshed, tired, but refreshed. Best of all, it makes me feel better about myself.

On the other side of that I hate getting up so early. I spent my teenage and college years staying up all hours of the night and sleeping/napping in the day. It has been hard to get myself up and when the alarm goes off it is just to easy to turn it off.

When I first started working out I did a good job of getting myself out of bed. It was a routine. My alarm went off, and I got up.

Then work got busy. I started having to do some travel and we had some late night events going on. The gym stopped being a routine. And then I had to take time of due to family issues and it just kept getting harder to get up. I was going to bed later and I just couldn't get myself out of bed.

I was on vacation not to long around (and lucky enough I didn't kill anybody) but that was another week when I was out of the gym.

So this week was my time to get back into things. Monday morning the alarm goes off and... I reset it and slept in.

Tuesday I did better- I got up and went but I could only do a mile on the treadmill before I was huffing and puffing. How did I fall out of shape so quickly?! Wednesday the alarm went off... and I slept through it. I was mad at myself all day. Here I was trying to get back to my routine and it wasn't happening. On the way home from work I was able to talk myself going for a run down Monument Ave. It was a nice run and I don't have anything against running outside, I just have trouble pacing myself. Given the option I am a huge slacker. The treadmill keeps going no matter what speed I want to run. When I run outside, I go slower, I take more walking breaks- I don't push myself.

I didn't do awful running outside- I did about 10 blocks before my body demanded a walk. The run back 10 blocks to my apartment wasn't as easy. I bet I only ran every other. On the bright side I'm doing far better than a year ago. A year ago I wouldn't have even been able to run 2 blocks before stopping.

And I had an awesome time (for me) during the Monument 10k.

I was able to get my butt up and out of bed then on Thursday and again today. I also did a lot better on the treadmill. I still only ran a mile, but I ran a fast one and I'm hoping I can get back to my 2 miles a day by Tuesday or Wednesday.

I feel better when I work out. I'm looking better! But the big thing is that I feel better. I'm happier, I'm healthier. So yeah, I hate getting up in the morning, but I love getting into the gym in the morning.