Wishing I was more devious
I haven't posted in a while because things here have been...complicated. The main thing has been our neighbors. All of the sudden, they've decided to be hateful bitches. No exaggeration.
The one across the back fence has complained several times about one of the bushes intruding onto her back yard and "ruining the fence." We've told her to feel free to cut whatever crosses over into her yard. However, the fence thing is totally bogus as the fence was damaged during Hurricane Ike, and then continually trashed by her annoying yappy dogs.
Now, the one to our right has become the major problem. She reported to the HOA that we were not in compliance in several things. She complained about our bushes not being trimmed up to standard. She complained that our giant oak tree, which had to have been purposely saved when the subdivision was built 15 years ago due to its size, was causing her grass to die and mold to grow in her house because she wasn't getting enough sun. WTF. The kicker: she complained about my car. It's been sitting in the driveway since I broke my ankles the week we moved in. Getting it fixed always just ended up getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile of bills and stuff that needed to be paid. All of the sudden, she's decided that she can't stand it anymore. She told the HOA about the car, and they've told us that we have 30 days to move the car, and fix the bushes and tree. So fabulous.
What is really nice is that we didn't get any of the notices from the HOA. They were sent to the previous owner of the house, not the guys that own it now that we rent from. So we had NO IDEA that all of this shit was happening until just recently. So thrilled.
What was really really shitty happened yesterday. The hateful neighbor next door had her landscaper trim our bushes and take a chunk off the tree. All of this happened on OUR property. None of it was on hers. One of the guys who owns the house came out last night (we think) to check out the damage she wreaked. An arborist should have trimmed the tree, not her "landscaper." There are tons of stub cuts and they took two giant branches out, without sealing the cuts they made. If they kill our large tree, we will be very very pissed. Also, they may kill at least one of the bushes, because you shouldn't do major trimming during the summer, because it'll kill the plant. Every landscaper should know not to do anything until real autumn. I really really hope that she gets in trouble. She deserves it for being such a heinous bitch for no reason other than the fact that she can.
(I've been working with my best friend to come up with devious ways of making her life annoying... like putting vaseline on her doorknob. Naturally, we would have to wait until way later in the year when it won't appear to come from us.)
HOWEVER, there have been good things...
I started a diet on Monday, and so far so good. It's Richard Simmon's Food Mover program. I love Richard. I know he's a silly caricature at this point, but he's awesome as a motivator. The program basically uses the Diabetic Food Exchange System. There's a little compact thing that is a tangible way to track your food intake for the day. I'm finding it fairly easy. I haven't felt really hungry yet. I'm drinking a lot more water than usual (and have given up soda). I've been amazed at how much food I can really eat and still meet, or be under, my caloric intake limit for the day. I haven't started Sweatin' to the Oldies 5 yet, because that will require me taking my dvd player downstairs, and I just haven't had the energy.
The really good thing is, I'm motivated to keep going on this. I need to lose weight. For my health, but also for my self-esteem. I haven't felt pretty since my last relationship ended so badly. I rarely get flirted with. I also have body dysmorphia - my brain thinks I'm skinnier than I am in reality and I do things like try to squeeze through gaps that I actually can't squeeze through because my thighs are much larger than my brain believes they are. My knees will be a lot happier once I'm not carrying around so much extra me. I'd love to be able to go into any store and try on clothes. I'm not wanting to get down to a size 4, I'd be happy with a 14/16 again. Which hopefully won't be too hard to get to. BTW, I'll be posting updates on my progress here every now and then.
Also, the guys at the automotive shop where we took my car have been fabulous. The shop's about a half-mile up the street from us (we can almost see it from the stop light at our turn). They sent one of their courtesy vans over to see if they could jump-start my car. The answer is no. However, the guy accidentally locked the keys in. So brilliant. But, because he did so, they paid for a tow truck to come, jimmy the lock, and bring it to the shop (which probably cost about $100). They've given the car a once-over, and installed a new battery. Of course, we don't really have the money to pay for said battery right now, as most of Mom's paycheck went toward rent. They've been very kind and have just let my car sit on their lot since Monday until we can get our shit together and get over there to talk to them and pay for the battery. The main guy I've been talking to, Sean, has been especially kind. This morning, I called and told him we weren't going to be able to get the car until tomorrow. He said that it's not a problem and to not worry about the car at all. He said it seemed like a lot of stuff was happening all at once to us and he wanted to make sure that the car wasn't one of those stressful things. I replied, "Well... you know that creek you sometimes get stuck up without a paddle? We also have no boat, and the creek's flooded." He said that he completely understood being neck-deep in swamp water. Such a nice guy. Naturally, he's going to be married, or gay, or only like skinny girls and not Botticelli chicks.
Also: cute kittens are cute! I keep meaning to upload photos, but I can't find the USB cable at the moment. They're now a week old and have gotten so much bigger! Stress melts away when holding one of them. The girls are still afraid of us, but Bandit's being fairly cool about us handling her babies. We're trying very hard not to name them. The really cute one looks exactly like Bandit, and is fuzzy. The rest are sleek and probably short-haired like their dad, but this one's a little puffball. SO ADORABLE OMG.