SIGH
Last week was a nightmare from Hell. The boys had a painting job in Dallas, but they couldn't get there because of lack of transportation. So mom to the rescue, I volunteered to drive and work with them. Hey, crap work for $400/week, and then I'd have a little cash. Might even be something I could do a few weeks, right? Wrong!
There were accidents all up and down I-35 so it took us over 6 hours to get to the area.
Then, the guy we got the keys from gave me an address. It was to the apartment complex we were painting, but he FAILED to give me the address to the complex we were supposed to stay at. Two separate complexes, owned by the same slum lord. Travis had been there once before. We drove around for about an hour and his memory kicked in and we miraculously found the place. I was supposed to go meet hcolleen andrehd_fawx for some hanging out, but by the time we found the place it was getting late, and I still hadn't picked Roman up from the hotel where he had been working a convention. He'd been waiting since 5 PM. Took me 15-ish minutes to get to him, but Dallas is all one-way streets, so it took us about 2 hours to get back home. I arranged with my friends to meet later in the week. So that was my Monday. Tuesday, because we hadn't managed to eat and get into bed until about 11 PM we didn't get to work until about 8:30. We normally would be there at about 6 AM. OK, we'll work a longer week, right? We arrived at work, raring to start painting but some of our equipment was missing. We had to wait until the management got into the office at 9. We told them what we were missing and I went to the paint store to replace some stuff. We had a tough but productive morning, took off for lunch, got back to find another painting crew there. No problem, there was plenty of work for all, right? But they were being all territorial, and we got told very aggressively which three buildings we were not supposed to touch. The woman on that crew was painting with her fingers over the part we had just finished. Seriously.
The other crew had most of the equipment we were missing, and half the stuff I had just bought. SERIOUSLY!
To make matters worse, management had the maintenance crew spying on us "to see if we were working hard enough." As we were direct hire from the owner, they had no jurisdiction over us, but they called Roman aside to bitch to him about me and Travis (!!!!) taking the breaks to which we were legally entiled. Additionally, they were complaining that Roman, Travis and I were not keeping up to the other team. I just want to point out they are a professional painting crew, licensed and bonded, and I had never even done this work before. Additionally, they had 5 people and we were a three-man crew. So I call bullshit, but was as polite as honey to their face.
I didn't mention that the place we were staying had signs up everywhere warning "The Painters" to clean up after ourselves. Apparently, a previous crew had trashed the place. Now the bedrooms were locked. We were supposed to be allowed to sleep in the bedrooms, but instead we had to sleep on the floor of the common area. I just want to point out that room is used by all residents for the computers, used as a break room for the managers, and used on Wednesdays for a religious kids' program. Because it was a common area, Tuesday lunch we discovered someone had drunk my juice.
We asked for access to the bedrooms to which we are entitled but they claimed not to have the key. So Tuesday night, after such a trying first day at work, we had to pack everything we owned except our bedrolls into the car, to take to work with us the next day, so the kids' club wouldn't get into our stuff. In the morning, we were up and ready to work by 6 AM. I sent Travis down to the car with my bedroll, and he was soon back saying the car wasn't responding to the key fob, so he couldn't find the car. Since I had parked directly in front of the apartment we slept in, I ran outside... my car was gone.
I called the police, who informed the car had been towed for not having a parking sticker. Management was supposed to have given us a sticker when we checked in with them Tuesday, but they didn't and I hadn't known to ask. So we couldn't even get to work on time. We had to wait around until 9 when Management came back. I thought about taking a cab to go get my car, when I realized my money and credit cards were... yup, you guessed it, in the car. I was really scared to call T and tell him his car had been towed. As usual, he was outwardly calm, but worried in private. He did tell me I should just screw the job and come home (which by Friday seemed the right decision. More on that later.)
When management came in at 9 I asked them to call the tow company and have my car returned, which they did. It took until 12:30. At that point the boys and I were all fed up with this clusterfuck of a job. We called the other place and told them we weren't coming back. They were quite snotty about it. Screw 'em. We didn't manage to even hook up with my friends. We drove home and I fell into bed. That night I was too sick/sad/tired to even go to Jazzercise. Somehow I had to pay T back for a weeks' car rental and I didn't even know if we were going to be paid for the day we did work. And late that afternoon I got a call from Crazy Girl's placement asking me to come pick her up.
So ok, Crazy Girl has been in one therapeutic probationary facility after another for the past two years. She got kicked out of the first for being non-compliant to her superiors. The next she was kicked out of for attacking another young lady. The third and final placement she was removed from for one day attacking a teacher because she wanted to be in English rather than Math class, and the NEXT DAY getting into a fist fight with two boys - and winning.
Anyway, the judge decided the county could no longer afford to pay for her shenanigans, so he simply ended her probation rather than offering her any more services. The end.
Kid has problems at home, so let's just... send her back home, shall we, hmmmmmm???
I couldn't go get her, since the car wasn't mine, and T didn't want me to take it to Waverly to get her. We also didn't have the money to pay for the gas down there. I called the placement and explained I couldn't get there and they agreed to put her on a greyhound with some money the next morning. I agreed to meet the greyhound the next afternoon. I missed Jazzercise that morning running around trying to get things in order for her to come home. We picked her up and at first she was walking and talking like a Chola, but that went away pretty quickly. Once at home she hugged everybody and expressed over and over how happy she was to be home.
She was home not 12 hours and we heard a shrieking, "Mommy! Daddy!!" coming from the kitchen. T, K and I all rushed out to the kitchen thinking she was being tortured...
Then I had to rush her to the ER for a drug overdose.
Once sober, she swore she was done with that drug, but the next day I got a report she was asking for more.
So that was my weekend.
Monday I had to miss Jazzercise class because I took her to LHS where she used to go to school. I was trying to get her re-registered but we were informed we no longer lived in that school's attendance zone and LHS was closed to transfers. The attendance zone we were now in was for Vista Ridge. T's son goes to Vista Ridge, and between Crazy Girl's random, free-form hostility towards the kid, and T's Ex's random, free-form hostility towards me, and the girl's random, free-form crazy, the two of them going to school together would not be a good thing. So the next day I skipped Jazzercise again (!) (This is now day 8, I just want to point out) to try Rouse. At Rouse they told me they were closed campus, but the woman looked up on a computer and came back saying VanDerGrift still was taking applicants. So I drove 20 miles to VDGHS and got told there EVERY LISD campus was closed to transfers. I said, "Screw it, I'm not putting her in school then." and got up to leave. This petulant bitch then tells me to just to VR and sign her up, then tell them I decided to keep her home. I told her she was insane, I was not setting foot on that campus, why would I do that, that was nuts. I went home and Crazy Girl and I talked about it and decided she should study and take the SAT next month, and take the GED ASAP. Then she could register for college in the winter quarter.
Today I went to Jazzercise. I also, for the first time in years, managed to get out of bed this morning without having to grab the bed for stability. I've lost 13.5 lbs, 2" off my waist, 3.5" off my hips, 1" off my neck, a dress size and a half, and I feel better and stronger. I'm hitting two classes tomorrow. I need stress relief. Crazy Girl is out tonight with friends, her first time going out in two years. I hope she has fun but comes home sober. Hey. I can dream.
There were accidents all up and down I-35 so it took us over 6 hours to get to the area.
Then, the guy we got the keys from gave me an address. It was to the apartment complex we were painting, but he FAILED to give me the address to the complex we were supposed to stay at. Two separate complexes, owned by the same slum lord. Travis had been there once before. We drove around for about an hour and his memory kicked in and we miraculously found the place. I was supposed to go meet hcolleen andrehd_fawx for some hanging out, but by the time we found the place it was getting late, and I still hadn't picked Roman up from the hotel where he had been working a convention. He'd been waiting since 5 PM. Took me 15-ish minutes to get to him, but Dallas is all one-way streets, so it took us about 2 hours to get back home. I arranged with my friends to meet later in the week. So that was my Monday. Tuesday, because we hadn't managed to eat and get into bed until about 11 PM we didn't get to work until about 8:30. We normally would be there at about 6 AM. OK, we'll work a longer week, right? We arrived at work, raring to start painting but some of our equipment was missing. We had to wait until the management got into the office at 9. We told them what we were missing and I went to the paint store to replace some stuff. We had a tough but productive morning, took off for lunch, got back to find another painting crew there. No problem, there was plenty of work for all, right? But they were being all territorial, and we got told very aggressively which three buildings we were not supposed to touch. The woman on that crew was painting with her fingers over the part we had just finished. Seriously.
The other crew had most of the equipment we were missing, and half the stuff I had just bought. SERIOUSLY!
To make matters worse, management had the maintenance crew spying on us "to see if we were working hard enough." As we were direct hire from the owner, they had no jurisdiction over us, but they called Roman aside to bitch to him about me and Travis (!!!!) taking the breaks to which we were legally entiled. Additionally, they were complaining that Roman, Travis and I were not keeping up to the other team. I just want to point out they are a professional painting crew, licensed and bonded, and I had never even done this work before. Additionally, they had 5 people and we were a three-man crew. So I call bullshit, but was as polite as honey to their face.
I didn't mention that the place we were staying had signs up everywhere warning "The Painters" to clean up after ourselves. Apparently, a previous crew had trashed the place. Now the bedrooms were locked. We were supposed to be allowed to sleep in the bedrooms, but instead we had to sleep on the floor of the common area. I just want to point out that room is used by all residents for the computers, used as a break room for the managers, and used on Wednesdays for a religious kids' program. Because it was a common area, Tuesday lunch we discovered someone had drunk my juice.
We asked for access to the bedrooms to which we are entitled but they claimed not to have the key. So Tuesday night, after such a trying first day at work, we had to pack everything we owned except our bedrolls into the car, to take to work with us the next day, so the kids' club wouldn't get into our stuff. In the morning, we were up and ready to work by 6 AM. I sent Travis down to the car with my bedroll, and he was soon back saying the car wasn't responding to the key fob, so he couldn't find the car. Since I had parked directly in front of the apartment we slept in, I ran outside... my car was gone.
I called the police, who informed the car had been towed for not having a parking sticker. Management was supposed to have given us a sticker when we checked in with them Tuesday, but they didn't and I hadn't known to ask. So we couldn't even get to work on time. We had to wait around until 9 when Management came back. I thought about taking a cab to go get my car, when I realized my money and credit cards were... yup, you guessed it, in the car. I was really scared to call T and tell him his car had been towed. As usual, he was outwardly calm, but worried in private. He did tell me I should just screw the job and come home (which by Friday seemed the right decision. More on that later.)
When management came in at 9 I asked them to call the tow company and have my car returned, which they did. It took until 12:30. At that point the boys and I were all fed up with this clusterfuck of a job. We called the other place and told them we weren't coming back. They were quite snotty about it. Screw 'em. We didn't manage to even hook up with my friends. We drove home and I fell into bed. That night I was too sick/sad/tired to even go to Jazzercise. Somehow I had to pay T back for a weeks' car rental and I didn't even know if we were going to be paid for the day we did work. And late that afternoon I got a call from Crazy Girl's placement asking me to come pick her up.
So ok, Crazy Girl has been in one therapeutic probationary facility after another for the past two years. She got kicked out of the first for being non-compliant to her superiors. The next she was kicked out of for attacking another young lady. The third and final placement she was removed from for one day attacking a teacher because she wanted to be in English rather than Math class, and the NEXT DAY getting into a fist fight with two boys - and winning.
Anyway, the judge decided the county could no longer afford to pay for her shenanigans, so he simply ended her probation rather than offering her any more services. The end.
Kid has problems at home, so let's just... send her back home, shall we, hmmmmmm???
I couldn't go get her, since the car wasn't mine, and T didn't want me to take it to Waverly to get her. We also didn't have the money to pay for the gas down there. I called the placement and explained I couldn't get there and they agreed to put her on a greyhound with some money the next morning. I agreed to meet the greyhound the next afternoon. I missed Jazzercise that morning running around trying to get things in order for her to come home. We picked her up and at first she was walking and talking like a Chola, but that went away pretty quickly. Once at home she hugged everybody and expressed over and over how happy she was to be home.
She was home not 12 hours and we heard a shrieking, "Mommy! Daddy!!" coming from the kitchen. T, K and I all rushed out to the kitchen thinking she was being tortured...
Then I had to rush her to the ER for a drug overdose.
Once sober, she swore she was done with that drug, but the next day I got a report she was asking for more.
So that was my weekend.
Monday I had to miss Jazzercise class because I took her to LHS where she used to go to school. I was trying to get her re-registered but we were informed we no longer lived in that school's attendance zone and LHS was closed to transfers. The attendance zone we were now in was for Vista Ridge. T's son goes to Vista Ridge, and between Crazy Girl's random, free-form hostility towards the kid, and T's Ex's random, free-form hostility towards me, and the girl's random, free-form crazy, the two of them going to school together would not be a good thing. So the next day I skipped Jazzercise again (!) (This is now day 8, I just want to point out) to try Rouse. At Rouse they told me they were closed campus, but the woman looked up on a computer and came back saying VanDerGrift still was taking applicants. So I drove 20 miles to VDGHS and got told there EVERY LISD campus was closed to transfers. I said, "Screw it, I'm not putting her in school then." and got up to leave. This petulant bitch then tells me to just to VR and sign her up, then tell them I decided to keep her home. I told her she was insane, I was not setting foot on that campus, why would I do that, that was nuts. I went home and Crazy Girl and I talked about it and decided she should study and take the SAT next month, and take the GED ASAP. Then she could register for college in the winter quarter.
Today I went to Jazzercise. I also, for the first time in years, managed to get out of bed this morning without having to grab the bed for stability. I've lost 13.5 lbs, 2" off my waist, 3.5" off my hips, 1" off my neck, a dress size and a half, and I feel better and stronger. I'm hitting two classes tomorrow. I need stress relief. Crazy Girl is out tonight with friends, her first time going out in two years. I hope she has fun but comes home sober. Hey. I can dream.