A very quick update... which turned out to be not so quick.
I got a new apartment. At first a dream, it has had a number of problems... and yet I still feel happy every time I remember that I've gotten away from my crazy landlady. In (hopefully, the last) crazy landlady news, she called me on Friday at 8:30pm and left me a message that her bank wouldn't accept my last rent check (not because of anything that I did - it was one of those checks that doesn't have your name and address pre-printed on it and they just don't accept that kind of check). In that message she said that she would try something else if I hadn't replied by Monday (which was a bit of an empty threat, by the way, since she doesn't know where I live or anything like that). At any rate, I did not listen to the message on Friday, or on Saturday morning - I just don't check my messages five thousand times a day. However, around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon I get a confused and unhappy phone call from my dad - the landlady called him and went off on him about how he's a horrible parent (she, by the way, has no children and hasn't managed to teach her dog not to jump on people yet. Just sayin'), and then she yells at him about how I left her place trashed (untrue) and tried to skip out on paying her (despite having given her a perfectly good check... ).
You can imagine how happy I was about this. I have to admit though, issues with her paled in comparison to the next bit of the conversation. My grandmother's been sick for awhile and recently they found out that there was a problem with her pancreas. Now, I had it from her that it was just a problem with her pancreas and they were going to do some sort of surgery and fix it and, as an extra benefit, her diabetes would go away! So Saturday I found out that "problem with the pancreas" actually means "pancreatic cancer"... You know, I was going to write more about that but I just can't really find the words. Let's go back to the crazy landlady; she's at least comical.
I called her after speaking with Dad and had all sorts of fun. Actually, it wasn't that bad. I went off on her a bit because of the whole waiting-less-than-one-day-before-calling-my-FATHER thing. I went a bit too far there though - I was impolite, so I apologised and got down to business. At that point she started talking about how since I had given her a bounced check (which I hadn't - "bounced" would mean that the check was returned for lack of cash in my account) she was going to require me to pay her in cash. I must say, having the freedom to respond with a flat "no" felt wonderful. When I lived with her and she changed stuff up like that I just had to take it since she was the landlady, but she ain't my landlady no more!
Anyway, I went over to her house to pay her that very same evening since I had sort of been heading out that way anyway. And I feel pretty good about this (hopefully final) meeting. She insulted me a few times again, but I managed to sort of get around it by saying things like "I'll just start writing this check" and "Where is the old one?" and so on whenever she started in on me. Yet again she accused me of something that I didn't do, namely, leaving some sort of meatless bacon in her fridge. Meatless bacon? And, even if I had left it, is that really something to get so mad about? Why didn't she just toss it? But I digress.
When I first wrote her the check I gave her money for an extra day or so because I felt bad about giving short notice. I regretted that starting about a minute after I handed her the check (that would be the minute she resumed insulting me), so when I wrote out the new check it was for precisely the amount owed, no more, no less. And the last happy(ish?) part of that meeting came when I was about to leave and she started in on the "You have to hire some professional cleaners" line of comments (seriously, professional cleaners for one dusty room in a house full of dust and dog fur). I told her flat out that the room was in roughly the same condition when I left as when I arrived, and that one of the first things that I had done when I arrived was to dust and vacuum, so no, I was not going to clean that room to a higher standard than she had. I turned and started walking out to the accompaniment of her sarcasticly saying "Oh, You go, girl" and as I was almost to the door she said "What a nerve you have" so I was able to get the last word in by saying "Not as much as you" and closing the door behind me.
The only thing that worries me is if she tries to pursue bothering my parents. That's really the only way that she could hurt me, and she's already proven herself immature and rude enough to do it. However, I think that it's possible to have certain numbers blocked so that they can't call you, and if she calls my parents again I'm going to try to get their phone blocked to her.
And that was my Saturday. There was one other bad thing that happened, but by and large that's it. And now if you'll excuse me, I have waaaay too much work to do.
You can imagine how happy I was about this. I have to admit though, issues with her paled in comparison to the next bit of the conversation. My grandmother's been sick for awhile and recently they found out that there was a problem with her pancreas. Now, I had it from her that it was just a problem with her pancreas and they were going to do some sort of surgery and fix it and, as an extra benefit, her diabetes would go away! So Saturday I found out that "problem with the pancreas" actually means "pancreatic cancer"... You know, I was going to write more about that but I just can't really find the words. Let's go back to the crazy landlady; she's at least comical.
I called her after speaking with Dad and had all sorts of fun. Actually, it wasn't that bad. I went off on her a bit because of the whole waiting-less-than-one-day-before-calling-my-FATHER thing. I went a bit too far there though - I was impolite, so I apologised and got down to business. At that point she started talking about how since I had given her a bounced check (which I hadn't - "bounced" would mean that the check was returned for lack of cash in my account) she was going to require me to pay her in cash. I must say, having the freedom to respond with a flat "no" felt wonderful. When I lived with her and she changed stuff up like that I just had to take it since she was the landlady, but she ain't my landlady no more!
Anyway, I went over to her house to pay her that very same evening since I had sort of been heading out that way anyway. And I feel pretty good about this (hopefully final) meeting. She insulted me a few times again, but I managed to sort of get around it by saying things like "I'll just start writing this check" and "Where is the old one?" and so on whenever she started in on me. Yet again she accused me of something that I didn't do, namely, leaving some sort of meatless bacon in her fridge. Meatless bacon? And, even if I had left it, is that really something to get so mad about? Why didn't she just toss it? But I digress.
When I first wrote her the check I gave her money for an extra day or so because I felt bad about giving short notice. I regretted that starting about a minute after I handed her the check (that would be the minute she resumed insulting me), so when I wrote out the new check it was for precisely the amount owed, no more, no less. And the last happy(ish?) part of that meeting came when I was about to leave and she started in on the "You have to hire some professional cleaners" line of comments (seriously, professional cleaners for one dusty room in a house full of dust and dog fur). I told her flat out that the room was in roughly the same condition when I left as when I arrived, and that one of the first things that I had done when I arrived was to dust and vacuum, so no, I was not going to clean that room to a higher standard than she had. I turned and started walking out to the accompaniment of her sarcasticly saying "Oh, You go, girl" and as I was almost to the door she said "What a nerve you have" so I was able to get the last word in by saying "Not as much as you" and closing the door behind me.
The only thing that worries me is if she tries to pursue bothering my parents. That's really the only way that she could hurt me, and she's already proven herself immature and rude enough to do it. However, I think that it's possible to have certain numbers blocked so that they can't call you, and if she calls my parents again I'm going to try to get their phone blocked to her.
And that was my Saturday. There was one other bad thing that happened, but by and large that's it. And now if you'll excuse me, I have waaaay too much work to do.