My blogging skills are horrible these days! I feel bad neglecting this little space, but . . . well, I honestly just haven't really felt like blogging. That's said, it's the end of April, so let's talk about February! (Fair warning, it's a LONG entry).
February was a total roller coaster of a month--some really good things happened, and so did some really crappy things.
At the beginning of the month (the 6th, I think), I had my review at work (MHC), and absolutely killed it. My boss pretty much told me I'm awesome, she's always impressed with me, and that she looks forward to seeing what I accomplish in my next year with the company. Pretty high praise from my boss, because she doesn't say things like that lightly. I was incredibly flattered/proud/happy. Of course I got a raise (a good one). Plus I got to enroll in the online CPC class just after my review, which is awesome! I won't lie, the class is a little harder than I was expecting, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I just keep thinking of being able to almost double my salary once I have my certification, which is a pretty decent incentive.
Not long after I had my review and all that, Jerbs got a new job!! She's working at an urgent care now, doing front desk stuff, and she loves it. She interviewed/got the job on the 13th, and gave Staples her two week notice on Valentine's Day, and her last day there was the 28th. I'm so unbelievably happy for her! She wanted to leave Staples for SO LONG and she finally got to! It's been a really good change for her. It was a little weird to pick her up at Staples for the last time, though. I mean . . . she worked there for 7 years, and that time frame covers all kinds of major life events: us dating, our breakup, our first move to the east side, the entire whirlwind of me and Ex-Fiance, me coming back to Flagstaff . . . that's a lot! I got a little weepy, but she was mostly like, "Fuck it! I'm done! Woohoo!!" It's been good to see her so happy.
At the end of February (like the 22nd, I think), I went to an Eric Paslay concert. He's kind of an up and coming country singer, and I really, really like him, and the tickets were only $25, so I figured why the hell not? He performed at the Museum Club, which is this honky tonk bar in town (it's actually pretty well known throughout AZ, but I'd never been there). I took my friend from work, Katie, and bought her ticket as a graduation gift, since she's in her last semester at NAU. It was so much fun!! And I was really proud of myself for, y'know, having a little bit of a social life and going out with someone who isn't Jerbs.
As for the bad . . .
Not surprisingly, it has to do with Stompy McFatAss, the wretch next door.
So February 9th (day before my effing birthday, mind you), I treated myself to Pita Jungle for dinner, and picked it up on my way home from work. Also keep in mind that at this point, we hadn't heard anything from Stompy since that night in January when her apartment flooded and she had Jerbs call 911. Also keep in mind that she hadn't complained about the dogs since June of 2014--so 9 months of relative peace had passed. When I got home on the 9th, the dogs weren't barking, but when I got upstairs, there was a fucking noise warning on the door from the cops, AND a handwritten "anonymous" note from Stompy herself, saying that our dogs have been an issue for 2 years and that we had 48 hours to bark collar them or she was going to play the recordings she (supposedly) has of them "excessively barking."
Couple of things. First of all, Stompy hasn't even lived here for 2 years, she moved in over 4th of July weekend in 2013, so she's about 5 months off on her time frame there. Two, our dogs ARE collared whenever we're not at home, and if the batter in Max's died, I'm sorry. But shit happens, and to go 9 months without a word and then have it escalate like that . . . fuck. Three, I do not believe for even one nano second that this bitch has a recording of our dogs barking, and definitely not of them barking excessively. Even if she DOES have a recording of our dogs, it's a moot point, because, fucking newsflash, if you stand on my porch by my living room window for 20 minutes to record shit, my dogs are going to bark at you! They're dogs, you're trespassing, you're a threat, and that's just the way the damn world works. I was more livid than you can imagine, and it wasn't long before that lividness gave way to a total breakdown. I got anxious, convinced myself I was a worthless piece of shit, and bawled. I called Jerbs at work and told her what happened. At that point she called our complex and left a message asking about transferring our lease to somewhere else in the complex, because we were tired of our neighbor's shit. After Jerbs got home, we talked it over and decided we needed to move--right away if they'd let us, at the end of our lease if they wouldn't.
That all went down on a Monday. For the rest of the week, I refused to leave the dogs home alone, even with their collars. I took early lunches, drove home to pick Jerbs and the dogs up, took Jerbs to work, and let the dogs hang out in the car for the rest of the day. On Tuesday (again, my freaking birthday), I got off work, promptly had an anxiety attack, and realized that I didn't want to be home alone either. So I wandered around Bookman's, JoAnn, and Michael's, then sat in their shared parking lot until Jerbs was off at 8. Definitely not the best birthday I've ever had, and I'm still pretty pissed that the bitch ruined my 18th birthday.
It was a shitty week. I hated it, the dogs hated it, Jerbs hated it, everyone was miserable. On Thursday, Jerbs finally heard back from the complex. She said that at first, the manager was very customer service-y and chipper, told her that they don't usually do transfers without the lease being up, and asked which neighbor the issue was with to see if we could work something out. Apparently, when Jerbs gave the apartment #, the manager's tone completely changed, and she was pretty much like OH, that bitch. Apparently, we are far from the only ones who have complained about her, and she's an ongoing issue for the office. The manager was actually pretty incredulous that she complained about the dogs, and flat out told Jerbs that no other neighbors have ever said a bad thing about us. (Because, AGAIN, it's not a fucking issue)! She also said that she came up here once to talk to the neighbor about something else, and she heard our dog bark like twice ("to let me know he was there," as she put it), then stop. So she was basically like, yeah, sorry your neighbor's so nuts.
She said she'd see what she could do, and ultimately the answer was that we couldn't move right away, but they'd talk to the neighbor. So while the no transfer was irritating, it was a tremendous relief to know that the office/complex management is on our side and aware that this bitch is totally insane. In the meantime, Jerbs and I decided we'd just move when our lease was up and try to get a 2 bedroom (more on that later).
Since all this happened, Jerbs and I have stayed super diligent about setting the dogs up right when we leave the house. We put up a black out curtain so they can't see the porch, leave the TV on low for a little noise, put out special bones they only get when we aren't home, and, of course, put their bark collars on them. I also got 2 Skype accounts, one of which is logged in on Jerbs' computer at home, one of which is logged into on my phone. I log in and call from work, so I can watch and listen to what's going on at home from my office, PLUS if one of them does bark, I can tell them to stop via Skype. In the whole time I've been doing it, Max has barked once, and it was because a package got delivered on the porch. The Skype thing has helped me to relax a LOT at work. I'm hopeful that with all the issues our neighbor causes, she'll eventually get evicted.
And on the Friday after my birthday, my department co-workers brought cupcakes for a belated birthday gift, and that made me happy. A few co-workers remembered on my actual birthday: Katie got me a huge jar of chocolate candy and these hilarious Ninja bread men cookie cutters, and the sleep girls got me candy and lip gloss and nail polish. I love them, and was so glad a few people remembered.
So that was February. I imagine that someday I'll get around to writing about March . . . maybe in June?
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