Stupid with Money

The economy is in the shitter. This is no big surprise to anyone. And if it is, what rock have you been hiding under and is there enough room for me?

Well, I don't know if life works this way for everybody, but for a lot of the folks in my immediate circle, it's like this: If it doesn't directly effect me, it really... doesn't exist. Like a horse with blinders on. Not the smartest thing, I know, but a lot of people are like that. It's just an abstract concept, it's not real.

Friday, it became a whole lot of real for us at the House of Snark.

I got up at 6 AM and took the Redhead to work. Didn't take my phone with me, got home to a text message from him saying "Hey, I left my time card in my wallet, would you bring it to me?" Of course, I didn't discover this until I was back at home, out of my clothes and curled back up in bed. Ugh. Up, get dressed, out into the cold again... I'm so inconvenienced. How can people do this to me?!

(That's sarcasm, if you didn't notice it)

Take it to him, go BACK home, curl back up in bed, try to get a couple more hours of sleep. Blessed, blessed sleep. I'm so tired all the time. I hear that's part of the *joy* of pregnancy, so oh well. Not much I can do about it now, huh?

Around 9:30... the door bell rings. I wake up, but none of my friends ring the door bell, so I don't move. My friends also text me and let me know they're coming over, and I tell them to just come on in. I know it's not for me, so I don't worry about it. Close my eyes, try to go back to sleep. It rings again. Apparently, Princess isn't awake. Oh wait. The door's opening. She must be.

I can hear the door bell to our neighbor's place ring, and a few moments later, Neighbor Guy's Mustang starts up and squeals tires out of the lot. Roomie appears shortly thereafter, then him and the Princess take off. I'm awake by now, with the feeling that something Isn't Right. Text Roomie to ask what's wrong. "I'll tell you in a bit."

Definitely Not Right. But oh well, it's just about time for me to wake up anyway. I have to take a bath to shave, then a shower to wash my hair. I can't do it all together because the water heater doesn't offer enough hot water for me to shave AND wash. I got stuff to worry about.

I grab a bite to eat and start some music up, and set about getting myself fully woken up. Just as I start running some hot water for a bath, Roomie and Princess come home. Time to find out what's up.

"That dude you told me about last week? He wasn't jerking your chain. We have thirty days to move out. The building has been foreclosed on and we are being evicted."

....Shit.

Apparently, the man that owns the building we live in lives out in California. Where the economy is a lot more difficult to live with, considering the higher cost to simply survive. And we all know how foreclosure works. It's pretty self-explanatory, I think.

Thankfully, the management company cut us a check immediately for the security deposit, since they were being forced to terminate our lease. Half of it's ours, half belongs to Roomie and Princess. The check is sitting in Roomie's account, waiting to clear at the moment. Gives us a little bit of a start on saving, for the new place. First month's rent plus security deposit adds up fast, and in thirty days time? That's REALLY pushing the line.

So here I am, worrying about how to make it all work with the cash, in addition to the fact that neither me nor the Redhead have a rental history, nor do we have good credit to speak of. That tends to make finding an apartment to rent... a little difficult.

ACK!!!

Thankfully, Redhead's tax return came in. So now we're sitting on a grand of extra cash that we weren't expecting to have, and it helps as far as the whole "pressed-for-time-to-save-and-move" issue.

Still gonna have difficulty actually QUALIFYING for a place, though.

So, yeah. Economic problems have come home to roost.