Have you ever had your utilities shut off?

It's happened to me twice now up here.  Neither time was it my fault. 

Back in March, Consumers decided that they needed to shut off my gas and electric and after me and my landlord argued with them for three days they finally realized that I did indeed fax in the paperwork in February, their customer service department just forgot to process it.  I had to prove to them that I was in no way related to the previous tenant because he left them with a bill for over $1500.  For some reason, me telling them that I had not gotten a bill from them yet and in no way could be behind never really sunk in with the CSR's there.

Today the city came out and shut my water off.  Again, I never actually have received a bill from them yet.  So I called.  This time, it was because the next door neighbor has not paid them, not me.  The guys stopped in front of the wrong house.  No big deal, within 15 minutes they were out here apologizing  and turning it back on.

Now, my question is . . . how on earth could the previous tenant live here for a year without paying anyone and not getting anything shut off, but I live here for 2 1/2 months and everything has been shut off once for someone else's lack of payment?

Crazy.

A Rescue Friend . . . cyber friends

Another of my rescue friends passed away yesterday.  It is sad, but again I am reminded of the difference between online friends and living, breathing flesh friends.  

It's weird, I have known her and her sister both for years online doing rescue, but I don't really know her at all.  Should I even dare call her a friend then?  

Now I am wondering once again if all the internet chats and blogs and text messages and emails and im's are worth it?  Are they bringing our world closer together?  Or, are they increasing the distance between us?  Can internet friends be considered real?

You have to hide your identity on the internet to keep it safe.  You can be whoever you want on the internet because these people will never know the real you and will never be able to hold you accountable if you lie.  You never will have to confess your secrets to these friends because they will never know if you don't.

On the other hand, it's so much easier to tell the truth through a keyboard.  There is no face to face eye contact and if you are rejected you can always pretend they didn't get it.

I am concerned because our youth are so heavily dependent on this form of networking that sometimes I wonder if they will ever know what it's like to give a supportive hug of encouragement, stand up for themselves and face their foes and just plain old make eye contact and be real with someone.  Will they lose themselves to the cyber reality that they have created for themselves? 

There's a mouse in my house, I hope . . .

OK so if it's a mouse I will be so relieved.  I was just sitting here and heard noises in the kitchen and thought Turkey Butt had gotten out of bed.  When he didn't answer I went to check out the situation.  No it wasn't him, but something is having a party in my cupboard under the sink.

A very LOUD party.  

I hope it's just a mouse or two.  Since we live near the creek, a rat wouldn't be out of the question.  YUCK!

I am not afraid of mice but the thought of a rat makes me cringe.  Even worse, the thought of a rat trap makes me shiver.  

This from the girl that envisions the mouse trap snapping her finger off as she sets it.  

This from the girl that thinks that maybe the mouse is just playing dead when it's on the trap and the minute I touch it, it will wake up.

This from the girl that is CONVINCED that the spiders she smooshes will wake up, unravel themselves from the toilet paper, crawl out of the toilet bowl and bite her in revenge the next time she uses the bathroom.  HEY, it could happen.

Yes, my over active imagination gets the best of me when it comes to killing undesirables.  I never really believe they are truly dead.

Grrrrr, at least now I am fairly sure that the dogs were not barking at the "prowler" that the neighbors have all been talking about last night.  In all likelihood they were barking at the uninvited guests that like to throw nightly parties in the cupboard.

No words today.

I Love my Bike.

While I do miss not having the miles and miles and miles of Metropark bike trails to ride on that we use to have.  Flushing does have a little one and it is really pretty and full of interesting people to meet.

Last fall I got the new bike from a friend's bike shop.  I told him that I wanted to be comfortable and I didn't really care what I looked like.  He delivered.  I can ride 5 miles or 25 and not feel a thing on this bike and I love it.  A few of my more appearance conscious friends said I looked like well, a dork on my bike.  Apparently even if you are only riding around town or on the little metro park trails with your 6 year old you are still supposed to have the ultra cool mountain bikes or something else that looks really awesome and is probably very uncomfortable.

Well, said friends haven't seen the latest addition to my bike thanks to Turkey Butt.  Last December I bought the basket and the flowers and had my aunts "secretly" help TB glue it all together and "surprise" me for Christmas.  Here is the result . . . somehow I can't figure out why the 13 year old babysitter no longer wants to borrow my bike when she's watching TB on Saturdays.

Meet Fuzzy

He's a Wooly Bear Caterpillar (I think).  Turkey Butt and his friend Monkey Boy found him.  I put him in a tupperware container and left him outside for a few days forgetting all about him.  Then TB reminded me so we brought him in the house and I did some research, got him a bigger container, took some moss from outside for the bottom and some dried up leaves to make a nice cozy home for him.  Then we bought him some fresh dandelions from Meijer's.  Then we forgot about him again.  Today we decided to check him out and either he's dead and rotting or he has turned into a cocoon, I am not entirely sure.  I took his picture and put him back on the shelf where I am sure we will forget about him again for a bit.  Hopefully in a while he will turn into a moth and we can set him free again.

Are we loving the new neighborhood? I think so . . .

The new mower, the neighbor, and dashing the man's dreams.

So one of the advantages of refusing to "have relations" with your landlord and having his wife found out while you are in the middle of moving and getting locked out of your own stuff is that you get to buy all new stuff.

Sooooooooooo, today Turkey Butt and I went to Home Depot to get a new lawn mower.  We are the proud owners of a shiny new yellow Cub Cadet.  It's awesome.

One thing I learned from the first time that I had to buy new stuff was that even being on a single mom's budget some things just aren't worth the $50 savings.  So rather than get the cheapy mower I opted for the one I wanted this time.

After watching me put it together, add oil and gas, and then mow the back yard the neighbor that laughed at me when I told him I was going to push mow the yard myself asked if I would do his.  I laughed and just told him that if my allergies were not killing me right now I would do his too.

Supposedly he is going to come over with his rider from time to time to help me out.  I fear I may have just shot that out of the water though with today's performance.

My favorite sign ever!!!

In Birch Run I went to a house with one of those mile long driveways.  After winding around the fields and the pond, I pull up to the house and right in front of me is a big red bard with this sign painted on a standard 8 x 4 sheet of plywood.

BEWARE DOG BITES

STAY IN CAR

BEEP YOUR HORN

After mistakenly thinking that Tinker AKA Cujo was safely tucked away in her house and getting bit last fall, you better believe that I took this one literally.

Today is Decision Day

So of course I am hiding.

The decision: to accept a therapist position at the clinic that I have spent the last 8 months interning.  I would love the job, but I also love my current job.

The pro's:  I get to keep working with my clients, I get more experience, I get more clock hours for my CAC.  I would be able to dump some of the bills that I have in order to have the current job.  Doing research (the current job) is very hands off compared to doing therapy.

The con's:  I would have to continue driving from Flint to Detroit.  I am not sure when I will get paid.  Are gas prices ever going to stop rising?  I like the job that I am working right now and am 100% certain that I will get a pay check.  Aren't I supposed to be starting a new life in Flint?

The clinic is a not-for-profit that services substance abuse clients living in the city of Detroit with no insurance.  It is funded through block grants and federal monies, all funneled through the city of Detroit which is horrible at actually sending the money that doesn't belong to them along to the appropriate people.  Hence the whole, I am not sure if I will get paid when I am supposed to.  It's not uncommon for staff members to go without for a few weeks and then get a big check.

Being that the clinic is not-for-profit, funds are tight and I do not know if they can afford to pay what I need to pay the bills and drive down here daily.  My clinical supervisor has already told the staff that I am staying, but she has not sat down and talked about the money with me yet.  I made sure to inform her the other day that it had to make financial sense for me to drive down here from Flint being a single mom and all.

Most of the full time therapists have left because of burnout and not being interested in substance abuse so just using this place until something better comes along, so they will be to the bear bones when the interns leave this week.  The people that will suffer the most are the clients.

Any wonder why I am hiding?  My heart says one thing and my head says another . . . isn't that always the case when money is involved?  Sometimes I really do wish that I didn't believe that anything is possible, being narrow-minded would come in handy once in a while.

What is going to happen Tuesday night

Tuesday is my last class for the semester (and the summer) and the last night I will have to drive home from Detroit at 9:30 PM.  Since this semester started in January I have not been able to make the drive on Tuesday in less than 2 hours, usually more like 3 or 4.  Mostly it was snow, sometimes ran and wind and fog and then last week was that silly little freeway closure that I knew nothing about.  

So I am really curious as to what is in store for me on this Tuesday???  What's going to keep me from getting home until 11 or 12 Tuesday night???

And if you think that it will be free sailing, you don't know me and my life well by now.  The one Tuesday I got home early because I left my internship and skipped classes to avoid the snow in Detroit was the day that Consumer's decided to shut off my gas and electric :)

Back to Blogging

Life has settled down and so I figured I would start blogging again.  I have a whole lotta things to blog so in the beginning I am sure I will keep up with it.

In the meantime, Turkey Butt and I are really enjoying Flushing.  

Naming this sucker was difficult.  I was torn between from 313 to 810 and some really nice things to say about moving from Detroit to Flint, but in the end the cute little jellies won out.

One last thing.

So Tuesday at 9:20 PM I will officially be done with this semester and the monster drive from Flint to Detroit every Monday and Tuesday (unless of course I take the job-but I am really not thinking that is going to happen).  

Anyway, foolishly I thought that when I turned in my last paper for group and did the final exam in macro social work that I would be done with work for the semester.  Silly me, I thought that this week would be smooth sailing, say good-bye to the internship, show up for classes and do the evaluations and be done.

But alas, NO . . . . . . . . . . . .

During the final exam for macro, the prof did the meanist, nastiest thing she could-

she gave us a take home portion of the final.  This from the same woman that gave us a BLUE BOOK exam for the midterm which she mistakenly called a QUIZ in the syllabus.

So of course I am not happy.  The take home portion will take me about thirty minutes or so, but that's not the point.  The point is that I was SUPPOSED TO BE DONE LAST WEEK!

I guess I should stop whining and get it done . . . yeah right.  I'll do it Tuesday afternoon during my internship.