Apartment Living

My tolerance level is getting very low living at the Classic At the Preserve in Woodbury, Minnesota.

Sitting on my sofa watching TV in the middle of the day, I hear a key in the door. Thinking it was my husband, I got up to unlock the top latch. A woman stood there with a clipboard.

She: Oh, I must have the wrong apartment. I’m doing inspections. Do you live here?

Me: Yes, I do.

She: I wanted the apartment above you. Sorry.

She walked away. In my head I’m thinking “how could she want to do an inspection on the apartment above us as one of the caretakers lives there?”

I call the apartment office to complain as no one called to ask permission to enter our apartment nor did the woman knock.

Manager: I’m so sorry. They are only supposed to enter vacant apartments.

Me: Well she should have known ours was not empty.

Manager: I’ll talk with her as soon as she gets back.

An hour later, my husband gets a call at work letting us know that our apartment has been rented out starting May 1st. That’s really interesting. We are on a month-to-month lease and were asked to let them know if we were moving by the 15th of the month.

Looking at the calendar (sarcastically), I see it’s only the 7th.

I call the management office and speak with the same lady I spoke with earlier.

Me: I understand our apartment is rented starting May 1st.

She: Yes, we called to tell you.

Me: We haven’t given notice that we’re moving yet.

She: Well, you were supposed to give notice at the end of last month.

Me: No, we were told the 15th and we have documentation of that process being followed the last 4 months.

She: Well, I’m sorry but we’ve already signed a 12 month lease with someone else as we were told you found a house.

Me: Oh, who told you we found a house?

No answer.

Me: Well, unfortunately, we have until the 15th to give notice so we may still be here in May.

She: The lease …

Me: You’ve broken your lease several times already and now you want to follow it?

She: We should follow the lease.

Me: Then we need 30 days notice prior to the month that you need us to leave.

She: I’ll check with the owner and call you back.

After an hour or so, I received a call from her letting me know that the apartment is rented to someone else. So I asked “Are you evicting us?”

She: No, no, no one said anything about eviction.

Me: Well, unless we give notice that we’re moving we plan on extending our lease and living in the apartment we’re in. And, if you’d like, I’d be happy to hand you the extension with a letter from our attorney.

Needless to say — she hung up after letting me know she would have to check with the owner again.

I’m waiting for the next call. There has been so much turnover in the management office that I don’t think anyone knows what is going on.

Apartment living … I can’t believe it’s this bad.

 

Tree Lessons

It’s dusk. The sky is a perfect shade of blue. The air is crisp.

Looking up, I see this perfect tree. I can tell it was pruned at one time. But I hear no complaints.

The branches reach in all directions.  Small and large branches. Naked in the sky for all to see its flaws or beauty.

Tree

People are so different. We hide behind clothes, make-up, words. Facades.

Are we afraid that there is no one else in the world like us who has the same weaknesses, failures, ugliness? The fear is unwarranted. We’re all basically the same.

Looking at me, can people see that I fight against impatience, anger, rejection, failure at succeeding? Would they embrace it with me to get past it or would they look past it as if it didn’t exist?

Oh trees! How I wish I could just let my humanity out without fear of rejection or judgment.

Lake Elmo, Minnesota House offer

Our final offer on a house in Lake Elmo goes to them this evening.  If all goes well, we should have the inspection no later than Monday.  And, if all goes really well, we should be able to move in by April 29th.

Our furniture from Seattle won’t get here until a week later so we’ll have to spend a few days at an Extended Stay. But, while the house is empty I can paint, clean and get things we need that we have to buy.

 

House Hunting

Last Thursday, we made an offer on a house in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. The house is not very updated except for the kitchen.

However, it is close to my husband’s work, has fast speed internet, has deeded lake access and sits on a pretty piece of treed property.

The sellers countered our offer. We countered their offer. They countered our offer. And now, we have to decide whether to counter again or just take this offer. If we take it, the closing could be the end of April.

If we don’t accept their counteroffer, we have two other possibilities. One possibility is the house in Lino Lakes which is the one with the septic problem. The sellers have come back to us to re-negotiate although we don’t have an offer on the table. The other house option costs a lot more but it is brand new (2010), is in Wisconsin and has a swimming pool.

Decisions, decisions. It sure would be good to be in a house in May.

Helping People

 

Mississippi River in Newport, MN

Throughout my short life, I have seen many instances where people wouldn’t help other people. Most of the time the help needed is money but sometimes it’s a person’s time.

Scenario 1: A person who is on drugs will ask for money because they are going to be homeless if they don’t pay their rent.

Hmmm … are they really going to pay their rent or are they going to use it for drugs? And, if they use it for rent will that free up any other money they have for drugs?

Scenario 2: An alcoholic who has recently joined Alcoholics Anonymous asks for a ride to the meetings. You prioritize your time around their meetings only to be stood up over and over again. Now they are pleading with you and state that for sure they’ll make it to this next one.

Hmmm … should I keep wasting my time showing up when they don’t?

Scenario 3: A homeless person says they’ll work for money but they don’t show up numerous times for the work you have for them.

Hmmm … Do I keep scheduling them for the work or give it to someone who is more interested?

Scenario 4: You help a person who is in need over and over again. One time, you need their help and they tell you no. You know they have the time but they just don’t want to do it.

Hmmm … Do I continue helping them when they won’t help me when I need help?

I like this quote that I read in a book called Ministry of Healing:

“Many of those who came to Christ for help had brought disease upon themselves, yet He did not refuse to heal them.”

If I follow in Christ’ steps, my response would be to continue helping in spite of what I get out of it in the end and in spite of what they have done previously.

Having said that, it’s not easy to do.

Pain

Between not chewing on the left side of my mouth and taking Ibuprofen when I do chew, having a root canal and a crown done at the same time is taking a toll on me.

I don’t tolerate pain very well.  I went back to the dentist for the 4th time regarding this.  He is not able to duplicate the pain I get when I chew on the left side. It’s really strange.  He gave me something to chew on and I felt nothing — which is what I’m supposed to feel with a root canal because they took out the nerves.

However, the dentist tested for cold sensitivity.  Nothing. Then he tested for hot sensitivity.  Bingo! But not on the upper part of my mouth where I think I’m feeling the pain. The hot sensitivity is on a lower tooth that needs a cavity filled.

The dentist explained that sometimes the brain does not know where the pain is coming from. He filled the lower cavity and now we wait to see if it takes care of the problem.

In the meantime, another Ibuprofen to help alleviate the pain.

 

 

Visiting Family

This weekend we headed into Illinois to visit family. A two-fold trip, to visit grandbabies (and their parents of course) and for my sister’s 64th birthday dinner.

All went especially well. The grandkids are getting so big. They have enough energy for a few people.

I saw my Mom who recently turned 85 years old. She is starting to slow down more and more. But, she made me arroz con dulce. She likes to make it every time I come over. I’ll try to post the recipe for it soon. It’s a Puerto Rican rice pudding.

Our trip back home was very long as there was construction and we were almost at a standstill for 5 miles.

Monday means I have to get back to my routine. So … back I go.

Yellow Pepper

While making spaghetti sauce, I pulled out a yellow pepper to add to the sauce to make it more tasty.

Yellow Pepper

I think this pepper was confused.  It wasn’t sure if it wanted to be yellow or green.

Isn’t that just like us humans?  When we’re young, we want to be older and when we’re older we want to be younger.  But we can never go back to the past. So, it’s always better to live in the present.

 

My First Minnesota Breakdown

I have been fighting the urge to buy anything for the apartment we live in because we have our things in storage in Seattle and they will be here “soon.”

However, house hunting hasn’t given us a house yet and it will be 5 months since our things have been in storage.

My cooking life has been hampered since I lack the utensils to do things properly.  Yes, I can whisk instead of blend in a mixer.  But it’s not the same.

So, the other day, I broke down and bought a new blender. I had a recipe I was trying and needed to pulse the ingredients. Can’t pulse very well with a whisk.

I dragged my husband with me to Target and we picked out the blender. It’s an Oster and works beautifully so far.

Oster Blender
Oster Blender

I just hope that I don’t break down and buy all new kitchen utensils.

 

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Car Dealerships in Minnesota

This past Sunday, my husband and I decided to test drive some cars in preparation to buy a 2nd car, always looking forward to our first house in Minnesota that has a garage.  We had 2 cars in Seattle but sold the 2nd when we moved to Minnesota.

Unfortunately, all the car dealerships were closed on Sunday.  It was really odd. In Seattle, the car dealerships are always open.

Apparently, Minnesota has a “blue law” still on the books that prohibit car dealerships to be open on Sunday.  That’s odd.  Really really odd.