Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Feelings. Such Powerful Feelings.

My mother once told me that moving is more stressful than the death of a family member, which is a bit extreme, but you'll have to forgive her because I believe she was in the middle of a move at the time.  I actually don't mind moving so much because it forces me to sort, organize, and purge.  I hate clutter and I love to throw it away.  Having Joe in New York while I'm holding down the Pennsylvania homestead and doing all the packing has allowed me to gleefully sort and organize his stuff too.  And purge.  Oh, Joe, the things I have purged!  There were moments when I was all maybe I should ask him if this is okay, but then I came to the conclusion that I would rather not.  Then I ultimately realized that if someone did that to me I would blow a gasket and I eventually do want him to marry me and so I packed every hideous T-shirt and baseball collectible.  Most of them.  Some of them maybe got lost in the move?  Hard to tell.  Moving is so unpredictable!

We are moving next week, though we still haven't decided exactly where.  I still want to keep looking for the perfect place and Joe just wants to admit defeat and live in another apartment.  Something about making sure that we have a roof over our heads come next Friday.  He has gone ahead and chosen an apartment I have never seen and even gone so far as to put money down to hold the place and filled out the application.  I know.  His initiative and determination to provide for us and keep us off the streets disgusts me too.  Especially since I know (I know) that the perfect place with outdoor space, laundry, and an extra bedroom in our budget is going to show up on Craigslist any day now.  Any day.

Did you know that there is a Craigslist scam whereby scammers steal photos from legitimate real estate listings and then re-post them on Craigslist?  They create legitimate sounding ads for beautiful homes in dream neighborhoods and then just fudge the sale or rental price a bit.  Then people like me see them and get super excited and tell family members that you think you just found your house and you send off an e-mail filled with hopes and dreams and unicorn joy tears declaring your deep delight and desire to see the house ASAP!  Then you wait.  And a few days later you get an e-mail in broken English telling you that the owner of the house is on a missionary trip in Africa and will be gone for 6 years and that he just needs someone to take really good care of his home and that person could be you and please just send all your personal info and the documents will be sent to you right away.  This may or may not have happened to me twice.  The second time I may have cried.  Motherfucking motherfuckers.

Generally speaking, I am pretty much a pacifist and against violence of any sort.  I admire Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi and am all for a peaceful resistance to wrongdoing.  But if I ever find these scammers, these people who toyed with my current delicate emotional state, who made me think that we may have finally found our home only to rip it away with no remorse, I will happily, happily line you up and shoot you down and smile while I do it. 

Maybe moving is a little stressful.

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