Inevitable year-end recap (and something to actually update my journal, woo)

*Went to Ireland with the fam and Dave, Lee, and Kyle. Had an awesome time even if money was ridiculously tight.
*Came back from Ireland to find that Dave had a awesome job offer!
*Quit the best job I ever had to move up north - the only bad thing about Dave's job.
*Moved to beautiful and hippy-filled Traverse City!
*Got a new computer!
*Newbie died at the age of five. He left us too soon and I still miss him terribly.
*Pucky ran away.
*Pucky was returned to us!
*Drove through white-out snowstorms, epic thunderstorms, and pea-soup-5-foot-visibility fog, usually on the 3-hour stretch between Lansing and TC
*Went to Ann Arbor for FCN, Pittsburgh for AC, Indianapolis for Gencon, and Chicago for MFF.
*Finished an epic 2-year DND campaign
*Made some awesome friends (you know who you are)
*Saw the Sisters of Mercy in concert! I was close enough to touch Andrew 0_0
*Helped cook Thanksgiving dinner for 22 people! I'm the best cook evar! (The turkey was bigger than me -_- )

New Year's Resolutions:

Continue being awesome

So this is a great week for apartments.

BACKSTORY

I lived in an apartment. Wooooo.

I had to move out of this apartment one month shy of my lease being up. I had lived in this complex for a few years, always paid rent early, etc etc

Apartment complex would not let me break the lease. Ok, whatever. I moved out anyway and just paid double-rent for a month. Sucks, but ok.

Maybe 2 months ago I got a letter from the management saying that I owed $670 in damages.

Hurr?

They send photos with their letter.

1. The photos had timestamps on them. The date was when I was still living in the apartment. Wtf?
        a) Upon reading the letter more closely, it said that these photos were of damage similar to that in my apartment, but not actually of my apartment, and that it would cost the $670 to repair. That's right, it WOULD cost. As in, they were implying that it wasn't done yet.

Bull.

I had driven past my apartment prior to receiving the letter, and it had new occupants. Their curtains were open and they had all sorts of barbecues and furniture on their patio. So wtf? Hadn't been repaired yet?

2. The photos were of holes in the walls and carpet damage.
        a) There was ONE hole in the wall, and I spackled it.
        b) There was some carpet damage, nothing horrendous, and I got a carpet shampooer to clean it. It was clean but worn.

3. The apartment complex said that they'd report me to "the credit agency" if I didn't pay up, and this was written on a POST IT NOTE (unsigned)  and attached to the photo.

So I wrote them a letter saying hey, the damage wasn't $670 worth of bad. I told them that when I viewed the apartment, the display model had dark brown, almost black carpets, and I told the management person how much I liked that because the white carpets apartments usually have get worn down super-quick.

When I got the apartment, the carpets were white. Whatever, but would it have killed the lady to say "btw not all the apartments have brown carpets"? Also the carpets weren't new when I moved in, they were clean, but they were worn.

The apartment was clean when I left. I spent many days making sure I wouldn't have to deal with this. What blows my mind is that in the apartment I lived in prior to this one, I didn't even clean at all, and I still got some deposit back.

I wrote in my letter that since the apartment had been vacant for a month, I felt that I had already paid then $490 of what was owed them. I sent them a check for $180 and told them to contact me with any questions.

So yeah, today (I think two months later) I got a nasty letter demanding $670.

I'll probably just pay it, but it's BS.

This entry might lack coherency because I drank some Nyquil, zzzzzzz

EDIT I forgot to mention that the $670 is AFTER applying my $500 security deposit, wooo

Wherever they're buying their carpet from must be raking in the dough to sell 350 square foot of low-grade crap carpet that comes unravelled if you catch your toenail on it for over $1000 (yeah my apartment was bigger than 400 s/f but they said that only the carpet in two rooms needed replacing)

I just got a call from a ferret shelter in Lake Ann. Someone found Pucky and turned him in!!!

She described him to me over the phone and told me that he responded to the name Pucky!!

We're going to go pick him up soon, omgomgomg

...how did she get my number? The newspaper ad doesn't go out until tomorrow. Maybe when we called the Humane Society they took our number? Who knows? WHO CARES?????


PUCKY'S OK

Still no sign of him.

My only consolation is that if he was dead somewhere in the apartment, I would have found his body. We have looked EVERYWHERE. We've moved the fridge, the washer and dryer, we've torn furniture apart, looked in the dryer tubes, nothing. Spent a good four or five hours searching for any sign of him outside - yeah, he's a ferret, but he really doesn't like the outdoors that much. If he IS outside somewhere, I have no idea how he got out, because no windows or doors were open and the last time I saw him was 10am Tuesday, well after David had already left for work, so there's no way he could have escaped while Dave was leaving.

If he DID go outside, then he must have been found by someone. There is so much traffic on the trail, and he is so friendly, he would walk right up to someone, anyone, even a stranger. It's the only thing that would prevent him finding his way home.

I've put an ad in the paper, it'll run all weekend starting tomorrow. Bless Record Eagle for not charging for lost and found ads (not that I'd balk at paying, but free is always nicer) and I'll be putting up signs today.

In some ways, this is worse than Newbie dying. Newbie was old and sick and we knew the inevitable was coming for a long time. Pucky was in the bedroom Tuesday morning wrestling VERY LOUDLY with a plastic bag, and I yelled at him to be quiet not knowing that it'd be the last time I'd see him :( I feel so guilty, you can't even imagine. I was in shock all last night. I don't think I've ever cried so much.

I drank a lot of vodka last night in the hopes that I'd fall asleep quickly - which shows how upset I was, because I hate to drink - and it would have probably worked if I had gone to bed a little sooner. As it was I had to get up to cry a little in private, and then when I crawled back into bed I counted until I calmed down enough to try and sleep. I got to 600.

Of course, tonight is one of Dave's work party things for his boss so I have to clean myself up before then. I've relapsed into my "stress relief" (no, it's not cutting, but it's in the neigborhood) so I'm not looking or feeling 100% right now, but showering and doing my hair and cleaning up the apartment will at least take my mind off of things.

I can't find Pucky. I've looked everywhere.

I've been wandering in the woods outside with a flashlight since 4am. I don't think he got outside, but I can't find him anywhere!

Where is he??? How do you lose a ferret??

I'm going crazy. I think that he's dead.

That would be two ferrets in a month. WTF

I can't stop crying, it's all my fault.

Got back from GenCon yesterday. I went with the ever-awesome scardykat! It was awesomeness.

I am too wiped to make a full con report so we're gonna do bullet points here.

*Seven hours on the road.
*30,000 nerds
*80% Male (and, unlike at a furcon, these males are straight)
*The boots, THE BOOTS
*Kat and I went to the invite-only White Wolf party...open bar :P
*KAT GOT HIT ON SEVERAL TIMES :D
*12 hours of sleep the whole weekend!
*All my muscles hurt :(

Newbie fell asleep for the last time today at 3pm. He's buried in a sunny spot in the woods.

I will miss him so much.

Update:

So last night Newie just...got better. He stopped crying, he finally pooped (he was constipated for a while, like, he had a huge bulgy belly) and he spent the night and much of today asleep (ferrets sleep something like 18 hours a day, normally, and he was constantly awake and cranky for the past few days)

So all evening he's been running around the apartment, climbing up and down stuff, knocking stuff over, humping shoes, and generally being Newbie.

He's still sick, I know, but he's not suffering. And he was definitely suffering the past few days.

Called the vet, and I'll be bringing him in sometime next week (Dave's gonna be in Lansing all next week, so unless I pop him in the basket of my bike...which would be SUPER CUTE...I'm stranded). Diagnosis to see if he has adrenal will run about $300 and surgery (assuming it's operable) will probably run $600 - $700. I will be honest...he is old, and I don't know if $1000 worth of surgery to maybe prolong his life by a few months is really worth it. I'll still bring him in, see if there's anything they can do to make him comfortable in the meantime. It doesn't cost anything to have him put to sleep, so if it comes to that, that's what's gonna happen. I'll give him a few days though. He could have just been going through a rough patch.

Words simply cannot express what I am feeling right now. Not everyone gets a second chance. I seriously spent the past few days just locked in my room crying and cuddling him, and I just feel so amazing now.

(The whole time I've been typing this he's been barreling around the living room in circles, giggling and jumping onto stuff, omg)

Newbie may be making his last trip to the vet tomorrow.

He is sick and old and in a lot of pain. I'm treating him as best as I can but there hasn't been much improvement, and I really can't stand to hear him crying.

Sushi-K has not been online much the past week.

Why, you ask?

BECAUSE SUSHI-K HAS A NEW SET OF WHEELS :D

And by "new set of wheels", I mean a very awesome plain black Schwinn bike. IT HAS A BASKET, OMG!!!

I have been cycling all over Traverse City! It only takes me 25 minutes to get downtown! Today I went downtown to grab lunch @_@

I am excited and mobile! No more apartment-lounging for me!

Pics of me cruising the countryside to come!

Hehehe

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Pretty sunset tonight. Snapped some pics. This was my fave.

Sooo

Amtrak does not run between here and, well, anywhere else really.

A Greyhound bus from here to Ann Arbor costs $135 round-trip :\

I really need to make some friends in TC, or start to really, really like cats. Or driving. Either/or.

OK!

So here's the scoop on my amazing weekend.


So I'm home, hale and hearty, tired as heck, thinking about making dinner, and finally able to check my email for the first time all weekend. As predicted, Nat sent me two emails full of hilarious furry porn. My Little Pony porn, to be precise. Excellent.

Eeee! Only a few more days until the Binder Park meet and I am excited! I get to finally meet some of the awesome people I've been mocking on the forums, and reunite with cool people I haven't seen since FCN! It may kinda suck living far away from everyone, but that just makes getting back together all the sweeter.

I am HUNGRY! And it's only 7.20am! I am ready for lunch! *hunts through trash cans*

I have a bunch of art in-progress, nothing major, but it's fun stuff.

I thought that I had something more interesting to post but I guess I don't! Oh well. Off to find something edible.

I have taken this meme and claimed it in the name of Australia!!

1. Friends
2. Sex
3. Music
4. Vices
5. Love
6. This used to say Livejournal, but ask any random question!

Ask me one question about each of the above topics! I will answer them. Maybe.

I have felt like crud all day today :( Could it be the three (OMG) fuzzy navels I had yesterday evening? The "all you can eat sushi buffet" I had for lunch with Rob and Keith (LOVE YOU GUYS)? The giant bowl of Chinese sweet sausage, raw garlic, and rice I had as a midnight snack?

I need more Sweet Valley High books. Srsly ;_;

I am TOTALLY painting a giftart for Neko2 because he's making me a custom sketchbook for nuthin! HOORAY! A gift for me??

Fireworks in 30 minutes. I'm gonna wander down the trail (in the pitch black, mwa hahahaha) and watch them! Yay!

I was bored so I thought I'd paint Asphy for Calicat. Hope I got her markings right  -_-;; She is a very cute skunkgirl who refused to sit still while I painted her.

Ok ok, if you know me at all, you know that I am a geek. 50% DND geek, 50% cooking geek, with a little dash of "Indignant ferret owner" to taste. Well, here's a link that accurately sums up what goes through my head on a daily basis.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/alttext/2008/06/alttext_0618

I LOL'D

Stole from Slade, thought I'd share.

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