Back from the dead. Well kind of. I looked at my last post and couldn’t believe how long it’s been! Not to mention how much has happened. This summer was the craziest, busiest, most stressful 3 months I can remember. Not that it’s all been bad. Just insane.
Let’s start the week after my last post.
I bought my house. Signed the papers, gasped at the closing fees, and was handed the keys. Well in a way. I was actually handed a new lock set. But there were keys in the set. My realtor was also my friend. My mortgage broker is also my friend. They collectively made the whole process so much easier. They are amazing people. They bought me new locks as part of my housewarming gift. My realtor offered to come and install it (he took the old one out just before closing to try and have it rekeyed with no luck), but I already had a screwdriver in my hand. I can’t wait for them to come see the place now.
I have never been so excited. It’s all mine. 1500 sq feet. 3 bedrooms. 2 ½ baths. 3 floors. 2 car garage. Giant deck. It’s all mine. Holes in the wall. Bad painting job. Crumbling ceilings. Water damage. Pet stained carpet. Green shag carpet. Leaking toilets. I closed on April 30th. I moved in sometime towards the end of June. We spent 2 months tearing down ceilings, sanding them, painting them flat. Tear down water damaged ceiling, repairing it, paying to have it refinished. Repairing walls. Sanding walls. Cleaning ducts and fireplace. Priming. Painting. Moving in appliances (brand new factory installed appliances). Tearing out green shag carpet. Priming. Priming. Priming. Painting. Painting. Painting. Painting. Tearing out a vanity. tearing apart a toilet. Removing wall paper. Repairing walls. Cleaning carpets. Cleaning carpets. Moving my belongings in. Inheriting a dog. Cleaning carpets. Cleaning the same carpets.
Then after moving in we have continued: Painting. Sanding walls. Priming. Painting. Tearing out linoleum. Scrapping industrial adhesive off cement floor from linoleum. Getting new furniture (2 chairs, couch, table and 4 chairs, deck chair and chaise, glass table, 4 chairs, planters, plants, desk, guest bed, night stand, book shelf, washer and dryer. I LOVE IKEA and my family.) It actually looks like a house.
And by ‘we’ I mean a lot of people. I have been truly blessed with some of the most amazing friends and family. 2 of my best friends have been there to help anytime I have said I needed it. And they bring their other halves too. I put out a mass call on day, and several people showed up. They have scrapped, repaired, torn down, primed, and painted like champs. I am so grateful to have them. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have gone through this without their help and willingness to be paid in food and pool time. And there was never any complaining. Just the question of what time they needed to be there and what they needed to bring. I love that about ‘my girls’. We are always there for each other. Nana helped clean and brought her truck to move stuff in. Nana also paid for appliances and brought her former deck set for my deck. My aunts and uncle helped some. It was a whole community worth of help.
And then of course there is my mom. She is my hero. She was on stand by when I closed with cleaning supplies and a car full of stuff. I called her on my way from the closing and she met me there with a huge smile on her face. She then helped me scrub the 18 months worth of abandonment dust, dirt, and grime out of the place. She has torn down ceilings, torn off wall paper, learned how to replace the innards of a toilet, primed, painted, made food, cleaned, scrapped, sanded, repaired, moved furniture, helped pick out colors and appliances, organized and unpacked, moved and assembled furniture, and been my all over support. She is my partner in home improvement crime. She has helped me do everything. And she has already committed to laying laminate flooring, wainscoting, installing my new sink, and tiling my laundry room. She says my house is the ‘test’ house. If it works well, then we can do it in her house once we get some practice. I love my mommy. She has even gone and sat at the house and done things while I am at work. Despite being in school and then getting laid off, she is still willing to spend her weekends with me in the ‘trenches’. She’s been my rock. She is amazing.
On top of all the fun house improving stuff, this summer was full of ‘fun’ activities. My ex called me out of the blue. We started talking. Turns out my suspicion about him and my friend (see Overreacting: The Break up Edition from March) were dead on. He told me on his own. She had flat out lied to me. He asked me not to say anything until he talked to her. I waited a week. Then I let her know what I thought. Our relationship will never be the same. Either one. Despite all their excuses, she lied when I asked her what was going on. She could have said a million things, but she turned it back on me asking how I could ask her such a thing. I also found out she used what I was saying to her to manipulate him. I still don’t trust her. They are adults and they can do what they want. But why lie when someone calls you on it, especially knowing there is a good chance that person will eventually find out the truth? I even gave her a few chances after I found out for her to tell me what really happened. She still didn’t say anything. Man, with friends like that….
I was elected to the River City Theatre Company’s Board of Directors as a technical consultant and historian. We picked out a show and decided on show dates of the end of September. In the course of the show, 3 board members quit leaving the 4 of us who were involved in the show to be the board. I am now the Vice Chairman, by default. I had agreed to be the Technical Director for the show. These last two paragraphs are related. This is where stress comes into play. I introduced the ex to a fellow board member, who is also one of my best friends. She introduced him to the board as a possible director. I personally didn’t have too many objections to him directing so I stayed out of the deciding process and voted with the majority. The board liked his resume. I have seen his work. I know he’s got the talent and kids really like him. I thought he would be a perfect fit. So I let them to the deciding and stayed out of it. They chose him and away the summer started.
The show started off fine. Then the costumer/board member/cast member found out she was pregnant. Then the stage manager/board member also found out she was pregnant. Let the hormones fly. Stage manager had to back off from some things because it was too much for her to handle with some of the complications she was experiencing. Step up the other (3) board members who were all also involved with the show (and one who was also pregnant). Lots of stress. Lots of reworking of schedules. Lots of time spent in Watertown (70 miles from home). Lots more work than it started out. And Ex and I didn’t get along professionally at all. He’s not a technician. He’s done some minor technical work, but even he admits he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He started to ask for things that were not within our budget or scope. He got snippy when I tried to suggest that something wasn’t going to work with the technical aspects of the show and space. He started to not tell me things. Important technical things. He figured I would just find out. Lots of snipping. Lots of snarky comments. A few nasty emails. We do not work well together at all. I almost quit. Lots of extra time to cater to him. Lots of time away from the house. All in all, maybe not the best choice getting him involved in ‘my world’. Especially this soon after everything blew up and then we started talking again.
And if those 2 things were not enough, I moved into my house one week, inherited my aunt’s dog a few days later, agreed to be the Tech Director for RCTC’s show the next week, and then the following week, the powers that be at church, fired our full time Director of Children’s Ministry. And politely dropped her job in my lap for a few weeks. Being the Council Chair for Children’s Ministry, it was my job to keep things moving along. I met with the powers that be a few days after all this happened. The summary of the subtext of that conversation was a little something like this: ‘we have no idea what you guys do down there, so we can’t really help you. Good luck. And if you need anything, you can ask, but we will probably have no clue what to do.’ Not only did they fire the Director (who happens to be a good friend of mine), they have no plan as to what to do after they did. And the first question I got from anyone was ‘what are your plans for Rally Sunday?’ Yeah, that was the most pressing thought on my mind. I had just been handed an additional 40 hour a week job that I wasn’t getting paid for on top of my actual 40 a week job, and my 20 hour a week volunteer theatre job. I laughed and told them my plans were to try and survive the day. I do have to say that I have some amazing committee members who stepped way up and really helped. By the time we hired an interim person, curriculum was done, trailguides were found, a major scheduling shift had occurred and been handled, and rally day was planned. We kicked butt. And of course got little to no recognition for any of it. The kids are enjoying themselves and having fun. So that’s recognition enough. Oh and former Director had been interviewing for other positions anyway. She was offered a much better job the following week!
So that was my ‘summer’. I am not sure what happened to any of it. The only plants that did well were the ones that were able to sustain themselves this summer. I killed a lot by not being there. I sat on my deck and enjoyed it 3 times. Got to my pool twice. The only time I saw people were if there were in the theatre or coming over to help with something with the house. I made it to Nana’s house only once. Another one of my best friends got married this Labor Day weekend. I only saw her during her dress fittings all summer. I left like a terrible bridesmaid. We did manage a pretty awesome shower/bbq. And she said she had a great time at her bachelorette party. And no they were not half thrown together. Her sister and I made sure to get those planned and done up right. I have 1400 emails to finish going through. About 1400 hours of sleep to catch up on. And many many blog entries to catch up on. I am so out of the loop. I am exhausted just proofing this entry. I have got to learn to say no. So I have not been ignoring people these last few months. I have not been ignoring this blog on purpose. I have simply been way too busy to stop and scribble a not to myself, let alone write anything else. So here is to hopefully more frequent blogging.
