Yesterday really ended a lot better than it started, but first, next door’s back to stinking the place up with their damn brush-burning. Who knows how many days this will go on for? Why can’t they just shove the shit in bags and dump it with the trash? And why does everything have to be done right by our place, including the parking of the fucking car I thought they sold? Someone slammed a door to this car so incredibly hard, harder than next door ever has, and the whole place shook like an earthquake. Makes me wonder if maybe that’s what woke me up a week or two ago, rather than next door.

I don’t know who I’m more pissed at right now, Bluefly or the property management. On the 10th we’ll have a grand and if management could’ve just fucking waited, Tom wouldn’t be put out as he has been. Safeway only allows a $200 cash-back limit and we need another $100, so he’s gotta go back. Like the fuckers would starve between now and the 10th? But no, they just have to have their precious money right away. He paid a part of it yesterday and explained the situation. They said we wouldn’t be charged the $50 late fee if the rest of it was dropped off over the weekend, which is what he’s trying to do. Meanwhile, if Bluefly doesn’t credit us by Monday, we’re gonna lose the cable for a few days and have to pay a $50 fee to reactivate it.

Thanks, God. This is just what we need. We needed this wonderful trip down memory lane, struggling, being your little bums.

For all I know I may still be right when I predicted we’d have money problems all our lives. Until we get the check, we can’t do shit with EFO to find out if I’m right or wrong.

I saw Liz, but she didn’t see me. We were two registers away. She had her hair up which I think looks the worst on her.

Kim came over yesterday to see if she could use a phone to activate her new phone, but as I told her, Tom had our only phone with him. We ended up chatting for about 10 minutes before she went to the old lady’s house on the other side of her to get it activated.

The first thing she said when she stepped into the house was that it smelled good in here. I gave her a stick of incense and one of the burners I’ll never sell.

I asked if she had a roommate and she said her mother was staying with her for a while, but it didn’t work out. Century is actually her aunt, which I was surprised to learn. I didn’t think an aunt would visit her niece that much. When I told her I had worried she was moving, she said she wasn’t, but maybe she would in a year when she goes up to Eugene. She’s from here and she hates the winters too, she said, after I told her we hope to go to a warmer place next summer.

She did get the same letter about management’s bullshit claim that the drain problem was tenant-caused, just like I figured. I guess she must’ve talked to them about it at some point and they’re pretty sure it was her because they mentioned tampons and Q-tips being present. That’s when she informed them that she doesn’t get periods because she takes birth control. She’s lived here for two years and I think the problem started building up way before she entered the picture, filthy or not.

She is working graves, though she didn’t say what she was doing. She just said she had trouble paying her rent once too, and was freaking out with no job and that she lost her cable as well. I guess she spends most of her time watching movies. She also says that once a year you can get out of having to pay the late fee, so I told Tom to mention that if we can’t get the rest of the damn rent paid over the weekend, though I think we will.

She’s paying $285 for that little shack and agreed we’re paying too much, too. She said she’s so cramped in there that she can’t sit on her toilet without having to have a foot in her shower stall, a hot spot for spiders. She has no sink in her bathroom either.

I told her we were laughing at how she must’ve been surprised and even thought there was a real person standing in the bedroom when she cut through to use the bathroom the last time she was here. She said she wasn’t though, and that she knew it was a mannequin and that they’re way cool.

She said we’re the best neighbors she’s had in a long time and that the last people used to park in her driveway, and I guess they accidentally turned her water off, too. Well, she better enjoy us while we last, because if we do leave sometime in June, the rest of the summer’s going to be anything but peaceful for her. I’m sure the next people will be barbecuing up a storm back there, though they’ll probably hang out in front for the most part. The back door is just too fucked up. It needs to remain sealed or else you’ll get a hell of a draft and tons of bugs. Besides, you’d lock yourself out if you went out and shut the door behind you.

Anyway, I told her she’s the best neighbor we’ve had since Tom and I have been together, even if the car doors do get a little vibrant. She said she’d watch that, but I think Aunt Century should watch it more. She’s the one that parks right outside my bedroom.

Later…

At last, the rent is paid! Poor Tom, though, is still coughing his ass off and never having just one day off to just relax and do nothing. Now, all we have to do is hope the cable doesn’t get shut off.

Liz was gone when he went back to Safeway for the rest of the money and groceries. That makes me think she’s on 1st shift unless she was on break.