Our household took a beating from the Universe this week. In the grand scheme of things, as far as Universe-given beatings go, it was a small one, but still. Mostly it was a money-related beating. If the Universe is trying to send me a message, OK! I've got it! And have responded by retooling our budget (read: actually creating one beyond my brain) and borrowing this book from Suzanne. I shall start reading it tonight; I think it will be right up my alley. Also, when I went to Safeway tonight, I did not buy a People magazine like I wanted to. That's $3.99! Baby steps! Baby steps!
So, what all happened this week. Let's see. Well, first, our car got broken into while we were blissfully eating Indian food. When we returned to our car in the Smart Park building, I was like, "Hey! There's a fire extinguisher by our car!" And then, "Hey! There's some broken glass by our car!" Then I got closer, and I thought, "Hey, my window's down! I don't remember rolling down my window. Why would I have left it--ohhhhhhh." Yeah, I got it. Finally.
They only took our iPod, which is one of two we have, and was the old, crappy one that was going to poop out soon anyway. So I'm sure they couldn't sell it, and the joke was on them. Sort of, because the $150 bill to replace the window was on us. Motherfuckers. I know people steal things and break into cars all the time, but seriously, who does something like that? I just hope it was some desperate homeless person, and not just an opportunistic asshole. Or something.
Then, this woman whose car Austin hit in a parking lot over four months ago e-mailed him out of the blue with the repair shop estimate. Okay, yes, of course he's going to pay, but how is waiting four months an okay thing to do? He tried to get this straightened out then, but she was all unresponsive and stuff. Shouldn't there be a statute of limitations on these things? Like a store return policy or something? She must have cosmically sensed that we were strapped for cash this month and decided to get proactive all of a sudden.
The next one is really embarrassing, but if you can't write in your blog about your embarrassing moments, what good is a blog anyway? So: because of, ahem, a billing/payment snafu with the gas company, our heat got shut off on Wednesday. Oops! Well, oh well. It's getting straightened out. In the meantime, it's kind of like camping. Except inside our house. With TV. And space heaters.
Then, that afternoon, Tia started peeing on stuff. Like, stuff not inside the litterbox. This has historically been par for the course for her, except that this time she was peeing on really weird stuff, stuff I won't say here because, even though everything has been thoroughly and properly disinfected according to the standard protocol, I worry that if I say, no one who reads it will want to come to our house anymore. After the fourth totally weird peeing in an inappropriate place, I realized that something really must be wrong, and I packed her up and took her to the vet. I felt bad, because she hates going to the vet, but I love it, because I love our vet. Seriously, if you are looking for a vet in southwest Portland, go to Janelle Walker, because she is awesome and everyone who works there is wonderful.
So Tia had to spend one night there, because they needed a urinalysis and she wasn't peeing. Finally, this afternoon, Ta da! Crystals in the urine! This is a fairly common cat ailment, and requires little more than plenty of water, prescription wet food, and an abundance of clean litterboxes (yeah, we need to work on that last one.) Vet bill: $104. Prescription food: I don't even know how much, yet. Cat that doesn't pee all over your house, soiling your every towel: priceless. Fucking priceless!
When you have four cats, trying to feed one of them a special diet is a big fat hassle. Hopefully we'll get into the groove soon. This means they can't have dry food sitting out anymore, since Tia can't have it; the poor things seem so deeply confused by the fact that their little bowl isn't sitting there next to their water fountain anymore. Tia only ate a small bit of her special food tonight, but I consider this a victory, because she is a picky eater. She doesn't even like fish. We'll see how it goes in the morning.
Anyway, things started looking up after that. Suzanne and I knitted together in the coffee room at Powell's, and had a wonderful deep conversation, as usual. We discussed spiritual matters (she said, in important tones.) I want to post about spiritual matters sometime, but it's hard for me to do without feeling like I sound like I think have some sort of Inside Scoop or something. Sometime I'll give it a try.
Austin is visiting his sick grandfather in Denver right now, so I'm on my own tonight. I'm going to have some chocolate. Staying alone in the house at night always makes me nervous. Here's hoping I don't get serial killed! Good night!
It does seem to be some kind of universal rules that all the bills crop up at once- especially when they can eat up someone's tax return. Don't forget about the local currency option- in you area, http://www.cascadiahourexchange.com/ provides such valuable services as car repair, workshops about money and prosperity, financial consulting, and even things not referred to on your blog.
Posted by: Kyla | March 03, 2007 at 08:33 AM
Oh wow, thank you for that tip! I wasn't aware we had local currency here. That could be a great resource.
Posted by: Natasha | March 03, 2007 at 09:02 PM