Don't Forget - Check Out My Daily Journal

Don’t forget that I fill out a daily journal on the “daily journal” page.  It does not show up as a new post when I write on it so you have to check it every so often for new entries.  If you are wondering how things ended with the entire debacle of the trashed furniture I have continued to write about it in my journal!  You will find the Daily Journal as a tab at the top of the page.

Vindication

Today I went and talked to the rental office about the furniture they smashed up and threw in the dumpster.  I completely expected them to say “sorry for your luck chump” but I was really surprised when the guy I was talking to shook his head in horror and said “that is my fault, I told them to do that, normally we send an abandonment letter”.  Really…..how interesting!  They wanted to know what the cost of the furniture, Comcast equipment and a power chord for my TV came to and said they would call me back later today.  In the mean time I looked up the law considering personal property when a home is supposedly abandoned (which it was not by the way) and they were completely in the wrong.  So I do feel very vindicated today but it doesn’t bring back furniture that I loved…..I know it’s silly, I’m having a hard time myself understanding why I’m reacting so strongly to my furniture being smashed up…..it’s not like it was a family heirloom or some major personal memento….but it just hurts…I loved those pieces and it feels like a violation.

 Clarification

From some of the comments and insinuations that I have received over the past 2 months when I have talked about my plans I have come to the realization that I need to clarify something.  Perhaps I did not really make this very clear from the beginning.

 I did not quit my job, give up my apartment and become penniless on purpose so that I could become a digital nomad.

In fact the exact opposite is the case.  After 10 months of working at a temporary job that was supposed to become permanent the company decided to eliminate the position.  I really liked the job and was very excited about becoming permanent.  I loved my apartment…..I was so happy to finally be back in my own place and have my belongings around me again.  I was very content with the way things were going.  But that was not to be my life….life took a turn….again!  So this is me making lemonade out of lemons.  This is me saying “crap, here I am again with no job and no money….what do I do next” and trying to make the best of it.  But don’t get things twisted…..I’m not upset about how things have turned out….I’m excited and it really does hammer home the meaning of …

Things Happen For A Reason

Lesson

There is a lesson that I want to point out to everyone…..one that I have learned in the past but don’t always remember…..one that saved me again.  When you have something unpleasant to do, it is best to just face it head on and get it over with.  When I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to pay my rent I wanted to run and hide and stick my head in the sand.  I wanted to slink away in abject humiliation.  I dreaded having to go into that office and tell them that I couldn’t pay my rent.  I just knew they would look down their noses at me and consider me scum….I knew it!!  But I forced myself to go in there and talk to them, to explain the situation…..I didn’t act defensive (it wasn’t their fault I couldn’t pay my rent) and I owned up to my problem and made sure they understood my sincerity when I said that I intended to do what I could to fix things if I could.  And lo and behold they didn’t look at me with contempt and derision…..they actually thanked me for coming in and talking to them “because when renters come in and talk to the landlord they get in less trouble” (those were their words exactly!).  I did the same thing today with the furniture…..I knew they were going to look at me like I was crazy for objecting to my furniture being destroyed when I owed them thousands of dollars….I just knew it.  But I faced my fear of walking in there….I kept a cool head and once again was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  I need to remember this lesson a lot more often!

Today the lady who was going to buy my bed frame met my son at the apartment to pick it up.  However, when they went into the apartment they found everything gone.  They found not only my bed frame (that was antique, beautiful and cost me about $900) but also a TV Armoire that I have had for a very long time and 2 bookshelves broken to smithereens in the dumpster.  Apparently the apartment complex felt that I had abandoned the apartment and so felt free to go in and remove items and trash them.  Not only did they trash the furniture but I had a pile of Comcast equipment that I was going to return to Comcast tomorrow that is missing…..in that pile of Comcast items was the power chord to my TV that I bought less then 9 months ago which I now cannot use because the power chord is gone.

I am absolutely beside myself.  Not only am I now missing $175 that I sorely needed but I am probably going to be charged by Comcast for the missing equipment and I now have a $200 TV that I cannot use.  On top of all of that I am grieving for my furniture…..I loved that furniture….I had it for a very long time and I dragged it with me from place to place.  I was only willing to part with it because it meant that I would have money to fund a dream……now I don’t have the money and my treasured items have been trashed. I feel very violated.

I don’t really know if I can even do anything about it.  What I haven’t mentioned on this blog, because I have been a little embarrassed about it, is that since I didn’t have the money to pay my rent I had the option to break my lease and leave or be physically evicted.  When I talked to the rental office they said that in the long run it would be cheaper for me to be evicted rather than break my lease.  So that is what I chose to do.

My court hearing for the eviction was for this coming Wednesday.  At the last minute I had a change of heart (I hate saying that I was evicted…..it just feels slimy) and decided that I would turn in the keys and it would be considered breaking my lease.  I moved everything by this past Tuesday but left the furniture there because I had people coming to get it.  I was going to turn in the keys on Saturday but was delayed so planned on going tomorrow instead.  So, since I assume the maintenance men don’t work on Saturday or Sunday, they had to have come sometime between Wednesday and Friday.

I’m guessing that when I go in there tomorrow to complain and to turn in the keys they are going to say that I abandoned the apartment.  When your in the middle of moving and you still have stuff in the apartment I’m not sure how that can be considered abandonment especially since it had been less than 3 days.  And I really don’t understand why they had to trash my belongings?  Someone could have used that furniture.  I just don’t get it and it makes me sick.

For the record…..I know I’m the one in the wrong…..I haven’t paid my rent…..and I will have to deal with those consequences.  I was upfront with the apartment complex about my situation, I spoke with them several times about what was going on, I talked to them about the whole process……I didn’t slink off into the night with my tail between my legs…..I owned up to my faults……I gave them my forwarding address so that they could forward me the bill and I will pay it when I’m able to.  I just don’t think I deserved this.

I have finally left my apartment after a 3 day horrific move – driving back and forth 2 hours one way from my sister’s house to my apartment 3 days in a row.  So much for my move being easy since I got rid of everything (shaking my head in chagrin).  But I am now happily ensconced in my sister’s new apartment in St. Michaels.  I have my own little temporary room and “work from home” office consisting of a fold out card table!!  I really love it here and love spending time with my sister…..it might actually be kind of hard to leave….but I’ll be back!

After spending practically 20 to 30 hours a week, during the first 3 weeks of the semester, working on school work and literally not being able to get anything else accomplished and stressing over the fact that I had to move 2.5 weeks earlier than planned and when am I going to have time to make some money etc. etc.  I finally gave up the ghost and decided to drop my classes…..ahhhh sweet relief.  However, that relief was very short lived.  When I called the school to drop the classes they informed me that if I drop the classes I will have to pay back financial aid funds….Crap!!  So now instead of having only 20 to 30 hours per week or no school work…..I now have to catch up on 3 weeks worth of school work in a week and a half while simultaneously doing the current school work.  God please help me through this next week and a half!!

But like I said things are slowly but surely moving along.  I have had several requests for information and rates on Today’s Gal Friday and I have an interview on Sunday with a potential client who needs help organizing her house.  If anyone out there needs help with organization I am your woman!!  As a personal/virtual assistant I can do many things…..organization is just one of them.  I have also had clients in the past who have used me for various office projects, house sitting, pet sitting, transcription, data entry, internet research, web content, social media marketing, editing, writing….the list goes on and on!  Keep in mind I was an Administrative Assistant for 20+ years….anything you need done in your office I’m pretty darn good at.  And because I’m trying to get my business back up and running I have reduced my rates by HALF!!  Ok….so a little plug for me (grin)!!

Monday I have an appointment to get my taxes done….I’m hoping for a miracle refund but will settle for something….anything!!!  I’m also getting my car detailed so that I can hopefully sell it and purchase a van.

I had hoped to go to Hawaii to visit with my Dad & Step-mom who are out there for the next 3 months.  That dream is not completely dead just yet….I’m still working on it!  But I am definitely going to Florida with my mom in March and staying until April when my brother gets married and we have to head back to Maryland.  So those are my next goals and plans.

I have also been steadily working on getting my bills reduced to nothing.  I talked to my car insurance company and found out that when my oldest son gets his own car insurance and my residence changes from Alexandria (city) to Fredericksburg (not city) my insurance will reduce from almost $300 to under $100 per month!!  Hallelujah!!!  Of course that is on my current car….I’m guessing it will go up some when I buy a van???  Not sure.

So that’s it everyone……I promise after this next week and a half from hell I will post more and hopefully after this month when I finally get on the road my posts will be a little more interesting!!

Obviously not paying rent and utilities makes a HUGE difference since 60% or more of my income went towards rent and utilities.  Of course one might argue that paying for gas and vehicle maintenance might still take up 60% of my income but since I don’t really know what my income will be at this point and I’m hoping that I won’t spend that much money in gas if I stay in one place for a few months at a time I’m going to leave that one alone…..for now.

One huge expense that will be eliminated soon is the cost of my children’s cell phones and my oldest son’s car insurance.  This has been costing me a little over $200 per month.  They are both old enough to take over their expenses so I am happy to allow them to do that!

Another expense that I HOPE to do away with is my car payment.  My car payment is small enough that if I’m unable to get rid of it, it won’t be a huge deal…..but never the less it would be great not to have it.  I would rather put that same amount per month away for future vehicle maintenance.  So my plan….my hope…. is to sell my car for enough to cover the balance on my loan and still have a few pennies left over for a used van.  I don’t know a huge amount about the value of my car or what it’s worth….that is something that I still have to do research on…..so this may just be a total pie in the sky dream!!  What I do know is that my car is nice and doesn’t have any problems and I paid extra on my loan for the first year so it is paid down quite a bit.  If I’m unable to sell my car for enough to pay it off and have some left over for a van the next step will be to see if I can trade it in for a van and keep my payments to approximately the same amount.  This may be difficult considering I don’t have a job.  So I’m not sure how that will all pan out at this point.  Anyone wanna make a trade???

I do put some money in a retirement account monthly.  It’s not a whole lot but I plan to continue doing that as long as I can.  In fact what I would really like to do is increase that amount some day.  I also have a very teeny tiny credit card balance of about $300 that I am hoping to get paid off all together before I even get started on my travels.

I unfortunately still have about a year and a half left on my phone contract so I’m not sure that I will be able to really change anything about that payment just yet without paying a huge early termination fee.  But that is yet one more thing for me to research and see how I can get that bill lowered.  Right now I have a smart phone that costs me about $60 per month.  I recently activated the “hot spot” so that I could have WiFi for my laptop wherever I am and that costs me $20 extra per month.  I would really love to look into some of the pay as you go plans and/or figure out if I could do without a “hot spot” (can I just look for free WiFi??).  I really love my smart phone and would have a hard time re-acclimating myself to not having information right at my finger tips again!!

The only thing left that I HAVE to pay for is my car insurance and that is getting ready to decrease already simply because I’m moving my “home base” from the city to a more urban location.  Once I buy a van I plan on looking into ways to decrease my insurance or possibly looking at cheaper insurance companies.  But I really like my insurance company (I’ve been with them for 20+ years) and I’m a believer in “you get what you pay for” when it comes to car insurance so I’m not sure that will happen.

So let’s recap – the only things that I will have left to pay for monthly are my car if I don’t sell it ($177) my car insurance ($100 approx) my cell phone ($80) my credit card if I don’t pay it off ($35) and my retirement fund ($50).  Of course there are the pesky little things like food, toiletries and gas as well to think of….and I would be stupid not to start a “rainy day” fund.  I need to do research on getting my phone and insurance payments down so I would love to hear any opinions, suggestions or comments on how I might do that!

The World in My Hands

Here are SOME of the travel blogs that I have been reading and that have been inspiring me!  I thought you all might like to take a peek at a whole new world!  All of them are travel blogs but some of them are woman like me who have decided to break the chains of the cubicle!  Enjoy!

http://breakoutofbushwick.org/ 

http://www.greatfamilyescape.com/ 

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/ 

http://www.yomadic.com/ 

http://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/ 

http://holeinthedonut.com/ 

http://travelspirit333.wordpress.com/ 

http://mselenalevontraveling.com/ 

http://fluentinfrolicking.com/