August, My New Enemy

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I'm usually not one for public moaning about the trials and travails life brings. Usually, I keep my trouble to myself, at least on the internet. But this month deserves mention, if only because it has raised the bar of terrible months. I want you to understand, this is coming from a person who once slept in parks, who has broken both his legs, and has, on several occasions, lost all his friends and have to pack up and move. Even with the above sloppy shit sandwiches in mind, August, oh horrid August, will go down as one of the crappier months I've ever had.

First, Mandy learns that her mother died. I'm not going to claim that as a bad thing for me, but it is hard to watch someone you love in pain. So she has to fly out to her hometown, which is one way or another, gonna cost money.

For the record, most people don't realize just how tough and resilient Mandy is. She has not had an easy life and she's still a genuinely nice person. I know lots of children of privilege who seethe bitterly at every little setback.

Okay, so not but a week after that, my cat dies. So that sucked. Had to get the cat cremated-- again, money.

Mandy gets back from her hometown to learn that while she was away, her unemployment benefits ran out. So while we file an extension, we have two or three weeks with no income. My temp agency doesn't exactly come through with anything for the next few weeks.

Last week, we get an eviction notice from the landlord. He swears we owe 600.00 more than we actually do. After some bickering, he finally admits that he put a check of ours in the wrong column.

The next day, we wake up to find out the power got turned off. Awesome. So yeah, we knew it was late, but the multiple expensive dead things put us painfully behind on everything. We get lucky-- Mandy's unemployment gets reinstated that day. So we can pay off our huge balance--but not anything else.

So day after that, our landlord is back with another eviction notice. I mean, he had it printed out, and it's a silly thing to waste paper. Hey, did you know that in Washington you have three days to pay in full if you get an eviction notice? And if you don't pay in full, if you're even a penny off, you're getting evicted. Tenant laws in this state are shit. You have no protections. Not a one.

Thankfully, Mandy comes to the rescue once again. We sell her car for a whopping 600.00 American pesos. It's enough to keep us from living on someone's couch.

Then, this morning, we woke up to find out the internet is shut off. After the past month, it doesn't even raise my blood pressure (which is well above normal anyway). We might be able to pay it in a week. Maybe not. It's not like I use the internet for, oh, say, everything.

Goodbye, August. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

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