hopehope
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 3,815
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Post by hopehope on Jul 13, 2009 0:31:46 GMT -5
I'm posting this as a spur to me.
It is six months since the Great Purge. and I started a post long enough ago that it said Five Months and Counting ... but have not had the chance to finish it.
I want to do a story-so-far kind of thing. where I am now.
so -- this is the trailer...
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Post by Meme on Jul 13, 2009 0:54:30 GMT -5
sounds good to me and looking forward to the show..hugs
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Blackswan
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Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Jul 13, 2009 13:34:18 GMT -5
Can't wait for all the exciting details!
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hopehope
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Posts: 3,815
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Post by hopehope on Jul 19, 2009 20:57:43 GMT -5
I've been asked about it again and again -- so I will post here what had already been written and was waiting in my message box -- the rest to come when I have time to sit down, write and think. Don't know for sure what the value will be -- but it seems fun to read stories, so...
Five Months and Counting
« Thread Started Today at 10:47pm » July 1, 2009
I was going to write this when it was five months since the Great Purge -- but it's actually more by now -- creeping up toward six. but let's be merciful.
For those who don't know -- I joined SS -- then here -- when I still had lots of unmoving stuff in my tiny apartment.
It was the same story you've heard elsewhere -- I'd listen at the door for other building neighbors before I'd open the door to get out of my apartment.
I had a mass mountain virtually throughout the place. My kitchen was utterly blocked off, and I hadn't used it in years. The last accessible working drain in the house plugged up last June/July -- about a week or so after I was run over by a car.
My windows were closed -- in one case just covered over by a thick velour/velvet cloth.
oh yeah -- and then there were the mice...
Anyway -- my neighbor -- not in the running for Miss Congeniality -- left several 'anonymous' notes on my door regarding smell --- I addressed the problem -- did what I could -- made sure to be vigilant about garbage -- bought can after can of Oust -- got one of the windows opened -- and kind of bailed on the thought.
Until I got a letter taped to my door late on a Saturday night from the LL demanding access the folowing Monday AM -- claiming they got a note from the Health Dep't. -- saying they had received a call complaining about smell.
Now -- again, as you have read here before --- I couldn't smell properly anymore. Spending so much time getting myself to not react to unfixable unpleasantness chez moi...
Turns out what i was supposed to do was ignore the letter. Instead -- I leapt into action -- left a note at the onsite office. called and left a message with the corporate LL -- and faxed same a letter -- all saying no access -- and thereby hangs a tale...
* * * * *
Over the next several months -- I did what I could to disengage my stuckness -- with success followed by reaction -- listened rather too well to the website advice to do a little every day --("diseases desperate grown by desperate measures are relieved, or not at all.") And pretty much went through the tortures of the damned.
I went to court. I chased down legal help -- big waste of time. I abandoned my need to exercise -- penance? taking care of self had to go.
and I told only a very very few people. One -- my friend B. -- I emailed. and she emailed back that she had gotten a diagnosis of cancer. So we began to stand up for each other, by email and card.
One -- a "friend" from my place of worship, who asked me to stay at her (beautiful) apartment for a few days, a little ways into the future, to take care of her dog -- so she and her girl could make a necessary trip out west --
It was so the right thing at the right time - I burst out -- and told her why it was a God-send. She wound up reneging on the whole thing and lying to me about it. and getting her boyfriend to spin the tale with her.
One was a friend who lives in another country. since we communicate mostly by email -- and I have no need for more tasteless fluff in my life -- when i wrote I always went straight to the bone.
so I told him.
this was a big personal risk.
since he thought well of me and there's the male/female thing.
and squalor is -- well -- disgusting. and doesn't speak well of me.
but I told him.
He was going to be in my city some time in the next few months -- and said he would be the man on site when the inspection happened.
I was greatly relieved by this -- because -- he has a peaceable, spiritual temperament, is personable, not looking for a fight. and my heart relaxes around him.
he had to delay his appearance -- by the time he came it was not going to be enough time to actually get the job done by the expected date.
however -- after someone I hired off craigslist showed up and turned around and walked out, I'd gone into overdrive to get it done myself -- and wound up with a lifethreatening injury, requiring ER visit and giving me an excuse to postpone...
He was divine. my friend.
he walked in -- onto the field of stuff in the front hall, and said, "I would love to be your kid. I could play..." I'll always be grateful to him for that.
and then he started to help.
After two days he had to go about the other business he'd come here for. Then he came back -- overnight? for a day? don't recall.
But he wrote to me -- once he was home -- saying that there was a blizzard driving back -- a 6 hour drive became 8 -- and once he got to the capital he thought -- "I shouldn't have left. She can't do it alone."
and then -- he came back. before the new inspection date. And dug in and did it with me and for me -- and stayed through the event.
We had the best inspection in the history of time.
They showed up early (!) -- but I wouldn't let them in until the right time -- then I was gracious -- and she was complimentary -- and I introduced everyone --(she had the super in her wake-- she was the corporate person) -- and then they left. Didn't ask to see anything. Except when she first got there, she looked at the louvered door on the side of the room, and said, "There's another room through there." and I said, No, that's the closet. This is really the space you rent to me.
But of course, when we got to court -- couple of weeks on -- friend back in his country -- she --the LL -- was on another tack altogether. Suggested she inspect my apartment every two weeks -- for what sounded like the rest of recorded time. Not amenable to that.
So -- she said they would file a new law suit. immediately to do it again. sigh.
********
But what of my place?
Well -- the bathroom remains a showpiece. I think.
It's not minimalist --- i haven't become someone else -- but it is beautiful, and peaceful, and reasonably functional (except the commode) -- there's only hot water, no cold -- but I have a method that allows me to take baths -- a couple of times a day. I clean the tub -- regularly -- and the sink all the time -- the mouse problem is milder, although not completely vanquished. I placed a small lamp on the little marble table in the bathroom -- and a large blue plant pot in which I placed a fat white candle.
My friend put the black vase I used to use for the toilet brush on the shelf by the window -- I liked it there -- threw out the old T. brush, cleaned the vase -- and keep it filled with flowers.
emptied the wooden box he left on the inset by the window -- and plan to put toiletries in it.
placed a stoneware tile -- a longish one -- across the cup-holder and soap-holder structures.
washed my beautiful bumpy clear shower curtain.
There's a beautiful poster on the back wall that survived the purge -- and a framed poem on the side wall...charming.
and have refrained from exploding with the shampoos and so on by the shower. left it spare...
*******
Got a flokati rug for the main room (those off-white long-haired things --) and a foam sheet to place under it. [doubled.] I can sleep on it. sit on it. or exercise right there.
Got batteries for the portable radio that turned up -- so I have a radio in the bathroom, bedroom area, and kitchen.
actually use the kitchen. Not perfect in there. as usual, I get in my own way. There's not a lot of room to play with, and I put a tiny table-like structure in the only available space -- between the frig and the sink. which makes getting stuff in and out of the frig harder than it needs to be. okay for food, but not as much for clearing -- don't yet know how to fix that.
there are rubber containers on the table-thing that contain food that needs to be out but safe from mice.
I wash dishes and pots every day. I put a new border around the bedraggled poster on the wall that I'm attached to and couldn't throw away.
I have cleaned virtually everything, one thing at a time, one day at a time -- that you see in there. the copper pot, the metal colander, the frame for the peach picture, the endless bottles and jars. the cabinets and walls.
because of the mice-- there is the issue of things "moused". if you've been there, you know what I mean.
if not -- well -- let's not get specific.
I still occasionally find something that has a top that escaped demousing. and I clean it. whew.
I rearranged the whole counter top -- so I have a back section on which is a vertical toaster oven, a blender, a small tea maker -- and a little wooden square in which I keep dw liquid and a jar of implements. and that's kind of it. But there's a bit too much stuff on the floor space there. work in progress. [new garbage container - white, intact, floor pedal,and utterly creature proof.] _________________________________________________________________ I began this on July 1. I think I will publish this part of it -- the story so far -- and add to it as I have time. -- It's moving on to six months -- if not actually there already!! -- so let's put it out there. more to come.
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Post by Meme on Jul 19, 2009 21:21:46 GMT -5
I am speechless with tears- my friend. hopehope who is now sharing her hope- I will reply more later but I just need to send you a hug for now. (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((())))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
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Post by zinnia on Jul 19, 2009 22:15:41 GMT -5
I have cleaned virtually everything, one thing at a time, one day at a time ....... ......and lived to tell the tale. Congrats & hugs to you.
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Post by razy on Jul 20, 2009 1:51:22 GMT -5
I have loved following your story. For so long I did not think you would make and then you started moving and have not stopped. You are and inspiration. Kia Kaha
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Post by gettingsomewhere on Jul 20, 2009 11:20:06 GMT -5
Huge bear hugs Hopehope. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to following you along this path. Love Chez, x
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Post by valor on Jul 20, 2009 17:25:28 GMT -5
Thank you for sharing this. It is inspiration for all of us! We can do it together, there is strength and support. We share our trials and triumphs! So happy to read this.
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Post by grungygeorgie on Jul 20, 2009 17:26:18 GMT -5
Thank you so much for this inspiring tale,it is better than a novel I wait with bated breath for the next installment.Your fan,gg
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