I'm Back

I am sooooooo tired. Today had to be the longest day I've had in ages.

I can only sign so long and then my brain is fried. Today I tried to help a deaf woman look at apartments. My heavens. People are a trip. I don't know why it is when you tell someone a person is deaf, they feel the need to talk slowly and louder! I suppose I've probably done the same thing in the past.

By the time it was all over, I was wishing that talking slowly and louder would have done the trick.

Thankfully she found a nice apartment that has rental assistance attached to it; that makes the application process shorter than getting rental assistance for an individual. I should have known it would be an all-afternoon endeavor when they gave us the "application packet." My land. When an elderly person's last three addresses take you back 13 years, it's not easy to remember the details like that landlord's name or phone number. Thanks to the miracle of the internet, we were able to get close.

Finally the app process was done and it was time to head back home, only she needed a few groceries. So we stopped at Super Target where she skimmed through as fast as she could. Before she started loading the groceries on the belt to check out she handed the cashier her coupons. We finished and were on the road toward home when she realized he never took the coupons off her total. I was unhappy. Unhappy is a mild word. But it was quite a stack of coupons, so she and I went back in and I expected a huge hassle. After about 5 minutes the customer service rep had located the cashier and the coupons and simply matched the coupons to the bill (I had had visions of having to drag everything back in the store to re-ring it all) and gave her the coupon amount in cash. Over $13. It was worth going back. And I was profusely thankful. It was all handled so incredibly smoothly that I didn't even mind that they'd forgotten in the first place. It happens.

Then I took her "home" only to find that her daughter has given her till Friday to move out. I don't understand people. I don't think I could ever even threaten to put my mother on the street, even if I didn't mean it. Her daughter's live-in dude is trying to tell me that because she hasn't paid her $250 yet this month, he's over $600 behind (thanks to a stroke he had last week--not that it's not possible for a 30-35 year old man to have a stroke, but he sure looked comfortable sitting there watching TV and he certainly has no trouble talking) and for the second year in a row his kids aren't going to have Christmas and it's all this 63-year-old deaf woman's fault. Give me a break. I'll give him a stroke all right.

I asked very kindly and politely if they'd put in many applications in their area for her. He said it was impossible to find an apartment for the $250 they asked her to pay (for one room). Which translates into "none." I was so hacked off when I left there. I did tell him I was doing my best to help her and them out, and that I realized it wasn't easy for them either and he at least had the decency to hang his head for a second and say, "I know you are. Thank you." I was still peeved.

I think she was holding off paying rent in case she has to pay rent on a new place, but I told her to go ahead and pay the people, and hopefully by this time next month she'll have a place of her own and some peace. If my calculations are right she can end up with a one-bedroom place with a kitchen, nice bath and lots of storage, washer and dryer on site, computer access, library, and transportation for maybe half of what she's paying for a room that's not big enough for her to set up a bed. She sleeps on a couch.

Okay. I'm done ranting I guess. Perhaps if I'd put all that toward a NaNo entry I'd have a nice chunk of wordage. :) I did type a small bit at my sister's on Saturday night, and I will eventually count it, but it's worthless. I have my whole "blackest moment" completely wrong, as I figured out while I was making hot tea this evening. But at least I have something to do when I can finally get back to the keyboard. I got in around 7 tonight and went to sleep for a couple hours. I'm feeling much better now than I was then. I was totally bummed from so many different directions; my head ached and my heart ached and I seemed coiled up like a spring ready to launch. The sleep did worlds of good. Until my son tells me his dad told him he was laid off from his job today. We both fell asleep at 7 and dh is still sleeping so I don't know if he was kidding or he'll be home all day tomorrow.

I can't even think about that now.