So, our lives have basically been turned upside-down in the past three weeks. Fortunately, everything worked out for the best, and we are much, much better off.
It all started with an unkept lawn. This was a result of a series of mishaps; first Dustin's John Deere lawn mower broke, then my dad's lawn mower broke, leaving Dustin to mow 2.3 acres with a twenty year old push mower. Despite his best efforts, the lawn got out of control, and the "rental house" that we were working on did not get finished in the time that we were supposed to get it done. This was partly because Dustin did not want to ask for any help, and partly because we had neither the experience nor the money to fix the rental house. So, the owner of the property, who shall remain unnamed (as she is closely related to us), and who was graciously allowing us to live there free of charge, found a potential renter for the other house on the property. So, (from what I can gather), she brought that potential renter onto the property, to find the place quite a mess. This is our fault (mostly). In our defense, we were doing the best we could with the resources we had, and we had lived most of the summer (the hottest in recent history) without air conditioning. The truth is, that when we moved onto the property, we were completely unprepared to deal with the many problems that were to befall as, and, as a result, were eventually completely overwhelmed with even the day to day upkeep of the place.
This event initiated a series of inappropriate, hateful text messages from the above mentioned party. These were likely fueled by a combination of justified frustration, and alcohol; nonetheless, they were inappropriately hostile, critical, and hurtful (not to mention incoherent). I would also like to mention, that this hatefulness was returned by neither Dustin, nor myself, and that my best efforts at reasonable discourse were met with incoherent insults, and attacks unrelated to the issue. Eventually, we were essentially told to "get the hell out."
So, we "got the hell out." The next day, I took off work, we scrambled together as much money as we could muster, and we found an apartment in town. Since "she" was out of town, we had a week to move all our stuff into the apartment, into storage, into the trash, and to Goodwill, before she got back, which we did.
Here's the fucking kicker though. By the middle of that week, Dustin had made nice with her, and she asked him if he would help one of her employees mow the lawn. Dustin agreed, and they cleaned up the yard, while I continued to get our stuff out of the houses. At the end of the day, Dustin gets a call, and she's asking how nice the yard is (like she's doing us a big favor) and thanking him for helping. Dustin then say's (and I'm paraphrasing) "ya, I think we're going back to our apartment now and rest"...."What, you mean the other trailer"..."no, like my apartment, in town"..."You did what? You moved?!" She either didn't really think we would follow through with it, or forgot she had kicked us out!
Other than the drama that had ensued, moving into an apartment was bitter sweet. On one hand, we really liked living close to the outdoors, being able to look out of our windows in the morning at the trees and the birds. On the other hand, the "house" we were living in had no proper air conditioning, other than a window unit that cooled the main room of the house, which we had moved our bed into so we didn't melt at night. It was old, always dirty(despite my best efforts), unfinished, and still has black mold lingering about(but, hey, it was free, right?). Not to mention the weight of the tasks at hand had really been constantly weighing on us, and had created a lot of anxiety for both Dustin and myself. The apartment we moved to is so much easier to keep clean, there is little to no maintenance, which is good since I need to focus on school, and Dustin needs to focus on getting a job. And, the best part is that we have been severed from the responsibility of preparing and renting the property we were living on, which is a bigger job than I think she realizes that it's going to be. It has been an incredibly liberating, and educational experience.
I am so relieved that it is over, and more excited about our future than ever!
