So, due to my move to Montreal GRC and I have to give up our apartment. It’s a real nice place with a deck and large bedrooms and air conditioning. Our landlord is real nice and the neighbourhood is good. Anyway, I’ll miss the place.

The landlord showed the place two Saturdays ago. It was the only showing with the landlord as the woman who saw the apartment took it. Great, we gave less than 60 days notice. This made us real happy.

On the weekend my landlord’s secretary called all a-flutter. Someone wanted to see the place on short notice and we weren’t home. Our landlord doesn’t have a key to the place. We were confused because we thought that the person who saw it the week prior had taken it.

As it turns out, she did take the place but she doesn’t have anyone to live with her in the large three bedroom apartment. Since the rent is more than 5 pesos, she needs to find a roommate.

I think when she took the place, in my euphoria and relief of renting the apartment I didn’t truly realize how irritating she is. I mean, her tremendous volume and talking speed were obvious but I attributed that to nerves and a desire to impress my landlord who only frowned at the bottom of the stairs at our impending departure.

So, last night she comes over to look at the place with a potential roommate who has already taken a place somewhere else. She comes up the stairs and while standing in front of my bedroom, holding up a huge digital camera – she says with certainty and conviction “I’m just going to take some pictures of the place so that I can post them on Craig’s list to find a roommate.”

Minutes before I opened the door to her I hid all the clothes that were strewn all over the floor, table and dresser. I pushed all of my shoes under my bed and sort of piled up some papers. The rest of the apartment was good and for some reason GRC actually cleaned her room after a 3 month house-keeping hiatus.

Still, I found it strange that she would take pictures to post on the internet. More accurately, I thought it was strange that she thought she could just drop by and take pictures of someone else’s home without asking first. So, I say to her, well, I don’t want you taking pictures of my bedroom. Annoyed, I go talk to GRC who is standing on the deck. I come back inside and inform her that GRC would also like her to refrain from taking pictures of her bedroom.

Well, didn’t this annoy the new tenant. She then asked if she could photograph my room, and I said no. She asked if she could come back later – then dared to show an attitude. So, I said to her, in no uncertain terms “I will be out of the apartment on July 1st, you can take a picture when the room is empty. I do not want pictures of my bedroom on the internet.”

Thankfully, GRC came inside and I walked away – I had to do my hair, which turned out great. Get this. She asks GRC if she can come back later to take a picture of my bedroom! So, GRC had to say “No, you can only take a picture of that room when Debbie has moved out.”

The nerve! I can only imagine what would have happened if our landlord did have a key and let her into the apartment while we were away. Is this normal? I know she needs to find a roommate, but frankly, that’s not my problem. Anyway, she left and she will not be coming back as long as I’m there.
- posted by Debbie @ 11:46 AM |

 
So, it is the start of my last week here and I have some stuff to do. I’m at the foot of this mountain of work – OK, considering what my office is like ‘mountain’ is not the best metaphor, it’s trite and boring besides. I guess I’m feeling more like the Tim Robin’s character in Shawshank Redemption just before the great escape. I know I will be free once I get through the rivers of human waste that lay below the structure that imprisoned my body and almost stifled my soul.

That may sound a tad dramatic, but in all seriousness a couple months ago, looking at one of my interns – the Ramjass – I thought to myself, I used to be as bright and optimistic as her. Then my editor actually said the same thing.

How am I actually supposed to work in this condition? Why can’t the rest of my sentence here be served in half days with time off for good behaviour?

Interestingly, my boss posted my job which I saw this morning. It looks like they are going to hire someone at the same pay to do only one aspect of my job. Do I have a right to be angry about that? No…seriously, do I have a right to be irritated? At the same time, what can I do? I’m leaving.
- posted by Debbie @ 2:17 PM |

 
So, I’m at my mother’s house watching The Godfather II. Good stuff. My mother and I played cards earlier and she beat me…again. I know she has been playing Rummy 500 for much longer than I have, but shouldn’t she be turning senile by now? Mom and she sharp mind. The thing with games is all you have to do is keep playing. When I was in high school and living at home. We played all the time and I’d school her.

It is funny being at home. She’s in her bedroom and I am in the basement. I think that she just likes to have me in the house. She just likes to know that I am in the basement watching her ridiculous amount of TV and eating upwards of three pieces of lemon meringue pie.

She's so cute, she just asked me if she missed the part were Freddo is killed and she said that Michael had a choice to be a better man. We agree that the scene where Freddo dies is sadder than when Sonny dies in the first movie.

In about an hour or so, I am going to go see my friend Phil. One of the few friends I still have from high school. My mom LOVES him. It is her not so secret dream that Phil and I will be joined in holy matrimony. My mom kills me.
- posted by Debbie @ 6:04 PM |