The Universe Has Spoken

Ok, I get the hint.

Powers that are larger than myself seem to want me to be right where I am, so I am giving up my attempts to move before my lease is up.

I was up at my parent's house today when my dad told me he'd help me out with my rent for a few months if I stay where I am. It can be treacherous in the winter on the east bench, and the thought of my having to drive on those snowy roads worried him. I was just about to leave for a friend's house and was caught off-guard by the proposal, so told him I'd think about it.

After weighing the choices, I decided to take his offer and stay put at the risk of looking like a huge flake to all the people I keep telling I'm going to move, and then never following through. I called the girl who had shown interest in taking over my lease and told her I'd changed my mind. The call I was really dreading was to my friend I was going to be living with to tell him I was ditching out. I wanted to do it in person and not over the phone, so was resisting calling him all day even after he sent me multiple texts asking to call when I could. I thought if I'm going to alienate or possibly lose a good friend, I could at least let him yell at me in person.

Finally he sent a text saying: "call me asap Val . . . we're not living there anymore"

Huh?

So I called. He told me he'd caught the landlady going through our things under the pretense of looking for duct tape. He'd been suspecting that she was nosing around for a few days now, and was even sure she'd been on his computer at one point. There were some words exchanged and he let her know that we would be moving our things out of the house very soon and not to expect rent next month.

Whoa.

Sometimes life works out in strange ways. I'm not generally a lucky person, so when things fall into place so smoothly and so quickly, and best of all with friendships preserved, I can't help but think it wasn't all simply coincidence. Whatever the reason, I guess I'm where I'm supposed to be for now.

Swinging Chandelier

Ah. Apartment living. Makes one feel so close to mankind. Or at least to the herd of guys in the apartment above. Not sure what it is they're doing up there every night that causes the chandelier to move like that. But it involves loud music and stomping and jumping that I suppose could be dancing, man-style. I'm guessing Guitar Hero. It's good music, and generally I'm not trying to sleep, although my roommates are probably less than amused since they're both in bed by 10 or 10:30. I actually find it kind of comforting to hear signs of life around me. It makes me giggle to hear them laugh and hoot and holler, so I say "rock on, boys!"

Work is much busier this week, despite further plungings of the stock market. I do double shifts on Thursdays, and today I did as many massages as I usually do in 2-3 days. Tuesday and Wednesday both filled up too, and I know I have another busy day tomorrow, starting off with back-to-back 90 minute deeps. This next paycheck may actually not suck! With the cold weather coming to drive everyone inside, I'm very much hoping to have more weeks like this.

On a more festive note, I did go to a haunted house last Saturday. Well, the Haunted Hollow up in Ogden, strangely enough, and I was tricked into going. I went costume shopping with my friend Kristi and her roommate Sam. Kristi had made plans to meet with her cousins and some of their friends for dinner at The Pie after the Priesthood session. Sam feels much the same way I do about haunted houses, so Kristi chose to omit the fact that we were doing the haunted house thing until we were on our way to dinner. Tricksy. But we both survived, and had a good time. It helped we were in a group of about 14 people. And yes, I made people do the arm-linking thing with me. We now have plans to go to Vegas with one of these cousins and his friendlies for Halloween. Should be fun!

So, guess what? I'm moving. For sure this time. It's kinda far, about 80th south and way east. But close to freeways so it won't take me much longer to get to work. The rent there is over $100 less than it is here, which is my main reason for going. Utilities will also be pretty cheap. It's a basement apartment, so we'll be splitting our half of the costs 3 ways. My friend Brady has already taken care of our first months rent and started moving in yesterday. I have to get my stuff packed and get someone to take over my lease here, which I already have a couple people interested in. Our 3rd roomie, Chelsea, is a student from Southern Utah and will be moved in soon as well. Only problem is, the place already has a washer and dryer. Since more than likely I'll be there less than a year, I don't want to sell mine then have to buy another set in a matter of months. Does anyone have room to store a washer and dryer for 6 months - a year at the most? Or if you know anyone who needs some, I'd even loan them out to a good home as long as I can have them back when needed.

That's it for now. Tune in next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.

High Times, Hard Times

So I guess this is what is known as the "hard times". I've been somewhat in denial about it. Kinda hoping if I just ignored it, it would go away and life would return to normal. That does not seem to be happening, so I guess it's time for me to make some decisions.

Work has slowed down to a very frightening trickle. This comes as a sad blow, since just a couple of weeks ago we were very nearly back to normal. Unfortunately, the you-know-what then hit the fan on Wall Street. I've been noticing a direct correlation to how the economy is reported to how busy we'll be at work. When things are holding or looking up, people come in. When things go south, or in this case right down the toilet, appointments are cancelled and the phones don't ring. And those few who do come in are stingy with the tips.

So now I have to decide how to best handle this, and I admit I'm at a loss. Do I grit my teeth and stay put? I love where I work and have been very happy there, and would be sad to have to leave. Also, the holiday season is right around the corner, always (at least in the past) a busy time at the spa. I'm not losing money at this point, but if things get much worse I will be. Do I start looking for a second job and cut back on the days I work at the spa? And if I do that, should I look for another massage job or fall back on my only other job skill which is retail/sales? (Which I hated and why I went to massage school in the first place to escape from.) Also, and this would be my last resort, at what point do I cut and run completely, hoping to return when/if things even out? Being a grown-up SUCKS!!!

So that's my main source of crazy-making these days. I've kinda put boys on the back burner for now, as I can only handle one disaster at a time. So feel free to send any advice my way. As well as lottery tickets or rich bachelors :-)