Rent is poopy

Just found out they're raising our rent more than $100 a month.
Poop!
It's better than the $400 a month more if we don't sign a new lease, but still ... POOP!

I can't believe how ridiculous rent is in SoCal. It's depressing. I don't know how people live here. Like, I simply can't comprehend.

I try to do the math and I can't.

Poop.

Cats -- and evidence thereof -- is EVERYWHERE

I own two cats -- or rather, two cats who rule our lives live with us -- and they basically pwn our apartment. We are just lucky that they don't like getting on the kitchen counter or eating human food, or quite frankly, I just don't know that we'd be able to keep the human-cat power balance, well, balanced.
And yet, as much as I love the furry little buggers and everything about them (except their dooks -- those are nasty), I am really starting to resent their HAIR.
It gets everywhere.
Clothes fresh from the drier have cat hairs on them.
When I wake up in the morning, I have cat hair in my hair ... and sometimes in my nose.
White, fluffy, lighter-than-air dander floats around my car, a car the cats have never been in.

I have black clothes I can't wear, so sullen are they with cat hair.

And yet ...
When they purr their affection with a sidle at my ankles, when they cozy up to me when I get home from work, when they nap on my chest when we're chilling in the living room, I know that I love them beyond all reason, in spite of the tufts they'll leave in their wake when they have their CatTacks later.
Tufts I call my White Badge of Affection.

Yelling at CapOne

The guy couldn't or wouldn't explain why the paper statement differed from what the electronic statement said, then didn't really have an answer for why the $10 late fee kept appearing on the statement, except that it was going to be off it from now on since the payment I made yesterday covered it.
THEN when we asked why did it just now get covered, since I consistently pay MORE than what is owed, he said, well, because you've never paid more than enough to cover it (despite the fact that I usually pay about $500 on a $292 payment).
And I said that doesn't make sense.
Well, he says, every time you pay, some of it goes to the principal, some of it goes to interest.
So, I say, even though I ALWAYS pay over what we owe, it's never been enough to pay this $10 fee?
Well, he says, that's because we don't know what's supposed to go to pay what.
So, I say, does that mean I should write a SECOND check just for the late fee (god forbid we have late fees again)?
And he says, well, you could just call and tell us it's to go for the late fees.
So, I say, the late fee would have just kept showing up if I hadn't called?
Well, yes, he says, we put it on your statement as a reminder.
WTF, I say. So now I owe $30 in late fees because you couldn't or wouldn't take it out of the FRICKIN YUGE PAYMENTS I MAKE?!
And then basically, he wouldn't help us with anything.
Even though DH had called in Feb. and talked to a girl who said she was going to take the late fee off because a $500 payment we made after not getting printed statements for two months in a row got lost in the mail.
DH to me: Yeah, we should just kiss that money away.
Me to DH: Aren't you glad I was yelling at him and not you?

A salad I got at work

I got the chef salad, but the chef is apparently, like, 5 years old.
The boiled egg still had shell on it (gross) and the cheese turned out just to be chopped-up sandwich slices.
Also, stalks made up more than a third of the lettuce.

When I was a kid, I made my mom a salad using cabbage instead of lettuce, 'cause come on, when you're a kid, they're the same thing, right?I was so proud of it, and she winced her way through eating some of it to make me feel better? But I still have to think that was better than this ...

Stoopid cars

Reason No. 4,367 why I can't catch a break: I went to start my car yesterday and it wouldn't start.

At all.

My brand-new, not a year-old car wouldn't start.

So DH had to drive me to work yesterday for the Oscars and pick me up, then this morning, I walked to work.

Anyway, I'm peeved and am calling the dealership.

On the plus side, this isn't even the worst thing to happen to me this month, so I'm actually in pretty good spirits about it!

And luckily, I think it's just the battery 'cause when I lock the doors and it does its little "yep, I'm locked" beep? It started sounding more like "I'm a dying duck put me out of my miser-quack."

Sewing drama

DH's mom had surgery on her knee last night and will be out of commission for awhile. So we went over to drop off a massive bag of frozen meatballs I'd made so she won't have to worry about preparing meals or whatever.
While we were there, ON OUR MISSION OF MERCY, his mom told him that it was time that I asked her if she needed the sewing machine that I'd borrowed back.
(NOTE: I'd told her to just let me know when she needed it back and I'd be sure to get it back to her promptly.)
DH: "Oh, do you need it back? I'm sure Kate can bring it over tomorrow?"
DH's mom: "Oh, no, I don't need it back. It's just time she asked if I needed it back."
DH: "But you don't want it back?"
DH's mom: "No, it's just time she asked me if I needed it back."

I just kept telling DH, "I don't understand. I don't understand!"
And he kept just saying, "It's not you. She's crazy."
Me: "I'll give it back to her tomorrow!"
DH: "She doesn't want it back, she wants you to ask if she wants it back."
Me: "But I don't understand."
DH: "You're so naïve! You're so sweet! But you're SO NAÏVE!"
Me: "My family is so much easier to get along with!"
DH: "No, your family is crazy too, it's just different crazy."

When DH took the machine back today and she was all, "Did you correctly convey my message to Kate? I wanted to know what her intentions were."
And I was like, "Um, dude, I was going to borrow it until I got one of my own or until she wanted it back. What else was I going to do with it? Pawn it for crack money??"

Argh, co-workers

Sometimes, the people I work with make me so mad that I want to hit them with a rock.
A rock of learning and compassion that will make them bleed love.