Is it possible to drown in the snow?

Evening all....

So today wasn't so bad.. not as bad as I was expecting at least! I woke up to is snowing.. honestly is it possible to drown in the snow because I'm getting worried.. It snows everyday and there is snow in the forecast for everyday this week.. there is so much on the ground and it just keeps coming.. can you honestly imagine what things are going to be like when it freaking melts.. I'm really worried!

I went to work this morning and I was nervous.. I gave it a lot of thought yesterday and I decided that I had to tell her how I felt today at work because if I didn't than I was as much to blame for what was going on.. I really don't want to lose this job, I think that if things were done the right way it could be a really positive thing, but something has to change. Anyways she got there early which made me a little nervous on account that she is always late, I kind of thought maybe she wanted to talk to me about something.. not so the case. Anyways eventually it came up and I told her exactly how I felt, that it was embarrassing to show a unit like that, I feel like its absolutely ridiculous that we tell people they have to pay for cleaning when they move out and we charge them but we don't give them the same standards of cleaning when moving them into an apartment. I told her that Tom seemed to think I was making something out of nothing when he didn't even see what I was talking about. I feel like when you work with people and are all working towards a common goal than you should be able to trust each other and be able to turn to each other when you have concerns and I was made to feel the complete opposite. I have worked with men before and have never been made to feel beneath them and I wont start now.. honestly she didn't say much, I have a feeling he talks to her like that too and that's been her life and now she doesn't know better or has just learned to accept it.. it kind of makes me sad for her.

Anyways the cleaners cleaned another unit on the weekend and before we put it on the market I thought it might be a good idea to go and check it out for myself to prevent what happened on the weekend. So I went over today and there was a list of things that didn't get done.. so she called them and told them they needed to come back! She also told them that we would pay them for the additional hours.. YA RIGHT! So she was gone all afternoon.. or a lot of it and Sam the cleaner came and got the keys to go and re clean.. when he brought me the keys back he said "Oh I must have been half asleep when I cleaned that place".. ya well what was your excuse for all the other places you lazy bastard?? I'm still not impressed.

So I said my piece and now I'm off tomorrow and Tom has surgery on Wednesday so she will be off for the rest of the week! I'm not at all sad about that, I do things a different way and it seems to work so when shes not around I much prefer how things go. When she got back this afternoon we listened to some more tapes.. I don't know where she finds these fucking tapes.. Gene Chamberlain is the biggest moron ever! I sit there and bite all my nails off because I'm so bored and I cant even play on my phone because she actually believes that these things are soo super educational that she wants to listen too.. its ridiculous!

When the tapes were finally finished I was walking around the model and I look outside and here is this huge moose! haha.. they are so hungry that they are looking for food anyway and anywhere they can! I didn't think they could do stairs so I don't know how the heck he got up to where he did but he did.

So I watched him walk around forever.. and then a resident called and asked could he use the fax machine at the office.. so he came down the stairs right in front of the moose.. and he stopped dead in his tracks like two feet from it and turned around and ran and the moose went up over the stairs after him!! Ive never seen anything like it! He didn't chase him far on account that with all this snow they cant find any food and so they are super slow because they are trying to conserve energy! Funny to watch though.. he wandered around there for a good couple of hours.

We got a good bunch of snow tonight.. its suppose to snow all week so that should be interesting. I don't have to work tomorrow so Tammy and I might go to the movies.. I haven't heard back from her yet. Tomorrow night I'm trying out this new healthy living recipe for dinner.. I'm pretty excited for that. Ive been eating SUPER healthy and have been feeling really great! I try really hard to lose weight and it seems to get me no where so I just changed how I eat everyday and it really seems to be working. My clothes are fitting great, if anything a little too big.. I'm buying clothes in smaller sizes which is always a plus and in general it feels great to get dressed everyday and not feel bad about how I look! Have I conquered my demon? doubtful.. but I will take it for now!

Jason wants to go to Walmart tomorrow night.. he likes Walmart, he usually goes 3 times a week at least! haha! I'm hoping this weekend we will be able to get out and go for a drive or something. I enjoyed doing nothing yesterday because we always seem busy but I like to do as much as we can too .

This weekend there is a bunch of stuff going on downtown for the Iditarod..I think that might be worth checking out. Honestly Alaska always has something interesting going on which is great!! Check out the link!

http://iditarod.com/



Help Needed!!!

OK guys.. I need some advice.. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place and I don't know what to do..

Yesterday I was at work by myself, I knew I had a walk through in the morning, Charlie was coming in to read mail and I had a walk through at 5:30pm and then I was told I could just come home. So I drove to work yesterday because it was FREEZING and there was some crossed lines in communication with Jason and I and he thought I had other arrangements so he wasn't ready! So I get to work and didn't even have a chance to make a tea and the phone was going crazy.. I always get there early so I can get completely ready so at 10am when we start answering phones and open the door I am completely ready! Well before I had a chance to do anything the phone was PROFUSELY ringing.. so I answered it finally even though it was before 10am because I thought maybe something was wrong! So I answer the phone to hear "Are you in the office?" (obviously I'm answering the phone) "Yes Ma'am" - "I will be there in a minute!" phone slams down.. EEK! So in comes this IRATE woman two minutes later and she slams something on my desk, a master lock that had been cut.. apparently her storage unit had been broken into the night before, it didn't seem as though anything was taken but this is the second time in 6 months that the garage has been broken into and the last time they broke into her car and it cost her $300 in repairs!! I had no idea that this happened around here and could totally understand how upset she was. Her privacy and personal space had been invaded, it was an inconvenience and you pay all this money for rent in "secure" buildings and this is happening. I told her that I was new but I would call Deanna and see if there was anything we could do. She said that she didn't expect to get much out of her and I had to agree, I told her that I couldn't promise her anything because I don't make the rules but I wanted her to know that I was taking her seriously and that if I didn't get any results then I would suggest she come in Monday morning and raise hell. I told her I would call her after I talked to Deanna. So I called Deanna when she left and she said exactly what I thought she would "there is nothing we can do, tell her to call the police." Honestly I wasn't surprised but I feel like she just passed it off, why cant they do anything? With all the money they are collecting in rent they can put cameras in? change the locks to the garages? anything! So I called the woman back and told her that I got exactly what we both suspected and she said that she knew it wasn't my fault but she was going to put in her notice and break her lease. I cant blame her.. honestly.. people deserve to be treated with respect and I am expected to be "professional" and "not too nice to people"... well look where treating people like that gets you!

So at this point I still hadn't heard from my walk through that was suppose to be there at 10am and Charlie called and ask could he come over in 10 minutes so I said sure. After Charlie, Jason called and said he was coming to get the truck.. ok! So of course that's when my walk through shows up! So I take their pro rated check, enter and print their receipt and tell them I will meet them at their unit in 5 minutes. I make Charlie a hot chocolate and ask him would he mind waiting 10 minutes for me because its not like I can send him home and tell him to come back. I get Charlie settled and head out the door, meet Jason in the drive way and he takes me across the street to show these people their unit.

Honestly this unit was embarrassing.. the cleaners didn't do a fucking thing! There was 6 inches of dust on the chandelier.. every cupboard seemed to have spilled soap in it or something.. I couldn't believe it. I don't have the time to go through after the cleaners are done, not this week especially when I could barely walk and was still doing everything on my own. I just kept apologizing profusely and assuring I would have someone take care of it. Let me just say that I have commented on the fact that the cleaners don't do a good job before and its always brushed off and Mike is made to do the remaining cleaning which makes me so mad.

At the beginning of the week Mike had said one of the units needed to be cleaned and I had done the walk through and didn't think it did.. so because it was my screw up instead of making Mike clean it like I was told to do I did it on my lunch because I didn't think it was fair to make Mike fix my mistake. The cleaners generally suck though, Ive complained so many times besides the fact that our apartment was a fucking mess when we moved in too.. but yesterday was unbelievable!

So I went back to the office and went through the mail with Charlie and then I called Tom (Deanna's husband, also my boss) and told him about the situation and that it was ridiculous and he was so rude to me that when I got off the phone I cried. He basically said that I was making something out of nothing and that not every ones standard of clean was the same and to make Mike do it. Well first of all, it wasn't fucking clean at all so there was no "comparing standards" fucking moron!! So I sat at my desk crying.. I feel like a rat bastard renting people these apartments knowing that if they have concerns they wont be taken seriously, that they will be charged at the end for cleaning when they move into a dirty place in the beginning.. I just cant do it. My morals are worth more than money.. I don't feel good about myself doing this and I feel like I cant be honest either.

Mike and I talked about it as he came in and witnessed me sobbing.. he said that Tom treats everyone like that and he hates him for it. He said that they have always treated people like this and that's why the last 4 girls haven't lasted more than 3 months a piece and all of them left the keys on the desk one night and just never came back.. kind of odd I thought but now I see why. If I was to quit I would tell them exactly why, I wouldn't just leave the keys on the desk.

So finally I got back to work and this young couple came in with their two year old daughter.. she climbs up on the chair, sticks her hand in my pencil holder that is full of those little glass rocks and takes a handful and shoves them in her mouth!! She wasn't even in the 2 minutes! She literally destroyed the model in the 10 minutes she was there! She was cute but unbelievably busy.. I couldn't believe it!

I left at 5:30pm to go and do my walk through over at Discovery and met Martie so we could walk through together and I could get her keys. We walked into the apartment and I was shocked.. the walk through sheet said that when she moved in their were stains on the carpet but this was unbelievable! Her living room carpet looked like someone sat down with a pink high lighter and colored big circles!!! The master bedroom had yellow and blue stains on the carpet, the inside of the dishwasher door was all burnt and melted and no one cared.. she said that she had complained about it but they said as long as it worked they wouldn't do anything. Honestly if I rented an apartment and walked in and it looked like that I would lose it.. I wouldn't live there, I couldn't! I remember Martie from when I first started, her rent was late and she received a letter saying that she would owe the $25.00 late fee and she called freaking because the parking lot was so bad she couldn't get over to bring it.. which whatever.. not really a great excuse but the parking lots were TERRIBLE!!! and of course they wont do anything about that either. So she said that she still hadn't paid that but she works at a bank and planned to bring a box of pennies.. haha I encouraged this! Anyways when I first walked into the apartment Martie said "so how did you get in the business of scamming people out of money?" so we had a little chat and I explained that I don't think I really knew what I was getting into.. she said that she works at Key Bank and they were looking for tellers, she said that I didn't need experience and that they would train me and it was something I could take State to State.. they have benefits and pay pretty good! So she gave me her card.

Honestly I don't want to quit because of all of the reasons I took the job, convenience, GREAT money, all the perks, not having to drive all over town, etc.. but it all that worth my morals? worth my happiness? I feel like a bad person, and even though these things aren't my fault its me showing these places, moving people in, everything! Jason thinks I should suck it up for the year and just be honest with people that its not my fault.. but honestly how long can I get away with that? Not to mention I wont be spoke to by Tom that way again either. I worked on a construction site for years surrounded by men and no one ever talked down to me or treated me like I couldn't do my job because I was a woman in a "mans world" I will be damned if that shit is going to start now. I am educated and good at my job (in this case unfortunately) this apartment business isn't fucking rocket science like they think it is. I don't understand why they wont just change cleaners. I may not have worked in this business before but I have worked for a professional business, billion dollar projects and it doesn't work all that different.. you pay someone to do a job, if they don't do it you find someone else who will.. period! Kris doesn't ask Jason to clean the toilets at work because the laborers didn't do it right the first time.. that's not how these things work! So I feel the need to be honest with her, I have to.. I wont be a coward like the other girls and leave my keys on the desk I will tell her how I feel and if I lose my job because of it I will go to the owner.. and then gladly part ways.

After work Jason and I headed downtown for the fireworks and carnival for Fur Rondy.. big mistake. First off let me just let you in on a little secret.. Uggs = Death trap.. the things have no damn sole.. I'm lucky I haven't whacked my head the amount of times Ive fallen! Anyways we got down there and I froze!!! I was in jeans, my Uggs, fur lined sweater, winter coat, huge scarf, mittens, hat, etc and I couldn't feel my legs! It was bullshit! I didn't enjoy any of it because I was so cold! When the fireworks were over we went over to the F Station because Josh & Kris were there.. we didn't stay long because we had planned to eat dinner at the Glacier Brewhouse and the F Station was packed anyways. We got to the brewhouse and it was an hour and a half wait to eat.... no dice, we went to Humpys which is where I had wanted to eat anyways and there was no tables and it didn't look like there would be anytime soon.. so we went back to the truck and drove down to Lone Star! Dinner was great! We got back to the apartment and I was super tired after a long day and told Jason that all I wanted to do today was sleep in! We had no plans on account that were suppose to get 9 inches of snow today and surrounding areas a lot more.. so we planned to stay home.

Well this morning BEFORE 9am THE PHONE WAS RINGING!!! Let me remind all of you just in case.. WE ARE 4 HOURS BEHIND YOU!!!! SUNDAY IS MY ONLY DAY TO SLEEP IN.. if you cant remember that please kind lose our number or don't call on Sunday's period... thank you and have a good day! So needless to say I was a cranky bitch this morning. Jason got up and made beef stew and I did a hot oil treatment to my hair and then had a shower. We decided to go and wander around Barnes & Noble for awhile and then came home! I am going to empty the dishwasher while Jason does some Internet research! On our way home from B&N we stopped at Knights Taxidermy to take a picture for Dad & Bubba.. haha they watch that place on TV all the time and its a 2 minute drive from our apartment!

Anyways for all of you that I said I would email this weekend I'm sorry I suck.. I still might get to it tonight but yesterday was a crazy day!!

So if any of you have any advice for me it would be greatly appreciated it.. I feel like Im stuck.. I just dont know. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

This Day = Epic Fail

I'm still limping around.. in case any of you were wondering.. my leg is swollen, I don't know what Ive done but I'm not overly impressed.. I don't really have time to deal with this and the fact that nothing is working to take the pain away isn't really thrilling me either! I sat last night with the heating pad for hours, Ive taken almost everything in my medicine cabinet.. nothing! Anyways I woke up this morning feeling the same so I figured I wouldn't bother doing my hair I would just throw some gel in it and call it even.. turns out I woke up looking like Diana Ross so that really wasn't an option!! So I got ready and figured I better leave early again because its taking me longer to get around.

I get my stuff together and head down the stairs, we are in a top until which I usually prefer but its not really in my best interest at the moment. So I get to the bottom of the stairs and who is standing in my drive way (that I have to walk through to get to work) this MASSIVE moose! I'm really no longer impressed by the moose all that much seeings how I see them all the time, but this mother trucker was HUGE!!! I just stood there staring at him, not even thinking to take a picture.. I just stared! So I tried calling Mike from work because he is sometimes over on this side of the street and said if I ever needed a ride to give him a call.. well his phone went to voicemail.. so I had to head back up the stairs to get my purse along with the keys to the truck because buddy wasn't moving and I sure as hell wasn't going to try and pass him. So I go into the garage and get in the truck open the garage door and who is still standing there.. big foot. So I pull the truck out of the garage and stop in front of him.. we stare.. neither of us moving. Finally he got bored and moved on.. prick! So I drive to work.

I get to work to find out the court appearance this morning to evict one of our residences who owes $2,500.00 went our way and she has to be out by noon on Sunday. Well she frequented our office today.. at least 7 times, getting on her hands and knees crying and pleading for us to let her stay, then she would come back in a different outfit and she would say she wanted to pay her rent 3 months in advance.. Just a question.. if you cant pay your rent on time any other month where the hell are you getting the money to pay 3 months in advance??? Keep in mind all this time shes coming and going shes also having other people call and offer to pay her rent, do anything they can if we will only let her stay.. I'm sorry its out of our hands, the judge has ruled!

I did however rent another apartment, so a guy who works with Jason and his wife.. they just came in from the UAE where she is from and were looking for a place. She really liked them and they decided to fill out an application. They left and I processed their application and called them to let them know everything checked out and if they brought me a $500.00 money order the place would be theirs and they could move in tomorrow. So when they came back to fill out their lease the phone is ringing PROFUSELY as this crazy bitch and her oh so rich posse are pleading their case, and we have a resident come in and Deanna decides then to give him his rent increase for the month of April and he goes ballistic! AWESOME! Great impression on these people signing their lease.

After they left Dennis showed to move in.. Dennis works with Jason and was in earlier in the week and decided to take a furnished unit. I didn't deal with Dennis and although I found him to be a little strange I really knew nothing about what transpired and had lead him to rent. I know the guy who lived in his unit before him and the place was left super clean, the carpets were cleaned and the furniture that went in was a lot nicer than a lot of the furnished units Ive seen. So although I can barely walk of course I did his walk through today and oh my god he was Captain Cranky Pants the whole time.. I would have rather pulled out my arm hair one by one than spend one more minute with this douche bag!! Jason said he was weird, but hes SO NEGATIVE! He hated everything, said he was duped into renting (whatever.. he read the lease and signed it without anyone twisting his arm) he complained and complained and complained and when he had to give me his deposit he didn't know how to spell "condo".. this is the guy who is going to be sitting in the control room when they start up this new plant? Jason is never going to work again!

Tonight however I talked to a lovely couple from North Carolina, they are soon to relocate to Anchorage as he will be entering the State Trooper Academy! I had a lovely conversation with the gentleman and hope to meet with them when they arrive, I have a bunch of information to send him tomorrow. Tomorrow should be a good day, hopefully it goes by quickly. I have a walk through tomorrow morning with the new couple to give them their keys and then I have to gather all the information for the guy from North Carolina as promised, I have another walk through tomorrow night at 5:30pm and then I need to quickly come home and change because we are heading downtown for fireworks at 6:45pm. Funny how I have been talking with Deanna all week about the fireworks and her and Tom are going and she kept telling me needed to get there as early as possible (they start at 6:45pm all the way downtown and I work until 6:00pm) and then she books me for a 5:30pm walk through tomorrow night for a move out... so considerate she is!!

Never fails though, I come home to my wonderful husband who has made an awesome dinner and did all the clean up because standing hurts. He did all the laundry and has his day planned to pick up a few things we need tomorrow while hes off before we head downtown tomorrow night! It has snowed EVERYDAY this week and tomorrow were suppose to really get it.. stellar! Im really looking forward to tomorrow night though, fireworks, fair, vendors, dinners, northern lights.. sounds like a good night to me. We were thinking about making the drive to Girdwood on Sunday, Alyeska Mountain the whole drive is along the coast but its suppose to snow all day and they get WAY more than we do usually. Last time we had a major snow storm they got 42 inches in 36 hours!

Anyways I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.. those of you at home didn't get snow.. I'm not going to lie I'm disappointed! haha!

My limbs are giving way...

So I fell at work yesterday.. god damn snow.. god damn maintenance for not cleaning it better.. god damn Alaska for giving us over 10 feet of snow.. I've had enough! So I fell and when I got up my leg felt like jello.. I didn't feel stable walking on it.. I felt like it was going to give any minute! Well as time wen't on it started to REALLY hurt.. it usually takes me less than 5 minutes to walk to work.. this morning it took me almost 15 minutes to get there.. I took an abundance of muscle and joint tylenol mom sent.. nothing.. I took some advil.. nothing.. as the days gone on I can barely move without wanting to sob hysterically.. something feels like it's pushing on my knee cap and it hurts like a son of a bitch.. Im ready to cut it off.

As if that isn't bad enough, today was pretty slow at work which honestly I dont prefer because it makes the day go by SO SLOW and I wasn't alone to read or fill my own time so I was pretty much annoyed.. watching the clock.. I was more annoyed because my day with Deanna didn't start off famously to begin with.. yesterday while she was at the other office I spoke with a gentlemen relocating to Alaska and he was looking at a corporate unit for one month until his belongings got there and then he would move into an unfurnished.. so I looked at the sheet with all the information for corporate units on it and it said we did 1-5 month leases.. obviously you pay a premium but still.. So I told him that absolutely we could do it, seeings how we charge $3000.00 a month for a corporate unit I thought it would be worth putting together even if only for a month! Well this morning she came in and said that she had decided she didn't want to do that anymore.. Pardon me?? Well nice of you to tell me.. now I look like an idiot because I've told this guy that we can do it.. WTF?! So she called him back because I wasn't calling him and telling him no.. we're suppose to be a team... when you make these decisions I need to know about it!

As this afternoon was dragging on, all the sudden this little kid comes to the door and as he enters I realize she knows him.. apparently he lived there before and was coming to visit a friend of his after school.. well let me tell you something.. this was the most annoying kid I've ever met in my entire life.. I sat there the whole entire time thanking god I dont have kids! This little bastard says to me "you have red hair"... umm yes?... "You know gingers have no soul"... pardon me?  Then he goes on to say that he calls his teacher by his first name and he bet I was surprised by that.. so I said that I was, because I was under the impression that you called them by their last name as a sign of respect and he replied with "Actually this is more respectful, there is more mutual trust this way.. I wouldnt expect you to know that, you dont have a soul"... I wanted to punch the little fucker square in his block head.. he must have said 6 million times that I had no soul.. it never seemed to get old even though I was clearly not impressed! The kid stuck around there for over an hour because his friend went to Costco and he didnt want to go. So he whips out his Iphone 4S before leaving and I was like "I wish I had the Iphone 4S" and he said.. "What are you poor or something, cant afford it?"... I swear if I was there alone I would have made him eat the thing.. who raised this child? Satan?

So I am going to have a shower and then sit on the couch with my heating pad! My WONDERFUL SISTER sent me a FABULOUS parcel full of AMAZING new teas, a cover for my Nook that she made herself.. a couple of cross stitches, some hand made Valentines from Miss Bella and a lovely card! I absolutely LOVE parcels!! So thank you so much Tasha!!

Alright Im going for a shower and make some tea and lay on the couch! Hope those of you who are at home dont get too much snow tonight.. NOT!!! We have over 10 feet on the ground and it has snowed everyday this week!!!

Oh before I forget a moose got into Alaska Regional Hospital the other day.. haha I don't know all the details but here is the video on youtube.. he used the automatic doors.. haha bet they dont have a sign that says "No Moose" and he doesnt really count as a pet! Haha!

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgP-VRhF15A

Fantastic Day Off!!!

Good Evening all,

What a great day!! So I found out yesterday that I would actually be having today off because Tom's surgery was moved until the 29th so I got my day off as usual. I thought about it yesterday and after our drive around on Sunday I really wanted to make the most of my day off.. so I decided that I was going to go out and tour around and I asked Tammy if she wanted to join in! Tammy if I haven't mentioned before although I think I have worked at Goreway as well and her husband Glen works for construction on this job with Jason. So due to the stupid 'no spouse' policy she is not working! So she was excited to get out as well, so I planned to pick her up at 11am!

It was great to sleep in this morning, for anyone who knows me they know how much I love sleep but now sleep in is 8:30am... Im lucky to get any sleep for some reason. Anyways when I got up.. it was snowing.. GO FIGURE!! So unfortunately if you know me at all you know that I don't drive in the snow.. So I wrote Tammy and told her the deal and she said that she would still really like to go and was totally willing to drive! So when she picked me up she made sure to point out the irony of the fact that she is from Mississippi and can drive in the snow and I am from Canada and cant.. haha! She made a good point.. I don't know what it is.. but honestly its not just the fact that it was snowing.. the roads are terrible here... they never plow them ever!!

So we had a great day out, we travelled all over had lunch, went to the ULU Factory which had a bunch of native Alaska, which was great.. here's the link if you want to check it out!

http://www.theulufactory.com/

We had lunch and toured around the malls, did a drive around downtown so I could see all the souvenir shops and all that jazz! Tammy has been here since July of last year so she really knows her way around at this point. It was really great because with Jason and I both working its hard to get out and do things. Besides it was really nice to have some girl time with someone, I really miss that. Next week we are going to go and see a chick flick.. THE VOW! I am really excited to see it and Jason really didn't seem all too interested so I thought it might be something good for Tammy and I and she was all about it!

So this weekend is the kick off of Fur Rondy, its a huge thing in Anchorage! They will have a big carnival downtown, tons of vendors, fire works, the reindeer run, etc.. it should be great!
Here is a link for it, its really interesting...

http://www.furrondy.net/

I believe one of the major attractions for Fur Rondy is the beginning of the Iron Dog races. They will start here and go all the way to Nome which is a 75 minute flight.. you cant drive there because there are literally no roads that go there, so I'm not exactly sure how it all works I plan to do some research this week but if you are curious here is the link to check it out!

http://www.irondograce.org/

I'm actually really looking forward to going, I would really like to invest in some Native art, not really a carving which seems to be the most popular form of art here, but I'm hoping for a drawing or some paintings.. We have a beautiful picture from New York and although it will probably never happen we might one day have a house to put all of our treasures in! So I think it will be a great day. Alaska really does have a lot to discover and see.

So that's it for here, back to work tomorrow and I will be on my own which is great! I'm kind of hoping this week goes by fast. Tonight is actually the new moon and we should probably make the effort to go to see the Northern Lights because this would usually be one of the best nights to see them but its snowing and has been all day (no I'm not fucking kidding, we have over 110 inches on the ground.. its ridiculous).. so with the clouds I really don't think the show will be all that great which is unfortunate.. but its not like we wont get the chance to see them again anyways.

I will blog more this week, I will do some reading on all the events of this weekend and report back!! Oh and before I go.. a special shout out to the Rolfe house.. Thank you soooooo much for the awesome parcel!!! Everything is GREATLY appreciated.. I wish I wasn't working tomorrow so I could rock my new Bench apparel and sit around and eat Mr. Noodles!! I'm sitting here listening to The Band Perry CD thanks to Jen! Jen thanks for the hearts! We put them up on the shelf with our wedding picture.. from our hearts to yours... we greatly appreciate them! :)

Hope everyone has or has had a great hump day.. depending on when you read this!!

XO

Ps - I went into Sephora today and they gave me Mardi Gras beads for Fat Tuesday.. Jason and I got home around the same time and he was like... umm? where did you get these! Haha lets just say I didn't have to do what you usually have to do to get those beads!

Northern Lights Adventures...

Hello all,

I hope you've all had a great weekend, cant say mine was too shabby! I worked yesterday unfortunately.. I tell you Saturday's are sooo slow, I really wish Saturdays were shorter hours, I would give up the money to be able to make the most of the time Jason has off work as well, but whatever. So because Jason went skiing yesterday I took the truck to work because we didn't know what time he would be back. So I got to work and got settled and sat for about 3 hours and watched "Brenda" the moose out.. she was eating the trees and trying to get on people's balcony's.. it was ridiculous! So eventually a guy came out of the apartments and spotted her and they both stopped and she turned around and walked off.. which actually made me feel good, she didn't try and intimidate him or charge at him.. so he went to his car and when he was gone she came back! haha She was out there for a couple of hours!

Charlie and I had a 10:30am date because he had a musical engagement later in the afternoon, apparently Charlie is musically inclined.. he plays the tin whistle! I don't know what was going on with Charlie yesterday but he was a little late and apparently walked right by the office and someone brought him over.. I thought that was really strange, he gets around so well.. not sure what was going on. So Charlie and I had some time together and he was off to meet friends!

Really the rest of the day was slow, Mike was there and when he knows Deanna isn't around I see a lot more of him. I feel so bad for Mike, hes such a nice guy and he seems to be going through a hard time and Tom and Deanna don't see to like him very much and I just don't know why. So he was in yesterday afternoon and I was making a hot chocolate and I offered to make him one too and he seemed so shocked and said he would love it.. I feel like people don't often do nice things for him. I know hes very unhappy with his job and I can really understand why, and he has a brother in Texas who has cancer.. one son is living with him but seems like he doesn't have much ambition.. one son in jail.. he wants to move back to Texas and live there and be around his family but he doesn't want to leave his grand daughter because he is really the only father figure she has ever had.. breaks my heart. So I have offered to help him with his resume and do up a cover letter for him, and I told him I would keep my eye out for seat sales to Texas because he would like to go out in June. I just feel like he deserves to have someone do nice things for him, he really is a very nice guy.. sad.

Anyways I got home from work last night and Jason was already home so we got ready and went to the Moose's Tooth for dinner. The Moose's Tooth is famous for their pizza, they produce the most pizza's in the US every year.. hence the 45 minute wait I suppose! It was worth the wait though the pizza and bread sticks were EXCELLENT! Plus I was drinking the Hard Apple Ale's.. haha they were 5.2 percent alcohol which is a whole percent higher than Budlight.. 2 in and I was feeling it.. haha somehow Ive become a light weight.. I plan to work on that!! After dinner Jason and I took a drive to Earthquake Park to check out the Northern Lights.. I didn't have the camera (SORRY!!) but they weren't at their best anyways! Besides we could stay long because I had to pee SO BAD! I couldn't even make it home.. haha we had to stop!!!

Today Jason made breakfast and then we headed out for a drive. We decided to drive up to Wasilla and check it out.. on the way back we stopped around Fort Richardson which is one of the army bases here and we took a drive up the mountain towards Arctic Valley ski hill! We saw two moose, one laying down and one taking a walk around.. a bald eagle and a bunch of GREAT scenery!! I took a bunch of pictures which you will all see someway or another I promise!! Did all of you see the pictures I sent from Snapfish of our cross country drive?? If not please let me know and I will send them out!

We got home awhile ago and for the most part all the household chores are done and what isn't done I don't feel like doing to be honest, so I'm going to make lunches for tomorrow early and get that over with and then I'm going to go to bed. I didn't sleep well last night and I don't get a day off this week most likely!

Oh before I go.. let me tell you about a little dilemma I'm having... So remember that great couple from Texas that I rented that apartment too? Well I really like them and I was really happy about the sale.. but I found out yesterday they've had a bunch of problems with their apartment already and had a bunch more yesterday, a lot of it is stupid things that should have been caught on their walk through which I didn't do because I had the day off.. and the other part of that Clayton the other maintenance guy is lazy and didn't do his job!! So now I just feel awful, I was absolutely as accommodating at I could be about their issues and said I would have Mike come RIGHT over and fix everything and he said that they had a long day and wanted to relax could they do it on Monday and I said sure.. unfortunately Mike is off on Monday so Clayton will have to go and I know that will be an issue because they don't like to make Clayton do anything that he doesn't want to which is most things.. I feel awful.. I know they made their own decision to live their but I sold them on it.. I told them all these great things and now I'm starting to feel like maybe I didn't know.. I felt so awful all day yesterday about it.. I cant lie to people, I don't want people to sign a one year lease and be miserable! I don't know..

Also.. now I'm on a roll.. here is a question for all of you.. I sure cant figure it out! So if you break your one year lease you have to pay a fee of $695.00.. but then you still have to pay the rent until we rent the apartment she says.. I don't understand. You are paying the fee of $695.00 to absolve you of your responsibilities that were stated in the lease! You no longer have a responsibility to the terms and conditions of your lease because you have paid to get out of it.. so why do you have to continue to pay rent until we rent it out?? I mean its also in your lease that you have to pay rent on the first but we still have people bringing in their rent now and that seems to be fine... so WTF.. what is it?? So the question at hand is.. are they screwing people by charging them rent after they've paid the $695? What do you all think??

Alright we'll I'm going to go make lunches and dinner! Hope you all have had a great weekend!! I will be posting or sending pictures soon!!

Pictures Continued...

Tomorrow is Friday!! WOOHOO!!

Well actually if we're being honest it doesn't really matter for me at all because I have to work on Saturday so whatever.. but Charlie called today to book our Saturday mail date so at least I have that to look forward too!

So where did we leave off? Valentines Day if I'm not mistaken... Well I hope you all had as wonderful a day as I did! Tuesday night when Jason got home he had a quick shower and we headed to the mall so I could get my hair cut! For all of you ladies reading you know that its hard time find a hair dresser that you like and with moving around so much its hard to keep one! So I made an appointment at the Regis Salon hoping for the best, well when I walked in Alice who was cutting my hair introduced herself, she was like 5 nothing with an electric blue boy hair cut and massive tits hanging out of her shirt.. STELLAR! Well I cut off a ton of hair and it feels GREAT! My hair was so long and it was just getting to be too much work.. so heavy!! So I cut it all off and I love it! She did an absolutely amazing job, sold me on a bunch of products.. by the time we were done the floor looked like someone had shaved their Pomeranian!!

Anyways after that we went to dinner at the Lone Star Steakhouse and it was great! We enjoyed a great dinner and even split a dessert.. I'm telling you after doing that detox I ate and ate and ate and was just never full.. haha Jason was staring at me and continuously asking if I was full to which I answered with a full mouth "NO!"

Yesterday I was on my own again at work which is preferable! The day goes by so much faster and I don't have to listen to those stupid tapes, the maintenance guys come around more often because I'm nice to them.. its great! Jason was helping Josh and Zach move after work and he called me around 5:30pm and said we were going to go out to dinner at the Outback Steakhouse with them and another guy from work, Chris. So Josh and Jason picked me up at work and Josh dropped Jason and I off at home so we could change and then we met the guys at the restaurant! Chris is from Long Island, New York and let me tell you what a character.. picture the accent first.. then the most random hilarious stories.. needless to say dinner was good and full of laughs!

Tonight was a more usual night, dinner and then grocery shopping! Nothing too exciting! Well actually that's a lie.. I got my new Ugg purse.. AMAZING!!! I called the post office and flipped my shit today on account that we haven't gotten mail in two weeks and I knew the purse was coming.. I'm concerned about bills as well but the purse was my priority.. thankfully somehow it made it here and its gorgeous! Then when we went to Walmart I got a Shamrock shake!!! Tell me you all remember Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds??? They only brought them out at St. Patrick's day but they haven't had them in Canada for years.. it tasted exactly how I remembered.. amazing!

Anyways I am going to part ways now, but I will leave you with some photos... I guy who lived in the apartments moved out yesterday and long story short he let me steal some of his pictures to show you guys.. they are all from Alaska, a few from a small plane ride he took, a few of some Eagles, one of the city of Anchorage, Denali Park, the Airport, Turnagain Arm (the beach picture with the sunset) which is at the base of Alyeska Mountain! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all! I hope you are all enjoying my day off as much as I am! :)

So it snowed like a bastard last night.. absolutely helping the leaking roof situation I'm sure! To be honest though as much as I hate the snow, it really is absolutely beautiful here! When it snows the trees look so beautiful all covered and because theres already so much snow there is no complaining about what the roads are going to be like because they are always bad.. haha!! We took some pictures though, Check them out!!

Regardless as you can tell the roof didn't cave in on us last night, although no one has called about anything, to check on anything or to fix the problem.. unbelievable! So we got rental insurance today and Jason was suppose to be calling the department of health and all that jazz, I don't know what any of that will change but at least we've covered our asses!

So as you all know today is Valentines Day, Jason and I are going out to dinner tonight after I get my hair cut. But we had decided that this year we would just do cards because neither of us need any chocolate and we really don't need anything at all. With both of our birthdays at the end of the year, our anniversary and Christmas in December when Valentines Day rolls around we really don't need anything! But this morning I woke up and was very surprised to find that my husband is even more super wonderful than I had originally thought... he left this on the table for me....

He's such a sweetheart.. I'm so lucky!!

So anyways that's been my day! Dad is on the phone so I'm going to go.. Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Love you all!! <3

Sit down.. and be prepared to be offended!!!

YOU AREN'T GOING TO FUCKING BELIEVE IT!!!!

Today was a good day.. I rented my first apartment all on my own to a great couple from Texas! They came today and got their keys and I felt so great about the whole thing! When the couple was there the woman asked if this was my first rental and I said yes and she seemed just as excited as I was! She was high fiving me and loving it! Her husband proceeded to say that he would have never have known that I was new at this, he thought I had been doing this for years.. SCORE.. he said it in front of my boss!!!

My day went by fast and before Deanna left she told me that from now on she would be spending Wednesday's at Town Square, the office across town.. PERFECT, I would so much rather be on my own! How could my day get any better? Not to mention I have tomorrow off and the detox is over and Jason made pasta for dinner!

So Jason picked me up and we came home! I ran in the bedroom to change quickly like I always do before dinner and I noticed again that the light in the bedroom was yellow! I told Jason I noticed it last night and he said it was probably a blown bulb or something! Well tonight I told him to check it because it was unusual and bugging me and as I was getting changed Jason stood on the bed to take the fixture of and said "this thing is fucking heavy".... NO WONDER IT WAS FULL OF WATER!!!! The fucking roof is leaking INTO OUR BEDROOM!!!!! So I called Tom who is the landlord and my boss and he said there is nothing they can do, they have called people to come and shovel the roofs but there was nothing they can do. Naturally I questioned this but he was persistent! What was I suppose to say? From working in the office I know that this has happened to another couple only I suppose their fixture started to over flow at 4am and they called the on call number and Tom basically told them the same thing.. nothing they could do!

Needless to say Jason is LIVID! He is calling the health department, etc.. he has tape over the light switch because although Tom said otherwise it really is a fire hazard. So tomorrow we have to call and get renters insurance.. I KNOW I KNOW.. its irresponsible that we don't have it.. haha or never have but we will rectify that tomorrow! Jason said he is not using the light until they have an electrician come in and go through the whole apartment! So from now on Jason will deal with Tom because really he is better at it and I think with me doing it, its kind of a conflict of interest.

I don't know what we are going to do in the mean time.. we had to move the bed and everything.. the whole thing is dripping, we have a towel on the floor but lets be honest its going to soak it up and get on the carpet and then that's going to get moldy.. UGH! Honestly how long are we suppose to just deal with it? And when will they get out here to take the snow off the roofs? and still there is obviously a problem that will need to be fixed.

WHAT A FUCKING MESS!! I'm so super pissed.. I didn't realize they were slum lords.. CHRIST!! Haha speaking of which.. so this morning I go into work and Tom calls and says that they are having a meeting there this morning with one of the owners and someone from the city.. they were on their way but if the city guy showed up don't answer any questions, don't talk to him.. he said and I quote "we aren't doing anything illegal.. but I would prefer you not be involved"... why would he even say anything about doing something illegal.. and why would I talk to someone from the city about stuff that I obviously know nothing about.. sketchy.. I think so? Who the fuck am I working for!

Alright I'm going to work off my pasta dinner and have a hot bath.. haha I might not need one I might get a surprise shower tonight.. who knows! Fucking Alaska.. did I mention its snowing again and were suppose to get 1-4 inches? We have an inch already..

Slack.. Ive been so slack...

My apologies to all of you who follow my gems of literary achievement.. I know that I have been extremely slack in updating you all but I swear I feel like I can never find the time to do anything lately.. I honestly don't know what I would do if Jason wasn't being so wonderful and helping to much!! I am getting in a routine though with my work hours and I promise to be better.. cut me some slack!

So let the updates begin!!! Its 40 freaking degrees here.. do you believe it.. Alaska isn't looking so bad!! In the last week it really hasn't been all that cold anyways, we were suppose to get a lot of snow which seems to have passed us and I'm not complaining but its actually been really nice out! The snow is starting to melt though and honestly I'm getting worried for spring, there is just so much snow here that I don't know what is going to happen when the real warm temperatures come, there is already water everywhere! We went to Walmart today and when Jason parked I had to direct so that I wouldn't have to get out into knee deep water!

Not much has gone on since my last blog to be honest, detox is done tomorrow.. thank god!! I swear I'm ordering a pizza for breakfast tomorrow and have a bloody Mary with it.. a double!! I'm so sick of not being able to eat something that I really want.. I know that's its just because I cant but I want to eat everything.. literally! Today we went for lunch with Zach and Josh at the Firetap Alehouse which has the great pizza I told you about and I had a flipping wrap.. poor Jason had a bowl of Chili while the guys enjoyed spicy brisket sandwiches or something.. haha! Zach ordered a warm pretzel at a appetizer and it took everything I had not to go over the table and take it.. but this is all for a good cause.. I think I might have actually lost some weight and I really do feel good. I don't entirely plan to ruin it when its over.. I generally eat really healthy I just want to know that I can eat crap if I want to..

Yesterday was my first full day alone at work.. I was a little nervous to be honest because the parking lots are a pretty big mess, they were plowed this week but with the snow melting now and so much so they are bad again. Jason dropped me off just before 10am and I had a few things to do before Zach was suppose to come to check out the model home. I finished everything and Zach showed up, I haven't seen Zach since New York so it was great to visit! When Zach left I had lunch and did some EBay searching because there was absolutely nothing else on the go.. then Charlie called.. I was hoping he would, I really like my chats with Charlie and was looking forward to some company! Charlie came down and I read him all his mail, wrote out his checks and we discussed braille.. I'm going to have to do some online research so I don't sound like such a dummy when asking him questions. It was hard for Charlie to explain to me how it works.. its not exactly like you would think, so I'm going to check it out online and report back.. I will fill you all in when I know more. Anyways as Charlie and I were sitting there 'Martha' walked by.. haha Martha is one of our neighbourhood moose.. it was about the third time I had seen her Saturday and I jumped up and obviously startled Charlie.. I explained that I had thought it was 'Bruce' but it went by so fast I couldn't tell. Charlie questioned my naming of our wildlife friends and I explained that I thought it was wise to get on good terms with them from afar in case I encounter them up close! Charlie responded with "I don't really like the name Martha".. HAHA! So I said "Well I haven't called her that to her face yet so if you have another suggestion I am definitely open to it" he said that he really liked the name Janet but he didn't feel it was an appropriate name for a moose so he said he really liked the name Brenda. So Martha is now Brenda.. haha which I am more than fine with. When Charlie was getting ready to leave I said that I was going to walk out with him to make sure that Martha was gone and he said "AKA Brenda" LOL.. My apologies Charlie.. Brenda!

After Charlie left the rest of the afternoon was pretty staggering, last week I had searched on EBay for a tote bag I liked because I don't really like taking my purse and leaving in the closet at work while I'm out and about.. its a really nice purse, with a really nice wallet.. and all the stuff in it is probably worth something too.. so I don't want to risk it. Ive been using one of those reusable Bench bags but its really over sized.. so I found one on EBay and I actually won it and couldn't be more excited!! When Jason and I were in North Carolina we were in Belk one day (Belk is like The Bay at home, Nordstrom here, like a Macy's or something) and they had Ugg bags... I almost died! I love my Ugg boots.. and I don't even care that all you haters judge me because they are made with real fur.. I DON'T EAT COWS.. that's my contribution!! Anyways these bags were BEAUTIFUL! SO BEAUTIFUL.. $600 beautiful to be exact.. man I wanted one.. I have 2 pairs of Ugg boots that would match so perfectly.. haha Jason was like.. "No fucking way.. that's a car payment"... in all fairness we don't even have a car payment.. but needless to say I didn't get the bag! But I found it on EBay and won it brand new for $30!!!!! YAY EBAY!!! That's the bag below... beautiful!

Before my day ended a couple showed up from Texas to view the model home.. and guess what.. I SOLD THEM ON THE APARTMENT AND THEY FILLED OUT AN APPLICATION AND SHOULD GET THEIR KEYS ON TUESDAY!!! I was so impressed with myself, this was the first sale all on my own.. see I don't need to stupid friggin tapes I am a GREAT sales person!!! They are a wonderful couple, he is a drafter and is here for a year on business (naturally I can relate) and they really liked the place! It was a great way to end my day!

Last night Jason and I were lazy and laid around and watch the movie Water for Elephants with Reese Witherspoon.. first of all.. Reese Witherspoon is gorgeous.. naturally beautiful! Now I read the book and really enjoyed it which made me skeptical of the movie because lets be honest the movie is never as good as the book! I was move convinced of that after reading the book 'The Help' and absolutely LOVING it and then watching the movie and they left out half the book.. I couldn't believe it! Anyways Water for Elephants was a really great movie, I really enjoyed it! So for all of you that haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! The next movie on my list is 'The Vow' its a total chick flick but Jason will give into those on occasion!!! I really have to see that movie!

Today we haven't done much, we went and had lunch with the guys, went to Lowe's so Jason could get some good gloves for work. Jason is doing turnover on this job and by no means do I think he wont do an amazing job at it but its not his thing.. usually he spends a lot more time in the field and has certain systems that he is responsible for but with the lack of jobs and the guys being more dispersed, not to mention Jason is one of the youngest guys he kind of got screwed! None the less he loves his job and is a good sport about pretty much everything so he will be doing a lot of walk downs of systems and needed some good gloves to keep his hands warm! After that we ventured to Walmart which is naturally a cluster fuck on any given Sunday and then home!

I am going to go and make dinner now, baked cod, salad and fresh zucchini and then get ready for the Grammy's! I cant wait to watch.. the whole show better not be a tribute to Whitney Houston.. I mean yes its a great loss in the music world.. which one of you hasn't gotten drunk and belted out "I'M EVERY WOMAN" or is that just me? haha.. but lets be honest she was a drug addict who has produced anything in years besides media headlines for her substances abuse.. Its sad yes but lets get on with the show! I'm excited for Adele.. I love her!

Anyways I here by PROMISE to be more faithful about blogging!! I hope you all have had a great weekend, and have a happy Monday!!

Ok so maybe I don't actually hate my job...

WHAT A DAY!! (No offense mom, its your birthday and all.. no correlation.. but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Wish we could be there to celebrate! WE LOVE YOU!!!)

So I wake up feeling super crappy and this is in part because I didn't sleep all god damn night, and I think in part because of this stupid detox. When I took the PM pills last night I broke out in a terrible rash and had to take a bunch of allergy medicine! So I get up and feel crappy and definitely don't want to go to work.. but good new Jason is riding to work in the morning with Kris so I'm taking the truck! :D I get to work and I'm still feeling crappy but whatever there is nothing to do but suck it up and get on with the day.. WELL.. then I find out that I have to go DOOR TO DOOR and deliver flyer's to let people know to move their cars tomorrow because the parking lots are being cleaned! First of all.. what happened to going green?? I'm already at a loss for words that we are killing all these trees because if we post signs on the garage doors and stairways that these morons still wont get it.. you've got to be kidding me.. All these units are outdoors so its not like I got to walk through the hallways of a building.. oh no.. you go up 6 stairs and there are two units.. then you go up 6 more stairs and there are 2 more units.. then you come down all 12 stairs and go all the way around to the other side of the building and start again.. for 210 units.. I couldn't believe it! I couldn't barely keep my fucking tea down and this woman wants me to run a marathon.. has she totally lost her marbles? Apparently not, but I was about to lose mine! Keep in mind all these stairs, walk ways and parking lots are piled 5 feet high with snow! Really none of the snow was touched since the last storm and it just added to the snow that was already there and packed down and covered in ice.

Now I would like to think that I am in relatively good shape, I eat super healthy, usually only drink on Sundays, and we work out pretty religiously and very rarely sit at home doing nothing... I thought I was going to croak right in the parking lot today.. my chest was burning (keep in mind its still super cold here) my nose was running, I was sweating.. my knees and hips were killing me from slipping and sliding all over in the snow.. bullshit! THEN.. I'm almost done.. 3 more buildings to do.. so in my head I am coaching myself "come on Nicole, 3 more buildings and you're done! You can do it, you've got through this many... lets go!" So as I walking up the stairs I'm holding the railing so not to fall on my ass when all the sudden I see something more and here is this damn squirrel!!! I scream and I swear to god the thing stood up on its back legs, screamed too and took off like a bat out of hell.. well let me tell you it didn't do much for my already fragile racing heart.. god damn wild creatures.. they've got balls the ones that live here.. none of them are scared of anything.. the moose I get it, I mean they've got stature.. their much bigger then us humans.. but the squirrels? UGH!

So I get back to the office and nothing much is going on, so Deanna says she has something for me to work on.. GREAT! I would much rather be busy than sitting watching the clock, obviously! Well she whips out what looks like a binder.. I'm not so lucky! Its a cassette.. yes I said CASSETTE.. as in TAPE.. as in almost before my time!!!! She has 12 of them that are called "Winning Apartment Management" by Gene Chamberlain... from 1982!!!!! Each tape is 25 minutes long and super helpful in helping me become the best apartment sales lady I can be! This is a bad fucking joke right? I'm suddenly not at work but in self-help 101.. this day cannot get any worse! So she sets me up in the next room with my trusty tape player and I figure when she goes back to the office I will just play on my phone.. I mean come on this isn't rocket science for Christ sake I have already sold a corporate unit and those go for like $3000.00 a month.. give me a little credit! But no.. not only does she set me up and encourage me to take notes.. SHE SAT BEHIND ME AND LISTENED ALONG! Unbelievable!

Finally she said that she was going to lunch and had a 1:00pm dentist appointment and would be back afterwards, GREAT! Turns out afterwards mean almost 5:00pm! I'm not complaining in that time I got 3 phone calls and no visitors and didn't have to listen to the stupid tapes.. although naturally I said I did. I got a phone call from the girl who went to court this morning and was evicted .. she would like an extension on her Friday move out date.. its just not going to work for her.. Haha OK! Then I got a call from a woman complaining that she got a notice that she owes $25 for her rent being in late.. she proceeded to tell me that there was so much snow on Friday and with the roads being so bad and not being able to get out of the parking lot there wasn't much she can do. She said that shes already given her notice and living here for the last year has been a bad experience, they need to improve on a lot of things and definitely get better contractors in with snow clean up! Well what can I say.. its in your lease that you have to pay, she was right about the snow and I couldn't agree more that the people who are suppose to clean the snow are lazy bastards who do a half ass job and don't deserve a cent.. but naturally I cant say this. But really lady.. lets be honest.. Rent is due on the first of the month, giving you until the fourth is a grace period you are not entitled to.. this is fucking Alaska, snow is inevitable.. should have got your rent in on the first before it snowed and there wouldn't be a problem.. have a good night!

I was so glad to come home tonight, my wonderful husband met me in the driveway so he could park the truck in the garage as I don't see myself back that baby into its tiny little space and when we came upstairs he had made a wonderful healthy dinner of baked cod, brown rice and fresh green beans! So we had dinner and while Jason relaxed I cut up all the fresh vegetables we've bought, washed and bagged them so Jason would have less work to do when making dinner, I washed all the fruit and bagged that and then we worked out for 45 minutes! Pretty successful night I would say!

So I will part with you fine folks to have a hot shower, watch the new criminal minds and hopefully sleep soundly until morning! High hopes for tomorrow.. hahahaha...

Just a reminder...

Sometimes its the little things that matter...

Sometimes we spend so much time focusing on the big things, the things that cause us stress, the negative things that people say and do to us.. and in doing this we are doing ourselves the biggest injustice, we're letting the little things that are so special and so significant pass us by without giving them the recognition they deserve!

My day yesterday was crazy and things went on that I didn't agree with and things were said that if I was handling I probably would have done differently, but regardless of all that I got to meet someone so special and because of that I let go of all the rest of it..  Yesterday I met Charlie. As I previously mentioned Charlie is blind and I knew that this week he would be coming in so we could read him his mail. Charlie is so special, he is such a kind and generous person! He graciously answered all my questions about his condition and gladly explained a day in his life so I would have a better understanding of who he was. Charlie was born with optic nerve damage from birth and therefore has never seen anything, no colors, shapes, no sunsets, not the leaves changing in fall.. nothing but darkness. Yet still regardless of this tremendous loss Charlie is upbeat, happy and overall extremely ambitious. Charlie walked over from his apartment, all on his own, came up the stairs and into the office and took a seat. He joked and laughed while we got all his mail opened and as we took them out of the envelope. One by one I opened the envelope and told him what the contents were and if Charlie chose to keep that piece of mail I would hand it back to him and he would use his little braille imprint machine to braille what it was on the top so he would know later! I was really amazed and felt so grateful to be able to help in any way I could. Deanna (my boss) asked Charlie if he would consider coming on Saturday's from now on because Monday's were busy for us and he said sure. Deanna however doesn't work on Saturdays so I will be responsible for helping Charlie and he seemed as delighted as I am. I told him that he could let me know what time he would be in and I would be happy to help, I told him that I would be off on Tuesday and he said that was fine as he was helping move furniture at the church and he would call me closer to the end of the week!

So you see, sometimes no matter what happens in your day, good or bad.. its important to see the greatness in the little things, meeting a new person, extending a helping hand, being a good friend.. small things that in the grand scheme of things aren't so small afterall.

In the last week I have learned that you cant make someone a better person, you cant tell them how to be a good friend, how to be respectful, how not to be selfish.. because people are who they are and in order for that to change they have to want to, they have to want to be a good friend, more respectful and less selfish, you wanting it for them isn't going to change it. So instead of dwelling on what might never be, make the most of each day for yourself, focus on the things that are important and less on the things you cant change.

OK.. on a less serious note its day two of our detox and I'm fucking miserable! I just want to eat a friggin' big mac! I hate having to eat at certain times and certain things.. and although I'm eating WAY more than I ever would if we weren't doing this I still feel like I'm starving all the damn time!! Poor Jason is way worse off as he naturally consumes quite a bit of food and is down to about half if not less of his usual intake! We went to the grocery store last night to pick up a few extra fruits and vegetables and Jason wandered over to the bakery section and I found him staring at the cakes in the display.. poor guy! So I better lose some weight and feel fabulous because we have to do this shit until next Monday! Thankfully Tuesday is Valentines day and we will be going out to dinner.. and I plan to get one of everything on the menu!

Besides all that I'm enjoying my day off, I slept in the morning, had a hot bath and have been doing some cleaning and laundry. This afternoon I plan to do some reading under a blanket on the couch on account that its FREEZING in Anchorage today which makes this drafty apartment quite cold! You don't know how much I wish I was on a hot sunny beach somewhere.. I'm extremely Jealous of Bob and Joyce at the moment! I cant wait to head back to the south!!

Well I hope you are all enjoying your much warmer Tuesday!

Its a sad day in football...

Well as I'm sure you all know unless you live under a rock the Patriots lost the Superbowl tonight.. I'm not going to lie I am actually really surprised, I honestly expected a way better game with a much higher score! They just didn't play well, if we are being perfectly honest! I mean the last time Brady stepped on the field.. Branch MISSES, Hernandez MISSES, Brady SACKED.. WTF?!?! So they didn't win.. maybe next year? Hopefully Jason will grasp that thought because as of right now he changed the channel before the coaches even shook hands, ripped his jersey off and isn't speaking at all.. apparently he is a sore loser!

Anyways, onto other things! Yesterday was my first day of work all on my own. I really thought that she was going to be spending at least half the day there because there was a few things going on that I really wasn't sure if I was ready to handle all on my own. Turns out she was there for all of 20 minutes and bailed! So I got a few things done that were on my desk and then I sat.. and sat.. and sat some more! I couldn't help but think.. this is going to be the longest day ever if this continues. So finally Mike the handy man came in and we had a nice ol' chat! Mike is originally from Texas, divorced and has two sons. He is a super nice guy but doesn't seem overly happy in his job and unfortunately because of the things that he mentioned in regards to his misery I'm a little worried about how long I will be happy in my job if the things that are a problem for him will eventually become a problem for me!! I'm not going to put a lot of thought into it though.. we'll see how it goes, maybe he is the problem.. I don't know anyone enough to judge the situation!

Having said that one thing has been mentioned to me since Ive started that I am going to have to set straight. In my interview it was said that I would have Thursdays off and be on call Sundays.. well that was changed to having Tuesdays off and being on call Sundays which is fine with me. But the other day when chatting with Deanna she mentioned that for the first month I wont have to worry about being on call on Sundays and at night.. and I was like.. WHOA! Hold the phone lady what are you talking about being on call at night? I said that it was never mentioned to me and she said that maybe she had it wrong then, well let me tell you something.. SHE BETTER HAVE! I'm not being on call at night.. I know that it is very unlikely that a lot of calls would come in but I am not dealing with it. This is their life, they have been doing this job for 26 years and I respect that, but this is not my life. Besides Mike is on call and even if he gets a call that takes up 7 hours of his time.. HE DOESN'T GET PAID FOR IT!!! Can you believe that? He doesn't get reimbursed for using his personal car, gas, cell phone.. anything! No wonder he isn't loving the job.. I'm not getting sucked into that.. this is a job, not my life.

I'll keep you posted how that plays out, but moving on! After Mike left I literally sat and played games on the computer waiting for the last half hour of the day so I could enter the late charges to the accounts of at least 30 people who haven't paid rent and then I could go home. Well the guy who was suppose to move in shows up at 5pm! Awesome.. so I go with him and do his walk through and come back, enter his rent check and print his receipt! Now Jason is waiting for me and I still have all the late charges to enter.. ugh! I was so glad to get out of there though, I felt like it had been a really long week and I think because I had grasped things so quickly I felt really bored when things weren't busy!

I enjoyed my day off today and tomorrow will be fine because I have Tuesday off. Tomorrow Jason and I are starting our detox which I'm looking forward to because I am hoping to lose weight but not looking forward to because the last time we did this I felt like I was starving all the time. So my intake will consist of water, green tea and fish.. ugh! The next few blogs may very well reveal my cranky bitch side.. fair warning.

Oh also.. Girdwood which is 40 minutes from us.. they for 48" of snow in 36 hours! Not to mention up in the slopes its -85F.. who has ever even heard of that!! Honestly?

Well I'm going to enjoy a Sex and the City marathon!! I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and a great week!!!

Although before I sign off.. check out Jason's attire for the game.. Patriots socks, CHECK... Patriots pants, CHECK... Patriots jersey, CHECK!

SNOW!!!!

Oh man what a day!!! There has been a consistent blizzard happening all day!! Girdwood which is at the foot of Alyeska Mountain about 40 minutes from Anchorage got 42 inches of snow in 36 hours!! We got definitely over a foot to go with the 10 feet that we already had and its still coming down!

I leave the apartment this morning to go to work and I couldn't even see the stairs to go down there was just so much snow! I wasn't too worried about moose this morning as Jason assured me they would be hiding from this bullshit like I would like to be. The snow was ridiculous.. the roads and sidewalks are even worse! Just as I cross the street here comes Charlie! Charlie is blind.. completely blind and he is walking towards the major road in this blizzard, with his reflective vest on. Apparently regardless of the weather and his seeing abilities Charlie makes this walk everyday! When I got to work things were already buzzing, people everyday.. crazy! Once things slowed down we had a couple come in who obviously didn't speak much English.. they were French! Well my boss couldn't understand them to save her soul, I didn't think their accents were THAT bad but she was having a hard time, and there were words that they didn't know in English so I got the pleasure of translating! Apparently my french isn't as rusty as I thought! WHO KNEW! (Caite I hope you are laughing right now remembering the shenanigans that was Madame Grupps dictatorship). My translating won be brownie points.. she was super impressed.. haha little did she know so was I.

I had to show an apartment this afternoon to a gentlemen and although it was ridiculous trying to get to the unit I didn't get lost like I did yesterday! haha! Anyways I actually sold him the unit!!!!!! even better I sold it to him as a corporate unit.. meant the rent is exceptionally more ($2895.00 per month) SCORE! I was so excited until he brought his deposit check and I was going through his lease with him and I noticed his wife's name was on the check as well and when I asked him to put her name under the residents he said that she wouldn't be living there. Apparently he was leaving her and she didn't know it yet, hence him needing an apartment in one day with everything in it he would need to leave.. I felt so terrible! So when I came back from showing him the unit and doing paperwork I couldn't find the keys from the unit. I was sure that I put it on the shelf with my hat when I came in but I felt around and couldn't feel them, so in the mess of weather I ran (walked carefully) back to the unit to make sure I hadn't dropped them or left them in the door or something and couldn't find them.. FUCK! I couldn't help but get upset because she has been so impressed with how quickly I'm getting everything and how well I'm doing that I really didn't want to disappoint her. Turns out the keys were on the shelf where I thought I had left them but I couldn't see them and I guess when feeling around I just missed them. So I put them back in the key box.. not an hour late I went to get the keys to take 2 off to give to the new resident and the keys weren't there.. FUCK! Where the hell did they go? I must have put them back in the wrong stop.. I looked and looked and finally had to tell her that I must have put them back in the wrong place.. so she started to look and couldn't find them and she was starting to get upset on account that on that key ring was all the keys including the master.. I felt terrible, I really screwed up this time... or NOT! The maintenance guy came in and took them to put the rest of the stuff required for the unit before move in.. THANK GOD!

Did I mention its still snowing?

Due to this abundance of snow we had a lot of problems today.. if you can even believe it regardless of the fact that the whole complex is basically an accident waiting to happen they don't plow or shovel until the storm ends.. excuse me? They actually wont shovel stairs, clear parking lots, do the bare minimum to make sure that people don't fall and break their necks.. NOTHING! Well people didn't take to lightly to that and to be honest I cant blame them.. I was shocked! If your maintenance guy cant handle their work load, hire another one.. simple! Not to mention we have MANY complaints about the fact that there was so much snow build up that trucks couldn't get into the garages because their was no clearance!! I mean at least the maintenance guys could go and make sure that trucks are scraping their tops on the garage doors.. negative ghost rider.. not happening. Craziness!

So the day has been crazy and for some reason Deanna makes an appointment with the king of chatterboxes, a former architect who is now a professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage! Well let me tell you this guy could have cared less that there was 10 other people in the office wanting our attention, he was asking the same questions over and over and asking questions when he had already just read the answer in our information packages.. honestly I think he needed a friend. So things are absolutely crazy and all the sudden I turn around and Deanna has her jacket on throws her hands up in the air and says "I have to go, I'm going to pass out my blood sugar is low!!!" and she left!!! First of all crazy lady don't book appointments at lunch time if you suffer from Hypoglycemia and know you need to eat! Second of all don't let your symptoms get bad enough where you are panicking when no one around you has any idea that this is even an issue.. and most important don't leave me with someone who can out talk me which ensured that I didn't get a lunch today.. honestly!

Did I mention its still snow?

Deanna came back over an hour later (clearly she had a good lunch) and apologized for running out on me, informed me that I would be working by myself tomorrow and that they do not do direct deposit! Full of great news she is! First of all no direct deposit screws me.. we have a Maine bank that we are never around and obviously cant just go to the local branch and input my check and we have Bank of America.. they don't have that either! So now we either have to open yet another account of cash my check at the National Credit union every payday and just keep the cash.. FUCK! Second of all am I ready to take on everything myself? Really? I mean I have only been there 3 days and although I think I have a good grasp on things its the beginning of the month and although she doesn't seem to care at least 30 people haven't paid their rent, snow removal has not been done. I have two move ins tomorrow which require walk throughs which I have never done before.. really? Apparently she wasn't asking me.. haha I'm working alone tomorrow! So I left 50 million sticky notes all over the computer screen to make sure I don't forget anything, I'm sure I will be fine but I really don't want to screw up!

Its definitely still snow!

I have Sunday off which is great because its SUPERBOWL! But to be honest I'm looking forward to work on Monday because I will get to formally meet Charlie who I mentioned earlier on. I spoke with him on the phone this morning and he sounds like a super nice man, and he will come in on Monday because once a week Deanna usually sits with him and reads him all his mail! I'm really looking forward to getting to do this, it really warms my heart that she takes the time to do this for him and I think I will really enjoy it!

Before leaving today we had quite a few residents come in and bring rent checks, ask about different things, bring written notice, etc.. although one conversation really struck me! The girl from upstairs came in and we chatted for a few minutes and I could tell that she was upset about something, so I asked was there anything I could help her with.. she proceeded to tell me that they live above the apartment that is located beside the office and the other night they heard a domestic disturbance, apparently it was evident that it was physical, the girl was screaming "don't hit me" and there was an abundance of screaming.. awful!

Tonight Jason picked me up and we had dinner and then went and did grocery shopping for next week because Monday we start our detox! The roads were TERRIBLE, the parking lots were a mess.. but it was all worth it!! We went into Fred Myers and they all have Starbucks so naturally that was our first stop.. well the "woman" serving us.. well... she hasn't always been a "she".. well poor Jason's eyes were bugging out of his head.. LOL! She was very nice!

So tomorrow I am on my own.. should be interesting but I am up for the challenge! Maybe the day will go faster when I am on my own and super busy all day! Jason has a list of stuff that he has to do tomorrow which will keep him busy while I'm at work. I have Sunday off.. work Monday and then have Tuesday off instead of Thursdays now! In fact today it was mentioned that for the first month I wont be on call "nights and Sundays".. HOLD THE PHONE! Nights? I didn't sign up to be on call on nights!! I'm NOT being on call on nights.. Sunday is bad enough.. but come on.. this is a job.. not my life.. I wont do it!

Alright I'm going to bed.. Its still snowing in case you were wondering! haha!

I hope you all have a great weekend.. GO PATRIOTS!!!