Come Thou Long Expected...Apartment!

I am inching ever so closely to being back in an apartment, rather than a hotel. That is music to my ears, as well as to the deacons of my church. Hotel livin' isn't easy, and it isn't cheap.

What seemed to be impossible isn't quite so impossible, and I am thankful. The only condition is that I have to sign a year lease. I am leaning more towards that option, as having a place to live is high on the priority list. :)

I have put applications in at a few places, that are more accessible, and more affordable. With being on such a tight budget, it is my hope that one of those places becomes available. I want to be able to SAVE money, not spend all the money I have.

My prayer now is that if one of the aforementioned places becomes available, I can move in there relatively easily with a minimum penalty.

I am just ready to move forward. In the most cost effective way possible.

Thank you, Lord, for forward progress....and for having my best interest as a part of Your will. Thy will be done.

In addition to moving forward, I am oh, so thankful for Advent Hymns. Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and come thou long expected apartment! :)

%$@#!

Today was a busy day. Made lots of phone calls, and said lots of colorful words in between. You see, my cell phone is dying a very slow death, and trying to annoy me along the way.

The speaker in my phone only works half of the time. This makes for frustrating conversations, because I will be in the middle of a conversation, and BOOM...silence. Sonofa! But that's not all it is doing.

It crashes. No matter what I am doing, it crashes. I will be trying to dial a number, it crashes. I will be in the middle of an e-mail or a text message, it crashes. I will be in the middle of a phone call, you guessed it...it crashes!

Trying to talk to some very important people today yielded one very frustrated girl right here, because my Android Galaxy (PO)S was not being cooperative.

I met with a State Farm evaluator person today. They are still "investigating."Translation? We're still dragging our feet, making you crazy." The guy was like, "Well, we have admission that the leak happened before September 22", (which was the day that my insurance was canceled....LONG story) which I THOUGHT was all we needed. Oh, no. Of COURSE things cannot be that simple. Of course not. State Farm policies don't cover mildew or mold. Awesome. Really. Considering the vast majority of everything I own is covered in black mold, that is definitely music to my ears.

Still trying to get OUT of a hotel, I was calling around, checking on some applications that I submitted months before this nightmare ever started. I would be on hold forever, and then they would come to the phone just in time for what? You guessed it, my phone would completely shut down, power off, and NOT want to turn back on. I had it. I went into T-Mobile, and told them the problems I was having. I spent, oh, I don't know, the better part of two hours or more troubleshooting. Ended up doing a factory reset...losing a lot of my stuff. But, I was promised that that would fix the problem.

Guess again. Five times tonight, my phone has done the same thing. I was on the phone with a friend of mine tonight, and my phone just shut down and powered off...and did not power back on for nearly 30 minutes. Like I said, Android Galaxy (PO)S.

My friend, Andrew, told me that I could have his phone once he gets his new phone. Let me tell you, he cannot get that phone fast enough, because I am ready to throw this phone in the middle of 280 traffic.

In the midst of this frustration today, I just said, "Lord, help me to focus on some of my favorite things today."

And He did.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes.
Cool Fall Weather
Good Songs
Optimus (my car)

I am so thankful for my car, which gives me so much independence. I am thankful for pumpkin spice lattes (Starbucks is right next to T-Mobile, which was a great way to kill time during cell phone troubleshooting), and good music that I can sing along to while driving my car with the windows down. The song "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line came on twice today, and it was fun both times!

So, the goal is to focus on at least one thing a day that makes me smile, and looky there! I just named four. Thank you, Lord, for these simple things!

Fifty Shades of Boredom...

So, here I am...approaching a month of being back home here in Birmingham, approaching yet another month in a hotel, and it has been a slow moving month, too.  I keep making phone calls, leaving messages, sending e-mails...you know, playing the whole, 'hurry up and wait' game. It is hard to feel accomplished when you feel like the hamster on the wheel: running as fast and as hard as your legs will take you...all to find out that you're not moving the least little bit.

Well, I had one of those conversations with a friend this afternoon that had me laughing SO hard and gasping for air....and my stomach was hurting from laughing so much, yet I still couldn't stop.

The subject of the cackle fest, you ask? E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey.  For MONTHS pretty much every girl I know has told me I have to read this book. I haven't had any desire to read this book, really.  I am no prude, but at the same time, the subject matter just did not strike me as something I needed to read ASAP.

Well, I decided to see what all of the fuss was about. And so far? Totally NOT impressed. Seriously. I have tried several times to read this thing, and it has put me to sleep every time. EVERY. TIME.

So, I was talking to my friend, Wendy, and was saying, "Okay, I have tried to get into Twilight, and I cannot stand it. Bella Swan is everything that is wrong with a woman. She sets the women's movement back at least 50 years. I tried getting into Harry Potter and I just didn't get into that, either. Now, we can add this Fifty Shades of vomit crap to the list. Apparently there is something wrong with me."

Wendy just matter-of-factly added, "No, you just have zero tolerance for crap literature!" *insert laughter on both sides of the phone.*

I then shared an excerpt from the book with her.  Wendy's response? "No. Uh uh. I think I just lost IQ points. Oh. My. Ugh."

Well, the real laughter started when Wendy was going through the teller drive through at her bank. Apparently our conversation of the subject matter of this book was picked up on the microphone, and the teller could hear and SHE got tickled, too!

Wendy and I were dying. I tell you, if it wasn't for my seat belt on my wheelchair, I would have fallen out of my chair. Bedford was getting a kick out of this, too, because the harder I laughed, the faster and harder his tail wagged! So. Funny.

So, today, in the midst of the storm, I am thankful for friends and belly laughs...Thank you, Ms. James. I needed that laughter today.

Seriously, ladies, what is it about this book that you all love so much? What am I missing?

Here we go again....

I have had many people tell me that they enjoyed my blog from California. I have had many people request that I keep blogging. So, here I am pacifying the masses. :-) Really, I think that the purpose of this blog is more for my benefit than anyone else's at the moment.

I returned home from California to complete devastation, as my apartment and it's contents were on the receiving end of damage from an upstairs water leak. Black mold has definitely left a lasting imprint in my life, as every bit of my belongings have been effected.

In the three weeks that have lapsed since my return, I have been in a true storm. It is devastating. But one thing I know is true: My God is Sovereign. I may not know the purpose of all of this mess. I may not feel Him around me at the moment, but I know that He is there.

This blog is me making a commitment to make a conscious effort to find ONE thing positive in each day. Some days, that might be a challenge, but as people have encouraged me lately: God is consistent in a world full of change, and even in this crappy situation, it is not permanent.

Here we go again, gang. Stay tuned...