Battles Everywhere

I don't know if it's something in the air or something in me, but I've attracted a fair amount of battles to my life lately. I just came back from a meeting with an attorney friend who led me through how to file a small claims court action against a publisher who owes me over $1000 in payment and who refuses to respond to my phone calls or e-mails. This situation makes me tired. I wrote the articles, they were published, he owes me the money. Why must we go the court route for him to do what's right? But it is what it is, so off to small claims court I go...

Then there is the bathroom. I'll give a full update later, but at this point almost all of the work is done by the contractor who has been taking forever. They sent me the final bill and I called them and let them know I wanted a discount for the amount of time it's taken. "We don't typically do that," she said.

"I understand," I replied. "But I assume you also don't typically take 6-7 months to complete a bathroom renovation. 

"Well, maybe if you had indicated at some point in the process you were unhappy with the time frame..."

 Are you KIDDING ME???? I even told her I had felt bad at times for the mean messages I  left on her machine,  letting her know I wanted the project done NOW.  She was very nice during our conversation, as was I, so I don't know that it's a "battle" just yet. I hope they do the right thing and offer us a discount.  We'll have to wait and see as they're "getting back to us."

I'm also fighting with my writer's group where I'm on the board. We have a high-profile NY literary agent coming to speak at our Fall conference and several members of the board don't see the need to pay for a one night hotel stay for this woman, saying instead she can just bunk with one of our members.  The group has plenty of money and I sent an e-mail that screamed TACKY and opened up a can of worms. We're meeting next week to discuss the issue and, frankly, I'm not in the mood to be nice about it.

The last one isn't my battle but raises my blood-pressure anyway. My mom lives next to the very definition of "white trash." There just is no other phrase for them.  These people curse at her, bang on her walls, and make her a virtual prisoner in her own home as she's scared to go outside. It's gotten to the point where she's going to have to put her condo up for sale, just to get away from them.

I'm not enjoying any of these and feel like a grouch.  I'm about ready to throw my hands up to all of it and say "The hell with it. Don't pay me my money, screw me on the bathroom, do whatever you want with the agent because I'm leaving the board anyway, and these people at my mom's are just so dug-in-deep white trash there's just is no hope of a peaceful solution. I give in. I quit."

Sigh. But I have that "it's not fair" button stuck deep inside me. I did the work, I should be paid. A bathroom renovation shouldn't take 7 months--we deserve a break on price. Taking $180 for a hotel out of a $10,000budget should be a no-brainer.  

We'll see how it all ends. Meanwhile, please try not to pick a fight with me.  I can only juggle so many battles at once...

What Could You Live Without?

I read a book called Give It Up! in which the author gives up one thing each month for a year and reports on her failure/success. For example, she gave up chocolate, cursing, cell phones, cabs (she lives in NY), alcohol and eating out, among other items.

This sparked discussion between Blair and myself. What would we be challenged to do without for a month? We came up with this list:

• Eating Out
• TV (me more so than Blair)
• E-mail (slit my wrists, why don't you?)
• Snacking
• The dishwasher
  
• Make-up (again, me more so than Blair)

We were hunting around a bit for items. We rarely drink, don't use our cell phones and giving up our cars really isn't an option given where we live. So Blair came up with the brilliant idea that instead of giving up things, we should come up with a list of things we could DO each month. That was much more fun to think about. Some of the things we came up with are:

• Exercise
• Cook
• Volunteer
• Pick up trash off the side of the road
• Perform a Random Act of Kindness
• Write a Letter
• Read a poem
• Send out a query letter (me, for work)
• Work only your set hours - no going in early and no working late
• Meditate
• Journal

In full disclosure, we have not actually attempted to do the things on this list. But making the list is a start and I admit I'm tempted to give some of them a go. I think the first couple of days would be fun, like "ha-ha, I'm working toward my goal." But come the 3rd week of the month, I can see how one might be dragging.

Still, coming up with the lists was fun. Give it a try. What would you be challenged to do without for a month or what could you be challenged to DO for a month?

If you're feeling brave, post your response. 

Aqua Restored

We have water. It was restored about 5pm last night. Barely.

Yesterday morning I cancelled the jillion-dollar plumber and had the plumber who is doing the work to our bathroom come out. Like the first plumber, he confirmed the leak was coming from a spot underneath our bathroom shower where there just isn't enough crawl space to get back in there.  So I had our general contractor come out yesterday, rip up my closet carpet and saw a hole in my closet floor (my closet backs up to the shower), allowing access to the pipe. Apparently just a casing or something had come loose so my GC tightened it up and voila! Water!

The plumber is coming back this morning to confirm everything is tightened up as it should be. Then the GC will screw the plywood back into my closet floor, creating a sort of trap door should we ever need it again.  

I like the plumber. It honestly hadn't occurred to me that the source of the leak was anything other than older pipes. But he said upfront, "No, I'm pretty sure it was something I did when I did the preliminary work to your shower." He apologized and made clear he would set things right on his own time and I wouldn't owe anything to him.

Love that.  I don't mind if people mess up. We were without water for 48 hours and it wasn't the end of the world. But he took responsibility, apologized, and is going to fix it.  You can't ask for more than that.

Meanwhile, this little episode has been useful in helping me appreciate some of the things I usually gripe about. Once we had water I did 3 loads of laundry and was happy to fold and put away clothes. Emptying the dishwasher was a pleasure.  Few things brought me more enjoyment this week than wiping off the kitchen counter tops. It's like being able to see with new eyes. 

I would not have been a happy pioneer woman. Electricity and water--these are a few of my favorite things. 

Burst Pipe III

No End In Sight...

To update, our pipes burst on Saturday night and we were left without running water all day Sunday and into Monday.

Have you heard of those Indian swamis who can go into a meditative trance and will themselves to not need food or water for days? I thought I might attempt to achieve this state. I lasted three minutes and then I had a ravenous thirst and a constant need to pee.

It's funny how even mentally knowing we had no water, we couldn't train ourselves not to reach for it.  For example, I had a glass of saved water sitting by the bathroom sink to use for brushing my teeth. I saw it, I knew what it was there for, yet force of habit made me reach out and turn the faucet on and stare dumbly at it, waiting for the water to appear.

I have been shown how much I take water for granted. Want to take an asprin? No water in the sink. Gotta go hunt some down. Want to do laundry? Nope, not an option. Our dishwasher was already full when the pipe burst. Too bad, the dirty dishes will remain dirty. (I never realized how many spoons we use until the option of cleaning them was taken from me.)

I wanted to wipe the kitchen countertops off only--oops--that would use some of our valuable water reserves.  I am practicing the fine art of bladder control. We skipped showering today but tomorrow will find us heating water on the stove for an old-fashioned sink-sponge bath.

I thought I'd use my time wisely on Sunday and finish up some painting in the bathroom. Except I'd need to rinse the brushes out when I finished, so that was a no go. I read the Sunday paper and had to decide whether it was worth it to wash the newsink off my hands (it was).  The cats got bottled water in their water dish.  I didn't wear makeup because I had no way to wash it off at night.

Frankly, I'm just grateful the toilets work. We fill the tank with water after each flush. It beats running to McDonalds each time.

I just hope they can fix the pipe. One day on the weekend is like, "Ha ha. This is hard!" Once we hit the work week, it switches into "Ha, ha. I'm going to kill myself if I don't get a hot shower!"

Fingers crossed the plumber comes through.