Current photo of my neighbor's house.

Current photo of my neighbor's house. How many shopping carts can you find?

Gotta love how they stacked so much junk outside that they knocked down the privacy fence Shaun and I built between my house and theirs.

I drove by my house...

I drove by my house (where the kids live) and ran two arguing crackheads out of the yard. I was like "You need to get out of my yard, please." The guy puffed up and said "That's some bitch ass shit!" and the girl he'd been arguing with was like "Come on." and they left. Hopefully that's the end of it. But if not it's fine because WE GOT THE KEYS TO THE KIDS' APARTMENT TODAY!

If you'd told me 14 years ago when I bought my house that I'd one day be ready to dump it I wouldn't have believed you. I was so proud of myself for buying a house at 23 as a single parent. I felt RIDICULOUSLY accomplished. I couldn't afford anything expensive, but me and Shadow were happy and felt safe for many years. Unfortunately, things changed.

Norfolk Southern dug up the railroad tracks behind my house in preparation for what was "soon" supposed to be the Chief Ladiga Trail. That trail never did come to fruition, but worse than that removing the tracks caved in the drainage ditch behind me and no one gave a single fuck about us when my house flooded a foot deep because of it. Not Anniston, not Calhoun County, and certainly not Norfolk Southern. Since I wasn't in a flood zone, neither did Alfa insurance. 

After that my giant pecan trees started dropping huge, massive limbs on the house. I had insurance, but it was still scary and a hassle. I finally got my trees trimmed with my tax refund one year. Unfortunately, by that point I had already amassed a list of home repairs and improvements that needed to be done (including the flood damage), with exactly zero extra dollars to accomplish them. I did the best I could with every tax refund but once the neighborhood started declining I knew it was a lost cause. At that point I just did what I had to in order to keep the place livable and safe.

In 2017 my neighbor who'd moved away moved back in and has lived there without power and water ever since. Well, I suppose I should say she didn't have her own utilities turned on, but why would she need to do that when she could just steal mine? Yes, I ended up having to LITERALLY lock my outdoor faucet and my brother had to come disassemble some makeshift wiring from the back of my garage that went directly into one of her windows. Shaun ended up cutting power to my garage to ensure it wouldn't happen again. I don't know that it hasn't since my bill is so high recently, but it's about to not be my problem anymore.

No more hearing the thief neighbor yell and fight at all hours of the night. No more seeing her mess of stolen shopping carts and other random shit she's been accumulating. No more hearing the horns honking when people drive by like we don't know they're signaling to buy drugs. No more wondering who's squatting in the 3 "empty" houses across the street and if they mean us any harm. No more having to run crackheads off my property. No more finding used needles in the yard. No more being worried about being robbed or that the kids aren't safe. We. Are. Done.

I hate that I'm feeling so "good riddance" towards a place I once loved so dearly, but I can't help it. Too much has changed. I'm sad to leave all of my buried pets behind. I'm sad to never see my dog room again where so many fostered animals learned what love and a home felt like. I'm sad that we're leaving the place that Shadow was so excited to move into when he was young. I'm sad to leave the place where he spent all but 5 years of his childhood. I'm sad that something I was once so proud of turned out this way. This is a really bittersweet experience. But growing hurts so onward and upward!

Cats are so weird.

Cats are so weird. Scar, (the black and white cat), just got bathed intensely by Tobi (orange kitty) and Adrian (colorful kitty). I guess that gives them license to lay on his face while he sleeps?

Welcome aboard my emotional roller-coaster.

I was sitting on the couch working on school stuff. Music suddenly starts playing... and it sounds like it's coming from inside the house, but Shaun is asleep. I go check on things in the direction of the sound. Club Soda (aka Calypso) [a cat for those who are unfamiliar] has started playing a Tool video on the Google Home Hub in the kitchen. She looks quite pleased with herself.

I got a video clip, but during it I also discovered that my fish, Salamander, has passed away, so I'm not posting it.

Shaun asked me the other day...

Shaun asked me the other day why I was saving a bag of used up Air Wick air freshener bottles. Truthfully I didn't know when I started saving them up a few years back, but I didn't want to throw them away because they were perfectly good glass bottles. If I couldn't have found a purpose for them before the collection got out of hand I would have disassembled them and recycled what I could.

Well they have a purpose now! Today in my downtime I took them apart. I'm going to recycle the plastic pieces, wash the bottles, and use them for growing my succulents (who are surprisingly doing well with such wet feet!) I feel a lot better with only throwing the wicks in the trash. To me that's a decent reduction in waste and every little bit helps!

My depression has lifted...

My depression has lifted and I've felt pretty good for almost 2 weeks. I like to think that I'm pretty emotionally honest so it's only right to share the ups as well as the downs. I am so grateful for the good days I've been having. I'm enjoying not feeling stressed and tense all of the time. I've been active and productive instead of sleeping all day. I've been more interested in my ani-pals and my plants and my nail polish. I'm on top of my chores as well as knocking things off of my to-do list. The kids and I took advantage of the nice weather yesterday and started cleaning out the garage, which is no small feat.

I'm still on Lexapro for depression and Buspar for anxiety (obviously not quitting either since they are working). Sometimes my brain won't shut up and let me sleep so I take Melatonin. I found some old psoriasis cream in my bedroom and started putting it on my face so I can enjoy my skin for a while. Too bad it doesn't help the remainder of my body (not enough cream left and who has time to medicate literally hundreds of patches every day?), but I'll have insurance this year. It's ok. So things aren't perfect, but my mental health is pretty good and I'm going to make the most of it while it lasts.

I know a lot of you have been struggling as I have. I hope if that's still the case that you catch a break soon, as well. Hang in there. The better days are worth it. ❤️

I'm trying to leave my room...

I'm trying to leave my room so I can get some work done. Booka's napping and isn't going to let me get in the way of that. 😂😂😂 If I leave him here he'll just freak out when he wakes up. 🙄 "How could you leave me alone?!" I love this precious old bad boy.

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