Saturday, November 13, 2010

A Whole New World


It took every penny we had from our last paychecks plus some money borrowed from Mom and Dad to get us here. 1200 miles with 2 cats and a litterbox in the car! For the last 300 miles my mother was also in the car and I had a TV leaning on my head in the back. But we made it! The house was nice even though it didn't have a dishwasher, fireplace, cathedral ceilings, skylight, AC, swimming pool or a washer and dryer. It was a billion times better than the other places for rent - trust me! It was charming and the kitchen was orange and there were flowers planted everywhere and they were going to start blooming and we were starting work in a few days and that's when the money would start rolling in (insert sound of slot machine winning jackpot here).


We ran into some bad luck just 2 days later when our family dog, Snoopy, died. I'd just seen him when we stayed at my dad's on the way up and he was fine. Then he woke up unable to walk and we found out he had cancer on his spleen and was bleeding internally. My dad had to put him to sleep. He was only 9 and we weren't expecting to lose him so soon. I still you miss you, Snooperooni!!!
Then it started snowing. IN MAY! All I had were tanks and tube tops and it was snowing! Thankfully my aunt bought us each a hoodie, hat and gloves. More handouts from people. One day I'd be able to pay them all back...but it didn't look like it would happen this month.
May was a slow month for tourists and I only got 2 or 3 shifts a week. The first thing I had to buy was work clothes. Black pants, white button-up shirts and black shoes. A server HAS to have comfy shoes so I couldn't be cheap on those. Brian also had to buy uniforms and the money was taken out of his check. Also, Brian worked on the other side of the bridge and had to pay $3.60 a day to get across, double if he needed to come home for lunch or to take me to work. So yeah, May was crappy but we had faith that things would turn around.

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