Eggtown

1. Our house passed muster, with only a few tiny things that will need looking after (missing piece of siding, hairline crack in cement slab,etc). We are now sitting around twiddling our thumbs while the finance people hash their shit out. They have given us a preliminary closing date of March 28th, which seems a very long away but is really like three weeks. I am trying to figure out how we're going to get all of our shit down to North Carolina, plus me, the baby, and the cats. It is probably going to cost us another thousand dollars to move our stuff again. We have no furniture except a couch and the baby's crib, just a small storage unit worth of boxes and lamps and totes and what-have-you. I can't imagnine the astronomical cost had we decided to hang on to everything.

2. Our former apartment complex in California has continued their pattern of shadiness by sending us to collections for $230 of fees that they assesed after we left and then never told us about. I have been trading phone calls with the collections agency (for some reason I can't seem to get the guy in charge of our case on the phone...hmmm) and wishing a pox upon the managment company and staff, since nobody could return our phone calls this summer when we asked for our copy of the move-out invoice and, oh, yeah, where is that hefty security deposit we paid? Also, their timing is both faaaabulous and suspicious - being sent to collections is precisely what we needed when we are knee-deep in applying for a mortgate.

3. I have been trying to spend as much time as possible out of the house when my mother is home, because I really can't stand her anymore. Problem is, when left unsupervised, she tends to get into my stuff and rearrange, throw away, move, or destroy things. And then denies it. I find my stuff rooms away from where I left it, or in the trash, or completely not where it belongs, and when I ask her about it she just starts screeching "I DIDN'T DO IT! WHY DO YOU YOU ALWAYS ACCUSE ME?! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING I NEVER DO ANYTHING I NEVER DO ANYTHING NEVER EVER!!!" I grit my teeth so much these days I'm going to need some serious dental work done after the move.

4. I have to find some affordable health insurance for Piper & myself, because my husband's new job does not offer automatic coverage to families, and the plans available to buy are crappy and start at $500 a month. Max's coverage is no cost to us, which is helpful, but I can't believe they don't cover families! One of the plans I looked at charged an additional fee for pregnancy coverage - either you pay extra every month, or if (God forbid) I got pregnant, they wouldn't cover it. Who the hell ever heard of health insurance not covering pregnancy?! I don't know what we're going to do - I guess we've just been spoiled by our other jobs in healthcare & education, where the coverage was great and cheap/free. My mind boggles at paying $750 a month in premiums and still shelling out a $25 copay per office visit.

5. I hate living here more than I can describe, and that is not helping the homesickness that now permeates every moment of my day. I've decided California is like an abusive boyfriend: when you're with him and it's good, it's really good, and when it's bad it's damaging and possibly life-threatening. When you're away from him, you start to forget all the bad stuff and miss him. And so you go back time after time and get the crap kicked out of you. A couple of weeks ago, I told Max "I feel like Jack - 'we have to go back, Kate! We never should have left!' because that's what I want to do. I want to go back and do everything right, not make the mistakes we made last time." I am posessed by this, I am burning up with it. Every day I wake up and hope that I will find myself back in our old apartment, with a chance to reclaim everything this move has taken from us. It's been hard not only on our pocketbook, but also on our marriage and our burgeoning parenthood. I long for sunshine, I ache to be near the Pacific Ocean again, and most of all I want to be away from here.