Weird Friday

Every day when I walk to the bus stop, I walk past an old long-term stay hotel that's being turned into condos. And every day, the workers over there yell something at me. Usually it's either something in Spanish that I don't know (because I can do Spanglish, but not Spanish), or something like "Hey, mamacita, don't you wanna come over here and getchu somma this?" Well, today was different. Today they yelled, "Hey, Beautiful!" No whistles even. I'm a bit worried that they might be starting to respect me.

So I'm waiting for the bus, and there are 3 other people waiting as well. Two buses stop here; I take Bus #1, which goes straight downtown to where I work, and Bus #2, which goes to the nearest Metro station west of me. Bus #2 comes along, and the other 3 people get on. I think to myself, Well, shouldn't be long now, #2 is supposed to be here a couple minutes before #1. So I wait. And I wait. And I wait some more. I look at my watch, and notice I've now been waiting 20 minutes and realize that this bus is probably not coming, which does happen sometimes for unknown reasons (fucking Metrobus, I hate them sometimes).

So I cross the street and go to the bus stop to wait for the #2 bus going the opposite way, which should be the next bus along in about 10 minutes. And I wait. And I wait. And an attractive young gentleman comes along. And we wait. And we wait. And about 25 minutes later we are wondering where the hell our bus is. He finally gives up and calls a cab, and offers to share it with me. Well, unfortunately, because today was payday, I had about a dollar and change in my wallet because all my pay goes direct deposit to my Visa. So I tell him this, and he says never mind the money, and I get a free ride to the Metro! Yay for cute boys!

BTW, all this bus shenanigans - because it's Veterans' Day here in the US. All our public transportation in DC was running on a Saturday schedule, therefore my normal bus didn't run at all. Bastards. Of course, I could have been smart enough to look it up or even realize it yesterday, but NO, not me. I swear I'm becoming a flake in my advancing years.

Well, on the home front, I figure I'm about $200 short after Cuz gets her paycheck tomorrow. That's including paying just enough of the electric bill to keep it on, and just enough cash to get us just enough food to get by just until I get paid again next week.

And here's the deal with the landlord, for those who really want to know (might as well come clean). He took us to court and got a judgment against us for past due rent, even though I had proposed a payment arrangement with him the night before that he had seemed to agree to. So when we got outside the courtroom, we talked some more about it, and he wasn't ready to say whether he was going to agree or not, that he needed some more assurance that we could really come up with the money, that he wanted us to fill out the rental application again with current phone numbers and employers, but that he wasn't going to sic the sheriff on us just yet. Or at least that's what we think. So we filled it all out, and on Monday, I faxed it over to him, along with a copy of my last paystub and a copy of my last timesheet showing beaucoup hours, hopefully proving to him that we could, indeed, come up with it. Haven't heard a thing from him since.

In the meantime, I've been working my ass off, not spending any more money than I have to, and wracking my brain for ways to come up with more money. I have nothing to sell, no way to make anything extra, nobody to ask for a loan. I'm really at a loss. So if you want to contribute to a worthwhile charity, feel free to send me your extra change.