So Many Changes…

Last Rest Area in Florida, Sept 5, 2014

I posted, on TheSingleGirl website, back in April that I was “back” and then I disappeared again, well kind of disappeared. I actually have a few podcasts recorded and in the edit stage. I have been producing and editing the “Beautiful nightmares and wicked dreams” podcast over the last few months which is now in hiatus. But the most important things that have taken my time, and kept me away from the internet and the blog have been my recent graduation from film school, Full Sail University, and my even more recent move from Orlando Florida back to Eastern Virginia.

I graduated on Sept 5^th, 2014. I actually walked at graduation then immediately left to finish loading up the u-haul so that I could get on the road back to Virginia.  My packing had started back in May and I hadn’t finished until three hours after graduation. Yes, I left Florida on two hours of sleep in three days, right after graduation.  Stupid, right? Not really. I love to drive and I was pretty pumped not only for the drive, but also for the fact that it was the first few hours of my life reboot.

The started the drive out of Florida at 3 pm and arrived in VA at 5 am. The drive seemed to go fast in hindsight, although treacherous being that it was raining really hard from the time I left until I hit Savanna Ga. Cats and dogs don’t do the weather justice. It was like standing under Niagara Falls for several hours and doing 40 miles an hour in the interstate. It was quite insane. I have to say it is a bit weird being here and I cant get used to being chilly all the time.

I have made it public that I want a “Tiny House” it is yet another one of my dreams. I am happy to say I am halfway there. I am back in my 35 ft. Carriage Cameo 5^th wheel RV. This is requiring a major downsizing from my luxurious 800 SQ FT apartment.  After a brief stay at my Grandmothers home near Richmond, I arrived at my RV, which my Ex had parked at one of our usual RV parks.  Needless to say I was not expecting what was awaiting me inside.

Now, this would be a good time to interject that my RV had been sitting in storage, in Maryland, for the last three years, and after repeated requests to have a few things done prior to arriving. I was livid to walk in to find no power, and the inside completely trashed out! Now after a 14-hour drive to my Grandmother’s house, spending the day putting back together all the furniture, I had taken apart so that I could get it into the U-haul trailer for the trip back. The last thing I wanted to do was have to waste an entire day cleaning out the trash, shampooing the stains out of the carpet, scrubbing walls, counters, toilets, the shower. Yet that is exactly what I had to do.

The entire inside of the RV had to me cleaned prior to even bringing in any of the furniture, much less any of my personal belongings. I kept some of the furniture from my Florida apartment to replace practically everything that had been in the RV as I had the Ex basically gut the RV of the previous furnishing, as most of it was busted up and ill repair.  It was a choice that I do not regret by any stretch.

The power issue was easily corrected when the ex realized that he had disconnected the inverter, and had forgotten to reconnect it after dropping off the RV at the park before heading to Orlando to pull the U-haul back up here for me. In the process of cleaning the Kitchen Sink faucet broke off in my hand. I noticed that the glass front and the handle both were broken and missing from my oven. When I went to clean the shower out, which was black and covered in dirt, I noticed that the showerhead needed to be completely replaced, as it was also broken.  To be honest, at this point I want to scream and throw things, but I centered myself and kept on going.

By the end of the night I had moved in the mattress and my box of linens so that I could at least sleep.  In the process of putting in the mattress I noticed that the carpet by the bed was wet. This kind of pissed me off. When you own an RV you need to do yearly maintenance, of which requires a re-caulking all those things that need caulk, like the front and rear roof caps. Guess what has not been done in the last three years... simply put, none of the maintenance. Which is why when vacuuming the living room I was not surprised when I bumped into the wall and discovered the water damage. I also created a new hole in the wall. I am waiting on the insurance adjuster to come and tell me if they are going to pay to fix it.

On day two I got all of my boxes in that were slated to come to the RV. It was a lot of work but it was nice to get the new furniture in and see the U-haul get that much emptier.  The emptier it got the happier I was becoming. Then it happened… We had a storm come through and I found out why the carpet in the bed room was wet. The rain was leaking through one of the skylights on my living room slide, pouring out of the light fixture in the closet, not a drip but a pour. The most shocking thing was the rain that was flowing in the RV from under three of my windows. The rain was so hard that it was pushing the water under the glass. My bed, and my carpet in the living room got soaked. After shoving butter knives in the track surrounding the window, to press the window against the seal and stop the flow, I once again pulled out the carpet shampooer and vacuumed up the water. Wasn’t happy with the wet carpet in the house yet again. But was less happy with the wet furniture, mainly my recliners from the dripping coming through the light fixtures in the living room slide. Yes last Sunday was not my most favorite of days.

Come Monday I had a very few hours to empty the U-haul in the storage unit and get the trailer back to the drop off point. This feat went so much easier than I thought but I had to get rid of a few things that I didn’t want to such as some of my mother’s beauty shop equipment. Getting rid of those things was not nearly as upsetting as I had thought. I even got rid of a couple bags of my mother’s clothes, which I gave away to the woman working the front desk at the storage place. I was happy to give them to someone that could use them instead of tossing them in the trash.

After some tossing of items, a rearrangement of items already in the unit, we got the u-haul emptied out in the matter of an hour or so. As luck would have it the place I took the U-Haul for drop off was exactly the one I was supposed to drop it off at. When I set up my reservation for the U-haul I left the drop off point open. The jackass at the pick-up point took it upon himself to add a drop off point. That really ticked me off. The main thing for me was that I got it dropped off in time and was not charged any additional funds.

My next stop was The Home Depot, one of my favorite places to shop. Even as a former employee it is the only store of its kind that I will shop at. My shopping list: 1 showerhead, cans of spray rubber sealant, tubes latex caulk with silicone, nails, screws, mold remover, assortment of cleaning supplies, new mop, carpet deodorizer, Lysol, and a LOT of bleach. When we got back to the RV some $200.00 lighter the EX climbed up on the roof and unloaded 150 bucks worth of caulk and rubber sealer on the end caps and around the skylights. Now, what set me completely off on Monday was watching every bit of that caulk and rubber sealant wash off the roof when an hour later the sky fell and dumped the equivalent of a lake on us. I was really not happy watching the streaks of what looked like milk streaming down my windows. What makes it worse, none of the leaks were even slowed.  At this point when the rain stopped the ex took off back to Maryland stating “I am out of here before something else happens or you kill me, which ever happens first.” I had to laugh but I was pretty pissed at that point. Not at him, but at the series of crap that has happened up to this point.

When the house was clear, I went back to cleaning and putting things up. Adding a bucket under the light fixture in the closet has managed so far to keep the floor dry. I ended the night by doing laundry, as I had not one dry towel in the house and barely any clean clothing. That particular night was the best night of sleep that I had gotten in a week.

This saga continues…