… and it kept freakin’ raining for days and days. And then the water started to come in through my bedroom ceiling, luckily not directly over my bed but still, Wahhhh!! I hate to be a whiney Karen but for fucks sake I could REALLY use a bit of a break right about now!

So uhmm yeah. I started that post 2 weeks ago at the height of being overwhelmed but today is a better day. Mostly. Lol.

Let’s recap shall we? In the month of August;

• My town finally sent out a chunky bill for half our yearly taxes (and both car property taxes and the business tax), after getting the budget increase voted down not once, but twice! Plus they have been tearing up the road leading to my house and making it really messy and complicated to get here not just for us but for my clients. My tax dollars hard at work. Yay!! Bleh!
• Hubby and I decided we could still afford to do the new fence – ourselves that is because the estimates were between $7,500 and 8k for a lousy 110′ of wooden fence! Geez… but we were able to buy nice new cedar fencing, have it delivered, and we did the installation ourselves for about a $1,200. It luckily turned out that the existing posts were in good enough shape that we could re-use them and that helped a lot with the expense and the amount of work – but it was still a big job! I still have to finish staining the neighbor’s side, but I am really happy with it now that the hard part is finished – lol. We even made a gate ourselves and I love how it looks. Still trying to decide if we need to round the fence on either side of the gate, but that can wait for now. 🙂
• After the fence materials were delivered was when the really heavy rains hit .. and we suddenly had water dripping from the ceiling into the carpet beside my bed – and it was determined I needed a roof repair costing over $3,000 – Needless to say I was already feeling a bit financially strained and physically exhausted from the fence work –
• Then I was told that my car needed over $900 in repairs as well. 🙁 Add to the mix of drama a leaky pipe in the bathroom wall, a stove and costly refrigerator repair #%@&!!!! I was definitely having a really hard time processing it all to say the least.
  
  Deep breath! All this shall pass. The taxes got paid, fence got finished, roof is no longer leaking, car is fixed, and Brett handled all the appliance and bathroom leak repairs… life is almost back to normal. Yay!

But underneath all of it though is still anxiety I feel for my family member that is facing deportation (new court date October 31st) and his kid and their fiancé that are struggling to make ends meet. I got a tearful text the other day asking me could I come get their much beloved cat because they are not able to care for her properly right now, only to discover the poor creature was loaded with more fleas than I have ever seen in my life! So that was fun – ughhh! Bloodwork shows her to be anemic (no surprise there) but otherwise she should make a full recovery!! Less than 48 hours she’s looking much brighter and comfortable and I am praying that treating all our other cats and keeping her separated for a while will be enough to not get an infestation ourselves. (HUGE THANKS to my Canadian benefactor that assisted me with the emergency vet visit!! Thank you – I love you B!!)

I did have a few bright spots that helped me get through though! Both of my nieces came to visit in the last two weeks. Nadia my tattooed niece from Cali came out east for an event and we got to catch up, go for a bit of a hike and have a fabulous lunch at ‘Ship to Shore’ in Kingston, NY!

Then this past week my other amazing niece and grand nephew came to visit. The little guy is starting his very first full day of kindergarten classes on the 3rd and turns 5 on the 4th! We decided we all needed to finish the summer with a bang so we went to Lake Compounce to have some serious fun! Neither of them is the level of thrill junkie that I am so I went on Boulder Dash by myself and screamed and screamed and laughed. It was glorious!! I REALLY needed that. 🙂

But I also got to go to some concerts!! Wooohoooo!! Matt Nathanson with Switchfoot and Blue October in NYC was wonderful! I got to add the VIP Pre Show hang and it was intimate and charming and a much needed respite in the midst of the chaos at home. My heartfelt thanks to Kathi for the Ticketmaster gift certificate that made that possible!

I went to the show alone but met some great people there. 🙂 One guy in particular named Paul seemed really delighted to hear what I did for a living and asked if we could grab a selfie and a few days later he sent this cute cartoon.

I also got to do Sad Summer Festival with “the kid” and one of her best friends. It was the friend’s very first concert ever! And “the kid” got their very first “Over 21 OK to drink” bracelet! That felt like a rite of passage moment for them and for me. The day was hot as blazes but we had a great time and made it through MOST of the bands in the line up before we decided to finally head home. My favorite part was of course spending the day with my favorite concert buddy – but also seeing “We The Kings” again. (if you want a glimpse into what makes me tick – play the song “I feel alive” by We The Kings. It’s my absolute favorite sing right now and somedays when I am feeling overwhelmed by too much too fast I play that at top volume and make myself a little impromptu dance party to blow off steam. 🙂

Ohhh and then – I finally got to see Melissa Etheredge with the Indigo Girls last week at Bethel Woods with a really dear friend. I absolutely do NOT get out with girlfriends nearly often enough and it is just so great to spend time with a gal-pal. She has also been going through a steady stream of hell the last few years at least and it was nice for us to catch up and have a couple glasses of wine and enjoy some great music. I need to make an effort to see her more often – If you see this – I LOVE you – Thanks H! 🙂

Soooo as always – Thanks for letting me vent a bit – It was definitely a wild couple of months! Whew life seems to love hitting you all at once sometimes don’t it? 🙂 I also had a bunch of really fun sessions a couple of which I was able to take a few pics during but I am going to save those for the next post. 🙂