Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe even if it is a tree which stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do even if it is a long way from here.
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go.
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you.
- Pueblo Blessing
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005 - 9:58 p.m.
WARNING!!!! if you know me personally, you may read my diary, but if you do, you take the chance of hearing things you don't want to know, misunderstanding what I've written and being hurt by it. If you are unsure if it is ok to read, save yourself and me the grief and heartache, and ask first!!! Please note that this is a DIARY, ie my subjective feelings, hearsay, suppositions, and outpourings of ranting of the moment. It does not represent objective news, the whole of what I think of a topic or someone, or even a thought-out representation of any of the above. Keep that in mind. Thanks. * Here is a Diary Etiquette Read Me.
Looking for a Paper in a Paperstack
Ah, what a day... I'm TRYING to find the file folder that says "GST QST"... which is the taxes I have to do quarterly for the government (as well as my normal income taxes once a year... ie March)... I know it is there... not a month ago, I got the forms from the govt in the mail and put them into said file folder. It can be in one of only THREE file cabinet drawers. I shall look again.
Interestingly while I go through papers lying here and there... well, mostly all in the same place... they lay next to the toaster on the kitchen counter when they come out of pants pockets, coat pockets, my backpack, my wallet, until they get sorted into "dog and cat, bank slips, car, personal expenses, and business expenses"... the business expenses go by month into files til quarterly I sort them all, and tabulate it all... Really it is not THAT disorganized... it is mostly trying to find all the receipts I get as I am walking the dog, as I come back from watercolor class, on my way to meet friends at a restaurant etc, since they are in various pockets of clothing etc.
Which brings us to the next point... I unfolded completely the note I wrote to the tenant who claims she gave me a rent check in advance for January, though I cannot find it anywhere, having searched high and low, asking her for a new check. Which, you will remember, she handed me wrapped up in the note, with great attitude and refusing to say anything to me, not even a "you're welcome" when I said "sorry, thanks".
Well, until now I hadn't completely unfolded the paper... it was folded in threes, and once you unfolded the top part which was my letter, you saw the check, which I took out and put in the mortgage account. Haha, now I unfolded it, I see she had written crammed on the bottom of the sheet:
"It PISSES me OFF to give you another check while the other one must be somewhere at your place. FIND IT PLEASE!. (the other) I don't give a damn how much time it takes you. Thankyou. signed...."
It is rather funny to think that all this time (nearly a month) I hadn't even seen that, and couldve easily just thrown it out, since I recognized the note I had written her and had no reason to look at the bottom of it to see she'd added something.
Well, isn't that just the nicest. I would almost like to invite her down here and say I'll give her a month's free rent if she can find the check... and not to make a mess while she's at it. I mean really... let's see... I spent about 5 hours looking in every possible place I could imagine it being... the table I leave all my stuff, my wallet, all my pockets of all my coats and all my bags, my drawing table, my renter's file where I put everyone's postdated checks, the place I put my mail, the place I put my bills to pay, the place I put US checks I need to get to the actual bank to cash etc etc etc.
You know, I don't disbelieve her that she gave me the check, but I don't necessarily believe her either. I have no recollection of it. Maybe she gave it to me while I was coming out of my place and I shoved it into whatever bag was in my hand at that moment... it could be with my watercolor stuff, or stuck in the pages of a novel I planned to read on the subway.. Maybe she gave it to me when I was up repairing the wall at her place, and I shoved it in my bucket of painting stuff (yes I went in the basement and looked there, but it couldve been in different painting stuff for HER project), or in the painting clothes I wore then... which ones that would be who knows. Maybe she gave it to me as I picked up the mail and it ended up in the empty envelopes that went into the recycling. Maybe it is in a stack of papers I moved when I moved everything in my studio over Christmas.
The point is that I have a home office as well as a home, and all the paperwork, books, paper with drawings on it, stacks of art paper, files for cars and dogs, piles of magazines, mail to read from my mom, bags of old magazines, clippings from magazines, from newspapers, slips of paper with addresses that need to be filed... in fact six rooms of paperwork and stuff, including two large closets of clothes in whose pockets it could be, as well as the basement full of stuff from painting and fixing, any place of which one could find that one stub of paper that is her check.
Find it, she say, and she doesn't care how long it takes me. Um yeah, uhuh. Yeah. Does this strike anyone as the relationship between an angry parent and a small child? Or a teacher and a bad student? I mean really.
I will talk to her later about the attitude. If she is annoyed that is one thing... I suppose it is annoying to have to spend a whole 5 minutes if that, writing a new rent check. Writing me a bitch note, and ordering me around is another thing. I will say I am sorry she is annoyed, but accidents happen. And it might not be a good idea if I as the landlord deal with annoyances and mistakes the way she does as a tenant. I try to be goodnatured though firm when people straggle in with their rent checks "oh, I forgot it was on saturday when I went away on Thursday for the long weekend", "oh I'll get paid on Tuesday", "oh I forgot about all the Christmas expenses, so I'll give you one check now, and one check in two weeks".. btw late-boy's rent check bounced and he had to call and tell me and write me another one.
Now I could deal with all this shit with "I am PISSED OFF that you did that, you will FIND the rent NOW and I don't care HOW LONG it takes you" letters. Now wouldn't that be pleasant. And cure what?? Their check bounced. They will get paid in three days. They gave me a new check. What will notes like that do?
So yeah, yay, in two days it is rent time again. What kind of guess do you want to make about whether little miss attitude will give me her rent check, or will play the "you already had two for January, i'm not paying you til you find it". Dang.
I remember once about 17 years ago I lost my pay check. I called my boss. He was sympathetic and replaced it. I don't remember attitude like this.
Sigh.
Back to looking for the file folder. At least it is a bit larger than one slip of paper in 25 years of paperwork.
cheers.
Be nice to your landlord.
wenchie
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previous meanderings - future past
Goodbye Michael. May your next life be kinder to you. - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Taking Care of Your Cows - Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009
Saint Joseph robs the cradle and eats spaghetti - Sunday, Jun. 14, 2009
sticky notes and broken irises - Friday, Jun. 12, 2009
The FOODCOMMANDER - Monday, Jun. 08, 2009
