Glimmers in the Darkness

I was at Tesco Express, which is the small market in our sister building one stop up the tram line.  In Ireland, there's a small fee added when you buy a bottled drink - usually 25 or 50 cents - but you can get this refunded if you take the bottles to be recycled at any store that has a recycling kiosk.

I had a big bag full of empties....and the machine said it wasn't accepting bottles at the moment.  Grrrr....

So I went about my shopping and noticed that someone was using the machine.  I waited my turn and when I got up there, the machine again said it was out of order.  The kiosk is right next to the customer service desk/checkout.  The clerk was ringing up a customer but said he'd reset the machine for me, which he did.

I was wearing my "Meow Wars" T-shirt, and he commented that he liked my shirt.  I thanked him and said it amuses me to wear it.  He then said, "What part of the States are you from?"

Gee, how did he know I wasn't from Ireland?  😀

I said I was from Minnesota.  He got a smile on his face and said, "My all-time celebrity hero is from Minnesota."  I asked who it was, and he said Prince.  I said, "Prince was the best, and he was gone too soon."

He said, "My mum got the 'Purple Rain' album.  Her mum let her stay home from school so she could go get it.  When you go to her house, it's the first thing you see because she's got it up on the wall."

In my head, I was like "Crap, if this guy's mom was young enough to be in school when the album came out, how young is this kid??"

Express has self checkout machines, so I rolled my cart over there and got my stuff scanned.  When you recycle bottles, you get a receipt printed that you can scan at checkout to get the discount and for whatever reason, the machine never thinks you put the receipt into its slot so you have to hit the button for assistance.

The same young man came over to assist, and I said I hated that the machines never recognized when you gave it the coupon.  We commiserated about AI making more work for people because he said they have to run over to the checkouts all day to clear them when people use a coupon.

He asked how long I'd been in Ireland, and I told him  since August.  He asked if I liked it here, and I said I was grateful to be here because the US is a wreck at the moment.  He said he'd been in Texas once and was amazed that people just walked around carrying weapons.  He was asking a guy about his gun, and the guy was just like "Here" and handed it to him.  That completely flabbergasted this young man.  I said I'd lived in Texas for about eight years so I knew the mentality that inhabits much of the population there.  I said, "I can't understand taking an AR-15 to the grocery store.  It's like, what are you afraid of at the grocery store?"

He mentioned the gun culture, and I said it was one of the problems screwing up the country.  I said it was nice to be in Ireland where people seemed sane because there are a lot of stupid, crazy people in the US at the moment.

Things have been very dark lately.  Being in Ireland has insulated me a little from the horrors going on in the US but I've still been affected by it.  It was so nice to have this small glimmer of comfort in the midst of it all.

Movin' On Up

About three weeks ago, we toured a couple houses and an apartment at a development that's two tram stops from here.  We didn't care for the apartment at all, but we liked the two houses.  One had two bedrooms, and the view out the front was of construction.  One had three bedrooms, and the view out the front was of a green, grassy field.

Can you guess which house was our favorite?

We put applications in for both houses, listing the three-bedroom home as our first choice.  Sent along all the requisite information - bank statement, pet applications (with photos), employment verification for Eli, landlord statement from our current place.  Most management companies here want your rent to only be about 30-40% of your income.  Since Eli's the only wage earner at the moment, our buying power isn't great.  However, we told the letting agent that if that were a concern, we'd be glad to pay an entire year upfront.  With the sale of the house and our two vehicles, plus the savings we had socked away prior to those sales, we were fortunate enough to be able to do this and not have it severely impact our finances.

I didn't hear anything so after a few days, I emailed the letting agent to inquire about the status.  He said our application was being rejected because our income didn't meet the requirements.

I had a few moments of disappointment before my emotional compass swung to bewilderment and anger.  What the fuck??  How in the world could this place turn down having an entire year's rent in their account in one fell swoop?  That made absolutely no sense to me.

So I responded to the letting agent and asked why our savings wasn't being taken into account and that, since we said we'd pay an entire year at once, there was no financial risk to the management company.

Sent off that email on a Friday afternoon and stewed for the weekend.

Come Monday, I got an email from the letting agent stating that he had taken our case to the management company and they relented.

As of today...WE HAVE A HOUSE!!

We met Joe, our letting agent, at the house this morning to pick up keys and take a quick walk-through.

The first thing that greeted us once we were inside the house was a blast of heat.  I don't know if a lizard were the previous tenant or what, but the temp was set to 26 degrees Celsius - which is nearly 79 degrees Fahrenheit.  When Joe was showing us the thermostat, he turned it down - or maybe even off, I'm not sure.  We definitely don't need heat right now!

He seemed amused because I kept remarking about how BIG this place was compared to our current apartment.  I was like, "No, dude, you don't get it.  This living room is almost larger than our kitchen, living room, and dining area combined!"

He also seemed to get a chuckle from my remarking that I was grateful the bathroom light switches weren't behind the door, like they are in our current apartment.  It's a minor irritation, to be sure, but an irritation nonetheless.

Joe departed, and we were left to our own devices.  We wandered upstairs - we'll have an upstairs, y'all!! - and checked out the bedrooms and bathrooms, trying to decide where to put some of our things.

I'm planning to get some photos to post here.  Eli needed to go to work, so we didn't linger too long.  I could've stayed there by myself, but I didn't feel entirely comfortable doing that - which was good because we had a devil of a time trying to figure out how to lock the front door and if I'd been there by myself trying to fight with it, I might've panicked a little.

I've contacted a moving company, and we're hoping to move on July 11.  I'd love to do it sooner, but we're doing the packing ourselves to save some money and I don't want to feel rushed.  Our lease with the current apartment is good through July so we have some wiggle room in closing up shop here and getting moved over.

I am relieved that we'll have more space.  I don't need a McMansion, but it'll lessen my stress to be able to stretch out a bit and not feel like we're on top of each other all the time.  As an introvert, I need to feel like I have a protected space to hide in from time to time.  We're hoping that this new environment will help Patrick too, since there will be stairs to run up and down, more rooms to explore/hide in, and many more windows with better views (the windows all have a little ledge on the bottom sill so I think the cats are going to LOVE sitting up there and looking out).

As we were walking back to the tram after leaving the house, I told Eli that I was grateful for our current apartment.  When we had so much chaos and uncertainty before the move, having this place gave us a secure landing spot.

I said, "It hasn't been a bad apartment."

He said, "But it wasn't home."