Remember how I bragged awhile back about the nifty new app on my phone (called Evernote) that lets me blog whenever, wherever? Yeah, well the drawback to that is sometimes the magic do not make it to the blog. I have at least a dozen posts that I've yet to put up. Coming attractions: Pregnancy scares (Oooooh!), ER visits (No way!), Blind dates (Wow!), and Secrets (Crazy, yo!). Of course, that's provided all of that makes it to the blog and doesn't linger in the purgatory that is Evernote. This is an especially precarious time to catch up on all that considering the app was just updated and I'm not sure how to use it now. And it's also a busy time in general. I'm possibly moving again, work is insane and money be tight, yo. I can deal with the first two issues on my own, but that last one is slightly out of my hands at the moment. The dude I rented my apartment to is now almost a week late with his rent check and I'm annoyed. It's beyond annoyed now actually. I'm pissed off that he's messing with my life and finances. I have bills due the next few days and was counting on that money. Dude dodges my calls, ignores my texts and occasionally shoots off an email about the situation. Having gone to his/my place and surveyed the situation, I think the reason for his late payment is him having money woes of his own and possibly familial issues. I know he's married with a young son and the last time I was there I saw significant changes to the living room; no more family pictures and a box of kid's stuff near the door. The last thing I want to do is make his life more difficult if his wife did in fact leave him, but I can't have sympathy for him or arrange some sort of payment plan if he doesn't let me know what's going on. My brother, who is the co-owner and co-landlord of the joint, thinks this may be my fault to begin with. Last month the guy inquired about paying his rent in two installments and I agreed. My brother was against it, saying we had to stick to the original plan and agreement of payment every month with no exceptions. But the dude seemed really preoccupied and concerned about something so I gave in. He did pay last month, on time and in two installments as agreed upon. But this month he's gone MIA since last weekend. To top it all off we had an exchange the other day where he accused me of being "confused" about our arrangement, claiming the installment thing was our new permanent agreement. Hell to the no homeboy. I confirmed twice with him last month that he'd pay all at once on the fifth. It is now the tenth and I have less than a quarter of what is due. If it's not paid in full by Monday evening, dude is getting evicted. We'll see what happens.
While my brother and I were debating whether or not to give this guy an extension last month, I ended the convo by pointing out an event from our childhood involving money. We went through a rough time money-wise after my grandmother died. My mom was alone with three kids and the household had lost one of its breadwinners. At one point mom had been laid off from her job and went on unemployment, which also made it necessary for us to go on welfare. But mom was determined not to stay on it for long and once she found a job and got back on her feet, we were done with food stamps. None of us liked the feeling of being on government assistance and have all been determined to never go back to that place. I've nothing against it obviously, I'm glad it was there to help us survive, but the feeling of being one of "those" people was not good. Granted, not having enough money to buy food is very different than not being able to pay your rent on an expensive ass apartment. But I still thought it was better to give the guy a break. Maybe it was the wrong decision. Time will tell I suppose.
