MarillaAnne is creating focus points with 43things
Billy did finally get paid on Monday the 17th … but our bank is still in Texas with no out of state branches … the company he works for is in NY but their home base is in my home town … Dallas, TX … (go figure … we were in Oregon … looking for work … he finds work … in New York … but the company’s home base is in the city we claim to be from … who’da thunk that one up?) ... and so for some reason the NY bank that the company uses wouldn’t cash the ck unless Billy opened an account …
there were several banks, in fact, that were perfectly willing to open an account and hold the money for five business days (well past the wedding date) ...
Anyway after Billy went to the bank that the ck was drawn on and was hassled … he called me … Stephen (my first and long-time son-in-law who had just arrived with my oldest daughter from Texas) and I got on Maps.Google … Googled Billy’s location up and then asked maps.google for local check cashing places. Well either the three of them were closed or the company wasn’t in their data base so … no joy.
Get this he was doing all of this by speed walking or running (probably close to 10 miles total) with a backpack that had to have 20lb of weight and it was dinner time … after the third stop he said he was going to go back to the office to rest and try to figure out what to do next … and i said … “why not just go on back to the campground and just call it a night.”
Then the truth came out … “I can’t even afford a train ticket home. I’m starving to death. I have thirty cents in my pocket.”
My heart dropped a thousand miles. And I was praying. And I’m sure Stephen was, too.
Well Billy said he just really needed to get to some air conditioning and rest … ... so … he called me from the office … and I said … “I have no ideas left.”
Then all of a sudden … Billy says (not to me), “Hey ___, I didn’t know you were still here!” and then he told me he’d call me back in a few.
He called back … from McDonald’s … “His co-worker loaned him $120!”
oh yeah … My money came … one week’s pay short … sigh … but I took care of some things and I was saving back the rest of it for a ticket to NY … after I saw how things went.
What God sent in place of that one week is a healing relationship with my parents … and an offer from them to buy me a camera.
So … Tuesday night Billy calls me and he is so bummed … the pay he got was only for one week (pay cks run one week behind). The tickets for PDX had doubled … and we needed to pay for this and that and the other … and he didn’t even know if the money would make it to our bank account in time to buy a ticket (he over nighted it Tuesday but it was only in time to go out Wednesday so it would reach the bank Thursday … and they don’t guarantee same day processing … and then would there be a hold on it … it was entirely up to the recieving teller …)
I made a decision … I called my dad and said “I’d rather have Billy at the wedding than a camera.” ... My dad said, “Oh … let’s just have our cake and eat it, too. We want to get the camera and then I’ll just loan you the money for the tickets. In fact when you buy the tickets, put yours on there too so that we know for a fact that you and Billy are on the same flight going back …”
So … then I moved from my youngest daughter’s apt to a nearby hotel … such a gift from my oldest daughter … and I got settled down and did the research and finally at just after midnight I purchased the tickets … Just over $1,000 …
So … then I was set to pay for my ticket when my dad got there … but he said just to keep it and count it as part of the loan … and then later he also gave us a little more … but it’s our early Christmas money don’t ya know.
Billy’s check hit our account in full on Friday morning … he was thrilled to pay his co-worker back before he left.
You can read about the adventure of Billy’s trip out to the wedding on my blog: So you want an update?.
The account of us moving me out to NY in A Moving West Coast East Coast Story.
After we got here, I finally did get the last of the money I was owed … and I got to give my youngest daughter a wedding present. Happy happy.
Oh so .. no … wait .. there’s more … So yeah … for my first two weeks in NY all the temp does is go up and up and the humidity … oye! such a thing!
Let me tell you … the first week I was toooooo tired to care … the second week … I was highly motivated to find a place to live … and when you don’t really know where you are, that’s one huge challenge. Especially since I had to figure out logistically where the apt was, then how far from the rail, then if it was too far from the rail was there a nearby bus … etc …
I found a little apt in White Plains … we’d never been to White Plains … White Plains is a huge/small city … it reminds me of Dallas and Portland smushed together with a pinch of NYC. Ok maybe more NYC than a pinch but … basically you have some realllly tallll buildings mixed with more 10 stories or less and then tons of shops and then houses … we went and looked
Then we also had some exposure to Ossining … and to Tarrytown
So but … the only town that didn’t feel entirely full of people who were beat-up and worn away from the whole experience of life was Tarrytown … but we cannot afford Tarrytown!
So by Friday night … hmm August 4th, I’m fed up with the cities and with buses (we were sitting in White Plains at the bus terminal waiting for our second no-show of the night) and I’m going through the Penny Saver checking all the smaller towns up the rail.
I came to this one ad “1 bedroom apt, $1100, utilities included, Non-feline pets ok. First month, Last month, One month security.” Now keep in mind up to this point the attitude has been … “If we find a place that accepts dogs and we can afford it, great. If not, we aren’t going to pass up a great apt situation just to have Shelbie.”
It was nearly 9pm but I called anyway. Keep in mind I’m reallllly tired.
“So I see you have an apt and “non-feline pets are ok, which is great because I’m also a non-feline person and I have this dog out in Portland, Oregon and I’d love to talk to you about being able to bring her out. ... Well yeah and I’d like to also talk to you about the apartment … OH and I have this husband. I’d really like to throw him into the deal, too.”
I hang up and Billy looks at me like I’ve lost it. I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m tired and I’m tired of talking to people who think they are too good to rent to us … so frankly … I don’t care what I’m saying anymore. Either they want to talk to a fruit-loop or they don’t … I don’t care … I’m just going to have fun with this from now on.”
Thirty seconds later my phone rings and when I answer I hear a very good humored … “So, let me ask you … which is more important your husband or your dog?”
I’m laughing and I say “Well, I could still be in Portland, Oregon moping around with the dog but instead I am here camping at Croton Point in this heat just so I can be with my husband.”
The man says … “Well I’m being told to warn you … there are No What-a-burgers out here.”
And I said “Yeah … and where do they exist outside of Texas and who’s telling you this?” (My cell phone is still a Dallas #) I ended up having a great conversation with he and his lady (she’s an A&M grad).
So the short of it is … the next morning we took the train to Putnam County … And let’s see … we had in the bank … not even one month’s rent but pay day was in another week and we’d been told … “just go … show up … they say yadda yadda yadda in the ads … but I’ve moved in with much less than they’re asking … like usually they’ll work out the security deposit.”
We moved in on Sunday with $400. We paid for the remainder of August on Friday and then the last month and the security was chopped up and tacked on to many upcoming months’ rent.
Logistically … it’s a one mile stroll to the train, and the entire commute including wait times is about 1.5 hrs … it depends on how the train schedules (and one bus) fall.
You can read more about the miracle of the apt Not so Homesick in New York.
Oh! There are No extra charges to add the dog. So … if everything holds in place, we’ll ship Shelbie dog out on the 8th of September!
It’s going to cost almost as much to get the poor critter from the airport to where we live as it is to get her from Oregon to the airport! Most of it is a very expensive cab ride from the airport to the metro-north line. My friend JoAn is convinced that God has a much less expensive plan in mind.
We shall see.
