yesterday after school I took a parent to brooklyn so she could let movers into her new apartment...we went, her and her three children...now the children are in a therapeutic for a reason, but thats another story...this parent was in a shelter...she signed her lease for her one bedroom apartment last wednesday...yes, one bedroom for her and her three children...a TINY one bedroom I might add...
so we get to brooklyn...the super asked her "who are you?" she explained that she signed the lease and needed to get the keys to let the movers in...the super stated that he didn't know anything about that and the apartment was not ready for move-in, and never mind the fact that the door did not have a lock...
so stressed, this parent called the landlord...now being a friday afternoon at 3, the landlord was gone for the weekend...
she called the movers...
the movers were supposed to move her between 8 and 12...they showed up at 1:30...she has to pick up her kids at 2:15 (this is why I took her to brooklyn)...the movers assured her that they would wait in front of the house till we got there...
after much back and forth, the movers admitted that they were eating lunch in manhattan and would get there in an hour or so...not acceptable as I had to get back to the city and pick up sunshine...
the parent called the shelter...they told her they were done with her...
she called the landlord...he was still gone...
she called the movers and they told her they would get there...
I was stressing as it was 3:30...
she told the movers that since they were still by the shelter to take her belongings (18 bags) back to the shelter...
she called the shelter...
they told her that they were done with her and if the movers bought her belongs back they would be left on the curb...they also explained that they only pay the movers once so if the movers had to redeliver she was responsible for the cost...
the movers called back and said it was 3:30 and they were off duty...
I was stressed, she was beyond stressed, and the kids were clearly mirroring her feelings...they screamed...all three...at the top of their high pieced voices all the way to manhattan...
I stopped by a picked up idiot as he works a few blocks from the parents new apartment...
I generally let him talk shit, and address it later when he really gets on my nerves but he started in on my driving...the music was on, the kids were screaming and the parent was on the phone...I pulled his coat till we were face to face and I told him calmly but firmly "this is not a friend...this is a client...and don't you DARE talk to me crazy or belittle me in front of my client"...he was shocked...he was quiet as a mouse all the way home...even as I swerved in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed...he just clung quietly to the arm rest and attempted small talk...till he just gave up and fell asleep...
I asked the parent what was she going to do...she said she didn't know...she couldn't go back to the shelter...the apt, by train was over an hour away, and anyway the door had no lock and she had no key...the super didn't believe her story and plus she had nothing to sleep on...I ran inside to get sunshine and when I got back I saw her down the block...with her three kids...
I cried all night...there was nothing I could do at the moment...nobody to call...
I went to choclahontas's house today to give her a microwave and dishes me and bigbear bought her at an apartment sale...she says that everytime I go to her house I start shit...I wanted to help her put the microwave in a place cause I knew that where I left it was where it was gonna stay...I cleaned off the top of the fridge to place it there but it was too high...
choclahontas told me she saw a mouse...I moved some bags on the side of the fridge and there was a lot of mouse feces...I moved the fridge and it looked like a tribe of mice used the bathroom...I started looking around...uncovered old exposed food...dirty dishes...crackers...broken glass...and a lot of mouse feces...so I started to clean...I started to build the microwave cart so she would have more space to put stuff...her room mate came home and decided he was going to bed...he threw everything off the couch on the floor...messing up what I was doing...it got "too much" for my dear child and she took off "to buy food"...
man, this hurts my heart...here this parent is god knows where with her three children and choclahontas has the world given to her...an apartment...rent paid for...and she can't respect it...not even for her kid...the dust, garbage, mouse feces is enough that if I were a visiting social worker I would call ACS...she was upset that she was "cooped up all day" and "why did you come here to start shit"...
I took sunshine home...where he will live with me until she cleans that house from top to bottom...I told her how dare she disrespect what she has when this parent is struggling to give her children a warm place to sleep this weekend, with no belonging because everything was on the truck...
I can't in good conscious let sunshine live like that...because he was exposed to the mouse feces that I moved he is now wheezing...
but to choclahontas I'm just being "extra" and "starting shit"...
choclahontas came to my house bout a half hour later...she explained to me what was going on...said that when the room mate cleans he never moves things...admitted that she has no cleaning skills but she was working really hard to develop them...she said she was thinking bout the parent...said that she really didn't want to disrespect her house and she really thanks God for what she has...we had a wonderful talk over tea...
it's true what they say bout the development of the pre frontal cortex...
