You Forgot Your...Thingy!

Our day went like this...

In the hotel room>

"Jake, I'm being serious here. I need you to try your very hardest to remain calm."

"I know, I am expecting the worst so I'll be ok."

Drives over to the house> "Try not to punch any walls either, it wont help, you know."

Opens front door>

"Oh. My. Gosh."

Jake filming with our home camera>

"Oh, gross. Don't breathe." "This is nasty!"

Pan of living room> Pee stained carpets. Trash bags strewn about the room, trash falling out. A couch in the middle of the room. The arm rests are destroyed and there is 'couch fluff' everywhere. The cushions are all crooked. A lone side table. A large, older model, TV in front of the couch. Uneven blinds that are scratched and broken from the dog scratching and biting at them. A tall bookshelf full of random items.
"Those blinds used to look nice."
Walk into the dining room and kitchen. Jake opens the fridge>
"Close it! Ah! What did you do that for? Are you trying to kill me? Its bad enough with the dog pee smell."
"Yeah, my bad."
Walks out to patio after struggling to get the sliding door open.
"Pretty sure that handle wasn't broken last time we were here."
"Is that...?"
"Yes, that's a pile of dog poop."
Pan of patio> The built in barbeque (luckily still in tact). The garden, complete with poo piles, empty beer cans, an upside down lawn chair, and trash. An old futon bed. A Gatorade sales container. A rug. 3 half full trash cans and a dust pan.
Return inside house and venture up the stained, trash covered stairs. Bed room #1>
"Oh look, another TV."
"Sweet. And a basketball."
Pan of bedroom #2>
Lone mattress and body pillow. Small shelving unit with lamp. Large mirror. One yellow hanger and a trucker's hat in the closet. A pile of wires and a few pens.
Into bathroom >
"You know, the bathrooms not that bad. Not as bad as I thought anyway."
"Well they obviously didn't use Any of those cleaning supplies on the toilet tank."
Stepping over dirty towels in the hall way to see the laundry room, complete with 6 boxes of dryer sheets, a bottle of bleach, some powdered detergent, a red silk table cloth on the dryer top and lint piles and used dryer sheets everywhere.
"Yuck. We're going to have to clean the washer."
Bedroom #3
"Ewe."
"Well they left a dresser…sort of."
"Yeah...."
Walking back down stairs>
"OK, here's what we do. We get gloves and black bags and just start getting all the trash out."
"And smell good stuff. We Need smell good stuff. "
Go to store. Cart has the following: paper towels, bleach wipes, bleach spray, gloves, black bags, two spray air fresheners, toilet paper.>
Back at the house. Jake begins spraying the house with air freshener while Alyssa opens and puts on the gloves. Jake tackles the fridge and Alyssa starts filling trash bags.
A few of the treasures found throughout the day:
Canned food storage.
An empty vodka bottle.
A fishing real.
DVD player.
Box for a hookah glass.
Green, lace bra.
Numerous hygiene supplies.
Unopened Mary Kay products.
Blankets.
Towels.
Iron and ironing board.
Stray dishes.
Candles.
A scale.
Kitchen utensils.
Dog toys.
And all of the previously mentioned items plus some unmentionable items.
After filling an entire truck with a load of garbage and cleaning constantly, it still looks untouched.

And now we are on our way home from our lovely house in St. George. We will be returning next week to replace carpet, paint the walls and finish cleaning so that it is ready for our new renters. A nice family of 5 who has already paid the deposit and doesn't seem to have a problem with paying the rent. They aren't students who party and don't have a job and don't care how the place they live looks and don't care if they rack up late fees for not paying rent. They don't leave their dogs home alone for days and then complain to us that it is so dirty its unlivable. Since when is it the landlord's job to clean the house? I guess it wasn't enough that we have fixed the AC, heater, washer and dryer, replaced the fridge and water heater. Fixed the toilet and 2 doors. Got the carpets cleaned before they moved in. And put up with them!!!
Being a landlord is not fun in any way, shape, or form.
Look for "Part Two" after next week.

*untitled*

I'm like a bird, I only fly away
I don't know where my soul is,
I don't know where my home is
(and baby all I need for you to know is)
I'm like a bird, I only fly away
I don't know where my soul is,
I don't know where my home is
All I need for you to know is

Your faith in me brings me to tears
Even after all these years
And it pains me so much to tell
That you don't know me that well
And though my love is rare
Though my love is true

I'm like a bird, I only fly away
I don't know where my soul is,
I don't know where my home is
(and baby all I need for you to know is)
I'm like a bird, I only fly away
I don't know where my soul is,
I don't know where my home is

Let's Save Our Hallmark Moment...

F.R.I.E.N.D.

What does it mean? What is it? There are a lot of different kinds of "friends". It's a little crazy, really. Looking at my Facebook I realized I have quite the variety of "friends".

There are your best friends. You know, the one or two people you actually call your best friends. The ones who are always there for you. You can talk to them about anything and everything. You know each other so well you could be relatives and you hope you will always be best friends.

There are real friends. The ones you actually talk to and see in person on a regular basis. The ones you actually like hanging out with and even though you always have a good time hanging out, they aren't close enough to be called your "best friends".

There are friends-of-friends. These are the friends who you get along with and don't mind hanging out with but you probably wouldn't just call them up to hang out one-on-one. You only hang out when you all get together with the friend you met them through.

There are acquaintance's. People you know from other friends or family. You know, your cousin's boyfriend or your sisters best friend. People you have talked to once or twice but you wouldn't really call them a "friend".

Then you have the people you went to school with, worked with, and people who go to your same church. These people could be called friends but if people ask, you usually refer to them as "a girl I work with/went to school with/go to church with".

There are old friends. The ones you grew up with and even though you have both changed so much you can't stand each other you can't help but remember the good times so you keep in touch.

There are online friends, who you met in a chat room or randomly added you on Facebook or Myspace. People you have never actually met in person but seem pretty cool online.

There is family. People that are actually related to you so you would call them your cousin/sister/brother/etc. but they are still cool enough to hang out with, or you want to keep in touch so you keep them on your Facebook.

There are the "ex's" who you are either friends with either because you really are (not likely truthful) or you just get along and don't mind remaining in contact with...or you just want to keep tabs on them.

There are the "you're not really my friend or any of the above mentioned but I'm a nice person so I'll pretend I like you". Which is pretty self-explanatory.

There are people you used to be friends with but then something happened like a stupid fight or someone "dissed" the other one so you're mad at each other but both too stubborn to admit you're fighting or one of you was in the wrong. So you remain enough in contact with them (whether it be a phone number you just can't delete from your phone or a friend you can't delete off Facebook).

There are probably a lot of other sub-categories for friends but I think I've covered the basics. So next time someone calls you friend or you say someone is your friend...do they really mean it? What do they really mean?