Singing the Sky

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Over my family’s head, at any rate. After several sleepless nights, two conversations with the woman upstairs and another call to the police, I have decided to move.

I have been put in the middle of the whole mess. Or perhaps I put myself there. The women who lives above me is on Section 8 housing. She doesn’t work because she has three kids, two of whom are younger than five. The problem is that for whatever reason, she accepts having a man in her life who not only mistreats her, but who does not contribute to the household and actually jeopardizes her housing status.

At this point, I have called the police three times because of this man’s actions and her willingness to continue to let him into her apartment. One more complaint, and the housing office is going to kick her out. The landlord has put me in the position of being the complaintant, even though this guy actually told the landlord to “Fuck off” one time when he was over trying to sell the property! The guy told him that in front of the potential buyer, who needless to say, did not buy the property. My landlord is a bit passive. I am not. I am furious over the lost peace and lost sleep the endless fighting upstairs has caused. I (and the kids) can hear every curse word and threat uttered, and believe me, it is unnerving.

The other night, there was a particularly bad fight. I heard a weird dial tone sound, and then a big crash. The next day, J’Christopher, the woman’s son, came over and said his mother wanted to know if we had an extra phone, as theirs had “went out”. Yeah, it went out all right. It went out being thrown upside the wall. Of course, I am not one to talk, being a computer throwing nutcase myself. Still, this guy is dangerous, and as tough as I act on the outside, on the inside I am scared.

When the cops cuffed him after the domestic violence event a few months ago, he cursed them out even in cuffs, and then threatened me the next day, with his older brother along in tow. He got locked up for a while for some other offense, and things calmed down around here. Now that he is back, so are the police, and for retaliation, I got an ugly phone call in the middle of the night.

I spoke with the police, who said they could do nothing about retaliation unless there were witnesses, etc. It was his brother who called me from someone else’s house, so nothing can be proven. Ack. I suppose I am explaining all of this in order to justify why there is even more upheaval in our lives.

The place we are moving to very rarely gets calls, the officer told me. It is billed as a “luxury apartment”, which means that they will pick up the trash from your doorstep, pick up and return the dry-cleaning, and other things that are nice but that I really don’t need. I will have my OWN bathroom, which I am excited about. It has a dog park, a place to vacumn out the car, and a pool. I have to admit that I like the fact they will water your plants when you are out of town for free. They are the nicest apartments in town. My neighbors have lived in their apartment for several years and are a professor and his wife. Best of all, it doesn’t feature men drinking outside my sons’ bedroom window in the middle of the night and littering the ground with their cans. Two noise warnings, and residents are out.

I feel angry that I have to pay extra to raise my kids in a safe, healthy environment. Still, I don’t feel right about complaining once again and seeing that particular family, whose kid I love, get evicted. This has happened over and over in J’Christopher’s life. I also know there will be retaliation, and I can’t be in that situation, especially with kids.

Anyway, this is the polar opposite of moving to the land in the country. I got some estimates on fixing up the house, and it runs into the tens of thousands of dollars. I can’t deal with that, nor afford it right now. I did find out that there is an ag farm only two miles from the new place, so Sage will probably still be able to do 4-H or Future Farmers of America.

Oh boy this is going to be a busy weekend!

I don’t mean for this to be a horrible whiny post. There are good things happening:

Sky will be off house arrest on the 7th.

We will live in a nice, safe place with a pool.

The divorce will be done after only one quick visit to court.

I have a good job working with nice people.

Things will be settled down. No more drama. Not in a marriage, not in an apartment, not with Sky’s legal situation. It will all be over with.

Smile.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS