I am frustrated and that frustration is growing by the day.
Last year, my mother purchased two additional houses. She planned to use those houses for investment and rental. To be honest, both of those houses are a pain in the neck. After closing on the first house last April, we spent almost the entire month cleaning, repairing, and re-painting the wall.
When I say “we”, I mean my mother and her friend. Meanwhile, I am not allowed to touch or do anything, I am to just stand there and watch. I hated it. I mean, what am I doing there? I could be doing so much more at home.
Thank god that house rented out quickly and the tenant had been stable. A few months later, my mother closed on a house at the end of our street. This house is a bucketful of problems.
First it was the furnace, then the AC, and then at the beginning of this year, we found out there’s no return vent in the basement, making the basement of the house freezing cold.
It’s a crappy house. Well, what do you expect when the first owner of the house was a know-it-all handyman?
Anyway, in the latter part of 2013, after yet spending a few weeks cleaning up the place, we rented the house to a very nice family who was waiting for their house to be built in another city.
They moved out early January of this year. Thank goodness, the wife of the tenant was a clean freak and kept the house sparkly clean. We didn’t have to do much and within 2 weeks, the house was again rented to another family from Texas and that’s when the problems began. They built a bathroom in the basement without consulting us. The bathroom turned out awry and weird. Don’t get me started.
That family moved out suddenly before Thanksgiving. It was ridiculous. Not only they broke the contract but the house was a mess!
My aunt and cousin spent the afternoons in the days followed at the house cleaning and picking up dog poop in the backyard. It’s disgusting and I would never ever do it. I couldn’t be more grateful to have them here.
A few days after the advertisement for our rental house went online, two families came and browse. One family was so so eager to move in that they didn’t even cared if the carpet was cleaned. I wasn’t having a good vibe about this candidate. They seemed nice and all but there’s something off.
I told my mother to go with the other family, but she didn’t listen. I was completely right, by the way. The “bad vibe” tenant has an excellent credit score but he didn’t even had the money to pay the first month rent and deposit.
My mother got scared and turn them down. That left the “good vibe” tenant but unfortunately, they grew impatient waiting for our response and had already found another house. That house has been empty for past month. My mother’s incessantly worried about the furnace failing and constantly nudging me to go check.
Yeah, like I know anything about the mechanics of a furnace.
In the recent day, it’s become my dread to go into that house. It’s not haunted or anything. There are just too many stairs and the stairs are thickly carpeted. Did you know it takes more strength going up a flight of carpeted stairs than any other kind of staircase?
My consensus: that house is horribly designed and I would never live in it.
I still don’t understand why my mother had to purchase that house. Why couldn’t she be happy with just one rental home? This other house is going down the drain if we don’t get some tenants soon, I tell ya.
When she bought the house, she says my aunt wanted it but I highly doubt it. For all I know, my aunt could’ve said, “随便吧!” or “Anything’s fine.”
I hand my mother a white envelope. From the outside, it looks ordinary but it’s really a month-long all expense paid trip (hotels, transportation, etc.) for three to Europe plus cruise around the Mediterranean. My mother has dreamed of touring Europe but she’s always complaining about not having the time nor the money. Well, now she does.
Also when my mom’s away at training during March and April, I will try a self-controlled diet. Oh, and once January comes, I need to go see a doctor or a cardiologist or whatever to get my heart checked out. Let’s just say I haven’t been kind to my heart and it’s a little angry.
possible. No casualty. No jitters and ignore my mom’s attempt to creep me out about the year of the goat thing. Apparently, she believes that if the current year is your 
university so they could tour the campus while I got my braces examined. “It’s okay.” He answered.
jumped out while some, I felt lost like I haven’t a single clue what to do. I did alright, I guess, enough to secure me a “B” in this class, if the professor’s nice enough to give me the remaining 0.2% to get me a “B” instead of “B-“.
I can buy myself a brand new car instead of keep using my mother’s. Oh, it’s not just any new car, a new hybrid car. Gas is still expensive and I like one that can get me a better mileage but at the same time, I don’t want a car that’s light as air. So a $50,000 hybrid, it is. 🙂
tops, new tubs, toilets, sinks, everything.
and she turns to me to talk, I feel like she talks through a bull-horn. Now and then, I’d tell her, “please bring your voice down.” Still, she keeps her voice loud as a mic. Ugh, I feel like I will go deaf if she goes on this loud.
Anyway, there are only two areas where I am confident about my 
I cannot sleep. My entire right side is in a lot of pain. So here I am, sitting rigidly at my computer at 7 in the morning thinking about what kind of story I’ll share for 
Like failure to catch the thieves that stole my pencils and erasers. Well, those are small things but what my wallet, stolen right out of my backpack on the school bus that afternoon. Or my keys, stolen from the depth of my backpack while I was walking home from school with my friend. No wait, that was one of those victorious times. Thank god my friend noticed it and saw who did it.
far ahead from me, I sprinted, faster and faster, like my life depended on it. Unfortunately she was quicker. I was never a fast runner.
The next day at school, I searched my entire backpack for my library card. My wallet was missing and I knew exactly who had it. I went to vice-principal and reported my wallet went missing and told him my suspicion.
I woke up an hour ago and looked at the prompt for today. My initial reaction was What the heck? and then my brain basically went blank. Should I even participate?
calls. Let’s say, hypothetically, the desert island has cell signal and she uses the phone to call me as most people do when they need help. I pick up and do that evil laugh. Now is my turn to say, “I don’t know what to do either.” Walk it off.
This is Another Story 