Monday, August 24, 2015

Well duh.

If you've been reading, or talk to us about any of the happenings around here ever, then you've heard of Sad Santa.
To review- we started calling him Sad Santa because he always wore a red coat and a hat and has a beard and shuffles around like a sad puppy.
He grumbles. I don't think he has any teeth. With the amount of soda he drinks I'm not sure how he has any functioning organs but it sure does make him happy. God forbid the soda machine ever breaks. We'll find him down there hugging it.

He no longer grumbles outside of our window at odd hours and we've all become accustomed to each other so he's less bizarre. He's basically IS a shuffly puppy.
We've never been able to understand much of what he says other than "soda" or "quarters" or "helloooooo!" from across the parking lot.

And after 6 months of figuring this dude out we have confirmed that Sad Santa, (aka Warren) the guy nobody really talks to, the guy nobody can understand, the guy who does random stuff and doesn't always respond, communicates using friggin sign language.
He's signed to us several times recently. I don't know if he never did before but he does now.
Too bad nobody told us this a long time ago. I at least would have made sure to speak only while looking at him directly (because he can understand a lot that way) and I would have known why he was always using hand motions.
Geez. 

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Did I mention that the water was turned off again the other day? I was covered with chlorine and was awaiting a shower. No biggie. I'm sure it's good for killing something once that stuff soaks in to your skin. Right? Science?

This is merely a summary.

But I think you'll be able to see a little bit of where we feel like maybe we're getting screwed over and that these people haven't the slightest idea what they are doing.


So, what's been up at the Suites, you may or may not ask yourself ever?

Our ceiling is sort of fixed. They were kind enough to fix the holes as we found them. Dennis took the time to actually take out all the wet and moldy stuff for us since the "professional" didn't do a damn thing. This left us with a hole about 5 feet wide by 8 feet long.

(I definitely recommend AVOIDING Fossil Creek Drywall. They did absolutely nothing to remove the wet insulation and didn't show up for 2 following appointments.)

The nice drywall guys showed up on time as planned, got supplies, and got to work. What a pleasant change. If I can find their name I'll gladly promote them.
The guy says to Dennis, like any guy would when fixing a giant drywall hole, "so we texture and paint and everything?" No. "Oh...why not?" ........You'll have to ask Krystal. (Psst. Since you don't want to ask Krystal, I'll tell you here-- it's not REQUIRED by code enforcement. So rather than having the guys who were already there finish the job the way it should be finished, they'd rather keep the couple hundred bucks for more important things like...our new security team, I guess? I'll go in to that later.) We have drywall and I can no longer feel the breeze or the rain coming from our ceiling. There is no doubt that there are many more leaks that we didn’t see or find but that’s their problem.

They claim they are fixing the roof soon. A contract has been signed. We’ll see what happens there.

It’s going to get noisy for the people on the 3rd floor. Here’s what I would do if I was in charge- sent a notice to everyone that there will be workers on the roof for this approximate amount of time. Apologize that there will be noise but clarify when, where, and for how long that will be.

Here’s what they do- It’s gonna be loud! You’re not even going to be able to handle it! We don’t know when. Don’t ask questions.

Since I’m not really sure how I could adequately go back and summarize what has been going on the past few months, I’m going to do so with quotes. Enjoy.


“I’m concerned that the roof is still leaking even after the patch job. There’s not much more we can do before the actual roof replacement that is still months out. “ (There was apparently many things they could do…like patch the other holes.)
“I know Lauren and Arin explained that we wouldn’t likely fulfill the year term on your lease because of the planned rehab.” (Absolutely incorrect.)
“Unfortunately, I don’t think the unit should be occupied until the roof is done.”

Krystal Erazo, March 23rd 2015

“I want to support you….”
“It would be stressful for anyone, and coming out of one stressful living situation to another is incredibly unfortunate.” (This one is just for humor’s sake since she’s since threatened to call the police because Jason was asking questions at a Community Meeting. Quite the community.)
Alma, March 25th

“I can’t guarantee against future water or damage or maintenance and replacement that will undoubtedly affect you and your unit.”
Krystal, March 26th

“We were never told that we would have to vacate the unit for any of the building construction. It seems that there was never any intention to allow us to stay as long as our lease stated. Please clarify if I misunderstand the situation.” (Limited response, as usual.)
KJ, March 26th

“Jason and Kathay are on an annual lease. I directed staff to communicate at lease up that the year was required because of the voucher, but that a mutual rescission was likely because of pending plans for building rehab. This was never communicated to Jason and Kathay, resulting in disappointment , frustration and lack of trust in LHA. Had they moved in with the idea of it being only temporary, the necessity of moving early may not have presented such a hardship. The miscommunication is moot now, because the lease was executed and is in full effect.”
Krystal, March 27th

“I really can’t offer a definitive and clear answer to if you can fulfill the term of your lease if the unit is not condemned.” (It was not condemned.)
Krystal, April 3rd

“…complaints and accusations toward staff will not be tolerated.”
Krystal, April 17th

April 20th- the Warranty of Habitability was sent. We would have sent it before but the numerous people we had talked to about our situation did not tell us it was something we actually needed to send.

“They certainly ought to be accommodating after all you've been through with this.”
Lee Dunham, our attorney, April 21st

“If unit fails inspection and landlord does not fix the issues, we will need for you to move…”
Luz, Boulder Housing Partners, April 22nd

“After speaking to Michelle (Code Enforcement) this morning we understand she is preparing to send the notice of violation in the next few days.
Since you have been unwilling or unable to fix the problem thus far, we would like to know what your intentions are for our unit.
Do you intend to fix the leak or do you intend to terminate our lease?”
KJ, April 21st (Limited response, not really answering any direct questions. As usual.)

“This circumstance with the unit and your lease is the result of a leaky roof, you haven't done anything wrong.”
Krystal, April 22nd

“There is currently a hole in the ceiling due to no fault of the tenants. LHA has said that they will not be fixing the hole.”
Lauren, MHP, April 22nd

“Yesterday, we received the Habitability request you sent by certified mail. Having received that, no further decisions or communications will be made by me without legal review.”
Krystal, April 23rd


*Note the change of tone and the world of new options that were opened up to us after submitting the Habitability request, and contacting BHP...thus putting the rent payments in jeopardy.*
“I have scheduled with Fossil Creek Drywall Inc, to replace the insulation and patch the ceiling on Tuesday, April 28 between the hours of 12pm and 4pm. I have asked that they do a very basic patch. The only real permanent solution is the roof replacement after which a more permanent repair will be completed.” (The guy cut out about an inch around the hole.)
Krystal, April 23rd

“…repairs can be made while tenants are in their unit.”
“We will be asking Landlord to repair the issue within 30 days…”
Luz, BHP, April 24th

“For clarification, are we to understand, per the repair notice from BHP, that we will not be asked to leave our unit and that we can fulfill the original lease?“
KJ, April 24th

“There is no need to relocate for this repair, there has never been any changes to your lease.”
Krystal, April 24th

“There is still much wet insulation in my ceiling.” (This is when Dennis came and cut out half of our ceiling because he “wanted it done” instead of waiting for the people to come back who did it wrong in the first place. Code Enforcement also returned to retest the ceiling. They had said it was “fine” the day before but didn’t actually check anything. It was still wet several feet out from where it was cut.)
Jason, April 28th

“I have scheduled Fossil Creek to come out to your unit Monday, May 11th between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM to install new insulation, gypsum board, and fire tape for your ceiling.” (They never showed up.)
Manuel, May 7th

*Fossil Creek also failed to show up another time after this but I can’t find the exact date.

“To clarify the basic drywall patch that was completed last Wednesday completes the job. No paint, texture or other finish is planned for the patch. It is intended to be temporary.”
“You called last week to ask if you could paint the patch with paint that had been supplied. LHA won’t be contributing any resources for labor or materials. You are welcome to paint the patch if you’d like on your own.”
Krystal, May 21st

“I took the time to paint the ceiling. I cannot afford to have it properly textured and painted the right way. But I do take pride in where I live.”
Jason, May 22nd


And there’s OH SO MUCH MORE! It’s all just full of things they can’t do, things they don’t know, things that won’t work for us, and ABSOLUTELY NO-NONE-ZILCH accountability from anyone at this organization. It’s mind blowing.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

It's the little things.

There are SO many other things happening at the Asylum right now that I wouldn't know where to start so here's a little bit of Saturday.

I parked up in the front of the building because I was going to load up some boxes to take to storage. I've done this, unfortunately, many times in the 2 months we've lived in this hell hole.
I walk in to get the cart and a lady asks me if I live there, and I said yes. She told me "You're not supposed to park there." I said "uh...I'm just going to load up some stuff."
"It doesn't matter. Alma says unless you're handicapped you're not supposed to park there. She says you have to park somewhere else. I got yelled at for it by Alma so I thought I'd tell you."
Instead of saying, "Well is Alma here right now?" I just said thanks.

Aaand since I don't care what arbitrary rules they have in place I went to my room, got my boxes on the cart and brought them back down to put in my car. Like I always do.
And do you know who was parked there in the place you're not supposed to park unless you're handicapped? Alma.
I don't even get a hello from the woman (because we're not allowed to speak to anyone who works at the building and they're not to speak to us....plus, rude) so I also did not get "yelled at" because that would have been absurd. Just like everything else that happens at the Asylum.

*****
On my way up Sad Santa was asking for 4 quarters. I didn't have any on me but since I could actually understand what he was asking for I told him I'd be right back down and I'd see if I had any.
I did but I need them for laundry. I grabbed some of my less useful change instead to give him. I can guarantee it was going in to the vending machines so it didn't really matter if it was quarters, unless he was going to do laundry....which I find unlikely.
It wasn't until I gave him the little bit of change that I realized he was asking to change a $1 coin for quarters. He tried to give me the coin but I told him to keep it since I don't need it and I wasn't sure I'd even given him a full dollars worth of change. I was pretty sure it was enough for a soda at least.
As I was walking out, a guy with a dog (who I'd seen walk away from Sad Santa in the parking lot and throw his hands up) was shaking his head saying "He always gets ya, that guy!"
Well he hadn't got me yet but at least this one time he wasn't asking for anything but an exchange.

*****

I also saw the angry kid and his angry mom from downstairs come out with their not at all angry dog that we hear get kicked on occasion. The dog looked untrained but healthy and happy so at least there's that. 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Nice(ish) while it lasted.

Say you're a landlord and someone needs repairs done in their home, what do you do?
You fix it.
OR, if you're the Longmont Housing Authority, you tell them they have to get out.

But I'll back up a bit. Last Tuesday or Wednesday, I think it was.

They've patched the roof a couple times I believe. I'm not sure they're very good at it but since I haven't been up there I don't know. Someone came to give an estimate for the ceiling repair. We took down the shower curtain so they wouldn't have to. We're thoughtful like that. We didn't put it back up because someone else was coming the next day to give another bid.

Then comes 3am.
Jason: Do you hear that?
Me: Yes...
Jason: What is it??
Me: I think it's the shower.
Jason: *up and about* It's not the shower!!
(The rest I'll not share as it's not very suitable for a family audience.)

We hadn't put back any of the buckets because nothing had been dripping. We didn't put back up the curtain because we were just going to have to take it down again.

Jason did, however, start working on one of his paintings that somehow ended up directly under the dripping water.

Delightful. The subject of the moist painting? The key to hell. It was very fitting to the rest of the week as it turned out.



 

This has all led to us being told that we'll have to leave if code enforcement determines that our unit is uninhabitable. They're also saying that we'd have to "vacate" in June when the roof is being replaced. This was never mentioned before.
I've asked 3 times what their understanding of our lease terms are but we get no reply.
I guess the Housing Authority doesn't put much stock in signing a lease.
"I know [2 staff members here] explained that we wouldn't likely fulfill the year term on your lease because of the planned rehab." Um...nope. We signed a lease. They signed a lease. There was no mention of "oh by the way, this is completely irrelevant." We wouldn't have signed it if that was the case.

Yesterday when it was snowy and rainy I assumed we'd have a leak. We didn't. Pleasant surprise. We're hoping maybe the patch has settled. In the meantime they're offering us a unit we can't actually fit in so we'll see what they decide for us since apparently we don't matter in the slightest.

I've asked what exactly is going to happen to the rest of the people living here while they "rehab" the building but I have received no answer. We're in a shit spot but at least we're able to function a lot better than 99% of the people here. They can't just be told to "vacate" their homes.


“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Prov 29:7




  

Sunday, March 15, 2015

The love.

Today Ruby said that Jason and I reminded her of her daughter and son-in-law.
Why? "Because when you look at each other you can see the love & friendship between you."
And then she went to church. Of course. :)

Just a few minutes ago the stereo started playing for no particular reason. Interesting. 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Water water...nowhere.

I thankfully just got OUT of the shower but now...the water won't turn on in our apartment. So that's new. It's too bad the ceiling isn't overflowing anymore. Just kidding. That also sucks.
Nobody needs water on a Saturday morning, right? Sigh. I'll just brush my teeth in the parking lot or something.
If it was planned, a little notice would have been nice. But who knows what's going on.

The slamming of everything continues under my feet though. Old reliable. 

Friday, March 13, 2015

The way to a neighbor's heart

Despite the crap parts of the day, things turned out alright on this Friday the 13th. (Side note: We live close enough to the tire place to walk home. Convenient, eh?)
Jason made Eggplant Parmesan tonight. He doesn't cook often, but when he does it always turns out pretty wonderful. We found this bottle of wine when he moved in and we've been saving it for something special, so today was as good as any. It was good too!


A friend came over and had dinner with us but we still had more than enough to share so Jason took some down to our helpful neighbor Ruby. She had a guest, Paula (who lives right across from us), so he took some for her too.
A little while later Ruby was at our door with a thank you note from her and Paula, and a thank you plant. And of course....a "god bless you." She said nobody had done anything so nice for her since she's lived here. She's a peach. I suspect she does a lot more for people than she gets in return so I'm glad she enjoyed her food.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Living the Safe Life

After much bitching and phone calls (Jason's doing, not mine) someone finally came to check the electrical stuff today to make sure it's not going to burn the place down. What with all the holes in the ceiling exposing the moldy insulation and falling ceiling tiles, it was worth a look.
In our unit, the hole in the ceiling is near a hanging light. They said it was ok. No water mixing with the electricity.
I don't know what the verdict was with the hallway. Things aren't falling out of the ceiling as much now that things have dried up. Out of sight, out of mind, no doubt.
Pretty though, huh?





In other news, Sad Santa has gotten more vocal as of late. He tends to yell randomly and at nobody. Jason's impression of it sounds very much like the Tazmanian Devil.

He's less Santa-like lately because he's not been wearing his red coat as often. I can't understand a single word he says when I do hear him talk. The guy he was talking to at the elevator today said he was asking him for money to buy him a soda, which apparently he does for him a lot.  


There seems to be many disgruntled folks around here. Sometimes we can hear them talking out in the back where people go to smoke. A few people were discussing the lack of security in our secured building.
When we were moving in the LAST of our stuff a few days ago a couple guys waited by the door and followed us in. That's what people do when they want in. Doesn't take a lot of effort. Some will wait like they're waiting for someone but some will just stand there looking like they're waiting to be let in. We were carrying in the top of the god damn heavy glass table and the tall guy says "where's that goin??" I want to say "none of your business creeper!" But I did not. They gazed at us weirdly as we got in to the elevator and thankfully did not get in with us. Thanks huge table for taking up room. I'd prefer to have fewer people following us to our apartment when they are not supposed to be here. It would likely be a more secure building if it wasn't a "secure building."
They lock the bathroom and laundry room doors at night here because they had issues previously with people letting folks in at night to sleep in the rooms that were left open.
I don't mind so much if there are random people hanging out in the lobby but when people are walking the halls for no reason then I don't care for it. We have enough people coming and going for nefarious purposes without extras. If I wanted to start doing meth, I think this could be a good place to start looking.

There's also this...out in front of the building. Soo is there just a stop in the parking lot? Drive thru? I don't know. We live IN a hotel basically, why isn't this happening inside? Mystery.


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Hmm...

It's a common wonderment around here to think "Hmm, I wonder if that person sells drugs out of here." or "Hmm...I wonder how many or what kind of drugs that person is on." or "Hmm...I wonder if that girl is of legal age." 

Thursday, March 5, 2015

I don't know what that means!

When my mom used to pound on the floor it meant either turn down the TV/music/loud thing OR comes upstairs to eat/reach something on a high shelf.
When the dude (I assume) downstairs pounds on his ceiling, our living room floor, I don't know what it means.
The music isn't excessively loud and nobody is even moving.
So...piss off grumpy 2nd floor dweller.Get yourself together. Please.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Freaking quarters

I had 6 quarters. To wash and dry a load of laundry, I need 8.
Jason found 4 and gave them to me. I can't find them so I suspect he picked them back up.
So what to do? Already put the laundry in the washer. Can't leave it in there because most certainly it will be the time every clown in this place decides to do laundry.
Well I have $2. That's about it. I can go buy 2 sodas for 75 cents, save them for later, and I'll get 2 quarters back in change. I guess it'll work.
Funny thing though. When you push the button for A&W Rootbeer, you get Grape Crush. When you push the mystery button (because now you're just feeling adventurous) you get nothing but a thunk. But I did get my quarter. Just not the other 75 cents I should have gotten back because it gave me nothing.
This is what a $1.50 can of Grape Crush look like. The laundry is in the dryer.

Secondary story. 
OMG I thought the ceiling was gonna cave in! The lamp hanging from the ceiling FREAKED OUT COMPLETELY. Again. Jesus. 

Also, found my fiance. He's lost and keeps hanging up on me. Today has been neat. 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Faithful & gas masks

I can't believe I almost forgot Faithful! He seems to be our cleaning guy. He's a tiny older Asian man; I don't think he's got any teeth left. He looks Tibetan or something but that's purely a guess. So when he smiles, which is every second of the day, his little cheeks scrunch up and his eyes go all smiley. We saw him in the lobby the other day and Jason asked him if he ever gets a day off. He said that Sunday is his day off.
Jason introduced us and the the little guys says "I call myself Faithful." I don't know if he has a name that's too hard to say or if that's just what he wants to be called. Jason said "You always seem so happy!" Faithful said "This is what I want to do!"
He sweeps and mops and takes care of this fun house and that's what he wants to do. No wonder he's always so happy.


The next day....
We were getting some more loads of stuff from storage. Because it's never ending. (Almost done though.)
There was a big truck outside and some folks in dark clothes at the end of our hall with one of the night managers. I didn't really put the two together until I saw 2 large men come out the front wearing vests with POLICE on the front. They were also wearing gas masks.
They didn't seem to be, like, in a rush or terribly concerned about anything so....I guess that's fine?
When Jason saw them on our floor he asked if everything was ok and they said everything was good. But we didn't get any additional info. They later came back up with a big box of equipment or something.
I feel like if there was a meth lab or a body or something then there would be more people around than the two police with an unmarked truck. I know nothing else. But I did meet the other manager that I hadn't met yet. Jason wasn't with me so I told her he was my fiance and describing him went as such: My fiance's name is Jason. He's got tattoos on his face....well he's ONE of the guys with tattoos on his face....he's the NEWEST guy with tattoos on his face.
"Ooh, ok. The newest guy."
He's not the only one now. But he's the prettiest.

Today is also our 2 week move-iversary. It hasn't been dull. 

Monday, March 2, 2015

New addition to the cast of characters!

Big guy, round belly, white beard, little red hat. He will now be called Smee.
He drinks vodka and calls Jason "Boss." Pretty awesome.
His mother just passed away so best wishes to him.



Points of interest.

As we walked in the lobby there was a woman standing there in her bathrobe.
Lady to Jason: Hey, do you know where I can get a tongue ring around town?
Jason: Um....not really.
Lady: Ok, well I just pierced my tongue with a paperclip so....I need something.
Me: Oh my god!
Jason: ........

*******************************************************************

The downstairs neighbors were either pounding on the ceiling or throwing things at the ceiling. It's not uncommon for them. (If you read the previous posts, they were the ones having a violent screaming match.) So we asked a person who knows more people around here if it was worth going down and talking to them or if it should be avoided. This person said there was a family down there so we'd be outnumbered and that he didn't recommend talking to them. He was more than happy to share his opinion about the place. They have new procedures here that they didn't have before and apparently it's not been for the better. So, basically, if there's really an issue we should just call the cops and not bother dealing with the staff here because they can't deal with it anyway. That's what we needed to know!

*******************************************************************

Our closet generally smells of stale smoke because the people downstairs smoke in their apartment, which they're not supposed to do. I put an air freshener in there so if we smell like fruit then that'll be why.

*******************************************************************

Someone wears bells. I know it's the same person every time they walk by because I can hear them jingling from the hall. Not sure who it is but it reminds me of my backpack bell from high school.

*******************************************************************

On a positive note, we had our first real guest! An old friend of Jason's found him online and came over and hang out. Yay!

That's...better?


At least it seems to have stopped dripping. The insulation is all wet but they don't want to fix it properly, they'll just wait for it to dry and cover it up. They allowed us to at least cover it up though. We'll be able to tell if it starts dripping again.

We thought maybe we'd moved on from these things but that's not quite the case. Oh well. They're trying to fix it when there are less blizzard-like conditions on the roof. They continue to joke and imply that they can't afford to fix it anyway. So that's interesting. 


Meanwhile....this is happening in my cube at work. Again.


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Part way through week 2

And problems arise. 1st world/3rd floor problems.
It's been snowing. And snowing and snowing and then some more snow. It's not really stacking up here in Longmont but it's still coming down. It's been very mushy snow for the most part so it just creates ice sheets of death and carries on with it's flakeyness.
So, I assume, because of that we now have this situation.


As you can see by the crappy patching job in the ceiling, this isn't a new thing. We went from a drip to a downpour and then they scooped some snow off the roof and it lightened up a bit.
Yesterday it was the ceiling vibrating like crazy. We figure it's the central heating kicking in. It really vibrates to the core of your brain. We don't love it. Hopefully the warmer weather will return soon enough and it won't be needed. We didn't notice it before now so we thought something might have been broken. Nobody else seems to be worried.
Maybe it just shook the roof open to welcome the water in!? Oy.
Don't know if you can see it but the light is really shaking.

And here's the waterworks. 
Almost like a calming babbling brook, no?


 Yet this is still the best we could hope for in Longmont! We'll keep it and it's issues. 

Intro and the first week

On our first or second visit to the building, we met Ruby. When we came in the door she says to Jason, "nice tats!" It's amusing because she's a 60ish year old black lady and I can't imagine she says "tats" all that often; but she says it like she's pretty hip to things. Who knows.
The day we came to see our actual unit Ruby knocked on the door and asked if we were thinking of moving in and told us that it's a wonderful place and that Arin, the property manager, was also wonderful. Ruby is the welcome wagon.
But I'm getting ahead of myself...

As of January 31st, we were out of the old apartment, everything was in storage (or mom's....or the car) and we didn't have anywhere to go. Thankfully, some generous souls offered us their 2nd bed for as long as we needed. I've said it before and I'll say it again...the people with the least are often the quickest to offer what they have, where the people with the most want to impose conditions. I understand but still. Interesting, isn't it? These guys have a little 2 bedroom apartment that is filled to the top with their beloved possessions, their angsty dog, a fish? I think? It's not ideal for 4 adults to live in an apartment but it was perfectly comfortable because we felt welcome and at home. Jason even had limited sneezing. Maybe angsty dog hair is less allergenic than other dog hair. We slept amazingly. Maybe it was the exhaustion from moving things for weeks and worrying for months and the end of it all just came upon us and that was that and we were at least somewhere with a bed. So we slept. We thought we'd have to ask them where they got this seemingly fancy bed so we could some day save up for one of our own. It came in a box from Walmart. Magic?
So we made the best of the situation and explored Lakewood, traveled Colfax, took Jason to Casa Bonita for the first time, found a place with peanut butter burgers, and got Voodoo Donuts. It was like a very odd vacation.
Skip past all the phone calls, all the waiting, raised hopes, dashed hopes, incompetent people, and lots of crap and running back and forth.
We found an advocate among all the zombies. She actually, get this, did her job to the best of her ability and made a damn difference. What a pleasant surprise.
We had to jump through the last few hoops and we finally had a place to move. It's only for a year but we'll make the best of the year.

We're now residents of The Suites in Longmont. It's a former hotel that nobody seems to know is here. We've moved from the northside to the southside. It's practically like a different city.
The made an exception to get us in here. The timing all had to work out exactly the way it did for us to get in here. Had things worked out really in any other way, it wouldn't have happened. So at least all the bull shit in between had a purpose, right? Plans fell through, new plans had to be made, many a plan was made that was left behind, and Jason did the job of about 5 people to get everything done in time. It's a specialty of his.

Feb. 17th was our first night. The place is fully furnished but we didn't really need the stuffed birds on the wall or the decorative giant wheat. We do like the leather couches and the king size bed. Oh the bed...it's so giant. I don't know if we can go back now. Ditto for the tub. It's a jacuzzi. I can do without the jets but I've never had a bathtub I could actually take a bath in. We have all this extra pizzazz in our room because we got the Presidential Suite. It's the biggest place in the building. They don't generally rent it out but someone convinced them it was needed so here we are. We are lucky people.
For such a large place with such an....eclectic group of residents, it's very quiet. (Usually.) There have been a couple interesting bits.
I saw this young guy walking through the lobby in his phone. I overhear "I'm clean now...I'm not even high..." I don't think much of it other than, hey good for him. He was like a blonde Harry Potter...with non-magic troubles. Later, as we're walking to the elevator, we see him getting in with a couple LPD officers, as he says "thank you for doing it this way." No other information on what happened there but I'll wonder for a while. We talked to the lady who is on-call at night and she says "Did you hear the fire department here last night??" Um...nooo. "Oh, they were on the roof, checking the HVACs and stuff." I assume all was well because that's all I heard of it. So in the first 2 or 3 days we got a visit from the police and the fire department.
The downstairs neighbors we're having quite the violent-sounding quarrel but it seems to have calmed since them.
Other than Ruby, we've had to nickname some people. There's Sad Santa, the Smoker, the shuffling lady, the lady with the fancy hat (there might be two of those...one hat is brighter than the other one), and Ethel...who is actually Ethel. She's got to be 80, we met her in the elevator.
So far, so good, here in the Suites. I look forward to the pool opening and seeing what other interesting sights await us.