I'm about to mentally implode from the stress of the last few months and wanted a place to vent about it, but if I call my mom one more time I think she might start screening my calls.
Backstory:
In June my (British) husband has a weird medical thing and it gets worse. Because his show ended and insurance was changing, his insurance got messed up and he was covered until May 31st, but it didn't resume until July 1st (despite being charged for June). So he can't even go to the doctor. This is the 'final straw' after years of not being happy in Los Angeles. Since I'm pretty sure I need a career changeup anyway, we decide in July to move. I tell my boss and coworkers, emphasizing my husband's now precarious health stuff, and everyone is sad but supportive. I leave job in August.
Husband and I embark on a US road trip to see the solar eclipse in Grand Teton and say 'goodbye' to America. We plan to be gone until November.
HERE IS WHERE THE STRESS REALLY STARTS:
August 20th - The person who is supposed to sublet our condo (and help us fund this road trip) pushes her moving date to September 1st. That's OK. She's a friend, no worries. Spoiler: she ends up never showing up.
September 11th (Day 31 of road trip) - we total the car right after we got back into the US from Canada. We're physically fine. Just shaken up and stranded 1000 miles from home with a carload of stuff. We try to make the most of it with our rental car and hit up Seattle and Portland, as well as some small towns, as we make our way back down the coast.
September 29th - The fires/weather ruin our plans to go to Yosemite from where we are in San Francisco so we decide to go home for a week and then head East toward the Grand Canyon.
THANK GOODNESS WE WENT HOME. Walk into our condo at 9:00pm on that Friday to water streaming thru our CEILING. Panic ensues. Neighbors upstairs aren't home. We have to have a locksmith to come and break into their unit (owners are notified and aware, obviously). Turns out their kitchen sink has backed up and flooded their unit SO MUCH that it started pouring into our unit.
September 30th - Remediation begins. Our property management firm messes up BIG TIME and gives approval for the company to tear up our floors telling the company that we approved it (we had not). Chaos. Panic. Property management isn't answering our calls and the company says they have to do it now or else mold will start. Goodbye lovely hardwood floors. Also they tear our ceiling out, for obvious reasons. Our nicest piece of furniture is ruined.
October 2nd - Husband is losing his mind at the property management company. Our personal insurance tells us that the specific time of pipe blockage means we are barely covered - but we do get reimbursed for the furniture ruined. Now it's to battle with the building's insurance to get everything fixed. ALSO WE ARE PLANNING ON MOVING COUNTRY AT THIS TIME.
October - No floor and no ceiling. Cannot use kitchen. We have to eat out every meal. I begin to lose my appetite for all food ever.
November - Oh did you think it would be fixed? HAHAHAHHAHA. I finally get approval on a quote for work to be done and it gets started the first week of November with a confident declaration that all will be done by Thanksgiving. LIES. LIES. LIES. We do get a ceiling and most of a floor by then, though - even if there are some mistakes.
December 4th - The workmen were supposed to finish this morning but I just got a text that they messed up the order for the remaining materials and now we will have to wait until Wednesday(UGH). I have multiple people coming to buy some appliances soon. Oh and a real estate agent is coming to meet with us this afternoon because we also need to sell this place.
Did I mention that during this time we also had to pack everything (currently in a giant pile in the dining area) and source a moving company, which is collecting our stuff on Friday this week? And we need to sell this place? And we won't be in the country when that happens? And that I am trying to get rid of a TON of furniture and crap? And we leave Los Angeles two weeks from today?
And, of course, we just went through the visa process which was super fun and not at all stressful.
Basically I'm so tired and I've never hated Los Angeles more than I do right now. I signed up to Wag! and have been walking dogs (and getting paid for it) once or twice a day for emotional therapy. And clocking lots of podcast hours on those walks. My poor house rabbit has been locked in the windowless master bathroom for two months now as the main living area has been under perpetual construction.
I just want this all to be over with. I've cried more in the last 3 months than I ever thought I was capable of. On the 18th we are O-U-T so I have a hard deadline, but until then my sanity is in jeopardy. I'm trying to be grateful for the support I've gotten from friends and family (my parents in NY have been my impromptu therapists, and my MIL in London has been a huge help with stuff on that end), but it's just been a really really hard few months. And I know that there's a TON to do once we land so it's not like this all miraculously ends. Sigh.
Sorry for the length of this rant.
