A long overdue blog...

So, remember that blog I wrote back in October? Well, I'm living with Audrey and Shaun now. I don't have as much space as I used to, and come spring, we're having a yard sale where I'll part with a couple bits of furniture that I can't use and we couldn't discard. (My old recliner and couch were in very bad shape, so we threw them away.) I did downsize some of my book collection, but there is a couple boxes of books stored away that I didn't have room for on my shelf. (And as it usually goes for me, now there's even more books!)

Although I did try to find a closer job, I am still at my old job. This means it takes two and a half hours for me to get to work in the morning by bus, meaning I get up at some very early times, as early as 4 AM.

Audrey and Shaun are excellent housemates, people who you can talk to about your problems and all. They're also very open about their sex life...

In our home, aside from us three humans, we have three dogs, two cats, and one of them recently had five kittens. (Jack, my cat, was sadly not getting along, so we had to give him to a friend in the country.) In addition to this zoo, from December to very early February, we also took in my little brother Arthur and our younger sister (who is older than Arthur), because my parents' home had issues that the State expressed concern over. As they're already having enough trouble getting my little brother Daniel back, we figured we would help out.

What happened is best expressed in an e-mail I sent to a friend:

Gen and Arthur are gone. Mom and Dad called Audrey and Shaun today and just came and took them. Basically, she doesn't trust us. Genevieve posted a weird reference to (500) Days Of Summer (something about randomly shouting "penis") on Facebook, and Mom saw it. I mentioned in a now-deleted Facebook status that I'd gotten Arthur hooked on Doctor Who and it's spin-offs. I guess she assumed we were showing them some perverted stuff, and if she doesn't think Doctor Who is New Age or some crap, that they were watching TV more than doing their schoolwork or something.

Now get this: we had Gen and Arthur for the better part of two whole months. The whole point of us taking them in was so they'd be out of the way so Mom and Dad could get the house in better condition or that they could find a better living situation. Shaun asked them about it when they came to pick them up, and the answer was an evasive "nothing has been done." And part of the concern was how warm the house was. They're expecting a foot of snow in a week!

From the way it's looking, they're not going to get Daniel back. And after that, the state will set their sights on Arthur, and maybe Gen. (She'll be 17 then, that's why she's a maybe.) We took in Gen and Arthur, not expecting anything in return. What do we get? Not even a thank you, not even a chance to properly say good-bye, and certainly no financial compensation. Just a big, evasive, "We don't trust you anymore."

Guess what? We helped Gen and Arthur mature as teenagers, because we are still quite young adults, so we can relate and offer advice. They were exercising daily, they had a healthy, low-calorie diet that all of us were on, and they were doing their school work before they were allowed to watch TV and use the computer. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT???

Yeah... We're getting over it, but we're still pretty sore about it.