The last time we needed to get the attention of Sean’s brother, we wound up sending him a funny letter with our phone number.¬† Why?¬† Because his brother has the habit of getting his phone turned off based on the fact that he must love having to memorize new phone numbers every few months.¬† His in-laws don’t have a phone and were using his line to get the “important calls” and then it got to the point of just being bill collectors so naturally changing the phone number was the only way to get rid of them.¬† I don’t blame him, and I’d be very annoyed with my in-laws if they did that to me – but it won’t so I’m not concerned about it.

Anyway, we still haven’t heard from him – even with an in-law going over to the house for us to relay the message.¬† So we’re to a point now where we’re going to send another letter.¬† I figure tomorrow we’ll just ship one out and hopefully hear from him before the weekend and then take the drive up almost two weeks after we originally scheduled.¬† It’s annoying but I guess we have no choice in the matter.

I headed across the street to Kmart today.¬† I picked up a few needed items for the house, as well as some things that are coming with me to Ohio (if we ever hear from his brother).¬† Right now there are King Down Alternative Comforters on sale for $39.¬† I didn’t want it in white but as long as there’s some bleach in the house I’m not too concerned about that.¬† I almost picked up a new sheet set but there really is no point when I already have a good set on the bed at the moment.¬† I also didn’t feel like spending $80 on the King sheet set that I really wanted considering it only came with two pillow cases.¬† We have four pillows on the bed and this particular set doesn’t have alternate pieces that could be added to it.¬† I don’t like mixing and matching.

I picked up what I thought was a Razr, but it’s actually a KRAZR.¬† Close enough, $40 prepaid – I don’t need a plan right now there’s no point.¬† I only use a cell phone for emergencies anyway.¬† I don’t know how anyone could be on the phone for more than 10 minutes but that may be based on the fact that I’m not exactly a chatterbox either.

I picked up a cheapy lava-lamp but that’s because I thought it would be larger than it actually is.¬† It’s been “warming up” for a while and now it’s finally moving the way that they’re supposed to.¬† I’ve always wanted a large floor lava lamp but spending $200 on something that unimportant would just be reckless spending on my part.

The clock in the living room decided to change itself a week early, so it’s only 12:30 in there, but every other clock in the house is telling me 1:30, probably should have checked on that before I sat down for the night.¬† I’m too tired to really accomplish anything and now that I know that I’m an hour behind on just about everything that just adds to my “ehh screw it” mood.

As of 2am last night, the money was cleared to the bank account.¬† Our problem for the last few days is getting in touch with Sean’s brother though.¬† He’s got the key to get into the house and for some reason his cell just isn’t working.¬† There’s no house line but there was really no point in having one when both his brother and the wife have cellphones anyway.

So Sean’s been doing some poking around on Myspace in search for at least ONE of his brothers wifes 11 siblings.¬† Yes, she’s one of 12 – I don’t know how her mother managed to handle all of that, but more power to her.¬† So we found one sister but she hasn’t really been around to respond to anything, today we found another sister who said that she was on her way in that direction anyway so she’d swing by the house and let his wife know what’s going on.

We know that his cell is still active, but he’s the ONLY cell user that I know who doesn’t have voice mail.¬† But at the same time, we know that he was in Florida last week when all of the horrible storms ripped through Northern Florida (where his father now lives) so we’re unsure if they’ve even made it back to Ohio for one reason or another.¬† It could either be the storm or the deteriorating condition of his father at the moment.¬† We both hope that it isn’t the case and he’s back safe and sound in Ohio with his phone off.¬† I guess we’ll find out within the next few hours.

We think that some “outside forces” have something to do with this though.¬† There’s a big sale going on at Kmart this weekend that doesn’t start until Sunday.¬† We were planning on leaving here on Sunday so we obviously need to be around for it.¬† The phone I’ve wanted for 3+ years now is on sale for like $40, and the alternative down comforter that I was going to pick up in Target for $60 is $40 in Kmart.

So we’re going to hope that we hear something soon and we’ll be making the trip out there on Monday.¬† I just hope we can leave early enough so that we can get to the hotel in time for check in.¬† Supposedly you need to check in by 2 at the “Quality Inn” but I’m sure a phone call stating that it’s an 8 hour drive between here and the hotel out there makes it impossible for us to show up at 2 unless we happen to leave at 530am – this just isn’t happening.

By this time tomorrow there’s a chance that Sean and I will be preparing for the very long drive to get to Ohio.¬† We’re unsure if we’re taking the route of going through Maryland over the Bay Bridge or if we’re just going to head up to Philadelphia and hook a left.¬† Either way there’s going to be approximately 8 hours spent in the car that neither of us is really looking forward to.¬† We’re having some trouble getting a hold of his brother.¬† As of right now we’re unsure if he’s even back in Ohio or if he’s still in Florida.¬† He’s the only person we know that has a cellphone and NO VOICEMAIL.¬† I don’t see how that’s possible, but I think that says something about the state we’re moving to at this point.

I’m already looking forward to the modifications we’re going to be doing.¬† Right now Sean and I don’t really spend much time together during the day because he’s in the office and I’m usually working at the other end of the house.¬† Since the second bedroom is kind of small and shares a wall with the living room we’ll be knocking out the wall and making one large room, we may not be that much closer together but we’ll be in the same room at least.

The thing I’m dreading is the bathroom though, there’s a lot of work that’s going to need to be accomplished.¬† I’m almost certain that there’s going to be a lot of work around the shower area.¬† I’m dreading the sight of rust and whatever else could possibly live in this place.¬† Up until this point we’ve been doing a lot of talking about the rest of the house, something tells me that the bulk of our budget is going to just make sure the toilet doesn’t fall through the floor in the bathroom.¬† With fixing comes upgrades so I’m sure there will be enough energy going into new tile, new bath faucets, possibly a new vanity and almost definitely a new toilet.

This should just be heaps of fun.

We left NY at about 9:30 last night and by 2:30am we were back here.¬† I did wind up falling asleep in the car for the last hour of the trip but that’s out of character for me, so it caught me off guard.¬† I don’t typically fall asleep in cars but I guess with Bella all cozy on my lap so she could look out the window, plus the both of us being wrapped up in my jacket just to get warm – it was bound to happen at some point.

The trip up was OK, we walked into an uncomfortable situation between my father and sister that I’d rather not get into.¬† Sunday was a “down” day, I headed over to my aunts to spend some time with her and on Monday my father and I headed to the bank so I could collect the loan.¬† Seeing a check with that many zero’s was definitely a nice birthday gift.¬† With the interest rate I’m going to pay back about $4,000 on top of the loan itself but since the course of the loan is 60 months, that really won’t matter too much.

So once that was taken care of we headed back to the house and relaxed until about 7 when my aunt called us and we all headed out to dinner at Bertucci’s for my birthday, Sean treated everyone to dinner which looked like a big selling point to my father, so I have to say that worked out nicely.¬† I didn’t “clean up” the way I have in the past but more than enough money to get us back home and me to purchase a few things from the salon my grandmother owns.¬† I also picked up a new purse, Gucci has that kind of a hold on me.¬† And the Dolce & Gabbana sun glasses to replace my now defunct Chanels make me more than content.

We came back here to find house guests, and since it’s raining we’ve still got our suitcases in the car.¬† Sean should be getting in touch with his brother soon about this upcoming weekend.¬† Hopefully once things calm down a bit they’ll be easier to deal with when we’re settled into our new place.¬† I really don’t care much about anything anymore, so being in this funk my only real concern is moving out and just starting a new life.¬† Work means crap to me, people have always meant shit to me, and getting out of a very uncomfortable living situation is a big goal for me right now.

It took a lot longer than anticipated but my laundry is finally complete and at almost 2:30 in the morning I can now start packing so I can get to bed and hopefully wake up refreshed enough to hop in the car and get up to New York without falling asleep.¬† I already know that Bella is going to insist on being in my lap for the entire trip up.¬† On top of that I’m going to have to force some food down her throat before we even leave the house so that her stomach isn’t overturning itself in the car.¬† Oh this is going to be SO much fun.