February 2005 - Posts
I just want to give a warning to any and all renters in the Nashville area: don't rent from Cliff Richmond. While he is better than most apartment complexes, my latest experience with him has not been good. The reason? He screwed my husband and me out of $2500 dollars. Cliff was our landlord for 2 1/2 years... and until my husband got a job in Austin, things were decent. But when we informed him of our need to relocate to Austin, things got nasty. He put the burden on us to advertise in the newspaper for a new tenant, claiming that it was too hard to find a renter in winter. We spent over $300 on ads. He kept saying he wanted to help but never offered any options, and he refused to answer when we offered options. He insisted he didn't have anyone to rent the house the day we moved out, but two days later someone moved in. We had to rely on friends to find out someone had taken over the house, and had to call him to find out we didn't have to pay him rent anymore. We asked for our deposit and the pro-rated rent back. He claimed he had to buy a washer/dryer for the house (even though there was no washer/dryer when we moved in). He also lied that he had two houses for rent and steered the potential renters to our previous house to help us. Ours was the only one for rent. He also broke the law by accepting February rent from us as well as the current tenant. But a lawyer advised us that we got off easy and that a small claims court would probably side with him. The bottom line... he screwed us out of money and he knew he could get away with it. Don't rent from Cliff Richmond. Chances are, he'll screw you too.
Flattened boxes litter the back porch of the house. A stack of unprinted newspaper, that rises from the floor to above my waist, sits in the unused front bedroom. The unpacking is pretty much done... everything from here is just going to take time. You know... adding pieces of furniture, organizing, hanging pictures, decorating.... It's just gonna take time. So now I have time to get down to business. The question is: what business is that? The short answer is the documentary. Sure, I'm working on it. Here and there. I have big plans to work on it tonight, in fact. I've got editing to do. But something else has me preoccupied today: an empty feeling that only one thing can occupy. A paying job. It makes me SIGH really hard everytime I think about it. The prospect of looking for a job has me frustrated and full of dread and scared and anxious and just about any other negative feeling you can think of. I should be excited. I should be. But the whole idea has me paralyzed. Where do I start? The last time I went job hunting I failed miserably. The only jobs I have successfully landed have been through personal contacts. Let's face it... all those online job banks are nice. But I've NEVER gotten a job through an online job bank or the newspaper. You gotta know someone. My last job I knew the owner. He was my best friend. And it wasn't even in my field. Well, this job has gotta be in my field or something related. Journalism, writing, design, editing, you name it. I can't fall back into retail. Or, at least, I hope I don't have to. It's too easy to fall into and be distracted. And it doesn't really add anything to my job skills. No, I want to try to get closer to what I'm trained to do... to what I like to do. I'll work at a TV station and edit. I be a copy editor for some publishing company... something to help me feel like a contributing member of society. Something that keeps my mind active and my calendar full. Part-time is fine! No problem! Just... just... just something. I want to work. I want to bring home a paycheck. I want to feel like I'm doing more for this household than sweeping and shopping. I'm too much of an anal workaholic to not be working.
Austin is everything I remember it to be, but somehow, it's different this time.... Have you ever gone back to a place you know well... years later... only for it to feel differently than it did? That's what's happening to me right now. I feel like a stranger in a strange land, except I know my way around. I don't quite feel like I belong, yet I also don't quite feel like I'm foreign. I thought about it this afternoon as I walked around the Town Lake Hike and Bike trail. I knew the route, but I didn't feel connected yet. I'm sure it will come in time, but, and I know this will sound weird, I kind of like feeling distant. I don't want this city to have the same feel as it did when I was a college student. Things are different now... I'm married, I'm 6 years older and more mature, I'm ready to settle down with my life, and I know what I want out of life. Also... I'm proud of where I've been for the past 3 1/2 years. I liked Nashville, for all its southern folk charm and big record business ways. I still talk to one of my best friends from there almost every day and hear from Nashville friends via email daily. I don't feel like I've severed the ties completely. I grew as a person in Nashville. I left one of my childhood homes for the big cities (Houston and Nashville), and I came back a different person. Okay... it's not like living in New York or going off to war, but in its own way, leaving Austin did me good. And even though it was a career death for me in TV News... other things happened that were really great. Still... I have a feeling that things will happen for me in Austin here too. I do have a special connection to this place. It may still feel a little weird being here... but this is the city where I studied for life in the real world. This is the city where I met my future husband. This is the city where I spent countless hours sipping espresso at various coffee shops, gulped down chips and queso and huge gingerbread pancakes, started a healthy lifestyle as a fitness fanatic, and was inspired to go vegetarian. And now, I'm ready to settle down, set my new career on fire, and start my family. Yep.. Austin is everything I remember... and everything I dream.
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