#sooo yeah. update later with a date to come back to keep myself accountable

[brown-little-robin]

I’m having kind of a hard time :/

[prorevenge]

Don't tell mom the dog-sitter's dead.

TL;DR at the bottom.

This didn't happen to me, it happened to my sister.

My sister moved up to SC from FL about a year ago, but she still visits us periodically. We're a big and close family. Shortly after Thanksgiving, she flew down with her husband and son for one such visit. She has 3 geriatric dogs, so she got a house/dog sitter.

MS (my sister) went through the basics of how they can only be fed at certain times. They get let out at certain times. They need to be in their crates from X hour to Z hour. Most importantly, they don't get treats. They get vitamins in place of treats, but those vitamins have to be given only twice a day. No people food. Very strict diets. They're all happy and healthy, but only because MS is so strict with their regime.

This lady she got to watch her dogs had stellar reviews on the site she was found through. She's a stay-at-home mom who does this as a side thing for extra cash. I feel like I can end it here, you all can guess where this is going.

MS left for Florida for a week. The first 5 days, everything is going well. DS (dog sitter) texts MS regularly or video calls. She shows MS pictures and gives her regular updates of when she comes and goes to MS's house. MS just bought that house, btw. She's been working her butt off to finally be able to afford it. She puts so much into making that a nice home for her family.

MS has some health problems herself. She's got a ton of prescription medication in her medicine cabinet. She brought enough for the week, but left the rest at home. Stuff for epilepsy, asthma, and allergies. But she's also got a ton of pain killers from when she had my nephew not that long ago. She's paranoid about becoming addicted, so she kept the pills for safety, but never used them. It's a full bottle.

On top of that, she's been a collector of rare beer for about 15 years now. Beer that's not even sold anymore because they were promotional from micro breweries. Beer she can't get anymore because she doesn't live in Florida. Those bottles, she keeps as mostly decoration in her kitchen.

On the 6th day of her vacation, DS stops all communication altogether. MS texts, calls, emails. Nothing. Radio silence. She's got a bad feeling, but she doesn't want to kill the mood because she doesn't get to see her family very often anymore.

Day 7, she gets on a late flight back to SC. The plane gets there around 2 in the morning. They drive an hour to their rural town. They get home. The front door is wide open. The lawn looks like someone in a truck (which DS happened to drive) just tried to go drifting over grass and a tree before vacating the premises super quick.

MS goes to handle my nephew who is groggy and screaming. It's been a rough day. She's thinking the worst. That someone robbed the house while this poor lady was there. MS's husband (BiL) goes inside to survey the damages. It's all clear, MS and Nephew go inside too.

The back door is wide open. The couch looks like it exploded. The rug in the living room and the couch, and pretty much every square foot on the bottom floor is covered in the kind of pee and poop that can only be made from 3 geriatric furry buttholes.

The dogs are, thankfully, still in the backyard. But they're shivering and filthy. There are broken beer bottles everywhere. Some have been stuffed deep in the trash to hide the evidence. Some have been refilled with water and put back with their tops precariously situated on top so they might look like they haven't been touched.

82 bottles, each growler sized (roughly 64 oz) - gone. The medicine cabinet is like one of those Western ghost town's with a tumbleweed bouncing through. MS is already thinking this DS threw herself a party. No way in heck could someone 5'6'', 170 lbs, drink that much beer and take that many pills and not be dead.

MS called the cops. Obviously. The police get there to figure this must be a break in. They take a bunch of pictures, take an account of all the bottles and drugs that were missing. MS cleans what she can, but gets to sleep because thankfully the upstairs hasn't been touched.

One day later, the police find DS. MS has assumed she's dead and abducted, so the police were looking for her and her car. They found the truck run off the side of a highway, with this lady about two miles up, tweaking OUT OF HER MIND walking along the side of the road, screaming at nothing.

They take her in for whatever charges. Idk. Her husband bails her out and picks her up. According to her husband, this has happened before. DS has a drug and alcohol problem.

At first, she's messaging my sister, super apologetic, saying she'll reimburse MS and please don't press charges. MS quotes her the price of the rug, a new couch, and the vet bills because her dogs had somehow gained access to 9 containers of doggie vitamins and one of them was having liver failure. (The dog is fine now, but she's an old yorkie so who knows. Also, MS buys in bulk from a wholesaler, hence 9 containers). The total was somewhere around $800. MS didn't bother with the beers, the meds, the lawn, cleaning the house. She could have. Heck, I would have.

On top of that, MS demanded DS never dog sit again and she had to refund MS for her dog sitting. MS works in advertising. I won't say what kind, but basically if she saw/sees DS advertising herself as a dog sitter ever again, she has the means to drag this lady until all she sees is mud for the rest of her life.

DS insists she'd gonna pay it back, but that MS has to wait until they get their taxes back. Ok. So MS waits. Late February, she texts DS asking where her money is. DS immediately starts saying how she didn't do anything wrong, MS is a bad dog owner and her dogs are miserable, none of the stuff MS says DS did was actually done. MS has all the old texts of DS admitting to all of it sooo....?

This goes on for a while. Eventually, DS starts saying how "as a courtesy" she has a friend who owns a furniture store, she will give MS a credit of $200 for a new couch. And she has an old rug she doesn't want anymore that MS can have.

Erm... what?

She payed MS about $500, but and insists she'll get the coupon to MS soon. March goes by. Nothing.

Around March 20th, MS marches her happy butt to the small claims court and files. Then she snaps pictures of everything. Then she sends DS the message. "As a courtesy, I'm letting you know that I just filed this at the small claims court."

Then the fun starts. This lady goes OFF on MS. She says she's going to sue for slander and undue distress and harassment and blah blah blah blah blah. MS saves all of it, including the fun bits where DS threatens her family and calls her the C-word 20-dozen times.

Today is what? April 6th? Tuesday was the court date. Things move fast in a small town, idk. This lady shows up looking like she just got run through by a garbage disposal. She gives the judge her sob-story, talking about how she did nothing but give MS and her animals the best care, that MS is making all this up.

Yeah. MS has the OG cop with her. She's got pictures of all the damage, the vet bills, the bottles, proof that she was out of town, police reports of both the "break-in" as well as DS's DWI the following day. DS tries to spin it with that one law about how you can't serve alcohol to a known alcoholic. That obviously gets thrown right tf out.

DS then tries to appeal to Judge and MS's sense of humanity. She tells them how her husband just left her and is suing her for full custody (good!) and that if she can't dog-sit how is she supposed to support herself or ever get her kids back (tough cookies!). The judge takes my sister's side, for obvious reason, come tf on.

DS is homeless now, living with her parents. She can't see her kids, who btw don't want to see her. Apparently she was a drunk who ran her hubby's credit all the way down, she was abusive to her kids, and because of her heavy alcohol abuse - one of her kids has FAS. DS has 60 days to pay the remaining $300 or she faces jail time (idk how much time, sorry). Her husband filed for divorce already. Oh, and she lost her license thanks to that DWI.

As a former addict myself and someone who's been through a DWI, I want to sympathize. That's a lot of stuff to go through. MS gave her chance after chance, but at some point, you have to take responsibility for your actions. It really seems like this lady has just been using her husband as a crutch while she tries to get better, only to backslide hard. It's rough, I know. I hope she gets the help she needs.

MS's dogs are doing well. She got a replacement couch on Amazon for like $75 and a nice fluffy rug for even less. DS eventually coughed up that coupon. It didn't even work. It was for something like 20% off with a purchase of $500 or more, so um...no thanks.

TL;DR: World's poopiest dog-sitter trashes my sister's house after going on a bender. Claims she didn't do that, while also promising to pay for the damages. Never pays. Gets taken to court. Loses her home, job, kids, and marriage.

(source) story by (/u/anoukdaae)

[rosaswann]

You know, you’d almost think there was such a thing as a life outside of the internet. Anyway, it’s been a few weeks since my last post and I’ve been wanting to give an update on how and if I’m using my Hobonichi (yes, I am) and especially show off a few things I’ve been doing. So, even though this isn’t a video as most more sophisticated people do, here is a flip through of my Hobonichi for about the first 3 weeks of January 2017.

*Checks previous post to see what she already talked about*

For pics on all the different pages and my first thoughts you can look at that post. I still stand with basically everything I’ve said back then. On the topic of the pencil board/bookmark thing… I’m making a separate post on that later, as I’ve created some of my own and I find it very handy because of the thin paper of the Hobonichi. Do look forward to that one!

So, I’ve been really good and have really enjoyed my notebook these last three weeks. I was originally scared that I wouldn’t be able to fill the pages, or not able to fill them enough to really make me not feel like I’m wasting pages. But wow! I’m pretty happy with everything right now, you’ll see why soon.

Let’s start from the front.

Front and back. I made two word outlines and printed them, then I coloured them in myself and slid them into the clear cover. This way I get a very personalised planner and a constant reminder of my “word of the year” which this year is balance, mainly between my work and other life (which, writing a blog post at 11.30 pm on a Friday… I’m still working on). It’s very simple, but really effective! Some colour, some focus and still a smooth and very easy to handle planner. The size is something I’m still very happy with, perfectly fine for my needs and easy to take with me!

I still use the regular Hobonichi pencil board, though I also use a sheet that I made myself (no pics here, but will be in a future post). The white Totoro sticky is for my monthly page and the green one for my weekly page. That way I can go to them immediately. They’ve held up pretty well and the space between the tab on the pencil board and the two stickies is just right for the elastic closure to fit between.

Small pocket-ish space from the clear cover is easy to store a few things. These Magic the Gathering booster packets will go into my memory book, but I’m still waiting for it to arrive. It took me a while to choose what type of book I wanted for that and then where to order it. But I’ve got a Stalogy coming my way for my memory book.

Monthly sheet for January, with some private things blurred out. I track things that need to get done (the yellow bar at the bottom tells me to put the paper recycling at the street that day) and TV shows and on what day they’re airing. At the top corner you can see my new fountain pen that I adore. More pictures of it can be seen on my Instagram account.

Pen test page. Nothing bleeds, lots of shadowing, but that is expected with paper that you can almost see through, anything is visible. But nothing has actually gone through the pages just yet. Which is awesome. The bottom two big black swatches are brush pens, and pretty wet ones too, but they came out really nice.

At the top left you can see a writing sample with the Hobonichi pen, next to some highlighters and my fountain pens. At the far right a sample with my newest fountain pen. This page is so lovely, but I basically only use the pens that are tested on the top half of this picture, just the Hobonichi pen and the fountain pens (and some highlighters).

Weeklies. As you can see, I’m planning a little more now that I’m getting more into the year and I’m trying to get back to a good weekly schedule… Yeah, still working on it. The colours on the last two pictures are the Mildliners from Zebra and I adore them. I’d seen them and they looked very handy since they’re not as bright, so you can make a schedule without it being too obtrusive. Which, I think, they’re perfect for. Just look at this page, I think it’s beautiful and the fact that the colours are not super bright really helps with that.

Day one. I’ve tried a few things here, I translated the quote at the bottom with Google Translate, which went well enough, but it was pretty fiddly. Also, a few quotes from Getting Things Done by David Allen, which you will find more, as I’m reading it at the moment.

Day two and three. More quoted from the book. I’ve really started to love my Platinum Preppy fountainpens for this. They write so smoothly and because of the limited number of colours, I don’t spend a long time deciding on what colour to use for everything. I love using the Hobonichi to keep track of what I’m reading and the most important things I’ve read on that day. I usually don’t fill it out immediately, as I do my reading very early in the morning and I never know what I’m up against for the rest of the day.

As I read, I write quotes and other things I feel that are important in my non-fiction reading book and, usually, I’ll put one of the quotes or ideas into my Hobonichi either at the end of the day, or more likely, the next morning after my reading for that day. Colouring the quotes helps both to make the ideas more fun to look at and also to keep the idea that every whole is made up of parts and that you need to identify and realise those parts before starting.

This isn’t a very busy spread. I mostly spend the days relaxing after a crazy busy weekend and on the Jan 11 I watched a video from one of my favourite Youtube channels, Thomas Frank and his Four Steps to Learn a Skill Quickly video specifically. I wrote down the steps explained in the video here and also the source of where he got his ideas. This way I keep both a reminder for myself of what I thought was interesting but also a reminder where I got that information.

More Getting Things Done ideas on the left and just a recipe for my lunch on the right. I was trying out a new high veggies and low carb lunch. It was amazing but maybe a little bit too involved for normal afternoons.

This spread was actually pretty empty before I made my big Magic the Gathering spreads on them. This is all done in fountainpens. I spent most of the 17th going through my MTG cards as it was cold and that just really put me off doing much work for the day. I had to look up a couple of things for making my own playable deck, and I back-dated my information. I’m used to having my information all over the place because of my Bullet Journal from last year. So, putting a note on the 17th (and 18th) that the information is on this page, and then writing it on a separate sheet at the front of the book, means I get to use up pages that haven’t gotten much on them in a way that is useful.

As I mention above, I was afraid that I’d have a lot of empty pages and that that would put me off things. But this way I get to both keep most of my information in a single place (as I had with my Bullet Journal) and I get to use up (mostly) empty pages. And adding those colours, they’re so lovely!

Quotes, information, work. All sorts of things on a single page. Some ideas for future projects, all mixed together. And I may not be an artist or a journaler, but I’ve found that I love collecting information and just storing them in here really makes it interesting to look back and to make sure I don’t lose the information. The colours make it prettier than the information actually is, and that is perfectly fine with me!

A very pretty and a not-so-pretty page right next to each other. The 18th was also mostly spent on MTG, so I traced the logo and put that in the Hobonichi. On the 19th, I bought some new pens and inks and even a new brush pen, which I then played all over the page with… Lots of interesting lines and things to do with that brush.

Here is a step-by-step of me making the MTG logo on the left.

The pen is all fountain pens (the Platinum Preppy pens to be exact) and the pencil at the back is a multi-colour neon pencil that gave the whole page a bit more coherence.

And something I can’t live without anymore, my TV series page (no movies yet). All series I’m watching, this way I don’t lose track of where I am in a story. Especially handy when I binge-watch a new series and I can’t remember exactly where I was previously. I started doing this in my Bullet Journal and it was one of the things I really liked about it. The small grid in the Hobonichi may allow me to just one one or two pages for my series this year. Let’s see about that at some other time.

Overall, I’m sooo sooo happy with this planner! For now, I seem to be able to handle my pages filling pretty well and I’m so impressed with the paper that I’ve got an A6 Hobonichi coming my way for me to actually do some more artsy things in. That, on top of my memory book. Yes, more and more paper to fill for me.

And I’m excited!!

Are you sticking to your new planner yet? Or did you get so excited before you gave up? Share!

Love,

Rosa

#Hobonichi #Flipthrough for Jan 2017! #planners #stationery #ほぼ日 You know, you'd almost think there was such a thing as a life outside of the internet.