Anti-Negativity For President!

Tuesdays are lame, ya know it? I came in today with a super awesome cup of coffee that I squirted way too many assorted flavor shots into, and sat down at my desk to look at today's schedule on my handy dandy calendar that keeps me where I'm supposed to be....and woe is me, waaaaah waaaaah.....blank. 

I'm sure by now y'all know that a blank calendar day means I'm gonna write something for your reading pleasure...yep. And today, I'm gonna switch gears. I'm gonna tell you all about the positive things that I have going for me right now, just to keep the pace with my current anti-negativity for president campaign. 

Thursday, I sent out quite a few apologies to people that I care about for things that I may have done or haven't done when I should've. I got very warm and welcoming responses from everyone and I feel like I'm back on good terms with everyone again. That in itself took a great deal of stress and negativity off my shoulders, and very well may have been the best idea I've had this year. :) 

Friday night, a slew of us went up to the old football field in Eminence to watch Wyatt play in his first high school game. It always makes me nervous when it's his first year and he's the little guy again. His first game of peewee scared me, his first game of middle school scared me...by no means is he a "little guy" this year...but even still, I was nervous for him. Lucky for my nerves, he did super awesome! He played quite a bit, and I got to hear "sacked by #58, Wyatt Owens" over the load speaker. That's probably my most favorite thing ever, hearing those speakers call his name! Warriors won 56-20...I scored a picture with my boy and I tore outta there happy as hell.

Saturday, I slept in and then went to meet Christopher for lunch. I came home and took a nap until he got home from work, then we met up with Jdale and Hdawg and took our happy asses to the swimmin' hole. That was super time until the river monster nibbled at my leg and almost threw me into cardiac arrest. After that, we went to Coley & Ricky's house for dinner. Steaks & taters always make my belly happy. It was very nice to spend time with my Coley. I love her and I have missed her face. :) 

Sunday, I woke up and my whole house wasn't upside down...just the bedroom. I started laundry, and then mowed the yard. This time, the lawn mower didn't break and I successfully completed the whole yard! Then we went to my Nana's house for Obie's birthday dinner...and let me tell ya! We are just one big batch of crazies. I'm not sure what had us going more, Obie's description of his hemorrhoid, or Aunt Brenda's story about the headboard! And plus, there were fives cakes...and who doesn't love cake? :)

According to everyone that I've spoke too, "The Saga Of Tesla Nicole" has a new chapter that we will label "Drug Court Program". It's gonna be hard for her to handle, mind you. They require a lot out of people, but everything they require will do her nothing but good. It's another golden opportunity for her to get her life straight, and I hope like hell she takes it and runs with it this time. Fingers crossed that she gets accepted soon so she can come home. 

On a negative note, we had a sneaky creeper at the house yesterday. Not sure what their intentions were...but they definitely opened all of our doors and let my Diesel Ray out. On a positive note, someone we knew drove by and noticed that something wasn't right, so we knew almost immediately. I'm not and will never be prepared to loose my best friend, that dog has been by my side for almost 12 years. Knowing that he was as close to that busy road as he was and would have been loose for almost 8 hours by himself just honestly gives me the shits. But thankfully, everything was fine. Diesel was fine, the house was still intact, and nothing is missing that we've noticed. Gonna look at the good instead of the bad here too. 

Yesterday we stopped and helped a guy that had run out of gas on the side of the road. Picked him up, took him to get our gas can, donated $10 worth of gas, and 3/4 of a quart of oil. Poor guy had been on the side of the road for 2 hours and his phone was almost dead. Chalk up another good deed from the creatures of Booker Pike. Good karma, here we come!

A lady that I work with came up to me yesterday telling me about how she had a storage war of her own going down in Mt. Washington, then she says to me: "....but my homeowner's is going to cover it." Whoa...stop the presses! Guess who is a homeowner and has homeowner's insurance that covers personal property? This girl! So, I contacted my insurance and filed a claim. The adjuster is supposed to be calling me either today or tomorrow to let me know if my insurance covered things stored off-site, and if so for how much. What I'm hoping will happen here is that my insurance won't pay it, and will instead of go after Storage Gary's insurance because he is, after all, liable. If this works out in my favor it will take me out of the battle. And I'm tired of this battling, so again - fingers crossed for a positive outcome!

"Hey, we're gonna leave this all behind us baby - wait and see; We're headed for a better life, you and me; We're gonna break the chains that bind and finally - we'll be free; We're gonna be the ones that have it all, you and me; Just hold on tight now baby...."  - Keith Urban

My Soul Mates: Chris Suter & Jessica Dale

"There is no such thing as the perfect soul mate. If you meet someone and you think they are perfect, you better run as fast as you can in the other direction 'cause your soul mate is the person that pushes your buttons, pisses you off on a regular basis, and makes you face your shit." - Madonna

I'm currently on a mission to rid my life of negative bullshit, and I'm sure you all have caught on to that. I've been righting wrongs, doing good things, and mending relationships that need mending. I'm not doing this because I feel like I don't have enough, or that I'm not happy or satisfied with what I have...I'm doing it because I'm not a negative person, and I don't like negative things or situations that bring me down. Being on good terms with everyone that I care about is a step in the positive direction, and that's pretty convenient because that's exactly where I plan to end up. 

Now, I've always been one to joke about "soul mates"....declaring Stinky Charlie as my "vehicular soul mate"...and my Chuck Taylor's as my "feet soul mates"...and so on and so forth. Pretty much anything that is my favorite, is my soul mate in whatever category I stick it in. Following that pattern, I'm sure you can guess that when I say I've been blessed with two soul mates, Chris Suter & Jessica Dale, I mean that they are indeed my one love and my best friend. 

I feel like after a solid day of telling people that I love them and that I'm sorry for anything I may have done to cause distance between us, that I need to take the time to give a big huge shout out to the ones who have stood strong right beside me for the last year. Even when the times were tough and they didn't like me, these two never left. :)

Looking back on the last year, it's definitely been just the three of us during all the good times and bad. We give each other shit, we make fun of each other, we piss each other off, we fight, we cry, we challenge each other constantly...and one of us has even been known to bite the other two's toes but I won't point any elbows! We're pretty much a hot ass mess, but one thing is for sure - there never is a dull moment. I love these two people with all my heart, and no matter how much they argue and fight - they love each other too. To hear Chris tell it, Jdale is annoying and ridiculous - but then she gets sick and he gets her a cold rag for her head. To hear Jdale tell it, Chris is lame and sensitive - but then he gets a day off work and she can't wait to get to our house and hang out with him. There have been times when we could have just as soon shot each other than anything - like the time Chris got us stuck in wet grass and ruined our river day...or the time that I had to move shit out of my trailer and it was 110 degrees, but not matter what the situation may be - we're always there for each other. At this point it seems like if one of the three of us isn't there, something is missing and we're trying to find it. I'm extremely blessed to have these two people in my life and I don't intend on neglecting them in any way shape or form. My life wouldn't complete if I didn't have my soul mates. 

I just wanted to put it out there that I am extremely appreciative of these two people, and that I love them with all my heart. I know for a fact that these two will stand up and block bullshit off my ass in the time of need, because they've proven themselves time and time again and I consider these two to be my first string players! There will never be another combination of people that have a similar relationship to the one that the three of us share, and I'm very lucky to be a third of this trio. The only way we could be cooler would be if our names were Larry, Curly & Moe......or Simba, Pumbaa & Timon. :) (Jdale would be Pumbaa, because she farts.)

I guess that's all I have to say today, it's about time for me to make like a tree and leave work! Y'all stayed tuned, if there is anything groundbreaking I'll be sure to report! :)

Happy Weekend, folks! 

My Fall From Grace.

"Well, my fall from grace was a sight to see. Good turned to bad, and bad turned to misery. I found out what it is and what it's not, and all I asked for sure ain't what I got." - Blackberry Smoke

I'm not one who is normally bummed out, and if I get that way I usually don't stay that way for long. It seems recently though, I've been hit with an abundance of shit, and it's been weighing on my mind a lot more than it used to. I'm having a hard time letting shit roll off my back. And on top of that, somehow I've gotten myself into this mindset of "less is more"...thinking that the less of other people's crap I had to deal with the better off I'd be. However what I didn't take into account was that also meant when I was in need of someone to deal with my crap - there wouldn't be a huge support system there for me to fall back on. 

I can't quite put my finger on where I came up with this grand idea, or maybe I can - but that's not the point. The point is, I've never in my life looked at someone and said, "Dang, I sure don't have many friends." I mean hell, I'm the ultimate party planner...I've always been able to throw some shit together and pack a house. But today, I probably couldn't even pack a shed if I had one. What's sad is that it took finding myself in a real life mess that was better than fiction to realize that, you know what? I was wrong. Less is not more, more is more. Taken from a recently made wave: you can never have enough people that care about you. 

"It's gonna be important that you have your star player in line. Then you gonna have to make sure that you got your team set up, and some of us been forgetting to set up our team. You gonna need people that you know for a fact will jump in a block bullshit off your ass in a time of crisis. You gonna need that." - Katt Williams

And now that I've realized that I've alienated myself from everyone for no good damn reason, I've decided that I have to do what I have to do to fix that. Last night, while I was laying awake thinking about all this, and trying to figure out how in the world to go about fixing all that I've broken, I grabbed my phone to see what time it was...it was 3:00 am, and I had a text message from my "swister" telling me that she saw something that reminded her of me, and that even though we don't see each other often, she wanted me to know that I was still in her heart. She even signed it with x's & o's. That text message alone was all the motivation I needed...I read it and thought about how rarely I see her, then I thought about how dearly I love her, then I thought about how I need to get up off my ass and fix not only my relationship with her, but all the relationships that I've neglected. 

With all that being said, many of you are about to get a personal written apology for anything I may or may not have done that has caused us to either grow apart or stop talking. Whether or not these apologies make a difference to you or not is up to you, of course....but after they are sent I'll at least know that I tried and that I've made it known that I am working on getting my star player in line....and that I'm willing to play on your teams again. 

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you grow." - William Shakespeare

Thank God It's Monday! (Said No One, Ever.)

Meanwhile, back at headquarters...It's Monday again. Which is a change of pace, being as I normally do these updates on Fridays - but a little change never hurt nobody. I don't guess there is anything groundbreaking to report. I performed a small miracle at the house yesterday, it's officially all nice and clean and the laundry is done (minus the load of towels that I have to fold today, woe is me) . We also made a new house rule that I'm pretty darn excited about: No dirty dishes allowed in the sink! You rinse it, and you put it in the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is full, you put a tab in there and start it. If you are the unlucky one that gets the dishwasher full of clean dishes, you put them up! And if you don't follow said house rule, not only do the other two of us get to talk to shit about it, but you get to clean a bathroom - including the toilet! Oh boy, this is gonna be a big time. I can already feel it. :) 

Spent all day Saturday meandering around the State Fair with my two guys, and today my damn leg muscles hurt (because I'm morbidly obese and grossly out of shape). But anyhow, we had a big time. We saw a cow with the biggest head ever, may have been the biggest cow head in the state but I don't think they judge that. We saw a bunch of mean ol' headbuttin' goats too, but we weren't sure if they were goats or sheep at first...because for some reason they didn't have ears? Anyone know why a farmer dude would cut the ears off a goat? Lord have mercy. Chris tried to headbutt one, but it just looked at him like he was crazy old man (which is exactly what he is!). We saw rabbits too: big ol' fluffy ones, little bitty velvet ones, and ones that had manes like a lion (however the sign on the cage said it had a "main" and not a "mane"...I noticed, but what can ya do? sigh.) 

We even saw the Easter Bunny in the flesh, I shit you not! It had laid an egg and everything! That was pretty fantastic! :) BUT THEN...we had to go to the damn poultry section, like who gives a damn about a pigeon? Not this girl! But the guys wanted to go, so I was all tough about it and entered the evil danger zone of the damn birds. "Oh, they won't hurt you..." they said. Like I haven't heard that line before! Hmph! But yes, I ventured out in to the great unknown of the birds. They all thoroughly creeped me out therefore I didn't retain any details...but I DO remember that Christopher decided to stick his finger in a cage with an evil bird...and it tried to "not hurt" him, ha!...he jerked his hand out real fast and accidentally opened the DAMN door on the cage, and the bird tried to GET OUT! I was 25 steps away in a matter of no time, and had the door sighted in! UGH! Stupid birds! Then we rode some pretty fantastic rides. One that I didn't know whether to laugh or scream on, so I did both...and another one that spun us upside down...it wasn't as much of a thriller as the first one, but the buggy that Damion (and a random pretty girl) were strapped into across from us stayed upside down FOREVER! I guess it was the weight difference or something, but it was INSANE! Our little thrill seeker didn't mind though... :)

I have to go to the court house today to get what I need to file a civil suit against Storage Gary. No one seems to want to help poor little people who pay their bills on time when some crooked fartknocker hits them with them short end of a stick. But you know what, I bet if I walked my bitter ass into ACB and started punching people in the face the State Trooper would write a report on that! And I bet the prosecuting attorney would take time out of her precious schedule to throw the damn book at me too! Good thing I'm not a real violent person, huh? Piss. (and let the record show that was a hypothetical statement, I don't intend to or plan on punching anyone in the face...) Anyhow, I called the court house the other day to find out who I needed to see and what I needed to do to get the civil suit rolling, and the woman said to me..."I can't tell you that, that's legal advice and I'm not allowed to give it." Lmfao, are you kidding me? Good thing Google isn't an asshole, huh? According to Google, I just have to walk in and say, "I need all necessary paperwork to file a civil suit." and they will give it to me. What the hell, man? Some things, I just don't understand. Probably never will. 

In other news, I think the driver of the Bad Karma Bus is lost out on Booker Pike. I feel like they just keep driving by, issuing ass whippin's at number 29. I think I may need to volunteer my time somewhere, or do a good deed or something to turn this shit around? Any ideas? I know I've done my fair share of dirt, but craaaaaaaaaaaap....enough is enough already! I've been on a good run of bad luck for a damn good while now....and I'm oveeeeeeeeeeer it. I feel like it's about to exceed the limits of my medication, true story! Anyhow, I'm gonna do something good for someone first chance I get. 

"The Saga Of Tesla Nicole" continues on and about. She is still in jail, didn't get out on Thursday as planned and don't go back to court for another couple of weeks. Which means that dear little sister of mine turned 21 in county jail on Friday. This whole time I've been all "tough love" about it, honestly thinking that serving this time isn't going to do her anything but good and teach her the lesson that sometimes, consequences to do occur that Nana can't save her from. But, I'll admit, it did hurt my feelings that she was in jail on her birthday. And as far as we knew, she was going get to come home the day before so I didn't even mail her a card. Maybe my good deed for the day should be to make her a belated birthday card and mail it to her...I'm sure that wouldn't hurt the morale any. Or maybe I should write her a letter? Hmmm....

And y'all know how I randomly find out things about myself while I'm sitting here at my desk makin' them dollas and contemplating life...like how I can tell you every extension that belongs to a name, but I can't do it the other way around? Well, ya know what else I can't seem to do? Pronounce the number 50 without sounding like a bumpkin. No matter how hard I try to enunciate the second f in fifty, it always sounds like I say "...you have a call on line twenty-five fiddy" when I page over head. I'm really not that rough around the edges, people. Seriously. 

And last but not least, I would just like to say that I have the most amazing boyfriend in the whole wide world. Good or bad, I just can't seem to get enough of the guy. I guess it's because he challenges me everyday, or maybe it just because he's show-stopping gorgeous. Either way, he's my favorite person in the history of ever. And I'm not just saying that because he cooked me cinnamon rolls while I was watching Breaking Bad last night, I really mean it. :)

Risky Business: ACB Storage - Eminence, KY

One would think that something as common as renting a storage building from an established company in order to safely store your belongings wouldn't be considered taking a huge risk, but if you're renting a unit from ACB Storage in Eminence, that isn't exactly the case. You may just find yourself up a creek without a paddle...or a bed to sleep in for that matter.

In February, I moved in with my boyfriend and rented unit #59 from ACB. Being as my boyfriend's house was already furnished, I put everything I had into that unit...minus my summer clothes, my couch and my kitchen table. Everything that I'd accumulated and purchased since I've lived on my own went into that unit. I bought a plastic storage bin just for the items of mine that had sentimental value that I wanted to keep from getting wet & damaged, made sure that it was placed up off the floor and as far as I knew, my things were in good shape and safe. Now, I did have a couple of complaints during the time my things were there, such as a car being parked directly in front of my unit preventing me from getting in a few times, and then a couple of weeks ago I attempted to take my desk there and the gates were closed a half hour before they should have been according to my contract, but nothing too crazy. 

At least until Sunday, July 28^th  when received a call from a friend of mine stating that my canceled checks were blowing about in the breeze in ACB's parking lot. She didn't know my unit number to be able to check and see if it was still locked and safe, but she encouraged me to go check it out myself. I immediately thought, "Oh crap, did I forget to pay them this month?!" and got online to look at my bank account. Upon finding the transactions for each and every one of the 6 months that I had rented the unit, I went to ACB to check on my things. Sure enough, the lock was gone, the unit was empty.

At this point, we had no idea if the unit had been robbed or if the owners had cleaned it out. All we knew was that everything I owned was gone. We eventually got the cell phone number of Gary Cook, the owner of ACB Storage, and got him on the phone. He was not cooperative, stating that he didn't work on Sundays, and that we'd have to come and talk to him the next morning. Receiving no help what-so-ever from Gary, we called the State Police. Upon their arrival, they were able to get Gary back on the phone and find out that he had indeed, ordered my unit to be cleaned out the previous Thursday because, according to him, we owed him over $2,000. (ACB Storage failed to mention this to me upon my calling three days prior due to the locked gates.) Of course, having the unit since Feb. 14^th at $50 per month, it was impossible to owe him $2,000. He was nice enough upon talking to the State Trooper, to allow us to go look in the dumpsters for anything that was salvageable. He told the State Trooper that we could meet with him the next morning to, in his words, "work something out". 

We drove around to the back of the property, and sure enough found my life in this Gary Cook's dumpster. And it wasn't just thrown away; it was all destroyed, busted up and broken, and thrown away. The tub that I had purchased to keep my sentimental items safe, was opened, and dumped into the bottom of the dumpster. My checks, including account number, routing number, address and phone number were laid out beside the dumpster for the world to see. We spent 4 hours that night in that gross dumpster trying to find the things that I couldn't replace, the filing cabinet that held my diploma, tons of records, and anything that had my personal information on it. Of course, after three days in a dumpster, all the things that I did find were damaged, and my filing cabinet wasn't anywhere to be found.  

On Monday, we went to meet with Gary Cook to "work something out". He expressed his sympathies, apologized and explained that while the record and receipt books were correct, there was a "glitch" in his computer system that caused my unit to show up in a report due to the fact that the people who rented the unit before me owed them money. He told us to think about what was lost, come up with a dollar figure and that he would make it right. Upon being asked about the things that were in the unit that didn't make it to the dumpster, he stated that he had let people go through my things, and that he couldn't account for those items because the property were the dumpsters are isn't gated, and anyone could have taken my things. Before leaving we asked him to ask his employees if they had any idea where my filing cabinet could have ended up...we were told that "it was behind the dumpster". The employee walked outside, and within five minutes was back with my dented up filing cabinet, still full of papers that weren't wet like everything else of mine that was in and around the dumpster. (And for the record, upon checking through almost 100 pictures that we took the night before, there was no sign of my filing cabinet anywhere close to that dumpster.) Gary was nice enough that day to refund the $50 I had paid him two weeks earlier that should have kept me in good standing until August 15^th. Bless his heart. 

Monday afternoon we contacted and spoke with a lawyer, just to get advice on how to go about putting things together for Gary to show him what was lost and the values when we returned with our request. The lawyer advised us to find pictures of my things in good condition in my house, take pictures of my things destroyed in the dumpster, and to go online and find something comparable to replace it with. He said to total all of that up and go back organized and ready. That's exactly what we did. Not taking into account the things that I couldn't replace, and not including a value on the sentimental things that were lost & destroyed, not even being ridiculous and picking super expensive replacements for the things that we could actually replace - the damages totaled a little over $8,000.

 

Wednesday afternoon, we went back to see Gary with our itemized list and pictures just as we were advised to do. He took one look at the list and said we were asking for way too much and slung the list back across the desk at us. He said that he was willing to go $1500, and not a dime over.(I wonder if he would be okay with me walking into his house, destroying everything he owned for no reason whatsoever, and handing him $1500 to make up for it? I think not!) We politely gathered up our information, let him know that our lawyer would be in contact with him, and walked out.

We met with our lawyer yesterday, and we are educated and advised on the best way to about getting the most that we can back from this guy. Our lawyers best advice was to put as much pressure on them as we could and speak to the county attorney about a possible criminal case. We plan on doing exactly that, but until then we intend on spreading the word in every way we can. 

• please visit for proof (pictures, contract & receipts): https://www.facebook.com/riskybusinessacbstorage
  
• please email troubleshooter@wave3.com and ask them for investigative reporting in Eminence, KY!
  
• please inform anyone you know that does business with this company that they need to call 502-845-1304 immediately to check on their accounts!