Because I don't complain about Horizon enough...

It has been nearly a month since I last bitched about our rental company, so I figured I'm due. The latest incident would be my eviction notice.

Two days ago we received a letter in the mail saying that we were late on half of our rent payment and were being charged a late fee. We both check our bank accounts and realize that they have indeed cashed both of our checks for last month. However, it appears that they only recorded Kate's payment. We then began to wonder if we somehow fell a month behind, but I figured they were the type of company that wouldn't wait an entire month to notify us of late rent.

They indeed are not the type to waste time. Yesterday they served us an eviction notice for five days. (Glad they gave us any time at all to sort this matter out). So, I called 5 times throughout the day (starting at 9am) leaving two separate messages trying to get anyone to call me back concerning the matter. Finally, someone called me back at 4pm. I failed to get the call because I was working out, but they told me just to email them my bank statement with the cash check. So, I did and responded that I would like someone to respond to my email immediately. Obviously, this was too much to ask.

So, I called back twice again this morning. Finally, good ole Mary called me back and informed me that they had indeed received my email and that her manager had responded to it. I said that I did not receive an email, and asked if everything was taken care of. She said that it was, and that they would resend the email. Of course, I still haven't received the email, but at least it should all be taken care of... or at least I'll cross my fingers.

Clearly I never recommend renting from Horizon Realty in Chicago.

Update: Horizon has finally got off their ass and done something. My roof is finally being fixed. Glad that only took 5 months. Plus, I guess I should be happy that there hasn't been any major rain or snow since then. I wonder if we'll ever get them to repaint the ceiling? My guess is no.

If He Did It.

I'm sorry, but who writes a book about a murder they allegedly didn't commit... especially when the rest of the world already believes they're guilty. Apparently our good friend OJ. He wrote a new book entitled "If He Did It" and will have an interview by the same name on Fox. The saddest part is, I'm sure this book will likely make the best seller list and the TV show will have record viewership. And, I think OJ had finally reached the point where his name was out of the media (or at least on a regular basis), but I guess he made it back to the top of the list now.

For the single folks: Apparently there is a new love cruise that takes place out of Shanghai. The only catch- the men have to be rich and the women have to be good looking. So far only 20 men have signed up. It's amazing how much more news WGN plays before the 7:00 hour but once you get to 7 we reach the good stories, such as this one.

They say a little water will never kill you, but I'm sure pissed about it. I forgot to mention this weekend that we had a leak in our apartment. Actually, we have 2 rather large leaks, one of which is in the middle of my bedroom. As some of you may remember, we also had a leak this summer that came out through the smoke detector. Now while this may be documented on my blog, my landlords seem to have no recollection of the incident. In all honesty, I think they thought that I made the whole thing up and that our maintenance man is senile enough to not be credible. When I finally got a hold of Horizon (4 days later when they didn't return Kate's messages) they didn't seem the least bit concerned that the roof of one of their apartment buildings is severely leaking. Ray seems to think that they might be able to fix it by simply filling in the 2 places. However, as everyone fails to see, there are dark spots all over the apartment that look like water damage. Plus, if there are 2 spots, the whole damn roof is probably shiesty. As you can see, I'm rather fired up by this whole situation. I think it's mostly due to the fact that I pay a shitload of money to live here and I find this unacceptable. Plus, who knows what will happen when we start to get snow and ice sitting up there, which is bound to happen in the next week or two.

What comes first, smoke or fire?

Well kids, for most of the summer I have been quite good about not going out during the week. I’ve managed to keep it to the occasional happy hour. However, last night I decided to break the good streak and met Doug out after the traditional happy hour. This then turned into Kate and me visiting another bar afterwards to meet Erik. I’m now sitting here remembering why it is that one shouldn’t go out till 2 if they have to work at 8:30. I also remembered how crappy it is to stand on the El when you’re hungover and to ride w/o an ipod (yes, I have become one of those people). Thank God that I have a tall glass of coffee and that I only have half days on Fridays; I’m quite certain that I wouldn’t make it the whole day at this point.

On other news, we’ve had yet another bizarre happening with our apt. Wednesday night I was sitting on my couch enjoying a nice peaceful evening when all of a sudden the smoke detector went off. It began with continuous short beeps that soon turned into a long continuous beep. Then… water started to pour out of it, which muffled the beep into a low whistling sound. At this point, I just sat there, unsure of what to do. So, I called Kate, even though I knew she wouldn’t have an answer either. Her suggestion was to try and find our maintenance man (who is 75 and absolutely adorable--- I don’t know what the 2 of us would do w/o him). Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find him, but I did assure myself that the building was not on fire and there was simply something wrong with our apartment. So, I called Ray (the maintenance guy), then called our emergency line, and then called my mom. Obviously she didn’t know what to do, so put good ole trusty Bill on 3-way. Bill’s suggestion was to unhook the detector, assuming it was battery operated and not wired. So, I moved the futon and couch and then climbed up there and unhooked it. Of course it was wired so I am now touching something electrical that still has water dripping down it. Since this stopped the whistling, Bill said to just leave it and wait for someone to come fix it.

Well 2 hours later, no one had called our stopped by, and I decide to take a shower. Of course, just as soon as I get shampoo in my hair I hear little old Ray calling “Debbie, Debbie.” So, I rush out of the shower to find Ray on a step latter changing our kitchen lightbulbs that had burnt out (I had one done but the other 2 were hard to get off). He then apologizes profusely for coming in while I was in the shower. I tell him to worry. Anyways, he then looks at the smoke detector and is quite puzzled b/c in all his years he had never seen something like this. He ended up taking it down and wrapping all the wires in electrical tape because he didn’t want anything to happen to us girls. Just before he left he mentioned that when he heard my message he immediately thought I’d gone crazy b/c it was simply impossible for the smoke detector to be pouring water. Obviously, he was wrong.

Two days later… our reality company has yet to call us back, even though I left a detailed message on the emergency line. Perhaps they too think I’m crazy.

A Drunken Bum?

Well today began rather interestingly, or I guess you could say yesterday ended rather interestingly. Last night Kate came and woke me up around 11:50 because there was a bum passed out in the stairs in front of our apartment door. She came across him on her way home & got scared so she went back down and came up the back entrance. So, we debated about what to do for awhile and finally decided on the police. The police decided to call an ambulance and within minutes the sirens were roaring. The paramedics never came to talk to us, but we did see the bum leave the building, he was probably just cold. Nonetheless, the whole thing was pretty creepy and I think our landlord had better fix the front door today. I guess this probably isn't a story I should share with mom or grandma.

On a lighter note, I got my grades back yesterday and I managed to pass all my classes!! I guess that means I'm in it for the long hall.