So the last 5 years or so have been very rough. Starting with our dog Neeko getting sick. He had lyme disease and it cost $650 between the tests to find out what he had and the medication. My father and brother refused to help me pay the bill or medicate Neeko. I used my Care Credit card and eventually paid it off. I finished graduate school with an MBA degree in 2014 and despite my efforts can't find work in my field. Any job I'd find that calls for my degree wants 10+ of experience in something I don't have. For example I remember seeing a job listing that called for an MBA, but wanted 12+ years of experience. At that time it was 2014 and I was going on 25 years old. I couldn't even legally work 12 years ago! If I applied for a job that was business related, but required only Bachelors degree, I MIGHT get called in for a job interview, but even then I've had the individual interviewing my in so many words tell me I was overqualified.
Early 2015, I talked to my cousin about my issue and he asked me why I didn't just do my small business full time and make it my career. I told I would actually love that (this being months after filling out more applications that I could count), but because I didn't have a job I didn't have the funds. I told him if money wasn't an issue I could book more conventions, hotels to stay at during those conventions, and transportation along with money for supplies to make inventory. He then suggested I get a credit card and just use the money from the conventions and online store sells to pay the bill. I took his advice and did so and got approved instantly. I kept the credit card hush-hush in fears that if I told my family I would potentially become a new source of income to them. However, even then that didn't work out. I find out shortly after receiving the card in the mail that my father hadn't paid the Verizon bill in a while and they wanted $400 and some change or so or else they'd shut off our service. I needed internet to run my business so that was one of the first transactions I made. I made some various other start up purchases such as business cards, a domain name, web hosting, some supplies, etc.
Around that time, my father had gotten surgery and got a new hip put in. Unfortunately, because he did not lose the recommended amount of weight, the new hip got infected and had to be removed. My father then had to check into a nursing home/rehab facility to recover (which was located less than 5 minutes away from our house by foot). Right after this happened, I had a convention I was booked for called Anime Next. My first Discover Card bill was due a few weeks afterwards. My minimum payment was $35, but I paid $450 on it. Business was going very well so I was making sure to pay well above the minimum payment. When I wasn't at a convention I was working making more inventory, coming up with new tshirt designs, managing the email newsletter and website, etc. While my father was away my younger brother who was 18 at the time had his girlfriend practically living in the house. I would buy groceries for the house with her in mind since I felt guilty to not give her food. My brother was working a regular job at the time in auto body collision, but despite the decent amount of money he made, he refused to help financially. He only wanted to spend his money on what he wanted whether it was food for himself (like buying steak, chicken, etc to BBQ and have friends over) or weed or whatever. Everything was coming out of my pocket. He wouldn't buy laundry detergent, dish soap, dog food, or even toilet paper. I even once bought a pack of TP and hid it in my room to make him believe that we were out to see if he'd go out and by some himself. A good week or so of him not having access to toilet paper he finally did.
In July/August I had a couple conventions, but my money was starting to run out from all the extra unexpected transactions I made because of my family including paying my sister and mother's phone bill (which was money I was planing on putting in savings). By August the Verizon bill had racked up again and I had to pay $451 for them to cut the service back on which pretty much ate up my profits from a convention I just got back from. By the end of August I had no choice but to get a regular job. I applied to McDonalds because despite not wanting to work there I knew I'd get hired because they have an insane turnover rate. My father asks my brother and I to handle the water bill while he's in rehab. I told him we could since it was only 1 bill (plus the Verizon bill I was paying which was roughly $150 a month) and there were 2 of us. Well, every time the bill was due I would have half, but my brother never had his and I would pay up to keep out water on. I complained to my father about my brother's irresponsibility, but he would just sigh and essentially blame both of us as if I wasn't my part, but in the end let my brother get off scott-free.
Working at McDonalds was a nightmare. I was mistreated and degraded. Having such happen to me while having an MBA degree that I worked my tail off for made it feel even worse. My father eventually came back home with a new hip in February of 2016 and I was happy he was back so maybe some order could be brought to the house as my brother was running a muck and never considered how it affected me. Such as blaring music at 2AM with his friends when I was trying to sleep to wake up at 7:45 to get dressed and walk 30 minutes to the bus stop to go to work. I was determined to move into my own place which was one of my goals from the start, but I needed to find a roomie.
In late 2017, I paid a fellow independent artist $720 for the first batch of plushies of my original characters to sell at conventions. I still haven't gotten them and she's full of excuses. I'm still waiting for a refund as she's been unresponsive, but her room mat has been paying refunds to the many other people she owes product to on her behalf. I also met my future roomie who was from Michigan around this time. She said her online boyfriend lived in Pittsburgh and she had been trying to move out here for a year. So March of 2018 we met up in person to look at the apartment, in April I applied for the apartment and we got accepted and I used nearly all the money I made at 2 recent conventions I vended at to pay my share of the deposit for the apartment, electricity, and other things such as U-Haul and so on. Somewhere in between our Verizon service got shut off. I am a YouTuber and Twitch streamer and was starting to get my feet wet. Even more so, my sister had just finished grad school and moved back home and found a job almost instantly (she went for social work ) and needed internet to do the at home portion of her work. I reluctantly paid Verizon $300 to cut back on the service. June 1st was the move in day. I was working over 50 hours a week between my job at McDonalds and my 2nd job at an independent senior home. Unfortunately, the closest bus stop to my apartment is a 45 minute walk. My McD's shift started at 7AM. I'd get up at about 5:50AM, get dressed and walk 30 minutes to the McDonalds. At 3PM I'd walk 15 minutes to the bus stop. My shift at my 2nd job (which was only 2 1/2 hours, but paid very well) was over at 7:30PM, but the bus came at a quarter after each hour so I'd have to catch the 8:15 bus. After roughly a 7 minute bus ride I'd have to walk 45 minutes home which meant I got home after 9PM. I'd eat, shower, and go to bed to do it all over again the next day. In September I put my 2 weeks in at McDonalds because I was being given regular hours at my 2nd job.
I met my eventual boyfriend in December of 2018 and we became official in May 2019. I love him with all my heart. He truly is a blessing. In late August of 2019 my roomie tells me she's moving back to Michigan as her grandmother is not well and she feels there's better opportunity and lower cost of living back in Grand Rapids (she also had broke up with her boyfriend a few months back). I asked her when she was leaving and she told me at the end of October which gave me only 2 months. I asked around and even made a post on my Twitter and a couple local Facebook groups such as Pittsburgh Furries and the unofficial Tekko Group (an anime convention in Pittsburgh) where I could find people I potentially already knew and/or had similar interests to me. Sadly, only 1 person answered my ad. She claimed she needed to move away from her family and that they were verbally abusive to her. I took a chance and met her in person and she seemed alright. The first day she moved in I realized she carried a stench. I shrugged it off and thought maybe she had just worked up a sweat from moving her stuff in. The next day, not only did she smell, but her room smelled terrible after just ONE day. My last roomie had 3 rabbits in her room and it NEVER smelled. In the nicest way possible I asked her if she could please get in the shower and asked if she needed me to loan her a towel or if she needed some body wash. I also asked if she could buy some glade plugins or something of the like because the smell had tumbled out into the rest of the apartment minus my room. Every month when it was time to pay the bills she'd start crying. She'd often tell me she'd send the money, but when she did it usually wouldn't be the full amount. When I was confront her about it she'd apologize and say she'd need to borrow it from someone. She'd have to borrow money a friend I've never seen before.
Not too long after moving in she brought her cat to live with us. She said her friend had been holding on to the cat for her because her grandmother doesn't like cats...or just doesn't like her cat. Anyway, she was a very messy person. She didn't practice personal hygiene despite being 25 years old. She left a mess everywhere she went (not clutter, a mess!). I would find open food sitting out in the kitchen, food wrappers on the floor, the toilet unflushed, dirty panties on the floor (which I waited to see how long they'd stay there and by the 3rd day I found them moved onto the back of the toilet and at that point I put on some gloves and threw them out ). The list goes on. She'd leave for days at a time and fill up a tupperware bowl with cat food. It would deplete long before she'd return and I'd fill it up so the cat didn't starve. Also, the liter box was quickly piling up. As this was going on my boyfriend was gradually losing his patience. A disagreement occurred when I mentioned seeing her with a book about withcraft (despite her telling her she wanted to start going to church with us) to my boyfriend. He told me I should tell her of my concerns and that he casts something incorrectly she could invite an unwanted entity. This lead to her getting angry and yelling at Sean who being a veteran wasn't fazed in the least and yelled back "I've been yelled at by drill sergeants. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that, *bad word*!" They had been cordial with each other since then as my boyfriend isn't one to hold a grudge. Not too long after that, she started not coming home again. Rent and utilities were due and I couldnt reach her. She had me blocked on Facebook and wouldnt respond to my calls, texts, or voicemails. After leaving a more stern voice mail on the weekend she finally called back and apologized and claimed she'd have to give it to me o her next check because her check "was crap" because she hadn't been going to work and had been coming in late and her job was threatening to fire her because of her lack of attendance. I asked her where she had been all week and she claimed she had been at her family's place (yes, the same family she claimed was so abusive which she had been visiting multiple times since she moved in with me). It takes 2 buses to get from where her family lives to where she works and she has no car.
Two weeks later I cant reach her again. I called the apartment and told them of the issue as the rent was late at this point. They told me to at least give them my half. I did so. I was over my boyfriend's that weekend. On Sunday night when he dropped me off we saw her in the window playing her PS4. Upon entering I confronted her about the money. She claimed she was waiting to see me in person to give me the money (even though she sends it via CashApp). I then tell her I've been trying to reach her for days now. She then claimed her phone was "messed up," but she'll send it. My boyfriend having heard enough of her excuses from the time she moved in told her she needed to be more responsible and the conversation got heated as he grilled her and they both started raising their voices. At some point she decides she doesn't want to hear anymore of this and gets up and freight trains my boyfriend. He initially backed away from her, but when she reached for her neck after rushing him he easily takes her to the ground and restrains her and tells me to call the police. At this point, she is screaming, crying, and begging for us not too while dialing her grandmother for help (notice all the sudden her phone isn't "messed up") . I call the police and they got here pretty quick. Sometime in between us going out to talk to them and one of the cops going in to get her side she fled the scene. One of the cops found her down the street and she claimed she didn't want to live here anymore. They told us to let her get her stuff and leave each other alone and let her leave when her grandmother arrived. They cops left. She went into her room, locked the door, and we could here her crying over the phone. About 10 minutes later, I hear people outside and started pounding on my windows. She comes out and comes back 15 seconds later with an older woman, her brother, and a female and points to my boyfriend who is sitting on the couch and yells "There he is!" and before I could react the brother and the female jumped on him and started hitting him repeatedly. The grandmother approaches me and accuses me of "putting my hands on her grandbaby" and proceeds to jab me in the face. It took every ounce of my fiber not to strike her back because she's a senior citizen and I work in a senior home. Plus, I knew this was going to turn into a legal situation and I'd rather be the victim than the defendant. The room mate actually stopped her grandmother claiming I never touched her. I called the police back and about 10 cop cars pulled up and they caught her and her family just as they were about to flee the scene in their car. The police took everyone except me to the station. Turned out the female was the mother and was driving on a suspended license! Essentially, my room mate had lied and said my boyfriend put his hands on her which was wasn't true which led to the assault on him. Despite them hitting him about 1,000 times he was barely injured at all. He had a black eye and a couple small cuts on his face. I asked him how wasn't beaten unrecognizably he answered "Hun, they can't fight." I never got her share of the bills for February or March nor her share of the rent for March. I had to use my entire stimulus check, plus money from my work paycheck to pay her share of March's rent, all of April's (the fiasco happened in late March), the transfer fees to move into a studio apartment, the deposit for the studio apartment (whatever the deposit for the current apartment didn't cover), cleaning supplies to try to get her ick out of the apartment, and other misc costs with moving. She came back and got a few things, but didnt get 80% of her stuff. I gave her a heads up via text I was moving out and she had to get her stuff. The apartment was going to charge me a clean up fee for anything left behind so in addition to cleaning my room and packing my stuff, I had to clean her room and throw her stuff out. I found missing dishes and wine glasses under her bed, a plate with chicken bones, and other gross things which added a good 3+ hours to the time it took me to move. I had to take all her stuff to the dumpster in the Uhaul to pitch.
Continued
Early 2015, I talked to my cousin about my issue and he asked me why I didn't just do my small business full time and make it my career. I told I would actually love that (this being months after filling out more applications that I could count), but because I didn't have a job I didn't have the funds. I told him if money wasn't an issue I could book more conventions, hotels to stay at during those conventions, and transportation along with money for supplies to make inventory. He then suggested I get a credit card and just use the money from the conventions and online store sells to pay the bill. I took his advice and did so and got approved instantly. I kept the credit card hush-hush in fears that if I told my family I would potentially become a new source of income to them. However, even then that didn't work out. I find out shortly after receiving the card in the mail that my father hadn't paid the Verizon bill in a while and they wanted $400 and some change or so or else they'd shut off our service. I needed internet to run my business so that was one of the first transactions I made. I made some various other start up purchases such as business cards, a domain name, web hosting, some supplies, etc.
Around that time, my father had gotten surgery and got a new hip put in. Unfortunately, because he did not lose the recommended amount of weight, the new hip got infected and had to be removed. My father then had to check into a nursing home/rehab facility to recover (which was located less than 5 minutes away from our house by foot). Right after this happened, I had a convention I was booked for called Anime Next. My first Discover Card bill was due a few weeks afterwards. My minimum payment was $35, but I paid $450 on it. Business was going very well so I was making sure to pay well above the minimum payment. When I wasn't at a convention I was working making more inventory, coming up with new tshirt designs, managing the email newsletter and website, etc. While my father was away my younger brother who was 18 at the time had his girlfriend practically living in the house. I would buy groceries for the house with her in mind since I felt guilty to not give her food. My brother was working a regular job at the time in auto body collision, but despite the decent amount of money he made, he refused to help financially. He only wanted to spend his money on what he wanted whether it was food for himself (like buying steak, chicken, etc to BBQ and have friends over) or weed or whatever. Everything was coming out of my pocket. He wouldn't buy laundry detergent, dish soap, dog food, or even toilet paper. I even once bought a pack of TP and hid it in my room to make him believe that we were out to see if he'd go out and by some himself. A good week or so of him not having access to toilet paper he finally did.
In July/August I had a couple conventions, but my money was starting to run out from all the extra unexpected transactions I made because of my family including paying my sister and mother's phone bill (which was money I was planing on putting in savings). By August the Verizon bill had racked up again and I had to pay $451 for them to cut the service back on which pretty much ate up my profits from a convention I just got back from. By the end of August I had no choice but to get a regular job. I applied to McDonalds because despite not wanting to work there I knew I'd get hired because they have an insane turnover rate. My father asks my brother and I to handle the water bill while he's in rehab. I told him we could since it was only 1 bill (plus the Verizon bill I was paying which was roughly $150 a month) and there were 2 of us. Well, every time the bill was due I would have half, but my brother never had his and I would pay up to keep out water on. I complained to my father about my brother's irresponsibility, but he would just sigh and essentially blame both of us as if I wasn't my part, but in the end let my brother get off scott-free.
Working at McDonalds was a nightmare. I was mistreated and degraded. Having such happen to me while having an MBA degree that I worked my tail off for made it feel even worse. My father eventually came back home with a new hip in February of 2016 and I was happy he was back so maybe some order could be brought to the house as my brother was running a muck and never considered how it affected me. Such as blaring music at 2AM with his friends when I was trying to sleep to wake up at 7:45 to get dressed and walk 30 minutes to the bus stop to go to work. I was determined to move into my own place which was one of my goals from the start, but I needed to find a roomie.
In late 2017, I paid a fellow independent artist $720 for the first batch of plushies of my original characters to sell at conventions. I still haven't gotten them and she's full of excuses. I'm still waiting for a refund as she's been unresponsive, but her room mat has been paying refunds to the many other people she owes product to on her behalf. I also met my future roomie who was from Michigan around this time. She said her online boyfriend lived in Pittsburgh and she had been trying to move out here for a year. So March of 2018 we met up in person to look at the apartment, in April I applied for the apartment and we got accepted and I used nearly all the money I made at 2 recent conventions I vended at to pay my share of the deposit for the apartment, electricity, and other things such as U-Haul and so on. Somewhere in between our Verizon service got shut off. I am a YouTuber and Twitch streamer and was starting to get my feet wet. Even more so, my sister had just finished grad school and moved back home and found a job almost instantly (she went for social work ) and needed internet to do the at home portion of her work. I reluctantly paid Verizon $300 to cut back on the service. June 1st was the move in day. I was working over 50 hours a week between my job at McDonalds and my 2nd job at an independent senior home. Unfortunately, the closest bus stop to my apartment is a 45 minute walk. My McD's shift started at 7AM. I'd get up at about 5:50AM, get dressed and walk 30 minutes to the McDonalds. At 3PM I'd walk 15 minutes to the bus stop. My shift at my 2nd job (which was only 2 1/2 hours, but paid very well) was over at 7:30PM, but the bus came at a quarter after each hour so I'd have to catch the 8:15 bus. After roughly a 7 minute bus ride I'd have to walk 45 minutes home which meant I got home after 9PM. I'd eat, shower, and go to bed to do it all over again the next day. In September I put my 2 weeks in at McDonalds because I was being given regular hours at my 2nd job.
I met my eventual boyfriend in December of 2018 and we became official in May 2019. I love him with all my heart. He truly is a blessing. In late August of 2019 my roomie tells me she's moving back to Michigan as her grandmother is not well and she feels there's better opportunity and lower cost of living back in Grand Rapids (she also had broke up with her boyfriend a few months back). I asked her when she was leaving and she told me at the end of October which gave me only 2 months. I asked around and even made a post on my Twitter and a couple local Facebook groups such as Pittsburgh Furries and the unofficial Tekko Group (an anime convention in Pittsburgh) where I could find people I potentially already knew and/or had similar interests to me. Sadly, only 1 person answered my ad. She claimed she needed to move away from her family and that they were verbally abusive to her. I took a chance and met her in person and she seemed alright. The first day she moved in I realized she carried a stench. I shrugged it off and thought maybe she had just worked up a sweat from moving her stuff in. The next day, not only did she smell, but her room smelled terrible after just ONE day. My last roomie had 3 rabbits in her room and it NEVER smelled. In the nicest way possible I asked her if she could please get in the shower and asked if she needed me to loan her a towel or if she needed some body wash. I also asked if she could buy some glade plugins or something of the like because the smell had tumbled out into the rest of the apartment minus my room. Every month when it was time to pay the bills she'd start crying. She'd often tell me she'd send the money, but when she did it usually wouldn't be the full amount. When I was confront her about it she'd apologize and say she'd need to borrow it from someone. She'd have to borrow money a friend I've never seen before.
Not too long after moving in she brought her cat to live with us. She said her friend had been holding on to the cat for her because her grandmother doesn't like cats...or just doesn't like her cat. Anyway, she was a very messy person. She didn't practice personal hygiene despite being 25 years old. She left a mess everywhere she went (not clutter, a mess!). I would find open food sitting out in the kitchen, food wrappers on the floor, the toilet unflushed, dirty panties on the floor (which I waited to see how long they'd stay there and by the 3rd day I found them moved onto the back of the toilet and at that point I put on some gloves and threw them out ). The list goes on. She'd leave for days at a time and fill up a tupperware bowl with cat food. It would deplete long before she'd return and I'd fill it up so the cat didn't starve. Also, the liter box was quickly piling up. As this was going on my boyfriend was gradually losing his patience. A disagreement occurred when I mentioned seeing her with a book about withcraft (despite her telling her she wanted to start going to church with us) to my boyfriend. He told me I should tell her of my concerns and that he casts something incorrectly she could invite an unwanted entity. This lead to her getting angry and yelling at Sean who being a veteran wasn't fazed in the least and yelled back "I've been yelled at by drill sergeants. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that, *bad word*!" They had been cordial with each other since then as my boyfriend isn't one to hold a grudge. Not too long after that, she started not coming home again. Rent and utilities were due and I couldnt reach her. She had me blocked on Facebook and wouldnt respond to my calls, texts, or voicemails. After leaving a more stern voice mail on the weekend she finally called back and apologized and claimed she'd have to give it to me o her next check because her check "was crap" because she hadn't been going to work and had been coming in late and her job was threatening to fire her because of her lack of attendance. I asked her where she had been all week and she claimed she had been at her family's place (yes, the same family she claimed was so abusive which she had been visiting multiple times since she moved in with me). It takes 2 buses to get from where her family lives to where she works and she has no car.
Two weeks later I cant reach her again. I called the apartment and told them of the issue as the rent was late at this point. They told me to at least give them my half. I did so. I was over my boyfriend's that weekend. On Sunday night when he dropped me off we saw her in the window playing her PS4. Upon entering I confronted her about the money. She claimed she was waiting to see me in person to give me the money (even though she sends it via CashApp). I then tell her I've been trying to reach her for days now. She then claimed her phone was "messed up," but she'll send it. My boyfriend having heard enough of her excuses from the time she moved in told her she needed to be more responsible and the conversation got heated as he grilled her and they both started raising their voices. At some point she decides she doesn't want to hear anymore of this and gets up and freight trains my boyfriend. He initially backed away from her, but when she reached for her neck after rushing him he easily takes her to the ground and restrains her and tells me to call the police. At this point, she is screaming, crying, and begging for us not too while dialing her grandmother for help (notice all the sudden her phone isn't "messed up") . I call the police and they got here pretty quick. Sometime in between us going out to talk to them and one of the cops going in to get her side she fled the scene. One of the cops found her down the street and she claimed she didn't want to live here anymore. They told us to let her get her stuff and leave each other alone and let her leave when her grandmother arrived. They cops left. She went into her room, locked the door, and we could here her crying over the phone. About 10 minutes later, I hear people outside and started pounding on my windows. She comes out and comes back 15 seconds later with an older woman, her brother, and a female and points to my boyfriend who is sitting on the couch and yells "There he is!" and before I could react the brother and the female jumped on him and started hitting him repeatedly. The grandmother approaches me and accuses me of "putting my hands on her grandbaby" and proceeds to jab me in the face. It took every ounce of my fiber not to strike her back because she's a senior citizen and I work in a senior home. Plus, I knew this was going to turn into a legal situation and I'd rather be the victim than the defendant. The room mate actually stopped her grandmother claiming I never touched her. I called the police back and about 10 cop cars pulled up and they caught her and her family just as they were about to flee the scene in their car. The police took everyone except me to the station. Turned out the female was the mother and was driving on a suspended license! Essentially, my room mate had lied and said my boyfriend put his hands on her which was wasn't true which led to the assault on him. Despite them hitting him about 1,000 times he was barely injured at all. He had a black eye and a couple small cuts on his face. I asked him how wasn't beaten unrecognizably he answered "Hun, they can't fight." I never got her share of the bills for February or March nor her share of the rent for March. I had to use my entire stimulus check, plus money from my work paycheck to pay her share of March's rent, all of April's (the fiasco happened in late March), the transfer fees to move into a studio apartment, the deposit for the studio apartment (whatever the deposit for the current apartment didn't cover), cleaning supplies to try to get her ick out of the apartment, and other misc costs with moving. She came back and got a few things, but didnt get 80% of her stuff. I gave her a heads up via text I was moving out and she had to get her stuff. The apartment was going to charge me a clean up fee for anything left behind so in addition to cleaning my room and packing my stuff, I had to clean her room and throw her stuff out. I found missing dishes and wine glasses under her bed, a plate with chicken bones, and other gross things which added a good 3+ hours to the time it took me to move. I had to take all her stuff to the dumpster in the Uhaul to pitch.
Continued
