Safe as Houses

On saturday, Im sitting on my booty in my pj’s, watching movies with a friend.

Brandus has gone down to Denver to see his folks, who are AGAIN in town to deal with Mimi’s estate stuff.

Krispy and I have gotten sucked into the BSG miniseries, and are watching avidly as Cylons destroy the world and most of humanity.

Phone rings.

Its brandus. Hi, Brandus!

“Do we want a house?” What? “Do we want a house? Mimi’s house, my parents want to give it to us!” Um.. “No, they’re serious.” Ok, sure, I’d love a house.

Click. Return to Cylon central.

Phone rings. I roll my eyes at krispy, who laughs, because she’s gone through the days when brandus calls me seventeen times a day.

Its Brandus.

“Are we sure we want a house? They said if we want it, its ours!” Sure, but im not going to get excited over something i dont think you’re parents will actually do.

Click, Cylons, phone rings. Lather, rinse, repeat.

By this time, i can HEAR his parents squeeing with excitement in the background, yelling “Come down and see your new house!”

So, krispy heads home, i gather all of my stuff and head to denver.

On sunday, they walk us around the house. we discuss things with Brandus’s mom’s brother, as half of the estate is his.

“Sure, no problem, they can have the house if you buy my half out. sure.”

By this point, im still not believing it, because im not stupid and ive been through the whole “sure! we’ll do that/buy that/give that to you!” that the folks do every few months. which usually results in nothing.

and, i can tell, their feelings are hurt, because im not excited.

but, they are insistant.

“This is YOUR house now! Look! A shed where you can make soap! Craft room! living room! washerdryercouchkitchenhardwoodfloors!”

so, yeah, i start thinking it will happen.

“Your house! Move in tomorrow!”

I bring up something. What about the taxes? They’ll be expensive, and we cant afford them!

“Oh, no problem! All taken care of! YOUR HOUSE! Have a key to YOUR HOUSE!”

So yeah. brandus and i get all squeey and start talking about paint and light fixtures and stuff. and i have a key and a garage door opener, and life is good.

we have a house. and it was free!

This is all very exciting. we call my parents, my sisters, my best friend, its all very cool, because DUDE, we have a house!

we are GIDDY.

Brandus isnt even too broken hearted about not getting into his PhD program.

And then, naturally, comes Tuesday. I come home from dance, brandus is in bed and grunts a hello. i go to bed, he accuses me of hogging the covers and keeping him awake. i figure, uhoh, something happened. i figured it had to do with grad school, and go to sleep.

the next morning, my phone rings, its brandus, he left early.

“Dont tell your boss you’re moving.”

um ok. why?

we dont have the house. you know, OUR HOUSE with the keys and the garage door opener and OUR HOUSE?

yeah, sorry. taxes! you guys shouldnt have gotten so excited! its not like this is OUR fault!

im still very bitter, and im not happy with his folks, because hell, they told us and told us. and im mad at myself, because i know better.

So, we are houseless. and grad school-less. and my boss just accepted a new job.

so, our lives are upside down at the moment. in less than a week, we’ve been turned on our heads.

Blah.