Twice Around The Park

I've been keeping up with everyone's blogs over the past week, but have just been too knackered to comment or update my own.

Here's where we are with the MIL situation: nowhere. After weeks of intense effort, we still can't get these leeches off our backs. It's almost Shakespearean in it's tragic-comic drama.

Long story short, if we could prove that this ridiculous company did not serve her the papers alerting her to her debt correctly -- and they did not -- we could get this tossed. However, since she moved from her old address in March 2008, and the USPS only keeps address request changes for one year, we can't prove that she had her mail forwarded to her new address. And apparently that's the only way to prove that these sleazeballs didn't do their due diligence. Because if they send it to the last known address as THEY knew it, then that's alright then, legally.

The tons of mail we have with forwarding labels on them and new voter registrations we have showing her change of address are all for naught, it appears. The only that matters is that USPS paper. And since they only keep them for one year, and she moved over a year ago, well .... that's it then.

We could keep fighting, but at this point there are larger issues in play. Do we want to spend $3,000 in lawyer's fees to get back her $3,000 in stolen money? No we do not.

Do we want to waste time and energy on this when the bigger goal is to get her in a place where this can't keep happening? No we do not.

So we're struggling to be rational when all we really want to do is lash out and scream and jump and down. It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! This poor woman worked hard her whole life and now when hit with dementia gets preyed upon by these bloodsuckers.

But so little in life is fair, innit?

We're pretty stressed and fairly exhausted by all the running around this has caused us. It's really tiring to try to keep track of all the documents and what we have to do next and when we have to meet with this person and that lawyer and call this post office and so on. We're wiped out. Plus taxes, and work, and oh yeah, my best friend's grandmother died two nights ago.

In the midst of all this, how am I doing? How am I handling the stress? Well, not too badly, I would say.

My craving for chocolate has only somewhat abated. I still want a big chunk of it everyday. I allow myself some. And so far I've been able to keep it under control.

Friday I had a carb urge, and ate a scone, and then later a bagel with cream cheese. Saturday it was a bagel with lox, but I only ate half the lox. It didn't taste right.

But still, those have been the worst of my forays. I'm still walking to work, hitting the gym, sticking to my routine.

On Sunday, the b/f and I went to Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx. It's huge! We had a great three-hour walk, not really that taxing, but interesting and a nice change. I really wanted to go do a hike -- that was what I was craving on Sunday. But we hadn't planned far enough in advance to get to one that day.

Maybe this weekend.