Guinness the cat and I have both calmed down. For now.
When I woke up yesterday morning, I itched all over I could even feel my eyes swelling up. At first I wondered what the heck is going on. Did I have an allergic reaction to something because that’s very possible but I couldn’t figure out what it could be.
I had coffee. I took a shower. But I couldn’t shake it. When Savoy and I began to break down my computers, so we could move them over to Carol‘s house, Guinness, the cat began to freak out. He attempted to hide under the bed, but there was stuff there, and that’s when I knew.
We are about to move to Carol’s house for six weeks while I recover from foot surgery which is happening tomorrow. It’s much easier for me to get around on a knee scooter at Carol’s house than it is at ours. Also, Savoy has been going over there every day to help his mom out so it just makes sense to stay over there. I won’t be relegated to one room this time.
Even though I know, it’s a good move and it is only temporary after all, I’m totally stressed out. It’s another move it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad but it’s still a trigger Guinness the cat knows that we have moved so many times and I’m sure he hates it now more than ever because he’s an old man but it doesn’t matter. He has always hated the moves.
Not that I can blame him. It’s stressful, especially for a cat who likes to claim his territory. Attempted to explain to Guinness the Cat that everything is going to be OK and he is going with us and he will most likely get along fine with Luna the cat. This place has become his Safehaven, and now we are uprooting him.
Oh, Guinness, I can relate. Some of the moves were so stressful like when I moved down to this weird dusty town in the middle of nowhere called Porterville although my kids referred to it as Porterhell. I moved down there because of a boyfriend but in reality, I literally could not find an affordable place to live in the bay area after our rent got jacked up several hundred dollars a month. I feared that we would end up homeless, and we very well could have. And my boyfriend at the time and his family were supportive. It’s not like he could support me. He could barely support himself. It was just that there was affordable housing there.
I did make my way back to the Bay Area, but it took a couple of years. I even landed a job down there that didn’t pay anywhere near what I could make in the San Francisco Bay area however, it was enough for that time. I worked at a hospital as a word processor, it was kind of a miracle probably the only word processor job in the town that I knew of.
The struggle is real. I was reminded the other day from some thing I read how close we were to homelessness more than once. And somehow someway I managed to pull us out. But I’m going to be honest. I still have a bit of PTSD relating to those years. I don’t think I’ll ever get past it.
Most of our moves in the bay area had to do with dodging the high rents. When I moved to Oregon in 2016, I left Guinness the cat behind with my daughter Megan until I could find a place for us. He was mad at me for that but I did visit him often because I was down in California a lot at that time.
Now that cost of housing is getting super expensive even here in Eugene Oregon. I am very fortunate because I know that I won’t be homeless. I know that we will be OK no matter what happens. so there is no reason to freak out l, right Guinness?
But I still do wonder if my kids are going to be OK? I no longer have a place big enough to accommodate people. I’ve made a new life here in Eugene Oregon. But one part of me is still stressed out single mom attempting to keep it all together.