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i've had a headache all day. i dropped and shattered nick's first xmas present to me. i'm raw, irritable, snarling, and mean. i drove my car to dinner and then it wouldn't start on the way home. my parents' downstairs furnace is broken, and despite me telling them to get me multiple quotes, they sent me an email late last night with, basically "they say it will be $10,000."
What the everlasting fuck.
I don't even know where to start with them. Last year, it was "we need $40,000 to redo the porch." I can't get them to understand that 1) I don't have that kind of money; 2) at 75 and 76, there is no way they can age in place in their three-story farmhouse, and so spending 30k more just so the porch will last for 40 years rather than 15 does not mean one goddamned thing to me when I know I will have to be selling that place at a loss in 10 years. Same thing now, but with the furnace. The only thing they considered is the biggest, most efficient, most expensive heat pump, because, you know, "it'll save money."
At this rate, Nick and I won't be able to buy a house, because I'll have hemorrhaged all of my money on their shit. But when I try to explain that we need to consider other options, that I don't have enough money to just magically come up with 10k when given a single quote for a furnace, something in their brains shuts off. it's like somewhere along the way not buying the most expensive thing translated into dire failure. *budgeting* means dire failure. I only survive by squirreling away as much money as I can. I waited 5 years to fix my car until I had enough money to do it; when their washer broke they didn't tell me until they had bought the $3000 replacement. Because talking to me about money is too "unpleasant". Apparently buying the $1200 set is also too "unpleasant".
We stayed up there this christmas eve. What did I notice? All of the towels, and the lights, and the faucets in the guest bath were new. I buy my appliances used on craigslist, and I still use the towel I took with me to college 20 fucking years ago. Yes, I've bought other towels in the meantime, but I've never had anything like a "new set of towels."
I don't know what to do with them. I need a fucking drink.
What the everlasting fuck.
I don't even know where to start with them. Last year, it was "we need $40,000 to redo the porch." I can't get them to understand that 1) I don't have that kind of money; 2) at 75 and 76, there is no way they can age in place in their three-story farmhouse, and so spending 30k more just so the porch will last for 40 years rather than 15 does not mean one goddamned thing to me when I know I will have to be selling that place at a loss in 10 years. Same thing now, but with the furnace. The only thing they considered is the biggest, most efficient, most expensive heat pump, because, you know, "it'll save money."
At this rate, Nick and I won't be able to buy a house, because I'll have hemorrhaged all of my money on their shit. But when I try to explain that we need to consider other options, that I don't have enough money to just magically come up with 10k when given a single quote for a furnace, something in their brains shuts off. it's like somewhere along the way not buying the most expensive thing translated into dire failure. *budgeting* means dire failure. I only survive by squirreling away as much money as I can. I waited 5 years to fix my car until I had enough money to do it; when their washer broke they didn't tell me until they had bought the $3000 replacement. Because talking to me about money is too "unpleasant". Apparently buying the $1200 set is also too "unpleasant".
We stayed up there this christmas eve. What did I notice? All of the towels, and the lights, and the faucets in the guest bath were new. I buy my appliances used on craigslist, and I still use the towel I took with me to college 20 fucking years ago. Yes, I've bought other towels in the meantime, but I've never had anything like a "new set of towels."
I don't know what to do with them. I need a fucking drink.
