Giveth and Taketh Away

So in my last post I was all mopey, all "I hate California and don't want to live here anymore." And I'm still that way, make no mistake. I spend my free time daydreaming and planning the logistics of what it would be like to live somewhere, anywhere, that is not California.

So after all of my whining, I was pleasantly surprised and excited on Saturday when I was trolling the internet for rentals and found a listing on Craigslist for a 3 bedroom house in Torrance that was going for only $12 more a month than what we are paying now. Everything seemed perfect. Utilities were included, so even though the rent was slightly higher we would still be saving monthly because of the utility cost. It had three bedrooms so it would be a place we could stay in for years. It was less than five miles to my office and less than 10 miles to Edgar's office. It had a yard. A BIG HUGE FUCKING YARD.

So I eagerly sent an email off to the poster that I would like to check it out and Edgar and I hopped in the car to drive by the property to get a first glance at it, hoping that the poster would give us a call while were out in the vicinity. The neighborhood was great. Everyone had yards. Everyone had yards they took care of. NO CONCRETE.

We didn't get a call from the poster that day, but he did email me the next morning.

And that's where it all fell sadly, horribly, irreparably apart.

Manuel, that was his name, told me that he would not be able to show us the house because he was living in South Africa, where he had been transferred for work. But the house was available! And his lawyer in South Africa had the keys and the lease, and they would send us the keys after all necessary agreements had been made.

FUCKING CRAIGSLIST SCAMMERS TRYING TO STEAL MY MONEY AND MY SOUL AND ALL OF MY HOPE IN THE WORLD.

I spent Sunday in bed curled in a ball under the blankets.