i am a sord lol

Once again I find myself deeply embroiled in a Situation. Those who know me know that I try my best not to ask for help unless a sincere financial crisis arises, and even then I try to keep it to my closest friends.

This time I'm sending out a public call for help and encourage any and all spreading of the word. That should hint at the severity of things.

For those who don't know me or haven't talked to me in a while, here's our situation as it stands. I am on Social Security due to disability, as are my father-in-law and uncle-in-law. I can care for myself, but the other two require a caretaker. It's my wife's job to be their caretaker. It's part-time, but it along with the SSI stipends pay the bills... barely. The four of us - plus my two daughters - live together in what is now a three-bedroom apartment. I say "now" because that's where the problem started.

See, the complex we were formerly at sent out a general eviction notice - the entire complex needed to be cleared out by the end of September. As of such, even if we were looking for a new place, we were no longer provided the luxury of choice or preparation. The last month has been spent in a general haze of panic, and we finally moved yesterday... and promptly proceeded to get bled dry, financially.

Ignoring the increase in rent at the new place (which was planned for), the moving company that had worked with us proceeded to stiff us (assumedly? We don't have a receipt. It's being investigated now but this is a more immediate issue) and, more importantly, we lost a great deal of furniture in the move due to being utterly infested with bedbugs. Fortunately, many of those items were covered by insurance, but not all of them were. More importantly, combined with the first issue, we have basically no money left.

Normally I would let it roll off my back for now - our family's food stamps hit on the 5th and I'm used to living on the cheap - but our pantries are bare, we still need to get items to help prevent future bedbug reinfestations (on order of the new complex, which, let's be honest, I can't blame them), we don't have the money to pay mid-month bills, and on top of everything else, Time Warner is screwing us around with installing the phone and internet at the new apartment, which would not normally be a problem except my wife needs a land-line in order to clock in for her job. Which is to say, in order to get paid. (I'm currently typing this at a public library, to answer that.)

I need help. Any and all help, from any and all sources. I don't have much to give, admittedly - if you want to commission me for something writing-based, I would offer my services there, but I have no visual art skills to speak of. That means that anything we got would basically be donating to someone who needs help. I'm not sure how much we'll need - $400 seems like it would help get us by, but we also need to replace things that were broken, infested, or we just didn't have before now.

As has been done before, if you want to help, you can paypal money to me at katarani@gmail.com or wire it via Western Union - we have ways of getting the money immediately in either case. In addition, I've set up a GoFundMe, since the site was brought to my attention a few weeks ago and yes, I need the help that badly currently. If you can't help, then don't feel bad - just spread the word, keep me and my family in your well-wishes, and do your best to live your life better than this. (Do not end up like me, is what I am saying.)

EDIT: Due to current issues with getting WePay to work, money sent through GoFundMe will be inaccessible until I can get permission to link it to a bank account and/or get a bank account. All of our finances are currently managed through direct pay cards and Paypal, so this is the first time we've needed a bank to manage anything. This means that while I will still be able to make use of donations there (and am tracking donation progress), it will not be immediately of help.

EDIT 2: Thank those of you that have helped already; I hit the $400 that was needed for absolute essentials already, so anything from here on out is just help working things into such a place that I won't ever need to ask for help like this again. (There are a number of added expenses and soon-to-be-delinquent bills that will rack up quickly if not managed, and there's a few quality-of-life items we need to replace - laundry hampers, pillows and the like.)

Thank you for your time.

Welp.

DeAnna and Amy just left for Austin, to audition for X-Factor. (Rather, Amy is auditioning, DeAnna is moral support). This has me worried for several reasons.

One, they're basically grazing a tornado; we're getting the southern bands here, and it's not gonna clear up before they reach Austin.

Two, even if everything goes without a hitch, they'll be gone until late Thursday/early Friday.

For the rest of the week, I am the sole person taking care of my daughter and keeping an eye on my father-in-law.

I am scared shitless.

EDIT: Just to clear things up, as comments were already made:
(9:40:40 PM) bahamut725: I'm not holding this against DeAnna
(9:41:12 PM) bahamut725: if one of my friends had basically nobody else believing they could make anything of themselves
(9:41:17 PM) bahamut725: I'd be there for them no matter what, too
(9:41:22 PM) bahamut725: and this was discussed. At length.
(9:41:37 PM) bahamut725: Doesn't make the reality of it any less terrifying.

(If anyone wants the proper status update, it's here.)

Once upon a time, there was an artist.

He wasn't a famous artist, or even successful. Some people claimed to enjoy his work, but there was no chance he would be remembered past his own generation. That didn't much matter, as he was content doing something he loved, and was on his way to being truly happy.

Then, one day, vandals came and ruined his art, his canvases, and his tools. He lost it all.

"A minor problem," he said to himself after his temper had subsided. "I can start anew. After all, the creation is the part I enjoy the most."

He continued for a time... and then a tragic fire took his studio, as well as the use of his hands, which had been mangled beyond repair as he tried to escape with his life.

He was visibly shaken, and admitted to a clinic by those who loved him. Eventually, he started to recover. "After all, I have people who love me dearly; they provide me inspiration." He continued to work, improvising to make up for his shortcomings. All was well for a brief time.

Soon, however, came the debtors. Unable to pay, they took instead his tongue and one leg. Those who tried to help were pushed away... but not before they, too, had their money taken.

Knowing that those that cared for him loved to see his smile, he could not give in to despair, no matter how much he desired to. He could hardly speak, however, and watched as more and more of his friends became unable to cope with the bleakness of his situation. He could communicate, out of sheer desperation, but it was incredibly painful and simply made the losses more obvious to all.

One day, the man stared in the mirror and thought, "I apologize for the sins of all of the world, as I have clearly been sentenced to Hell."

The mirror gave no reply.

So.
I'm typing this on my daughter's 3DS. Remember how I was on a loaner laptop?

The charger is somehow fried and until it can be fixed, I'm totally computerless.

I really wish this seven year streak of bad "luck" would just end...

Well, we've been lent a laptop from Ariana's godmother Amy, but she 1) needs it for school eventually and 2) it's crasheriffic - freezes when browsing are frequent, albeit temporary.

It's better than nothing, but it's only a temporary stopgap measure, so I'm not going to say no if help is being offered, as has been in the previous thread.


In all seriousness, it stuns me how many genuinely good people there are out on the internet, especially considering how atrocious the everyday offline joe is. I honestly expected a bunch of "sorry, can't help you", but what I got was sincere attempts to help - while I may or may not be able to use what is offered, depending on what you guys have, the fact that you're willing to OFFER in the first place is just... well, awe-inspiring.

I love all of you. Even the ones that haven't said anything, or haven't had a chance to, yet.