Nice people

September is drawing to a close, and things continue to be good and bad, up and down. I have a job interview on Monday! but I might not be able to accept the job because I don't have acceptable proof of my citizenship. Yes, it's a government job -- who else would be this picky? I can't find a copy of my birth certificate and my passport expired 2 months ago. I emailed the HR person copies of (1) my expired passport, (2) a "notification of birth registration" that I found in my mother's files, (3) my drivers license, and (4) my social security card, and I also pointed out that I worked for the government for 10 years, so wouldn't that maybe indicate that maybe, just maybe, I was an American citizen? Like, how on earth could I have all those things, and all that work experience, and NOT be a citizen? Do they think I defected to Iran in the last few months???

Never mind. A copy of my birth certificate should arrive next week and hopefully that will be soon enough. And if it isn't, some other job will come along.

Today, along with getting a form notarized so that I could order a birth certificate, having a new passport photo taken, and other random activities, I went grocery shopping. And as I walked down the book aisle (checking to see whether anyone else had bought a copy of my Chicken Soup book, but sadly they hadn't), the cover of another book jumped out at me:

And my first thought was: well, of course not. (My second thought was: why am I looking at this?) I realize that I don't have a traditional concept of, or belief in, God, but regardless, I don't think anyone is mad at me. Bad things keep happening to me, but I don't feel singled out.

Rocket Boy and I knew we were risking a lot when we spent thousands and thousands of dollars to move back here with no jobs. As the summer went by, I got more and more nervous about our situation -- even before any thought of the flood. And then it rained 17 inches and we had a flood. So no, God is not mad at me, and nobody is trying to hurt me. I got caught at the intersection of poor financial planning and a natural disaster, and I will do what I can to pull myself (and my family) out. That's really all there is to it.

Well, except there is a little more to it. I don't think I've made it clear how nice everyone has been to us -- with the exception of everyone connected with our (soon to be former) insurance company. It isn't just God who isn't mad at us. NO ONE is mad at us and everyone is nice to us. Here are some examples of people (and entities) who have been nice to us in the last two weeks:

1. FEMA, who sent out a nice man to inspect us, helped Rocket Boy work on an appeal, sent us a check for $869.82 (it arrived today), set up the Disaster Assistance center, provided snacks, is paying for the garbage trucks that are coming on Saturday, and in general has been totally helpful and responsive.
2. The Small Business Administration, who sent out a nice man today and is sending out another (I'm sure nice) man tomorrow to inspect our properties, and who provided such nice people to help us fill out our loan applications at the Disaster Assistance center.
3. The City of Boulder, who has sent people out to check on us three times now, paid for a dumpster for the neighborhood to use in the park, arranged to have trucks come around to pick up more stuff on Saturday, provides all sorts of useful information on their website, made the storm sewer/creek drainage system better to begin with, and is now busy devising ways to make everything better so we survive the next flood with less damage.
4. The Boulder Mudslingers, who hauled all that wet, muddy, smelly, horrible junk out of our basement -- for free.
5. Our old cleaning lady and her friend who's also a cleaning lady and the friend's dad, who cleaned the rest of the mud from under our furniture, and cleaned the kitchen (even behind the fridge) and the bathroom, and did some work out in the yard -- for free.
6. My extended family, who continue to listen to all my troubles and instead of telling me to stop whining, send gift cards and food service and new clothes for the kids and good ideas and all their love.
7. Friends near and far, who have called and emailed and stopped by, sent gift cards and offered money and just been there for us.
8. Our neighbors, who we've gotten to know so much better, and our tenants in Clifford's house, ditto.
9. Our furnace guy, who's supposed to be retired, but keeps driving out here to work on the furnace (today he thought it was finally fixed, but then it spit out flames at him, so he's coming back tomorrow -- "We can't have that," he said to Rocket Boy in his heavily accented English. "Your house will catch on fire.").
10. Boos' teacher, who was also flooded, but continues to be so good to our children.
11. Other kindergarten parents that I've chatted, and in some cases cried, with.
12. The contractor who came to give us quotes on repairs and clucked sadly over the damage.
13. Our property manager for Clifford's house who's done everything he could to help us out and make it easier for us to keep the house habitable.
14. My Weight Watchers leader, who told me that even though nothing happened to her house, she was still a big bundle of stress from hearing about other people's disasters.
15. The FedEx delivery guy who brought our dehumidifier, said he'd been delivering a lot of them this week, and told us he was so sorry that we had to be in this situation.
16. The teller at the credit union who keeps giving me money (OK, it's from my account, but still), and commiserating with me, and not even asking me for my password because she knows who I am.
17. The woman police officer in our park who (after taking their liquor bottle away from them) told me that the homeless guys hanging out there were displaced from their usual camping spot somewhere on Baseline, so they'll probably be in our park for a while, and added, "It's hard to be homeless."
18. I'm sure I'm leaving lots of people out, so this can be a placeholder for them.

Mother Nature runs her own show (though we may have had something to do with staging it -- the jury's still out on whether this storm can be attributed to climate change). But in times of trouble, people can be so good to each other. Thank you all.