I put the BBA Challenge on hold for now, as the other challengers have already been informed from our groups forum. I'm hoping to jump back in later, after life sort of settles down a little bit and I'm able to recoup a bit.
The short version of life in hell is as follows:
I rent a condo through a property management company. This company does not have anyone onsite at the actual condo complex, since I think my condo is the only property they manage in the entire complex. I paid my rent at the end of July, for the month of August.
On August 8, I went home to get some music for my best friend and lo and behold, I am locked out of my own home and there are notices on my door of "abandoned property" and "notice of intent to lockout"!!! Oh but it gets so much better. My blinds are pulled up and these notices are taped to the insides of the french patio doors that are my front doors. I can clearly see into my house, and the lights are on and everything is completely ransacked and alot of things are missing or trashed.
What the hell is going on?! Well apparently, the old owner of the condo sold it and I was never told about the sale closing. The new owner claimed he didn't know I lived there and had sent his representatives to clear it out: ie treat my home and property like their own personal homestore and take whatever they wanted before throwing out everything else.
All of my books, cds, sheet music, are still missing to this date. I managed to recover some of my kitchen stuff (All-Clad, Calphalon, my KitchenAid stand mixer, baking sheets, etc) from the property manager's (new owner's representative) condo in the same complex. I also found my clothing, makeup, office supplies, and more kitchen stuff in her closets and cabinets!
The loss of my entire music library and solo sheet music library is heartbreaking. Many of the cds are discontinued and out of production, nearly impossible to find. The sheet music contains markings from many teachers and masterclasses, plus those of my own make. How can I possibly replace the work of over a decade?? I can't. Short and simple, I can't.
So, I have a law firm (several, actually) willing to take my case on complete contingency, and I'll be going after some kind of restitution. Life just sucks in the meantime. I went through a week or two of not really sleeping or eating, so there was definitely no baking or cooking going on. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it, but I lived on half a can of Chef Boyardee and sometimes ramen, each day. But it really was only because that was all I even wanted to eat, when I was ever even in the mood for food.
The unpacking and cleaning process, and documenting, continues. I'm still missing loads of kitchen items that I don't know yet how to replace, or how I might possibly cover the prohibitive cost of replacing the items, not to mention all the other books, music, and clothing that are still missing! Alas, my entire Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series are completely gone. And all my cookbooks. No more Alton Brown or Julia Child.
I'll blog again once I calm my heart down. I promise. It's a work in progress.
Happily, DF made a lovely Chicken with Walnut Sauce recipe for dinner tonight. If I remember to take a picture of it tomorrow, I'll try to blog about it :)
