The Good Samaritan

It's been a crazy couple of days. Bruce and I were working hard to get the apartment to feel more like home - and had some success!! The kitchen is still a work in progress, but it's coming along. I don't mind the fact that I still don't know where everything is, and that I still don't know if what I know I like, but at least for the moment things are somewhat organized. The weather has actually been beautiful for the past couple of days and we've been able to use our balcony a lot, as well as one night turn off the AC and just open windows and the sliding door in our bedroom. That was fun because we got to fall asleep to the sound of crickets and other nature-like sounds. It's been awhile since we've been able to do that - even in the old place if we could sleep with the windows open (which made me nervous because we were on the first floor) we would often hear cars and the club right up the road. I'm hoping we'll be able to do that a lot in the fall - I love the sound of night. Although - I think it came at a price. Lilly was crouched down looking at something near my dresser last night and when I crouched down to see what it was, a roach ran at me!! I screamed, well, like a girl and ran into the living room and jumped onto the couch. I know I should be better about dealing with roaches - I live in Atlanta after all - but when they come running after me I can't help but scream and run!! I'm hoping that once fall hits we won't see so many roaches. Because I absolutely love having the windows and slider open - and so does Lilly!!

Anyway, we had a lot of housewarming fun this week. Elisabeth came over on Tuesday night and brought art supplies!! She and I aren't particularly crafty, but her sister-in-law is an art teacher and sent her a bunch of supplies so we decided to give craftiness a try. Our first mission was acryllic paint. We actually had a lot of fun - I doubt we're on our way to becoming world-renowned artists or anything, but it was a really relaxing girls-night in. Then on Thursday night Kyle and Kristin came over for a "Taco and Margarita" night. That was fun, because it gave Bruce and me the chance to just make tons of food and hang out with friends. I think the apartment seemed a lot more like "home" to us as we we had amazing fellowship all week.

Things have gotten a little crazy for me on the "legal" front, however. What does that mean, you ask? Well - I got a call from my insurance agent who's helping me out with the accident. She told me that she still hasn't gotten a copy of the police report from my accident and when she tried to call the number that they guy who hit me gave her, it was a wrong number. I'm slightly concerned that's it's not going to be a simple matter of getting in touch with this guy's insurance company and then getting my car fixed. Now that my head is starting to clear about this, I'm starting to think back to the night of the accident and wish I had handled things differently. For starters - I wasn't the one who had called the cops. They showed up, and I assumed the guy who hit me had called them, but now (after finding out he gave a wrong number) I'm wondering if perhaps the people in the convertible, who pulled over and then left when the cops showed up, were the ones who called the cops. I don't want to say that this guy knew he was at fault and trying to get out of it, but it's strange to me that we haven't been able to get in touch with him. I really wish that my head had been a little bit more clear. I would have asked the cop specifically what his name and badge number was and how I could get in touch with him about the case. I would have looked over the card that he had given me and asked him to clarify his handwriting. I would have said to him: "what is my next step?" I didn't think to do any of this, and Bruce was so worried about me that he didn't think to do any of this either. So now we've kind of put ourselves in a tough situation. I do, however, have a wonderful insurance agent on my side and I'm just hoping that this situation finds a way to work itself out. I just want my car fixed!!

On the other end of the legal front, I signed onto Wachovia's website last night to check my bank account and was very surprised to see that I only have 71 cents in my checking account!! I was really confused because if I had done my math, right, I should have had close to $350 in my checking account once all of my bills had been paid. I knew that I couldn't have miscalculated that badly. I looked at my account and saw the problem almost immediately. The check that I had written to Oaks of Briarcliff (our last apartment complex) for August's rent (the week and a half that we owed until our lease had run up) had been cashed twice!! It had first been cashed electronically (which is not unusual for them) but then the actual check had been cashed. I was so confused as to how that even could happen!! My mom told me to call the bank just to see what the next step was. I called and requested to be directed to the online banking department. They looked into my case and then directed me to the customer service department. They looked into my case and then directed me to the claims department. When I got to the claims department, the guy I talked to explained that they would be able to refund the money into my account, but I had to fill out a form and then it would take 3-5 days. He said that he could mail or fax the form to me, or I could just go to a local branch. I told him that it would probably be just as easy for me to go to a local branch so this morning I visited the Wachovia across from Rollins. The guy I talked to there was really nice - he got me the form, looked it over to make sure I filled everything out correctly and then even faxed it for me. I was really grateful for that because there was a lot of legal jargon on the form that I really didn't want to mess up. I was basically filing something against someone and I didn't want to do it wrong and then get myself in trouble!!

And we still don't have cable/internet at the new apartment - Comcast was supposed to show up somewhere in between 8 and 11 a.m. this morning but Bruce finally had to leave for work at 10:45 a.m. I got a call from Comcast at 11:53 a.m. saying they were there so now I'm going to have to reschedule. Needless to say - I've been having a very hard time crossing things off of my to-do list and things keep getting added!! But as strange as it sounds, I'm handling it somewhat calmly. During Joys and Concerns in church on Sunday, people kept talking about different experiences they had throughout the week where a Good Samaritan had popped out of the bushes and helped them through a hard time. I feel like I have had my own experiences with Good Samaritan's over the past couple of weeks. Different friends showed up when I needed them throughout the move and carried me to the next stage. My insurance agent is being persistent about helping me understand the process after my accident and ensuring my car gets fixed at no cost to me. The man at Wachovia (I didn't even get his name!!) helped me understand a legal form containing words I had never seen before. My mom piled clothes high in my arms while we were out shopping and bought me some much-needed new clothes (mostly dress clothes for warmer weather). My dad saw that Bruce and I wanted to learn how to play raquetball so he took Bruce to Target and bought us the equiptment. Then he taught us how to play. I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting, but I'm continually amazed and in awe at the pure good in the people around me. Sometimes I think the media focuses so narrowly on the negative that we don't even have the chance to widen our lense and see the beauty and kindness that surrounds us every day.

Good Samaritans exist - in the flesh. Look around!!

With Grace,

Sarah