Obama Presidential Center

Having two posts in a row about politics is a first for me.    But I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the historical event that took place in the Southside of Chicago.   Former President Barack Obama's Presidential Library had their official opening ceremony this past Thursday, June 18th at 10:30 AM CST and had their first full open day in time for Juneteenth.

The timing of the official opening couldn't have been more perfect.   A lot of folks are choosing it as the real 250th Anniversary celebration.   Speaking of which, it was quite the contrast to see the number of celebrities and political figures that came out in support of the Obama Presidential Center from all the celebrities that were running away from any association with Orange's event.

All the former living presidents and their spouses were there - The Bush's, The Clinton's, and the Biden's.    They were behind a glass shield because sadly there are evil people that might try something.   But I imagine the security for the event was pretty tight.

The center itself has been in the works for several years.   I got to see it constructed over the years as I commuted back and forth to Chicago for work.   It seemed it would never open but in the last year the powers that be confirmed they were targeting this past Juneteenth for the center to be open.

Museum tickets are already sold out through November.   Dom is definitely excited about checking it out so we're hoping to do so sometime next summer.   I'll just have to be on the lookout for tickets when they become available.

The official opening ceremony itself was quite spectacular.   I happen to be working from home that day so I got to watch a little bit of it as it aired.   It was a reminder of what America took for granted when Obama was in office.    I knew it was going to be hilarious when I saw Martin Nesbitt, the Obama Foundation Board Chair, coming out in a tan suit as he gave the opening remarks.    "How ya'll like my tan suit?"  (LOL too funny)  There were several other celebrities who chose to put on tan suits as well.    Hard to believe that some of Obama's opposition was attacking his wardrobe.    But then again they couldn't find anything else to attack him on.

But the highlight of the ceremony had to be when Michelle Obama spoke in dedication to her husband.   It was sweet seeing how emotional Barack was getting as she listed all of his accomplishments.   She reminded us of how under the microscope Obama was as the first black president.   She also got quite a few digs on Orange and his administration without saying the Orange name.  Obama rightfully earned his Nobel Peace Prize.   It was a delight to hear and she is indeed a powerful speaker.   I do wish she would consider running for President but I completely don't blame her for not doing so.

Of course Barack Obama spoke as well.    He also got in a few digs at Orange without mentioning his name.   I didn't get to watch it in entirety but I plan to.   

What a contrast having an intelligent president that can speak complete sentences.   America definitely took him for granted.   Sally did remind me that she faced her toughest years during the Obama presidency.   2007 was when she lost her IT job and it was a long seven year struggle.  But she also found her way out of it during the latter part of the Obama presidency.    It does go to show that we all have our individual crosses to bear regardless of who the president is.   But having someone that has intelligence, charisma, and common sense goes a long way.   

I don't know if we can recover from Orange's tyranny.    It's going to take many years I imagine.   But for one day at least it was nice to see common sense win for a moment again.

Skewing Vance

 The state of the U.S. current administration is depressing to think about.   You can't get away from hearing or thinking about it whether via the news, social media, or being out and about.   I'm tired and grateful for my current employment and know while I do gripe about my finances from time to time, things could be a whole lot worse.    The ways things are politically doesn't make things any better.

This past weekend was Orange's 80th birthday.   For several weeks Orange was talking about celebrating the days following that dreaded day with a patriotic concert that many celebs when they found out they were on the list, quickly distanced themselves from.    Even Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli fame (and actually a potential family cousin) dropped out.   He's thankfully redeemed himself years back from a situation that wasn't his fault.   He wisely distanced himself from the concert series.

So this past weekend, Orange held a UFC event after further desecrating the White House.   The event was a disaster with the "winner" wrestler chose to end his rant with a sophomoric insult to Michelle Obama not worth repeating.   

The UFC Boss tried to renounce it but didn't do anything beyond lip service.   He had the nerve to say the event was intended to be patriotic and not political.   

But in an even crazier move, the Vice President thought it was a good idea to go promote his book on The View.   I knew he was delusional but didn't realize how much he is.   Or maybe his team thought it was a good idea.   Also he has time to write a book while holding the 2nd highest position in the country.   That says all I need to know.

The ladies on the View minus the current conservative panelist Alyssa Griffin skewered him as expected.   They actually could've been worse (Sunny in particular was quite restrained) but I'm sure they were told to hold back some.   Vance failed miserably in winning over any new folks or anyone that was on the fence.

Vance apparently is making the rounds in talk show and podcast land.   I saw that he did an interview with a podcaster.   The headline is very clickbait.  The White House is trying to make people deny what they can see with their own eyes.   Unfortunately mainstream media isn't doing enough to hold the current administration to the fire.   Hemingway I probably won't watch the whole thing as I find Vance repulsive but I may check out snippets of it.

Default Judgment Revisited

As previously mentioned, Dom received a "Notice of Claim" from a collection agency back in mid-April.   We mulled over our options and honestly hoped that it would blow over like some of the other judgments that were received.   Worse case scenario they would have to garnish his wages which currently is non-existent.   There was a court date given that we decided not to attend.

The court date came and went.   Later that week Dom received a letter stating that a $5000 default judgment was filed against him.   I debated whether we should contest it or not.    We were only aware of $2400 that he owed that was stated to have been filed in collections.   

In the end I decided to file a Motion To Set Aside The Default Judgment on Dom's behalf.   As expected we received in the mail a week or so afterwards a new court date to appear.   It's on June 26th at 8:45 AM.   I'm turning to ChatGPT for advice though ultimately Dom will have to speak on the matter.

According to ChatGPT, it says that the first thing to do is to get the default judgment set aside.   They suggest saying something like the following:

"Your Honor, I respectfully ask that the default judgment be set aside.  I acted promptly after learning on the judgment, filed my motion, and served the plaintiff.   I would like the opportunity to respond and address the claim."

It sounds like at that point, the judge may schedule a future date to give Dom the opportunity to do that.    If there is a deadline, we would need to be ready for a response by then.

The answer would need to include what is known to be true, deny what we don't know, and the plaintiff would need to prove the amount they say that is owed.    In a nutshell we would need to know how they arrived at over $5000.

If after doing all that an amount is determined, at that point, a reduced settlement can be asked, a payment plan can be discussed, and a hardship review presented.   I keep wondering if I should appear as I don't want them coming after me directly for the debt though ultimately I'm going to have to pay whatever is settled upon.

I don't know what's going to happen on that day.   I am praying if there is a settlement the amount is greatly reduced.   I will admit again that I am frustrated to be in this situation.   I'm mad at Dom for his lack of financial responsibility and also the hospital for their outrageous expenses.   But for better or for worse when Dom is in trouble, so am I.   Stay tuned.

Living With A Collector

 As you may our may not know (if you're a new reader - do I even have those... 😆 ), Dom has a huge collection of vintage dolls from various genres.   He has Barbies. Gene Marshall's, Poppy Parker, and many celebrity dolls like Elizabeth Taylor, Mariah Carey, and RuPaul just to name a few.   

We currently live in a 4 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home with a basement and almost every inch of the house, except for the kitchen and bathrooms have some kind of doll presence.   When we first moved here, he insisted that the largest bedroom be dedicated as his personal doll room.   That room has wall-to-floor dolls everywhere.   They quickly spread to the other two rooms in the upstairs area with our main bedroom also surrounded by dolls and all their accessories.    Even the hallways are full of boxes filled with dolls and more accessories.    And as if he doesn't have enough, he continues to order new dolls to add to his collection.

It's enough to make me go batty.   I never dreamed I would be living in a cluttered home.   It was something I was hoping to avoid seeing how my parents ended up with a lot of clutter that we needed to go through when they were called by God.   But alas when Dom and I eventually get our calling cards, folks will be going through our house and saying "oh my God, I can't believe how much stuff is here".   A lot of it I'm sure will be hauled away or given away to other collectors.   It's crazy to think about but the reality is none of us lives forever.

Part of the reason I've posted on this is that I've surprisingly not seen much written out there from the perspective of a non-collector living with someone that collects stuff.   There's a special blessing I feel we deserve for living in this situation.   Sadly to even try and get work done to the house, sometimes I have to move doll stuff around so the workers can do their job.   I have second-hand embarrassment when someone come to our house to do work and they see how we're living.   I can imagine what they tell their friends or significant others about our place after they're done.   I'm hoping they've seen worse. 

We're wanting to finally update our full size bed to an adjustable split bed so Dom will be comfortable sleeping upstairs again.    Our current mattress is 31 years old and needs replacement badly.   The main bedroom also has ceiling paneling that's falling apart.   I've removed some of the pieces but unfortunately I can't remove the rest because there's so much junk in the room (majority of it dolls and accessories) that need to be moved.   But part of the challenge is where can it be moved too.   The hallway that connects the other room are extremely cluttered and the other two rooms are also full of stuff.   I can see the ceiling above the paneling is peeling and would be in need of painting.   Also the light fixture would have to change since it's panel lighting.   Also the walls have some awful dated paneling that would need to be changed.    The easiest thing would be to get some wallpaper to cover it up.   There's also a hole in the upper corner of ceiling where a plug that I have no idea what it's for (but it may be for something in the attic) is sticking out from.   We're thinking we could put crown molding possibly to try and cover that up.   But to do all this the stuff in the room needs to go.   But where would it go?   We need a handyman likely to put the new lighting fixture (which Dom insists has to have a fan), paint the ceiling, install the wall paper, and put in the crown molding.    To even get to that point where I can hire a handyman, we need to at least declutter the room.

Dom unfortunately isn't doing well health-wise so his energy is not great to provide any assistance so I'm stuck trying to move stuff but I don't know where to put stuff.    We definitely need help.

It's part of the frustration I feel when I realize how we're living.   I love Dom but I told myself if something were to happen to him first and I somehow met someone else, that person cannot be a collector (unless it's a collection that's small enough to fit in one room).   There's a couple other things that person can't be either but that's neither here or there.

Dom has a doll friend in the west coast that was in a long-term relationship with a non-collector.   They broke up last year and there wasn't a reason given.   Part of me wondered if the non-collector got tired of dealing with the doll friend's collection and the constant need to buy more and more crap (to me) and decided to call it quits.   I wasn't friends with the non-collector so I'll never know.   But I wish I could talk to him and get the 411 on how he felt living with a collector.   

I feel like we non-collectors need our own support group where we can vent about our situations.   Are there any groups out there?    I can't be the only one that's frustrated how living with a collector affects them not just with the accumulation of stuff but financially as well.   I'm having to pay for all of Dom's stuff now and it has me worried.   If I were to lose my job, what would we do?   I'm the only one who worries about that.   Thankfully I am more of a saver so I've been doing everything in my power to try and improve our finances despite living with a spending collector.

I remember back in 2017 when we were 2 1/2 years into dating and I found out that June that I was being let go by the end of September, I was telling Dom then that we need to try and not spend as much since I was going to lose my job in the next couple months and I didn't know how long it would take to get another one.    But that went in one ear and out the other.    He didn't slow up on his doll purchases.   At least he did have a job then.    But it made me sick to see how almost his whole check would go to buying doll stuff.

I probably should've ran then.  Dom claims he tried to warn me.   I guess the signs were there but I guess I put the blinders on in that regards.   I loved Dom's other qualities more than I hated the few things that irked.   At the end of the day I do love Dom and he is a good person at heart.   

Hopefully we can get this bedroom remodel going this year.   Stay tuned.