Lease Expiration Waits For No Man

I am not sure how I will sleep tonight, except that it may involve tossing back the precious few shots of Delsym I have and propping myself up with pillows. I'm hot, coughing constantly, and rotating frequently to combat the reservoir of mucus in my head.

I'm also moving at the end of the week.

I moved to this apartment at a time when I had an okay job, was going to school, and could afford rent increases for the foreseeable future. I figured I'd get a degree at some nebulous point in time and finally start making decent money and it wouldn't be a problem. But that didn't happen, I got sick instead and lost my job, and the rent increases became too much to deal with.

The landlord was upset when my husband told him we were moving, as if we'd betrayed him. Yet, he knew for years that I'd lost my job and was on disability, that we were on a very fixed income, and he still raised the rent. I'm not sure what he expected.

Anyway, we've found a place across town, that hopefully won't be raising the rent as frequently, and has much better amenities. The problem is just getting there.

Housing disputes and homelessness, or living on the edge of such, is a huge, huge issue. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on one representative night in January 2014 over half a million people in the United States were homeless, meaning sleeping outside, in a shelter, or in a transitional program. Then there are the less traditional ways - couch surfing with friends and acquaintances, or doing labor for a place to sleep, or as some teenagers have to do, constantly sleeping over at various friends' houses to avoid going home. This brings me to the point that some homes are more dangerous than finding a transitional program or living on the streets temporarily. This is especially true for LGBT youth, who are often abused and neglected or subjected to dangerous programs meant to "fix" them, and which can often drive them to self-harm or suicide.

Anyway, we have no choice but to be out on Friday, which is hugely stressful already, and also we have to somehow have the place cleaned up too, and I don't know if my mom is coming up to help because there's been a death in the family, and both I'm sick and my husband is in loads of pain still, from his surgery and in his wrists.

I can't stop coughing even though my husband propped me up on pillows and gave me Dr. Cocoa. I heard a howling noise outside and I feel terrible. I wish this would just go away already.