11 posts tagged “money”
I work every. single. day. this week. I was originally supposed to only work three, which turned into four, then today I got a call (just now, actually) asking if I'd switch some shifts around and take one of my co-worker's shifts completely (because my boss is cutting her hours, not her fault). So, yeah, I don't have a single day off. I mean, I like the money, but I'd also like to, you know, do laundry, go to Safeway and get foods (you know...those really unimportant things that I TOTALLY don't have to do in order to live...at least I can still breathe, and, hey, water is free....).
I guess I should have gone job-hunting after all...
But that's ok, because Katy-love sent me Nick Cave's new album and I'm very much in love all over again. Nick Cave makes everything ok.
Last night when I got to work, my boss took me into the office to have a talk with me. Now, Larry is pretty hard to read--one can never tell when he's going to be in a horrible mood, or when he's going to be friendly and joking. Honestly, I thought I was in trouble. $100 went missing from the safe and for some irrational reason, I thought they were pinning it on me. Oh how wrong I was.
In short, I'm going to be moving into the fourth supervisor position. It's basically a glorified cashier, but I get to do other things (like returns, voids, sign off on checks, etc..) and basically be in charge of the registers. I am under no illusions that the job is at all easy, but I'm very excited at this chance. I have worked for years at other places, applied for management positions, and never got the chance to even try. Here I didn't even have to apply or show interest--it was offered to me. The last person to make FES (front-end supervisor) didn't even get told she was promoted, she just came in one day and got a crash-course in her new job. Man, this has put me in a great mood.
Oh, and did I mention steady hours and a pay raise?? HELLS YES!
This morning I woke up around 6 absolutely gagging. My mouth was watering in that painful and salty way you get right before you really get sick fast. But I didn't. I still have that feeling, though. I think there are three parts to the ill feeling: one, I was having a nasty dream; two, I had taken one too many Excedrin Migraines; and three, my neighbours were having really loud, really raunchy sex.
This last one is nothing new to me. They tend to have the LOUDEST sex while the rest of the building is trying to sleep. And the chick sounds like a monkey--she's totally faking it. The constant stream of "ah ah ah, mmm, oh yeah, mhm, oh yeaaaaah" gets really old after the first hour or so. I think they're trying out for some sort of sexual triathlon. Man, I hope they win the gold because they sure do practice, practice, practice!
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In other, non-sexual news, I'm going to start doing papercrafts and scrapbooky things and selling them. I get an employee discount, so I'll be able to price my things rather cheap. I'm really interested in creating, printing, and selling my own patterned papers as well. But that part may have to wait till I move on to a newer job. Making and selling finished products from things I buy at work are all well and good, but making my own paper and stickers and things smacks heavily of 'conflict of interest' and I REALLY don't want Michaels Inc. to sue me...
But yeah, cards, altered art, magnets, etc..
I'll post a link when I've got stuff to sell if anyone is interested in at least seeing what I'm talking about. It's about time I picked up a hobby.
Re: my brother, well, it went ok. He's a cool kid, looks like a clone of my brother Robert. He's very nice, sort of socially awkward and he talks a bit slow, lol. But I like him. I think much of my anxiety is because, as a child, I was always told to protect him. He had a bad heart and it would stop if he got overemotoional. My parents were useless so I always had him with me, was always looking out for him. My earliest memory of him (that I can recall) is him falling out of my parents' bed and landing on the concrete floor. I was the only one there with him (at age 5 or 6) and had to deal with the situation myself. I still count that as one of the top 5 scariest moments in my life.
It was just so...strange to see him standing there after so long. I couldn't share any stories of his childhood because I knew him for such a short time, and what memories I do have are just like the above--frightening. He wants to see if he belongs here, but he's best off staying in Nebraska.
My grandfather is also dying. He could be dead right now, actually, and no one has thought to call me. It feels...odd how detached I am from the situation. My grandfather was a mean (verbally) alcoholic who made himself sick. His refusal to give up cigarettes and alcohol is what put him in this position. And I can't find it in me to feel pity. It's like hearing, off-hand, that a stranger is dying. You know it's sad, but it is irrelevant to you. Am I a horrible person?
Christmas was quiet for us. We opened presents at midnight because Ryan couldn't wait and we didn't really have that many. I bought him a shirt from Threadless.com and would have given him other things, but we had a money emergency directly after and we couldn't really fund Christmas. He bought me a wonderful book on T-shirt alteration, a bracelet of Mahjong tiles (!!!), a carved wood penguin, and this lovely scarf/hat ensemble. He bought all of it before the big money surprise, so he obviously was quicker on the draw than I, lol. That's ok, though. We're picking a day next month to be our do-over Christmas and we're going to give more gifts. Well, I'm going to give him some and he'll give me birthday gifts.
For those who need reminding: I turn 23 on the 17th. Pray for me, I feel older than I am.
Shit, oh my God! This deserves a second post:
Ryan dragged me down the street, my paintings in tow, the other day to show them to the owners of a brand new, edgy local art gallery. They loved them. So, I'm selling four of my paintings (two of which I've done in the last couple of days...I'll post pictures when I get them) for a total take of about $3000.00. I used to hate the idea of selling my artwork, but when I got the offer to show and sell them, I really felt much differently than I thought. I am SO excited.
They also adore Ryan's illustrations and collages and think that his prints will sell really well to their clientèle (hippies, goths, and new-agers). I'm so proud of him, and this whole thing has done a lot to show him that yes, he is good, and there are people out there who will appreciate what he does.
The place is so cool--it's like, supposed to be a hippie head shop, but they've become an art gallery on accident, almost, lol. I might hold community painting classes for them once they get more settled into their place in the city. Me, an art teacher? "Yes, just...toss the paint at the canvas...good...now take that...thingy, yeah, the brush, and make swirls..."
Teehee.
So, everyone at Michaels has been in a flutter all this past week, planning for today: Black Friday. I've worked T-day and the day after since I've started working. I don't think I've had it off in years. And unlike everyone else, I'm not worried. All I have to do is serve a whole bunch of people who will be crankier than usual due to turkey overdose and an overindulgence in pumpkin pie. Bring it on, Longview, bring it on.
Ok, so our day yesterday consisted of my boy and I walking the two miles to Fred Meyers for some T-day shopping. We got some necessary things, including a space saver for behind the toilet and another cheap folding table for my craft things and books. We also found this truly beautiful apothecary's cabinet on clearance for $120. We vacillated over whether to buy or not, and finally decided that we should. And wouldn't you believe it, when we got to the register, we found out that all clearance was an extra 40% off the last marked price. In total, we spent $151, which rocks because we thought, with everything, that it was going to be $250. Rock.
After that, we came home and puttered around setting up all the furnishings we had bought and cleaning out the place before dinner. For that, instead of cooking or going home and whatnot, we went to Sizzler--the only place open, and oddly quiet once we got there. My steak was overcooked, but the salad bar was divine.
Oh, also, Ryan bought me this 5 DVD collection called Girls Gone Bad, which has 24 films from the 30s to the 60s including: Reefer Madness, Sex Madness, She Shoulda Said No, and Bad Girls Go To Hell. Yeah, that's gonna be fun :D
Again, back to work, I have to work from 11 to 4, which isn't bad all things considered. I also get paid today. I plan to buy myself a pair of shoes because I have only one and they are falling apart. I can feel the street through the soles of them. Heh.
So, everyone at Michaels has been in a flutter all this past week, planning for today: Black Friday. I've worked T-day and the day after since I've started working. I don't think I've had it off in years. And unlike everyone else, I'm not worried. All I have to do is serve a whole bunch of people who will be crankier than usual due to turkey overdose and an overindulgence in pumpkin pie. Bring it on, Longview, bring it on.
Ok, so our day yesterday consisted of my boy and I walking the two miles to Fred Meyers for some T-day shopping. We got some necessary things, including a space saver for behind the toilet and another cheap folding table for my craft things and books. We also found this truly beautiful apothecary's cabinet on clearance for $120. We vacillated over whether to buy or not, and finally decided that we should. And wouldn't you believe it, when we got to the register, we found out that all clearance was an extra 40% off the last marked price. In total, we spent $151, which rocks because we thought, with everything, that it was going to be $250. Rock.
After that, we came home and puttered around setting up all the furnishings we had bought and cleaning out the place before dinner. For that, instead of cooking or going home and whatnot, we went to Sizzler--the only place open, and oddly quiet once we got there. My steak was overcooked, but the salad bar was divine.
Oh, also, Ryan bought me this 5 DVD collection called Girls Gone Bad, which has 24 films from the 30s to the 60s including: Reefer Madness, Sex Madness, She Shoulda Said No, and Bad Girls Go To Hell. Yeah, that's gonna be fun :D
Again, back to work, I have to work from 11 to 4, which isn't bad all things considered. I also get paid today. I plan to buy myself a pair of shoes because I have only one and they are falling apart. I can feel the street through the soles of them. Heh.
I think I can breathe easily for once. You know, aside from my health (which keeps taking even deeper plunges).
We're almost into an apartment. Ryan has a really well-paying job (that I got him, thank you very much) and I have my own job which supplements our (soon to be) mutual savings. I feel like a real adult. You know, because I am. At 22 I ought to be, at least.
So, we have our rent + deposit + a few hundred dollars, then Ryan gets paid this next Friday and, assuming we're going to have one place or the other by then, we're buying a table that we saw in a furniture store. It's wrought iron with slate tiles and it is dirt cheap. It's been knocked down from over a thousand to $200, and Ryan's going to try and haggle them down to $150.
I've noticed something about the town: the economy is shit. These furniture places are selling locally-manufactured, beautiful (for the most part) pieces, and they are cheap. The rent is really inexpensive. Ryan's bakery seems to be one of the few truly thriving businesses out there.
Because, dude, leather sofas for between $300 and $900 dollars? Wow.
Ryan and I have interviews at Michael's craft store in the next town up today.
SWEET!
I would love love love to work at Michael's. Cheap art supplies, nice people, fun job? Yesum!
Over the last couple of days I've applied to like...10 places in total. Like, actually turned in applications. I think that's the most I've ever done at once before and I'm very proud of myself for buckling down and doing it. It can be hard, you know, to force yourself to grow up. I'm so afraid of life that sometimes simply walking out of my bedroom door puts me in sweats. I suppose it's social anxiety or something, but I've felt that ever since I was a kid. The paranoia is bad. But I'm getting out there, making changes in order to survive. And once I've figured out how exactly one survives on one's own, then the living will start--and I hear tell that this whole living thing is rather nice.
Now, for what I'm really looking forward to having money for (har har) is Dave Gahan's new album, Hourglass. The full press/bio/review was just released and it reads like it's going to be worlds different from Paper Monsters. A few of the songs are described as "Eno-esque" or having a Siouxsie Sioux sort of feel to them. You all know I'm squeeing hard over here.
Ok, so enough of me being a dork. I've gotta get ready for the interview.
Before I get on with this post, I just wanted to say that I've posted a bunch of my back photography in my dA gallery, and would everyone go take a look? I'm in need of constructive criticism, but even a simple "that's nice, good job!" is appreciated: afterthestars.deviantart.com
Well, Ryan has convinced me to at least try to do this whole school thing before we just set off to CA. Sure, I'll be a bunch in debt once I'm done, but people manage to get in and out of debt all the time. As long as I'm hard-working and frugal, I can do this bitch.
So, as of right now, the plan is to move to Portland. I'm looking at a couple apartments, and am talking with someone who wants to rent a room in a nice townhouse close to my school. I would love to be close enough to walk (seeing as how my first class is OMG-it's-early in the morning. But, well, I can learn the early-morning bus system. And it is in one of the good parts of town so the bus shouldn't be too bad.
Also, I'm going to soon be in the market for a digital camera. Like, a nice one, if I can swing it. Katy's agreed to help me find a used one for not-so-much if I can come up with monies. I'm thinking about holding a fund-raising event of some sort. Like, forcing Ryan to bake cakes, pies, and cookies and then sell them to peoples. I doubt I'll get much money.
Get a job, you say? Why, brilliant! Because I shall get a job--I'm looking for one in the Portland area as we speak (well, sort of--it's loading in another tab). But I'll need all the monetary help I can get, lemme tell you what. I can afford to go to UP, but just barely. I need all the cash I can get. My parents, it seems, can be coerced into helping if it's dire enough. Maybe I can get them to flip the bill for the camera.
So, I'ma get my hair cut soon. It's not for vanity's sake, it seriously needs it. The hotter it gets, the more miserable I am with longer hair. And the more miserable I am, the more I take it out on people around me. So, really, it's the kindest thing I could do for all concerned.
Also, I've been thinking a lot on what I'm going to do for my thesis, and...I think I might do it on fanfiction, specifically the popularity and social aspects of slash-fic. Uhm. Believe me, this started out as a joke while I was talking to a friend from Copenhagen, but the more we talked about it, the more we actually realised that this could work. As for the validity of it, I am an English major, and fanfic is rapidly turning into one of the most popular genres on the internet. It's an interesting phenomena, and, while I might not be the first to do it, I'll certainly be one of few.
