KirstenL4W

This might not be a great post as great posts go, but it’s my version of those wonderful brag letters you all love to get in your holiday cards to find out where family and friends have been over the past year. So, here goes.

2006 started innocently enough for me. I was working my wonderful job at Management Recruiters of Las Vegas and just piddling along in life. Then, I decided that it was time to ditch the roommate situation and move to a new apartment. Living on my own is much more fun than having to deal with a roommate, and I’ve been loving every minute of it.

Summer saw me back in New Hampshire to visit family and friends, and to celebrate Bubba’s 13th and Messy J’s 7th Birthdays. I got some updated pictures of the kids, and got to meet my new little brother, Boo. My mom and stepdad are now foster parents, and even though I’m far away I love having a little brother. During that trip I also got to reconnect with one of my best friends from high school, Courtney and meet her new little man. It was a great trip overall and really left me feeling homesick and wanting to move back home.

But, that was not to be. Great changes were ahead for me in the last quarter of the year. I decided that I could not further my career anymore at Management Recruiters, and left in search of bigger and better things. The man upstairs had other plans for me, though. I was involved in a car accident that left my little Kia a total loss and the 5th metacarpal in my left hand broken. As a result, I needed a new car and since I got hosed big time when I bought the Kia, I was not keen on the idea of car shopping out here. Luckily for me, I have a great Dad who just happens to own a garage and dealership, and he came to the rescue. He got me a great deal on a repo, and even rolled my deductible and travel expenses into the loan. Only one little hitch - the car was in New Hampshire and I am in Las Vegas. So, home it was to get my new car and drive it back to Vegas.

Now, on the way back home, I was eating lunch in Washington, DC with a friend when I got a call from my mom that my sister, who was 7 months pregnant, had gone in for an emergency c-section. Since I was in a position to be flexible with my schedule and location, I headed down to Cape Coral, Florida to be with her. Mia Rose was a bit early but is doing well, and is home now to celebrate her first Christmas with her Mommy, Daddy, brothers and sisters. I’m really glad now that I was in that accident and was able to be with my sister when she needed someone around, and to meet my youngest niece. Life’s funny like that.

Upon returning home, I continued on my quest for greatness, but it was not to be. The job I started after my drive was not to be, as it did not make the best use of my skills. At the last minute I got a call out of the blue from a friend I had not heard from in a few months, offering me my dream job - a chance to move up and learn more skills as an administrative assistant while working in a fun and creative environment. But, again, someone had other plans. Due to a situation there, I did not start that job and ended up taking a security dispatch job!!!! on the graveyard shift just to get through. The job shake-up continues as the dream job is apparently back on to start next week, but since I’m not to confident in the security of that situation, I’ll work that part time in addition the security and shoe store job. So, if you don’t hear from me for awhile, just know that I am at work or sleeping. I’ll try to update when I’m coherent enough to do so.

So, that’s the news for now. My busy social life continues, so I must say adios for now. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2007!

Ok, get this. I go ahead and sign up for more hours at the shoe store. Then I go and get another part time job doing dispatch for a security company on the graveyard shift. Well, today Sparkling Butterfly called we chatted for awhile. She told me the whole story, which is confidential of course but includes major drama at the company. Long story short, she still needs me and wants me to come in next Tuesday if possible. I told her what I went thru thinking I would need to keep my head afloat for awhile, and how I feel about the job after everything that had transpired, but I said that once all the drama settles and things get taken care of it still seems like my perfect job. So, if all goes well I’ll be starting there part time after Christmas, at least until I feel more secure with the situation there. That will allow me to keep my other part time jobs and work around those until it kills me or things get more secure employment-wise, whichever comes first. If it works out and I survive the schedule, it could be very good for me financially. If not, I still have 2 other jobs I can juggle.

In any case, this whole week has been draining for me. I’ve only been up less than 12 hours, but I’m tired so I think I’ll wrap things up here so I can turn in and get back on day schedule until I deprive myself of sleep next week.

I made it through my first night doing dispatch at the security place. It wasn’t so bad, the hardest part was actually staying awake, since I had been up all day and ended up being awake for over 24 hours. It got really boring around 7am, but like I said, I made it through. I’m still looking though, so hopefully I can find something. We’ll see how it goes.

Well I did manage to get a few more hours at the store, and there could be some hours available for me at our sister store in the same mall. Also, F hired me at his security company, but since I’m really not keen on doing patrols or anything like that, I’ll be doing dispatch 2 nights a week, starting tonite. I’m soooo gonna love the graveyard shift, but hey, it’s money. At least I’ll have the same schedule every week so I can work around it. I’ll step up the job hunt after the holidays, since no one really hires at this time of year. Also, I do want to wait to see what the situation is where Sparkling Butterfly works. The product they produce and distribute is very much in demand, so I know they can bounce back from it, but once things are investigated further and the severity of the situation is known, then I’ll know for sure if I have a job there or not. And if I do, I’m still torn on whether or not the job would be secure. Anyhoo.

I do have enough money for this month, barely. I get my paycheck from my previous job today, plus I got some money for Christmas. I also have some money coming to me from my old 401K, only about $500 but it will help. And cashing it out won’t make much difference in my taxes since it’s so small an amount. I’m still considering where I can cut back on my monthly bills. Rent, no. Car, no. Insurance, no. Electric - can be more considerate. Cell phone, no, since it’s my only phone. Internet - no fucking way. Cable - well, still working on that one. I don’t watch much tv anymore, but do I really want to cancel cable? I’ve had cable ever since I can remember, from way back when we had the old slider box tethered to the tv by a long cord running across the room. Maybe I can just go down to basic. I don’t know yet. I need to think about it, and catch up on all the programs I have in my DVR.

So that’s the news for now. I need to get a few more hours sleep since I have to work 5:30-10 at the store and 1-9 at the security company. Then I get to do it all over again tomorrow. Joy.

Just when I thought things were turning around, that they were going to go really well with a new fun job and all that jazz, it blew up. I was supposed to start my new job today, and was just on my way out the door when Sparkling Butterfly called me and told me to come in at 9 instead of 8. No big deal, I’ll go out and have a proper breakfast. She called me back about 20 minutes later (I hadn’t yet left the house) and told me there’s some crap going on and to take the day off. Ok, a little nervous now but fine. So I went back to bed and slept until about 3:30. Much needed sleep, really.

Anyway, I called her back when I got up and she sounded really drained. Lots of drama, and as much as she wants to hire me and really needs my help now more than anything, she doesn’t know if there’s enough money in payroll to pay her, never mind a new person. Yup, it’s the big E word. Soooo, I don’t even know if that job is going to happen right now. She will call me back this weekend and let me know what’s going on.

So now I have no income except for the pocket change I make at the store. I will ask for more hours at the store, but 2 things about that - it won’t be much because the budget is tight and I don’t make that much there, and well, ok maybe that was just 1 thing. I called F - he runs a security company and said he can get me a job as a guard. It still won’t be a ton of money, but it will be something. It’s so not up my alley, but again, it’s something.

So now I’m just really scared, financially, but that affects everything. I need to spend some time tomorrow going over some things and see where I can cut back. This just sucks, and I don’t want to lose anything either, ya know?

On Monday, I shall be starting a new job. It turns out the job I took with my friend’s company was just not a good fit, and I resigned effective today. I was not using all my skills, and didn’t see a chance to expand on them either, and I was pretty bored there as a result. But how did this new job happen, you ask?

Well, I’ve been perusing the want ads and job boards trying to find something else, and even had an interview but didn’t get that job. Then, out of the blue on Wednesday, my friend Sparkling Butterfly called up. I haven’t talked to her in months. But she called and said she needed ME to be her assistant. We’ve worked together before, so she knows what I am capable of. She had an assistant, but that person didn’t work out, and she kept thinking that she had to call me to see if she could perhaps convince me to go work for her. So I’m psyched. It’s a way more fun environment, and I’ll be working in the accounting office with her, so I’ll get a chance to learn accounting. And it’s more money, which is great. So I think it will work out very well.

So that’s it, that’s the news. I have yet another new job. Like I said, this one should be fun and challenging. I’ll still keep the job at the shoe store, which I’ll keep until I pay off the darned credit card, but things are looking up now and I should be able to pick up the pace on that. So yay me!

 

Mia came home yesterday! My sis is busy getting used to the new schedule, but when she does hopefully I’ll have more pictures, or at the very least I can get her to post to Flickr so everyone can see. She’s doing really well, is just over 5lbs and is 17 inches now. She’s still so teeny though.

The pic I put up is one that the nurses at the hospital took - they took pictures of all the babies like this and gave them to the parents. My sis was right in thinking it would be the perfect holiday card.

I have other news, but it has to wait a day or two, but it’s good. So until then…

Therefore, even my alarm assault is not working. This morning I woke up at 9:20am. I am supposed to be at work at 8am. Something is not right here. And it’s not all my social life. Last night I worked at the store, then did a bit of grocery shopping that I desperately needed to do. But can I wake up with 3 alarms going off simultaneously? No! I need an alarm clock that will wake the dead. All I know is I need a solution because something just isn’t right. I never overslept like that on a regular basis before. And yes, I know I did not have the social life I have now, but I didn’t just sleep all the time either. I stayed home a lot, but I was up just as late. This is just a fairly recent issue. I have an idea of what it is, but I’ll discuss it with my head shrinker tomorrow and try to figure it out before posting any action or intent to act on it here.

So, that being said, I need to get my butt to bed now.

Has it really been that long since I’ve blogged? I guess that’s what happens when you’re as busy as I am. I worked at the store Monday and Tuesday evenings, so the rest of the week was mine, all mine.

Wednesday I took the morning off from work to get the rent issue taken care of. Lots of running back and forth, but it’s resolved, this month anyway. We’ll see if it happens again next month. It had better not, that’s all I can say. And speaking of apartments, I got a notice on my door when I came home yesterday. It’s from a realtor and it says that my community has been purchased for condo conversion. Great, just what I need. I had a feeling when I moved in and found out that they’d been sold just before signing my lease. Time will only tell what will happen to this place. They’re fixing things up, sort of. Light bulbs are still out all over the place, but they painted everything and remodeled the office. If anything, rent will definitely be going up.

It’s nearly 1pm now and I still have so much to do today, my only day off. I need to try and finish up my holiday shopping. I need to do laundry and put all my clothes away. I want to re-organize my closet to make getting dressed in the morning easier. I want to go get my box of holiday decorations. I need to clean this dump that I call home. There’s also a few other things, most of them on my mirror in dry erase marker. And, Macoosh, it makes me feel cool too!

So, I suppose I ought to go get some things done today.

I took the morning off from work to get my rent situation straightened out. What a major PITA. First, I had to wait for the office to open. Then I went in there with all my evidence: copy of the duplicate of the check I wrote, my rent invoice without the sumbittal stub, and the pay or quit notice. I spoke to the property manager of the month, and she diligently went through the deposit logs for the entire month, but didn’t see my check in there. Then, since the other leasing agent in the office said she remembered me handing her my rent, the manager of the month searched through desks, files, and other places to see if it had been misplaced. Now, about this other leasing agent saying I gave her my rent - she is not the person I handed it to, it was someone totally different. But, it helped my case because someone remembered me coming in to pay so they knew I wasn’t just blowing smoke up their asses. Anyhoo, after searching high and low, it was determined that my rent check has vanished into thin air. The MOTM said that if I write her a check today, she will clear my balance to $0, and recommended that I stop payment on the other check. She also offered to credit the fee for the stop payment to my rent account, which was great.

So, I left the apartments, went to the bank (dropping off my electric bill on the way), got the stop payment order and a receipt for it, went back to the apartments, found they were closed for lunch, went and hung out at my place for a few minutes, went back to the office, gave them a copy of the stop payment order, then was on my way to work. Of course, the morning’s events had me aggravated again, so I stopped by F’s office to bitch and complain for a few minutes before heading into my own office. By that time, my head was pounding and my stomach was on fire. Good thing I thought to bring in my antacids.

Work went well today, even though I’m still quite a bit bored. The sales manager is really glad that I’ve taken over the one account I’m working on, because it frees her up to be out and about bidding on jobs. Also, she finally noticed that I am super bored so she encouraged the rest of the staff to give me stuff to do. As long as I don’t become a mindless clerical worker, I’m ok with that. It beats being bored, but like I said, I want to DO something not just keep busy. So, today was the first day since I started there that I felt positive about the job.

I did a bunch of Christmas shopping tonight. That’s going on the card, since there’s no way in heck I’d be able to Christmas shop and keep to a budget. I love giving gifts and will go overboard if I have an extra dollar, so I’m trying to keep the shopping itself to a minimum. I just want to hit a couple of stores and bang it all out, man-style. I pretty much know what I want to get people, so if I can get with the least amount of shopping trips/stores visited possible, I’ll spend less than my normal shopping style, which is to hit mall after mall and keep collecting things until I have no idea that I got so much freaking stuff.

So, with that in mind, it’s getting late here and I really need to sleep, since the rent issue and paying bills kept me up so darn late last night.