Twisted Spinster

Okay, the position at Walmart that I’m slated for is garden cashier (that’s the cashier by the garden department, duh) on evenings and weekends. I’m pretty well hired, I just have to pass my drug test (and there’s no reason I shouldn’t). The pay isn’t the greatest — it looks like it will be $7.40 per hour for a max of 32 hours per week. It’s better than the zero I’ve been getting, though, and the hours of the position leave the rest of the day available for another job. However, barring a miracle I’m not going to make the March rent much less the April. I talked to my apartment manager and told her I was trying every avenue, but I’m pretty well tapped out, so I don’t know what to do except to beg for more donations! By the way, I’d like to thank the two people who (so far) have donated via Amazon — these donors are anonymous, or else I haven’t gotten the email notification from Amazon. And anyone else who has donated who hasn’t at least received a “thank you” email from me, I promise I’ll get one to you ASAP!

Oh — and it is too laugh: just as I was leaving the house for Walmart I get a phone call from someone else I applied with who knows when, and then as I am waiting for my third interview at Walmart (they run you through three supervisors for some reason) I get another call from one of the other placement agencies with a possible full-time position. So I have an interview set up for tomorrow with the first folk and my resume in with the second. Maybe, eventually, if not my ship than at least a raft will come in.

Well guess what — this morning I got a call from a manager at a local Walmart about interviewing for a part-time cashier position. Yes I applied and yes I’ll take it since no one seems to need me to do anything else. It’s up to 32 hours per week, he said, especially if I’m available anytime, and I am. That’s not much, but even if it’s peanuts it’s still more of a paycheck than I’m currently getting, which is exactly none.

Tomorrow’s the interview. Wish me luck.

Good grief. I just went through all my clothes, in an effort to cull the outfits and such that I don’t wear anymore, etc. I can’t believe how much clothing I’ve accumulated over the years. I threw out a bunch of clothes last year — just threw them out. I clearly should have gotten rid of more. No wonder my closet — a standard-sized walk-in with shelves on either side — was so stuffed.

And that’s not all — I have a crapload of bedding that I never use, and purchased under some kind of hellish whim. This time I’m going to try to get everything to a thrift store instead of just dumping it. I kind of miss the neighborhood I used to live in, which had several thrift stores. Oh well, now I have the car.

I have too many things update: I just counted — I’ve got (so far) eight large trashbags of mostly clothing, plus a couple of comforters and placemat sets I don’t want. Where the hell did all that come from?

Isn’t beating up “emo kids” sort of redundant?

I’m listening to some of my old vinyl LPs on the ancient Kenwood turntable to see if it’s worth at least keeping some of them. I forgot how freaking annoying the phenomenon of skipping is. And that, children, is why God gave man the ability to improve his technology. God loves us and does not want us to be annoyed! The records are going in the dumpster, as is the record player, which is on its last legs anyway.

Oh yeah — and that “warmer sound” nonsense vinyl-philes are always jabbering about? It’s a euphemism for “muffled, muddy sound.” Digital rules.

It’s being given new life on the internet. Check this out too.

Also: take that, Earth Hour!

Have you ever yawned and moved your head at the same time? Take my advice: don’t do that.

Well, I lugged another box of books down to my car a few minutes ago. That’s all I could manage. I think I’m getting tendinitis from my computer mouse. That’s my excuse, anyway.

The books are going to my storage unit. Eventually. Tomorrow I am going to try to get the rest of the books in the car (see if I move to another upstairs apartment — maybe not the dumbest move I’ve made this past year but it was pretty dumb) and a few other things (my paintings, mostly), and then I have to do some serious culling of my belongings. Apparently Goodwill doesn’t do donation pickups, so fuck them — I’m going to post a sign offering free furniture on the mail kiosk. Goodwill would just jack the price up anyway — this way someone will get a nice couch and stuff for free. As long as they remove it from the apartment.

Grumble.

By the way, thank you everyone for your donations. The fundraiser is still going — it will be until I get a job and get a paycheck. No word on the part-time temp job, I sent the resume out to some Craigslist ads on the advice of an ex-coworker (one of our other ex-coworkers got a job through Craigslist — I’ve pretty much given up on Careerbuilder, all I get is ads for those fake university sites; you know, the ones that set you up to get a phone call about scams like the University of North Phoenix or whatever). And tomorrow I’m going to hit the Publixes and other grocery stores around here. They’re always hiring cashiers. And there’s always Disney — but I live nearly an hour away from them, so they aren’t exactly practical. Then again, it depends where I eventually move to, doesn’t it?

Okay, blah blah blah about my miserable life is over. I’m actually feeling a bit better about things. But I am going to try to post about something interesting (such as, not my life) at some point tonight. How about the way frothing Muslim death eaters are continuing to make every miserable? Any minute now I expect to here of a real-life version of the Dark Mark (maybe a vertiginous, phosphorescently glowing crescent and star! I suppose a skull being technically a face, or the underpart of one, is off-limits to Real Muslims™) in the sky above a major Western city. PS: do you suppose Dirty Harry is now sorry about writing up a mealy-mouthed “it’s not nice to Moderate Muslims” slam of the Fitna movie? I doubt it — Libertas has its moments, and then it has its off-moments. This is one of the latter. When are people going to get the fact that it doesn’t matter what “moderate Muslims” (if such a creature actually exists and isn’t mythical) think about anything? They have no more power than the infidel to control what Muslim terrorists think and do, and all efforts to give these “moderates” an opportunity to show some spine have mostly led to failure. Talk about preaching to the converted — I’m sure a “moderate Muslim” wants to be left alone to live his life the same as we all do. That’s nice, but it’s no help at all in any kind of war — of ideas, of guns and bombs, of anything. All this nicey-nice talk (as a ultra-liberal professor of mine used to say) does for us is make us feel warm and fuzzy, and we are already too inclined to indulge ourselves in this manner.

Update: Canadians are coming through. (Incidentally, Canadians have become the current unlikely canary in the coal mine for free speech, vis-á-vis Muslims and their unwillingness — not inability, unwillingness — to take any kind of criticism. I’ve been remiss in following the whole Mark Steyn & Co. vs. the Human Rights Kangaroo Court brouhaha going on up in the Great White North. Kathy Shaidle, who has to live there for some reason, has been following the whole thing.)

Well, I woke up all prepared to move stuff to the storage unit, but I just couldn’t — I did manage to throw away some junk, and move some stuff out of the closet (preparatory to it being stored or given to Goodwill). Instead the wonderful weather enticed me into going for a drive. As always I ended up being on the road too long and by the time I got home I was ready to consign the rest of the people who infest Central Florida’s roadways to perdition. (I’m looking at you, Mr. Assrider Semi-Driver Man. I don’t exactly hope you roll over into a roadside swamp, but if it happened while you were attempting to hurry some other subcompact car up the two-lane blacktop because you have people to see and places to pee in, you’d deserve it.) As for where I drove — let’s just say I did it for Earth Hour. That’s a little more carbon in the atmosphere for Gaia!

And I’ve come to a conclusion about my wardrobe. As I complained later to a friend of mine (alas loaded down with problems of her own so all she can do is be an ear), it’s as if all the clothing and bed linen and such in my possession has gotten together and had babies or something — I am weighted down with way too many blouses, dresses, etc. that I never wear anymore. Before I am kicked out of this place I plan to take care of that little problem.

I have also decided to give the bulk of my second-hand, now third-hand, furniture to Goodwill or the equivalent. Anyone in the Central Florida area with a truck who is willing to come and get the stuff — the couch, the armchair, the large coffee table, the dressers. I am going to keep my desk, and hopefully sell the bed, but both those were new — just about everything else can go. (Don’t worry — I am keeping something to sit on, a couple of end tables to use, etc. I will have to sleep on the futon on the floor for a while but that will be a temporary arrangement in my life, hopefully. Once I get re-established in a place of my own somewhere else I will hopefully be earning enough at some job to be able to get new stuff from the Ikea store, which has nice cheap stuff.)

Anyway, it occurred to me, finally, that my needs really are simple: I don’t need an elaborate sitting area for all those dinner parties I never throw, and those kaffee-klatches I never host. I can do what I do — eat, sleep, watch tv, read, work on the computer — in one room. So my next apartment will be some sort of studio set up. The only studio I’ve actually lived in was way too small for comfort, but I’ve done research and they do come in larger sizes than 288 square feet.

Oh well, that’s all in the future. Right now my main worries are 1) finding a job, and 2) not getting thrown out of my apartment. As always your donations are appreciated — do you know that if everyone who read my site and the other two sites I host donated just five or ten dollars each I could probably live off the proceeds for months? I could actually seriously think of writing full-time instead of staring at a computer screen after 8 hours of work day wishing I still had the strength to think of something to write. Then again, I haven’t done much writing of significance since I was laid off, but I was preoccupied with the increasingly quixotic effort to find someone who wanted to employ me…

(Added: okay, I’ve edited this about five times. Enough! Any more mistakes are just going to stay there.)

Well, still no word about that job. I went ahead and applied online at Walmart. I’ll settle for a stupid cashier job or even a dumb greeter job — I’m that sick of being jobless. You would think online application would be easier but if you ask me it’s useless, half the job postings on Careerbuilder are scams for fake “colleges” and such, and the staffing agencies and temp agencies are useless as well. I’m going nuts.

I also got a notice from my apartment complex that I owe the remainder of my lease, some fifteen-hundred bucks. So that’s nice, I also have that to worry about. I don’t care so much about me, it’s the cats. I’m not giving them up; they need a home. But I can’t very well move anywhere without a job. This whole situation is really getting to me.

I went ahead and rented out a storage unit at one of those personal storage places. I just want someplace to stash my crap (mostly books). I’m going to try to sell as much as possible of my furniture and the other things I’ve been lugging around and no longer enjoy, such as my record albums (haven’t touched them in years) and so on. When I do have to move I want to have as little as possible to have to shift. The thing is, I took one lousy box of books to the unit and then my whole body just seemed to collapse. I came home and took some ibuprofen and decided to call it quits. Tomorrow I’m going to try to move as many things as possible — these are things I’m going to keep, mostly. What I can’t sell will go to Goodwill. I’m sick of looking at so many of my things….

Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. The links to donate are to the right… if you don’t like sending money online but still want to donate, feel free to contact me at twistedspinster-at-gmail.com. (Change -at- to @.)