Birthday's

What do they mean to you? Do you think about what you've done over the past 12 months? Do you make a few goals each year? Do you take the day off from work? Do you go to work? Do you make sure everyone knows it's YOUR Birthday and you're the King or Queen for the day? Or do you hide and keep your single day a year that you can call Yours to yourself?

If it's your birthday, Happy Birthday!

Saturday, Day of Rest

Saturday so far is my designated as my day off. It takes me all day to physically recharge after working ass off all week. Today it was after 4pm when I finally had some go juice again. It's amazing how long I drag on saturday. Coffee is a must and never seems to make enough and what ever left overs I may have feed me through the day.

Today, I spent 4 hours in the 'chair' scanning Petfinder online. So many pets and a few possibles. What's keeping me from getting one is lack of cash to fund one and a place to live. But I sure do want a dog in my life. Time will tell on that one, hopefully sooner then later. But I have to save some money, work it into my budget and land a place where I can have a pet. So, again, time will tell.

Saturday are good days. :D

I Love Direct Deposit

I awoke this morning and found my checking account to be thicker then it was yesterday. WOW, it is so nice to have money appear in my account on a regular basis.

Work is going pretty well. We have a bunch new people and some of them are true individuals (such as myself) and some who haven't worked in years. A few want to discuss religion and that is a nono to make friends on any job. Talking about religion and politics can get heated pretty quickly. So, it's not boring and it's a good thing that I can laugh at stress instead of fall into the heated conversations. Me, when I see someone who has a pouty face on and if I know them, I come up with the right funny to get them laughing. Sometimes, I just change my face expression and some I just come up with the right comment to get them laughing.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Update

Well, our crew got a bit thinner this week. We lost a lady on friday due to too much drama caused by her kids and was forcing her to bring it into work. When her mind was on the job, she worked her butt off. The other person we lost was the guy who everyone was complaining about, he walked off of what the boss asked him to do and was sent home on wednesday. It was a few hours before everyone realized that it was quieter and everyone was getting our share of work done without being held back. One of the lady's I work with from time to time gave me a compliment about how much work we got done in 2 hours. There are times with the right group of people we can kick out some serious numbers. We kick 1st shifts butt pretty good some days. Especially when they leave us their mess to clean up. It is nice to kick their butts every other night. :)

Exhausted & It's Payday

It's still sinking in that I have a job and money coming in. I get paid every friday and soon it will be direct deposited and will just appear in my bank. I'm exhausted today and glad it's friday and it's pay day. I'm discovering how out of shape I was when I started this job, because muscles I never knew I had hurt every night. I am building muscles in my shoulders and my feet aren't complaining as much. The calories I burn on the job are subtle and constant and at times more excessive, all depending on what is going on. Yeah, it feels good to be working again.

What Lays Ahead Today?

My confidence is shaken and not sure why, maybe it's just pms. I'll probably crawl into a shell for work to keep me safe.

Update After Work: Well, I got to work and was grrrummpy but concealing it as well as I could. I don't hide my expressions very well, through years of being expressive. I was off by myself for the first 3 hours and it went ok. The quality control guy (old hippy) cheered me up. I soon started to come up with things to think about that made me smile. Soon, my boss told me where I was going after lunch and that cheered me up too. Soon, my night was looking up. It wasn't long before I was laughing with everyone else.

The other nice thing is my body isn't hurting nearly as bad as it was. I'm building muscles I don't remember every having before. lol. Some nights my muscles between my shoulders talking, some nights my butt muscles are talking, some nights I'm just flat cooked all around. I think I've lost some weight, but not sure how much. They have a scale (and even showers) at my work, I might check it tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow is a much better day.

Be Kind, There is More Then What in on the Surface

When you come upon a person who seems driven or pushy, they actually are driven to get back into the swing of things. They're pushy out of pure desperation to get back into the swing of things. They want to be apart of something important, they want to work as a team, they want to be as important as the person they're working next too. All of us have this need, even people I'm working work. There are some (even myself) who are misunderstood and who only want to make it in life. Some who are driving cars that cost 40k at the age of 21 who are clinging to material items and some who who just want to eat everyday. Are we different in our dreams, definitely, but all of us are driven. Everyone is different and everyone wants to work.

I doing my best to follow this advice myself. Everyone is misunderstood on some level. Personally, I'm desperate to be heard and valued on the job. I bust my ass every night and I feel it every night I come home.

Update after shift: It was a good evening, got some work done but still feel like I'm on shaky ground. If I get a chance tomorrow, maybe I'll will see if there is something I can do better. Having plenty of gatorade in the frig helped me get through the night.

Not Settling, But Settling In

It sure is nice to be working and getting used to this work and schedule. I do like the people I work with and makes it so worth while to go to work everyday. Getting used to working after 2 years of looking for a solid job will take some time. Everyone have a good week.

More Food Required For Work

Well, the fact that I don't have to spend hours on the net everyday searching and applying for job and looking for a place to live is just now starting to sink in. This morning, realizing that some of my bookmarks are no longer in the primary position for a few months.

What I've learned is that I must have a lunch before shift that is full of fuel to get me to 6pm and I have to take a dinner that is also full of fuel to get me until 11pm. I'm moving full speed ahead from 3pm to 11pm and running low of fuel half way through my shift is costly. It makes it for me to pull even my own weight at 125%, which is what I need to do for 8 straight hours. Friday night about 8pm, I ran down to about 80% and trust me it showed to everyone else. That little bit of energy loss does make a huge difference on this job. So, big healthy lunches and big healthy dinners are musts on this job.

I guess skimping on my food budget isn't allowed anymore. With that total budget change, I guess I have to change my cell bill. That is the only thing I can change. The OT next month and in November will help fill in the gaps and put more towards my cc bill.

Updated Budget
Rent & Utilities $350
Fuel & Insurance $200
Groceries $275-300
Storage Rent $35 (until I find a place for all my stuff)
Cell, Net & Email (2b changed) $175
Bad Debt $200
Grand total $1260

I could lower my cell about $40 and I can shop as diligent as before to keep the food in my house but not at the price listed above. That will have to be enough.

2 Weeks in & a New Place to Live

Well, its saturday and it was nice to sleep in a place that I can call (almost) mine. Fresh air, a good beer last night to end the week and some coffee this morning. My landlord is pretty cool, he has more tv's then I've seen in a long time and all of them are plugged into cable (directv on tuesday). I even have one and its a 36 inch and enjoying a John Wayne Marathon today. Cahill is on now. :) Work went okay this week. I over did it on thursday which cost me last night. Everyone is pretty good about working as a team, but there is one kid who hasn't figured that part out yet. I was doing my work, helping out in another area and having to do half of his work too. The lady who was working along side me went home sick from exhaustion. My back was hurting pretty good yesterday and last night I was close to tears from the exhaustion. I felt bad about my being short to a couple of my team members, so I apologized, that is how tired I was last night. I haven't worked that hard in years and it finally caught up to me. The boss put him into jobs where no one had to wait for him to catch up. I pull my weight plus some, not much room to spare to take care of another persons job on top of that too. Hopefully, I won't have to over extend myself any time soon, that hurt.

A Place to Live

Well, with some great luck and ol' word of mouth, I found a place to live. It's less then I budgeted, which is cool. Hope everyone have a good day.

The Budget

Rent & Utilities (max) $400.00
Cell, Internet & Email $175
Bad Debt $200 (desired $300)
Fuel & Insurance $200
Groceries $200
Grand monthly total $1175.00
Monthly net $1130 (estimated)
As I get my three $.25 raise every 30 days (first 3 months), food will become more of a pleasant thing in my house.

The goal here is to live within walking distance or ride a bike and that will reduce my fuel by half. My other goal is to get my bad debt paid down. If I can find a nice place for my future roommate and myself in a place where it's doesn't hurt and takes a load off of me, that would be a good thing. He has high standards of his residence and to be honest, I want to live in a really nice place too. I've lived in cheap dumps for so long to save on cash, that I'm over it now. I've looked and looked for a really cheap place to live and a roommate is my only option. Plus, once I get used to the schedule, I can looked for something to put me to work one day a week.

Here we go!

Update 12:25pm; my possible roommate just backed out, so I'm back on my own. It could be a blessing in disguise, but it shakes the ground some.

I'm liking August 2010

Well, the month of August has some doors opening for me. Work is going pretty well, still getting used to it. Working with some really nice people and we get some laughs in. Meet with a possible roommate today and we looked at a few places today. We found one that he loved, but I didn't feel comfy with, but I may have found a place he will like as long as we can get into an apartment next weekend. We're trying to get into a place next weekend. Look at a few more tomorrow. He works mornings and I work evening, so that works out pretty good for us both. He's a nice guy and we could even get along as roommates; only seeing each other on the weekends. How perfect is that?

I have a Job, I have a Job!

Sorry for taking so long to let everyone know. It's still sinking in. I start this afternoon and is scared. I work second shift, which is cool. I like having my morning free. I haven't done this work in 12 years and feeling old this morning, but I know for a fact that I'm not the oldest on the job. Physically, I may be. Some legal pain killers will be had today. Have a good tuesday.

Road Trip Report

Well, they are never the same trip even thought its the same road and sometimes even the same hours. The trip down was an easy one, not much happening, made it in 8 hours (390 miles). Made my call to the rain gods to give me dry roads after dark and they did for all but 25 miles. Reached the east side of Wolf creek and the highway sign said the road was closed and to pick a different route. I was like "oh hell!" so I pulled off to see what my next move was and there was more traffic coming down heading east. So, I thought I would see how far I would get before they would turn me around. Well, at the base of the west side on the lower part of the "S" turn I discovered the reason, 911 services were dealing with an over turn semi. It looked like he was going too fast on that curve and hit the wall head on. No word on the driver's conditions. Pulled into a nice warm bed at 1am while watching an awesome lightening show going in Utah before hand.

Slept until late and discovered how quickly I die when I reach my destination and have a bed to curl up on. I got what I needed to get done, without much extra juice. Thank you for a hot shower, a place to get my laundry done and squishy bed, oh and easy net access.

About 21 hours after I arrived, I'm pulling out and heading back. This trip required more stops to get 2 hour naps. I have pictures from this morning clouds game and I'll load them later. Its been while since I've done any pictures. This trip also showed me that YES my car needs a visit at the doc's, going from 47 mpg to 31 mpg on the highway is a REAL OUCH. The same 165 miles on the earlier last month only used 3.5 gallons of gas, this morning it used 5 gallons of gas. Anyway, there is a very real reason why I drive at night, because people are A'Holes on 285 during the day. No One, No One wants to follow anyone no matter how fast the person in front is going. I was locked in at 68 in a 65 and wasn't fast enough for those who wanted to risk getting a fancy speeding ticket going 75 or even 80. We're talking some serious passing, dangerous and deadly. One lady was real close to getting into a head on because she had to be first. Now, if she wasn't tail gating everyone, the ones she was trying to pass may have let her back over sooner. She got in, but it took her a few miles to bounce out of that one. No Manors on that one! I also tend to stop more during the day, tired of fighting everyone. Got to the city about 14 hours after I pulled out.

All this to pick up a 2nd form of ID for tomorrow morning. Back in my parking lot with some rain falling and keeping an eye out for the food van. Free dinner! I even have a view of the mountains. Much rather have rain then 100 degrees. Wow, I may have a job tomorrow.