This week

I have put in 15 applications, 6 today alone. I'm doing what I can to find a job as quickly as I can.

My unemployment benefit claim has been denied because I did not understand the waiting week--I thought it was the first full week after you apply, when actually they backdate your week to the beginning of the week in which you apply. So, for me, I lost my job on a Wednesday and applied that day, so my waiting week started February 15th, even though I was let go on the 18th. While I was reeling from that and applying for unemployment, Medicaid, SNAP, and everything else I could think of, calling about my retirement and how to pay off my line of credit and the dryer I'd bought through my paycheque, I'd put in a couple of applications, but in fact I'd needed to put in five. When I had to put in the claim, it became obvious that I'd been wrong about the week (the first week following I did have five, and was fine on the requirement, because I thought that was my waiting week, and I already had enough lined up for the next week--this week to make everything work.

I went ahead and appealed it immediately, throwing myself on their mercy. I really didn't understand the wording of their FAQs, the phone just referred me back to those FAQs, and the Internet just let me down completely, because it seemed to say it was the week after, too. I explained that I often have trouble understanding certain concepts that may seem cut and dry to most people, due to my autism, which is often the case. They did say at the time to keep claiming it in case they decide to grant it later.

In the meantime, I do have Medicaid, which was a big one to me, as my healthcare is a priority. 

Tonight I have:

1. Paid my rent.
2. Put some money away for my tax preparation fees.
3. Took a friend to the library.
4. Returned books and a couple of DVDs myself.
5. Picked up a guide to March events at the library.
6. Ate dinner.
7. Fed the animals and let the dogs out and in.
8. Started some herb bread making for the potluck tomorrow at work.
9. Helped YKWIA with some Latin, mainly by lending an ear.
10. Watered the plants.
11. Finally got into my e-mail and made my selections for two specialties from a collection development project four days past the deadline.
12. Resisted the urge to cuddle with the cat, no matter how demanding he was.
13. Kept YKWIA company while he made clafoutis for me to take to the potluck tomorrow.

We're having a St. Patrick's potluck, a meeting, and a training tomorrow.  Clinic is light.  I'm making ther herb bread that was a hit last time.  It's baking right now.

The week in review:

Sunday--got to play the game, which was fun.
Monday--major snowstorm with up to 10 inches of snow hitting Lexington. I took the bus in to work and back, and was exhausted at the end of the day.  One of my department co-workers fell, broke his leg, and had surgery today for ligament damage.
Tuesday and Wednesday--very busy at work but got everything taken care of at work.
Today--fairly pleasant at work, and then busy afterwards.  It's almost 10 pm and YKWIA is working on the dessert, and I'm just now free to blog.  Sorry I haven't done much lately.  I just ate an apple (Kroger had organic honeycrisps on sale for 99 cents per pound), and the cat is trying to play with the sticker, which is cute, but he's been making himself a nuisance because he really wants me to lie down and let him clamber up on me and cuddle.  I think I've spoilt him.

Well, that was productive

The other day I decided to check and see if my cell phone bill, which I've been struggling to pay, having to make payment arrangements the last couple or so months, could be lowered in any way.  I had a tablet that was long-since paid off but still had a mobile internet line attached to it, for example, and I never use it anymore, and even if I did want to, I have WiFi now.

I went to the T-Mobile store on Richmond Road on Saturday and explained what I wanted to the associate.  He reviewed my account and confirmed that if I dropped the mobile internet and switched to the newer One Unlimited (which, like my last plan, had data, voice, and text unlimited, but also has the taxes included and the hotspot is unlimited at 3G speeds rather than a cap of 5 GB at 4G).  I wanted to make sure I could still get onto the internet via my phone on my laptop, but it's not as crucial now that I have WiFi at home.  And the speeds aren't crucial, as I just browse on the hotspot, not stream or anything, and I've been judicious about using it since it wasn't unlimited.  So I actually prefer the unlimited everything.

So with the switch, dropping my voicemail to text feature (which frankly hasn't been working well lately--I'll just listen to them like most people) but keeping my insurance, my name ID, and my instalment plan for my device (of which I got a stupendous credit, so that's just something like $3.00 a month for the device, a screen protector, and a case), but without going on AutoPay (it would save me $5 a month, but I don't want it to come out for the time being, since I've been struggling to keep any money in my account), she gave me the quote.  I asked if my work discount applied still, and it doesn't (it was about 12%), but she applied an Insider discount since I've officially been a T-Mobile customer since 2011 (I was a prepaid customer from about 2000), and that was 20%.  All told I went from $107 a month to about $80.86.  Not bad, even though at one point I got cut off in the transfer to her department and then also had to wait awhile due to her department getting a lot of calls.  But still, it was worth it.  The representatives at the store and on the phone I dealt with were very helpful, when I got cut off, I was immediately called back, and no one tried to convince me to do anything I didn't want to.  I've always had great service with them, customer service and phone service.  Usually, you would have to wait until the end of the billing cycle to change, too, but I'm only two days in so she was able to make it effective immediately.  Yay!  That was the main reason we didn't do it in the store the other day--the mobile internet drop had to be done over the phone, and he was afraid that if he switched the plans it would prorate so I was paying for both plans, or roughly a month and a half, in the first month.

Anyway, I'm happy.  I've had a very good experience overall with T-Mobile.  In the 18 years, that I've been on their service, I've experienced one very localised and short outage period.  They've expanded their voice and data coverage immensely, of late.  I really have no complaints.  Compare that to a friend who tried to pay his husband's Verizon bill to save him a trip and was given the third degree, being asked questions even the husband didn't know the answers to, and he wasn't trying to access the stupid thing, just give them the money for it.  All he should have had to do was give the mobile number and hand over payment.  He doesn't have a cell phone himself, he was just trying to make things better for his spouse.  It did not go well.  I'm so glad T-Mobile isn't like that.  Yes, to make changes to my account there's a PIN.  But anyone, to my knowledge, could pay my bill without being hasseled. :)

Today's tasks

• Take YKWIA shirt shopping.
• Pay a bill.
• Take out the trash from all the receptacles throughout the house (that's five).
• Take out the recyclables.
• Do the cat litter.
• Clean the bathroom.
• Clean out the car.
• Collect bottle caps from various jugs and bottles for a co-worker who collects them for her kids' school.
• Do laundry.
• Load and run the dishwasher.
• Water the plants.
• Sew a button back onto one of my shirts.  It came off at work one day, one from my belly (it was loose, the shirt's actually too big now), and the only thing that saved me was the safety pin I was wearing on my hooded sweatshirt that day (rather than wearing my jacket), the pin that was there because I'm a bleeding-heart liberal who wanted to send the message that I don't mind who you are or where you're from, you have worth as a person and shouldn't be demonised by racist twats.  On the other hand, it also meant I had a safety pin handy for button-popping incidents, and since I didn't have my sewing kit handy (I am going to move it to my backpack for future incidents), it was a good back up.
• Take some materials back to the library.

Now I'm pretty tired.  I still need to go out to the library, as one of the books is one from YKWIA which hid in his backpack and is overdue, but I want to wait until the laundry is finished in the washer as it sometimes overloads during the spin cycle.  I've put the things to go back to the library in a plastic Kroger bag that has some air in it to cushion it; one is a CD and I don't want the case to break.  I tried to return it the other day and realised that the CD itself was at home in my player, and I'm glad I looked.  The other book I have out is an heirloom gardening book whose spine has broken and the pages, as I turned them, began to come apart.  So I put them all in a bag together with a note about the gardening book needing repair.

It's almost time to feed the animals, too.  The cat is acting out, trying to claw things and harassing the dog.  YKWIA is sacked out (I think our foray out tired him; he doesn't care for shopping, and we went to both Meijer and Target).  Also, I was really frustrated earlier with the trash, as one of the bins is broken and you can't get the liner of the can out, you have to pull everything out by hand (it's mostly paper, but still, it's frustrating), and the bathroom trash bin is intact, but the handle always gets in the way when I empty it despite my best attempts, and the stuff goes everywhere.)  Anyway, my frustration levels were up and I was growling, practically, and he may have decided to get away and have some quiet time for a while.

So now I'm online and trying to chill a little, let all the tension drain away.  I think I'll listen to some music.  That'll help.  Then I'll feed the animals, deal with the laundry, water the plants (some of which are in his room, and it's dark, so I'll wait till he's awake again), sew on the button, and take the stuff to the library and put it in the book drop.  We found the book just as the library closed, but if I can get it in before tomorrow morning when they open, that's one less day of fines.

Speaking of libraries, there is a job opening I'm considering applying for.  It's at the university, is technically a technician job, so I don't know if they'd consider me, as I am over-qualified, but it pays more than I'm currently making and more than I can in the public library field in the surrounding area, as a full librarian.  It can't hurt to apply, anyway, right?

Okay, must go deal with laundry--both of the buzzers have gone off.  I'll write later, hopefully.

So nice to be off work today

My furniture is going to be delivered today, and I didn't know when that would be, so I asked off for the day. Turns out they're coming between 4 and 7 pm, so that leaves the rest of the day to be productive. I did sleep in, till 8:45, but there are things I need to do today:

1. Pay my rent.
2. Pay my electric.
3. Call the credit union with a question.
4. Get all of the boxes out of my car!
5. Water the plants in the living room (I got the ones in the bedroom a couple of days ago).
6. Look for a rose-coloured full microfleece blanket.
7. Help YKWIA get the house ready for the furniture, moving some things and cleaning.
8. Take him to pay a bill.
9. Receive and inspect the furniture.
10. Pack some.

I need to take two pillows (for the shams) and a blanket I'm going to use to protect the bedding from one of the dogs, who has very short hair but really sheds. Fortunately, the bedding is a cream colour, and she's a light gold, so it should be mostly okay. But since I'm allergic to dogs and cats, I should minimise direct contact as much as I can.

With the exception of Monday, when my mood was troubled by the horrible interview, it hasn't been bad this week. We were a little slower, about 100 people in the clinic or so a day, so busy enough to always be working, but not overwhelming. On Tuesday I sent an e-mail to the interviewing committee thanking them for the interview, answering the question I misunderstood and basically telling them that I tank during interviews due to nervousness, and I hope they'll consider me for the next step in the process, despite my performance on the phone. I hope they will. I suppose all the experts would say not to do this, but I felt I should. The new head of the committee sent an e-mail to me Thursday acknowledging it. So all hope is not lost, hopefully. I really want this job, and I think that I would be very good for the nurse-patrons.

Other things to accomplish this weekend:

• Finish the game notes, as we're playing on Sunday.
• Take off the caps of soda bottles to give to a co-worker who saves them and take out the recyclables, which are full.
• Pack some more.
• Take some light items over to storage and the new place as I can.

The plan is now to go through the books and pick what I want to keep, putting those in the U-Haul boxes. Then YKWIA can look through the ones left and those not chosen by either of us can go into some of the other types of boxes to be taken to the library. My therapist suggested just letting the movers take care of the books that are going into storage rather than me trying to deal with them a little at a time--I will be paying them to move them, anyway. That is the bulk of what I've got, after all. I've already booked the move to start at 9 am on Tuesday, August 29th. I booked them online, with a note that things will be moved from my apartment to a storage centre, that much of it is books, and with a request that a few large items be moved to the Dumpster area if they are amenable. I'm using Wildcat Moving, a local company that seems to have good ratings with the Better Business Bureau and online. I absolutely refuse to use another company, Two Men and a Truck, which is very popular around here, as they stranded a couple I know in the middle of their move with some lame excuse when they realised that the couple was not my friend and myself but rather two men. No kidding. Hometown Movers saved the day back then, and I would have used them now, but they seem to have disbanded. So hopefully, Wildcat Moving will be a good experience. That gives me 24 days to pack, including a weekend right before. I'm off the 28th and 29th for the actual move. That also gives me a couple of days afterwards to clean the apartment and turn in my keys. That reminds me--I should fill out a change of mailing address sometime this weekend, while I'm thinking about it.

Okay, I'm going to get going. I need to pay those bills, get off the computer, and get moving. The boxes will take a little time to get into the house--there are probably about 35 in the car, although the U-Haul ones are still packed flat in a bundle, at least. Hope you have a good weekend!

It's been a very wet Fourth so far

so I don't know if there will be fireworks tonight. I got up by 8:15 (but it was lovely to sleep in that much), and while I've been moving slowly, I have paid my bills through the first third of this month, except for two that come out automatically, and I've added that in my cheque register. I'm still coughing and snotty, but I feel better. I'm going to go over to YKWIA's in a couple of hours and we'll do something together. I haven't taken the trash out because the rain has been pouring, although I think it has eased up a little. So I think my next thing to do is work on the book review that's due tomorrow. It's a text on managing electronic resources, so hopefully, it will be a good read. I also need to check the Kentucky library job list--I think there's a job closing tomorrow with the state. I'm going to try to work on the books after spending some time with my friend.

Hope you're having a great and happy Fourth of July.

You know you're really tired

When you fall asleep before nightfall fully dressed, including bra, because you are too tired to change.

I thought I was doing better about staying up after a long workday, but I guess the summer cold sapped my stamina. I also went the whole day without caffeine, and had a raging headache. I couldn't even bear to listen to music.

That was three hours ago. I woke up, got dressed in some shorts and a tank top, and had a fruit pop to ease my throat. It's mostly left my head and has settled in my chest, but that means less nose-blowing, at least.

But I think I'm just going to rest tonight and start doing some things here tomorrow. Specifically, I need to:

1. Take out the trash.
2. Pay some bills, online and paper.
3. Work on a book review.
4. Go through and weed books. I have between 2,500 and 3,000 books, and need to reduce them by 2/3, and at 20 or so books a box, and about 50 days, that's two boxes a day to remove from the collection, if I did the math right in my head.
5. Go to YKWIA's and do something fun.
6. Watch the Idle Hour fireworks, weather permitting, as per usual, including being able to park at the old hospital to watch. :)

Have a safe and lovely holiday. Good night.

Relief

If I have seemed particularly stressed of late, it might have something to do with the fact that I spent the last nineteen days without any money coming in, save a $41 Kentucky tax refund that credited yesterday. I set in motion everything to have income, including unemployment benefits, coming to me a month ago, but things came in much later than expected. I have been bugging the mailman, who comes about 1:30 pm for parcels and 3:30 pm for regular mail, to look at what might be there for me, as I was expecting two cheques, since the unemployment office voice response system said one had been mailed Friday. The other was my final cheque from work, which I expected about mid-month, but in retrospect that was entirely too optimistic. Unfortunately, because of everything, I am now late on several bills, had one credit card actually suspend, and was seriously worried about paying my rent. I had almost no food in the house, was subsisting mainly on rice, premade Indian dinners, and homemade bread with honey, and was running low on gas. In fact, today, my gas light went on almost the moment that I checked my mail and discovered one of the cheques. Then, when some friends and I went to the credit union (they needed to do some things there, too, and we're all members), I discovered that the unemployment had actually been put into my account electronically, like it was supposed to, today. So I guess when it rains, it pours, and all I can say is, thank goodness. I was really getting stressed.

The first thing I did was get some gas. After helping a friend apply at the VA (my, they have a confusing site; the link to the job was a closed position from a year ago--I had to go find the correct one via a search, and I'm still not sure we did everything right), I took him home and then went to the grocery, where I proceeded to fill up an entire cart, something I have not done in years. The bill came to $225, but I should be good for quite some time. The fridge is completely full, save the crisper, since that doesn't really keep things crisp long enough for me. Instead of fresh vegetables I got canned, but otherwise things were pretty healthy. I also got a small desk fan that is helping in the living room.

I started the morning with a trip to the library with some books and CDs that were due yesterday that I was returning before they got in this morning so they wouldn't be overdue. Then I got a phone call asking for a ride when a friend got called into work on his day off because the other person in his position came to work sick and had to be sent home. After that I laid down for about an hour, as I didn't sleep well at all last night. Then it was time for pulmonary rehab, and I had a good session, starting with the breathing exercises and then working on the treadmill and weights. I have become puny. I have never had much upper body strength, but lifting ten pounds in several types of repetitions is challenging. When I was in high school, I could do the press with my feet to the tune of about 190 lbs--more than I weighed, and better than any of the football team that were in our class. Now I'm at twenty, and that's enough. I could probably go up a little bit on the normal press. They've got another though that has you press up on the balls of your feet like your on tip toes and lifting that way. Between breaking my ankle and general deconditioning, that's harder. I remember when I was in physical therapy for my ankle, doing that from a standing position was the very last thing I could do of all the exercises, which surprised them.

Even though I don't officially have anything scheduled tomorrow, I think I'm going to busy. I have to:

1. Pay my car registration, which is past due (it was due by April 30th, and so I'll have to pay 3% more. Fortunately mine is under $50 even with a special library association plate, so that's not too bad. It's actually still under $50. But I had a couple of police cars behind me today and was just a bit nervous. I know a citation would probably be dismissed if I brought in proof of an updated registration, but still....)
2. Balance my cheque book. I'm no longer destitute, but I can't go willy nilly. This has to last awhile, as the unemployment is not enough to cover my bills alone.
3. Pay my rent.
4. Pay my electric bill.
5. Pay my credit card bills.
6. Pay for my Internet connexion [I don't have cable TV, but I have an Internet connexion with Wi-Fi through the cable company].
7. Pay my cell phone bill.
8. Let my student loan servicer know that I am unemployed. Since I'll be paying a lot for health and dental insurance, I think I should try to see if I can get a deferment or reduced payment.
9. Check to make sure my COBRA enrollment went through--the pharmacy ran my meds and it was saying I was uninsured. I think the website said to wait five days to get it through, and it's just now that. I didn't get my first paper work so they sent me it again (I got it yesterday) but also e-mailed it, so I enrolled online. I also need to pay my bill with them.
10. Get my allergy shots.
11. Apply for a job.
12. Pull things out of the walk-in closet.
13. Call in my air conditioning issue and the fact I have to jiggle the toilet handle to keep it from running. [The walk-in closet is where the pan for the air conditioning is, and most likely it needs to be emptied, hence the need to get the mass of stuff out of it. There aren't many things, really--they're big, like a bedside commode or shower chair, that sort of thing. I don't need to take everything out, just enough so they can get in. I did put a new light bulb in the other day that I had, though.]

I'd say that's pretty busy.

I did find out I didn't get the one children's librarian position at the Lexington Public Library that I'd applied for in March. There's still one other position that I haven't heard about from them, three from UK, and I'm about to apply with the state. I've applied for the last before, with no luck, but 1) I have to apply actively on unemployment, and 2) maybe persistence will actually pay off. I also need to mail a form and cheque that have been sitting above my computer for two weeks waiting for money in the account to get my certification from the state of Kentucky, which is required to work in public library settings.

Okay, I think I'm going to get something to drink, maybe a snack, and sit down and enjoy something, like watch a DVD or listen to some music or read. I dropped my friend off about 7 pm, went to the store, got out after 8 sometime, and probably got everything put away by sometime after 9. It took four trips back and forth from the car just to get everything in. :) I don't think I could get anything else into my cabinets or fridge if I tried, and that's great. Not having food may be helping my weight (I'm 8 lbs less than when I was working), but it doesn't help diabetes, that's for sure. There's some days my meal consisted of glucose tablets, just to keep my blood sugar up, and that's not really what they're designed for--they're more rescue to be followed by real food. Like I said, it's been a hard two to three weeks.

A busy day

Today I:

1. Brought my friend some lovely hyacinths in bloom.
2. Took my friends to an appointment, and then to various places.
3. Came home and worked on the apartment some more, including cleaning out the filing cabinet. I had records in there from 1999. We're talking from utilities that don't even exist anymore. As a result, I have a small pile of things to shred, as all sorts of things pay stubs, student loan papers, etc., had my social security number on it then.
4. Went over to YKWIA's and watched the movie version of Dark Shadows. Neither of us like Johnny Depp, but it was good. And Evan Green was excellent as the antagonist.
5. Took a friend to visit the other at work. Sat in the car for an hour while they talked, playing with Google Assistant and listening to Ed Sheeran's new album,.÷, which I went ahead and got from Amazon. The CD's on its way, and I have the AutoRip that comes with it, so I can listen to the .mp3 version now.
6. Came home, and I'm listening to the radio and burning a lovely lavender candle, and just sat down and paid all of my monthly bills that were left this month, with one exception. But I did a partial payment, at least). I couldn't make a payment plan, they were closed, but I did pay a good chunk and will be able to catch up next month. I'll be unemployed, but I do get a severance, and that should help catch up with that, although I'll have to be very frugal. And I started re-paying on my student loans again. But as a result, I have only enough for gas and a small grocery run between now and a week and a half away. Now I'm contemplating going on to bed, but Hozier's 'Take Me to Church' is on the radio, and I love it, so I'll wait. :)

PS It was followed by Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You'. At this rate I won't be in bed for awhile. :)

Today

a friend called me about 6:30 am to help me wake up and I chose to go back to sleep for awhile. I still got to work on time (rather than early), though, but three days of insane earliness was probably enough.

Today was payday, thankfully. I got caught up on a lot, but there are still two bills out there I can’t do. But I have a full gas tank, so I can go visit my mom Saturday, and I was able to pay other bills that were overdue, including my electric. I paid the bank (which had been at a deficit since the cascade effect happened, prompting me to move back to the credit union, where fees are less and it’s non-profit). But funny thing, even though I paid in cash, PNC refused to let me close the account today because the cash would post tomorrow. Cash. Crazy. It’s a minor annoyance, I know, but I don’t see why I should have to wait when cash is legal tender and it’s not like they have to examine the $20s to verify they’re real or anything.

I was also thwarted by Time Warner Cable. Yesterday I called to see how much it would be to turn my cable back on and was quoted a figure just under $74. I specifically asked if this would still be the case today or Friday, since I got paid (I thought I was getting a cheque today, so thought I might have to wait till Friday for it to post, but it turns out the automatic deposit went in fine). She assured me that everything would be the same. So I go today and the clerk told me that the woman had been mistaken and must not have looked at the account carefully. Thirty minutes before I called, my account had been closed, raising the amount I needed to pay to $191 or so. Very different from $74. Sigh. I can’t do that. So for now I guess there's the 5GB/month hotspot through T-Mobile that comes with my unlimited phone data plan and the laundry room, which has free WiFi. The good thing is after that I dropped some things off at Goodwill that had been sitting in my trunk and went ahead and called Vonage, which is only about $10 a month, but doesn’t work without cable, and my account was set up to be debited tomorrow. They put the phone account on hold for two months until April to give me time to get service back without having to pay for my phone. Vonage has very great customer service (they once comped me an entire month when I was struggling), and I would highly recommend them. Apparently I have been a customer for 10 years and 5 months. :)

I went to Costco and got a few things for myself and some stuff for friends, who paid me back tonight. I took A to YKWIA’s and we got some stuff at the store for there, and I left him to visit. Now I’m home. I’ve eaten an Everything bagel (2 sleeves of 6 for $5.99) and Havarti cheese (32 slices for $7.49), and I drank some orange juice ($5.99 for a gallon). So my stomach is happy. I also got some tuna. So I have some basics and can go to Kroger tomorrow for some fruit, etc.

When I came out there was a lovely sunset, so many pinks and yellows and oranges—it looked like the sky was afire. I took a picture, which doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea:

Now I think I’ll do some reading and listen to some music. Those are the only things left on my to-do list. I should do the game notes, as I’ll be visiting my mom on Saturday and we will be playing Sunday. But tomorrow is another day. Good night!

I got home about 8:30 tonight, which isn't bad for me

And I remembered to come in the other entrance to the apartment complex, as there is angled parking across from my building and the striped the new asphalt in the opposite direction than it had been, mainly so vehicles would not block the drive as people come around the corner of the wall. I came in and immediately started looking through the cabinets, but didn't find much other than some steel-cut oats, quinoa, and hot chocolate. I did, however, find a full jar of Dickinson's blackberry preserves that I'd forgotten was in the refrigerator. I still have a bit of peanut butter, too. So the first thing I did before changing into comfy clothes or anything else was put the ingredients for bread into the pan of the breadmaker and set it. I should have bread before midnight. Oh, and I found some not-too-limp celery and managed to salvage a stalk, so that will tide me help with my rumbly stomach. I'm so glad I get paid in a little over 24 hours. It's pretty much all spoken for, but I should be able to get some food and restock the pantry some, hopefully.

So now I'm in the bedroom, listening to the OneRepublic station on Pandora. I'm surprised I still have Wi-Fi, to be honest--I need to pay the Internet and electric bills or they'll be disconnected later this week. Sigh. Things will get better. I will find either a part-time job that will help, or a full-time job that will let me avoid the unemployment line next April when my current positions end. The only job of note out there is an associate at Lexington Public Library, which is part-time and I could do that as a second job, but I don't know if they'd hire a degreed librarian. I think I'll call tomorrow; it closes Friday. It can't hurt to ask if they would at least consider it. In the meantime, I've checked out several books on using LinkedIn and other social media to brand oneself, create a network, and find a job. Maybe that can help. One thing about being a librarian, you tend to think the answer to something is to be found in a book. That's not always the case, of course, but educating oneself can never be bad.

Speaking of which, I'm going to go work on my LinkedIn profile a bit. Hope you're having a good week. Oh, and PS, I think I've finally stopped the second period of the month, which is a relief. I still need to make that appointment, though.

That was close

Yesterday I bought a graduation card for one of my cousins, and I was going to send it to her tomorrow. I was going through my mail basket, which was mostly junk, looking for her address and also was trying to find a bill to go with one in collections that was a medical bill I hadn't seen before. I went through the whole basket, kept maybe eight pieces of mail, including a $20 settlement check from some class action suit against a credit card insurance company, the envelope her graduation announcement (which is hanging on the bulletin board behind my desk at work), and lo, the original bill, which got lost in the shuffle, where something wasn't ever turned in to the right insurance company. So that was helpful. Then I went and put everything in the recycling bin that I didn't need to keep, and was about to go on my way, when I realised the card and envelope were gone. I'd scooped them up with everything else. So, I had to go through the whole bin looking for a blue envelope and card. Thanks goodness they weren't white, as they'd have blended in with all that mail.

I've set up a landing area near the door for the basket, a small bin underneath for recyclables that can be transferred later, and then on the other side of the door is a postal box with slots for bills according to the day of the month. So that'll help. These weren't that old or anything, all withing a month or a month and a half, but I should have gone through them before this.

That's my main project here for the day. I went over to YKWIA's and helped him go through his bills and take care of things, then we watched a movie from the 70s called The Fury, which is based on a book he'd read years ago and is re-reading now. He wanted to do something fun, and gave me the choice of what we could do, and quite frankly I couldn't think about much to do. I'm afraid I'm more of a supportive fun person when it comes to more than just me. :) After that I came home, watered the outside plants. and planned on working on the house. But I ate and spent some time reading the news, and I got sleepy, so I laid down for awhile with the sun streaming through the window. Then I got up and at least worked on the mail area. It's getting dark now, and my desire to put things in order is fading, but I've gotten a lot accomplished this weekend, after all, both at my friend's house and my apartment. I got so much laundry done that it's corralled at the moment, and I can work on the rest of the house this week--the bedroom especially. I may still turn on the lights, some music, and the fan and work in there tonight. But I'm not going to hold myself to that--tomorrow will work. Instead, I may go put on Netflix and watch something or listen to Pandora, and read. I haven't been reading much again lately.

But first I need to go over the finances and see if I can get some wine tonight or tomorrow for my libation, as it's that monthly time again. I may write later, but if not, good night. Hope you had a good weekend--it was sunny and less humid here today, with a nice breeze, and I mostly kept out of the sun today. :)

I just crashed, after an insane day off of doing all sorts of things

We decided to just record 'Grimm' and watch it later, even though this was the 'Taming of the Wu' episode. So I dropped my friend off about 7:30 pm, went home, put the new CPAP masque together, took out the old SD card and replaced it, and put the old card in the package to send back to the medical supply company so they can download all the information on it. (Yeah, that's a bit creepy, I know). Then I tried to lie down for a bit, and the new masque is a little different. There are not separate nasal pillows that fit up your nose, but rather a under-the-nose area area. Here's a comparison. The one on the left is the ResMed Swift FX for Her masque (made by the folks who made my original CPAP machine--which I probably have had for fifteen years and still keep in the car during the winter in case I'm stranded somewhere), the one on the right is the Phillips Respironics Dreamwear masque (by the same folks who make my current CPAP):



Note the nasal pillows on the Swift FX, and that the hose is on the bottom. The Dreamwear has the hose on a rotating thing on the top of the head, so it's a little less likely to tangle as you move around in bed. Now you would think that without something in my nose, I would have fallen to sleep immediately, but actually it is a little louder, more reverberation I guess, and I didn't really feel like I had a masque on, which is good, but disconcerting. So it took a good hour to actually fall asleep, and I really just rested, but finally did doze, and I'd moved around on my back, left side, and right side. Both have their good points. And considering I wore the Swift FX upside down for almost the entire time I wore it, it worked remarkably well, getting 90% of 16.1 pressure over time. [The plastic piece goes on top; the soft cloth piece in the back]. The new one can't be worn in any other way, since the top has the hose, and all writing should be right side up. So I guess you could say it's more idiot-proof. We'll see how the new one goes. I'll definitely keep the other in case the one doesn't work out, and as a backup.

So all told, I was resting or napping for about two-and-a-half hours, just crashing. Now I'm up, and blogging, listening to the OneRepublic station on Pandora. I called my friend once I sat down to this, because I realised that we never got A's bus pass. They're going to use cash to go somewhere tomorrow, which will take them near a Kroger, where they can get one there, so really, the only thing I'm needed for tomorrow is the grocery run later in the day. So...that means I can push certain things to tomorrow, including:

• Exercising
• Bill paying
• Cleaning house

and really put some effort into the house, which is terribly messy at the moment. Not insurmountable, of course, just messy. And the fish tanks need attention and the recyclables need to go out (I took the trash out a couple of days ago). So the idea is to go back to sleep, wake up maybe at 8 am, go exercise, get a shower, start on the house, work on it for awhile, and pay bills as I take breaks. Tomorrow I think it's supposed to rain and be cooler, so it'll be good to do stuff inside, although hopefully it won't be raining so hard that the recyclables will be an issue. That way I'll also get things put together before the end of the month, Beltane (which starts tomorrow night), and my next cycle/dark of the moon. That'll be nice. So, I think I'm going to head back to bed. Good night!

PS I'm not sure how many miles I drove today, but I went through a quarter of a tank of gas, and made several trips around the eastern and middle parts of town, back and forth, back and forth. My step count for the day was only 4,856, so most of my running around was by car. But whew! What a lot of running!

I'm off from work today

because it was a light clinic day and I had things to do that required being off 9-5, and while I may regret it in the long run (I don't have much Personal Time Off (PTO) at all, and Memorial Day's around the corner), it's really been nice. I got up at the normal time, though, and so far I have:

1. Called and arranged for someone to take the paper to the library, since Friday's has the Weekender and is more popular.
2. Gotten my car tags renewed.
3. Picked up a book on the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance from the library downtown.
4. Stopped by McDonald's for breakfast (they gave me regular Coke, ugh, but otherwise it was decent).
5. Picked up a friend, stopped by a gas station for drinks and his newspaper, and took him to an appointment.
6. Waited outside in the car with the windows rolled down, reading the Medici book, for about an hour. I also downloaded a couple of phone applications and laid the seat back, enjoying the pleasant breeze and sunlight.
7. Took my friend home.
8. Got a call from the allergist that my phials are in, so I can start allergy shots. They were getting ready to close for lunch, so I came on home, got my Epi-Pens transferred to my bag, and now I'm killing some time listening to the Eurythmics and A Flock of Seagulls on an 80s alternative music channel on Pandora. I've got the windows of the apartment open.

Things to do the rest of the day:

1. Get my allergy shots.
2. Go grocery shopping.
3. Pay bills.
4. Exercise.
5. Work on the house.
6. Print out some papers for a friend, whose printer is out of ink.
7. Take that friend to an appointment mid-afternoon.
8. Go get the new SD card for my CPAP machine and try the new masque the doctor recommended, see if it fits.
9. Pick up a friend for an evening appointment.
10. Take another friend to get his bus pass.
11. Watch 'Grimm'.

So, yes, busy day, but yay for productivity so far. I think I'll print those pages out before doing anything else. The allergist's office opens back up at 1:30 pm. Then I can deliver the pages when I pick my friend up.

Well, I did one thing on my list

I didn't get home till about 9:30 tonight, and my neck and back are still hurting, so I decided not to do any lifting, which means not putting stuff in the closet, not filling up the fish tanks, and not taking stuff out to the Dumpster. But I did sit down and pay several bills to the best of my ability. I also relaxed for just a little while playing Gauntlet, both the original and Gauntlet II. :) Now I'm listening to a Loreena McKennitt channel on Pandora. I'll probably head on to bed soon--tomorrow is one of my 'early' days, meaning I get up at 6 am.

I managed to get some gas today and filled up the tank (which was good, as I was on my gas light) because using my friends' Kroger card (they have no car, so otherwise the fuel points would go to waste, and I take them around a lot) I had 50 cents off a gallon, so I got it for $1.99 a gallon. Yay! That was kind of the highlight of my day. I generally didn't feel well, due to the neck/back pain, a headache, and some wonky blood sugar. I did manage to help YKWIA with something, and A as well, and watched a great episode pair of 'Wizards vs. Aliens' with YKWIA. But I'm glad to be home now and am thinking of taking a muscle relaxer and just crawling into bed. I wish this pain would go away. I haven't taken anything stronger than ibuprofen, but I've been trying to avoid taking even that if I can help it.

Okay, that's all for me tonight. Have a very good night. I'll try to write something more substantial next time.

I feel like I wasted most of my day off

I spent much of it in bed. When I wasn't in bed, I was blogging or on Facebook, or some other Internet site. I didn't take a shower, didn't take any of my medication, which is unlike me. I did finally take a nice, relaxing bath just now, and got into clean comfy clothes. I did finally hear back from my friend regarding our project; we're going to do it Wednesday between my appointments.

I would like to say that I didn't feel like getting involved in anything I might have to interrupt while I was waiting for that call, but that's not it. Part of it is the 'when I'm alone I sleep' thing. But mostly, I just didn't feel like doing much of anything today. I find it relaxing to play on social media and blog. All the while I beat myself up for not accomplishing anything, but I think my body just said, wait, it's your day off, get some rest.

I have tomorrow free from my normal responsibilities as well. I may go to the festival for a bit, time it around an hour before the parade, so that I'm not spending all day there. That leaves the morning for doing some of the things I felt I should have done today--cleaning house, going over my bills, doing game notes, enjoying watching something [I would like to watch Galaxy Quest, as it's fun, and it's streaming on Netflix]. Then, after the parade ends (around 4 pm), I can either come home and do some more stuff, maybe get in the pool if we're rain/thunderstorm free (it never worked out today with the weather the way it was). Then I'll head over to the fireworks that evening. I'll check up on my friends, at some point, and call my mom and see how she is doing. So it should be a pretty full day, unlike today. Maybe I just needed a day to do nothing. I didn't even putz, really, just slept, ate a little, and played on the computer. I don't relax as well as I used to. I used to read, or listen to music, or watch something. Somewhere along the way I got used to relaxing with other people involved, and lost the ability to keep myself occupied. So tomorrow I'm going to work on that.

Up paying bills

I get paid on Thursdays, but the money usually hits my account about 11:30 the night before. My account has been in horrible shape of late, as a bill went through that the bank paid but I didn't have sufficient funds for. Thankfully, it was paid, as it was my car insurance, but I haven't been able to pay anything for about a week, and I'm woefully behind in all sorts of ways. Between the trip (I'm still waiting on a reimbursement cheque from the college) and the brakes (although thankfully those weren't extremely expensive) and the choice to at least pay my rent on time, I've been behind. So I sat down around midnight and paid my cell phone, electricity, and broadband bills. A couple of bills come out automatically in a day. Tomorrow I'll sit down and look at what else I can pay, and try to get as much taken care of as possible. If you happen to be a creditor reading this, I really am trying to get everything taken care of. And I am looking for a full-time library job that would pay better than my library/data entry combination. At the rate I'm going, I've been seriously considering trying to get a part-time job on top of my 40 hours I work at the hospital. Of course, I would be in better shape if a 'friend' who borrowed money from me had ever even made any attempt to pay me what he owes me. During the time when I (uncharacteristically) had money after the accident where I was hit with the car, I had a friend in dire straits who continually hit me up for money for him and his family, saying he would pay me back as soon as possible. Being the gullible and soft-hearted person I am, I believed him. (The fact that I had just had a scary experience that could have been deadly and was in pain and on medication at least part of that time didn't really help. He literally asked for money within a few days after I was hit.) Anyway, he took advantage of that friendship, and borrowed quite a bit of money, enough that if I sued him, it would be out of small claims court. Whenever I've tried to talk to him about it, he tries to guilt me into thinking I'm a bad person for wanting my money back, and says I only talk to him to bring it up anymore. Sadly, our friendship, such as it was, and I thought it was greater than it was, suffered. On the other hand, I've never successfully confronted him or his wife on the issue. But I now understand why no one in his family would help him, especially when he got stranded in South Carolina during an impromptu visit to the beach without cash after the vow renewal they put together the same year they were borrowing from me for rent and Christmas presents for the kids, and for that matter, part of the vow renewal. In his defence, he did repay me for getting them back from being stranded, but that's the only payment on the total I received after months of panicked 'I hate to ask you, but....' I really do feel used and totally gullible for believing that he was a good friend. On the other hand, I recognise that I was so desperate for friendship that I was willing to give money that I would need later to someone even against my better judgement. So it was a perfect storm of problems. But beyond the money, I was a really good friend to him, and was very supportive when he was struggling with illness and transitioning from working to disability, and I really deserved better from him. And I resent the guilt he tried to lay on me. I hope he at least has the good graces to feel a little guilt when he thinks of me, but I doubt it. I suspect I am one in a long line of people he's done this to, given his family's response. And that's sad. Still, it makes me appreciate the friends I do have who don't leech off of me, and when they do have me pick up something for them or whatever, they actually pay me back.

Well that's enough of that. I should head on to bed. Things will get better with time, I hope.

So

Turns out one bill I have absolutely must be paid by the 31st or Very Bad Things will happen. Mailing the payment was a bust.  I called the nearest post office,  but they were closed.  I went to 'my' post office,  which is over between Tates Creek and Nicholasville roads, so really nowhere near me.  I was going to overnight my payment,  even though it would be $20 and I needed to use a kiosk because the regular desk was closed,  and re-read my instructions to find I needed to enclose a cashier's cheque instead of a regular one.  I had seen a sign on the door of my bank the other day that made me think they were closed on Christmas eve,  so that was that,  I couldn't do anything till Friday.  So I went and got the things for latkes and some gas ($1.77 a gallon with Kroger points!),  noticing that the bank was actually open.  But I was back by my apartment and didn't want to go halfway across town again to mail it.

Also the cable office is closed today,  so I can't take care of that till Friday.  And the electric company and library are closed today too,  so I can't do any of that until then.  Oh,  well.

I'm going back out in a bit to check on that package.  Otherwise it's just working on the house and checking in with my mom regarding our visit.  I've cleaned the kitchen and washed all the dishes.  But there's still a lot to do.  But right now,  I'm going to take a break.

Today I:

1. Paid my rent
2. Took books back to the library and got some more
3. Called and cancelled the game.
4. Helped a friend look over some things in preparation for going to the store
5. Helped a friend get reading glasses and those eyeglass holders
6. Took a friend to the store for a larger run than we though at the bigger store which was hot, and neither of us thought we'd make it
7. Got another friend a chocolate shake
8. Watched an interesting video on the philosophy of the question of the reality of fictional objects and entities (thanks to YKWIA)
9. Watched a hilarious Christmas episode of 'Eureka' where the characters were translated into lots of cartoon styles and Jim Parsons of 'The Big Bang Theory' was the voice of Carl the ever-suffering Jeep driven by the sheriff
10. Rubbed a friend's feet until he fell asleep
11. Chatted a bit with the other for awhile
12. Came home
13. Had a bite to eat
14. Listened to some music
15. Read a book
16. Took a nap
17. Paid my cell phone bill
18. Revamped my résumé and curriculum vitae online, since I'd redone the print ones
19. Removed the steri-strips on my incisions, as they were curling up and they had told me that would be the signal to remove them--seems odd to have a bare knee again

So it was a busy day, but not so much as a normal Saturday, and I had from about 6 pm on to myself. We're not playing Call of Cthulhu tomorrow, so I'm going over much later than normal and presumably I'll work on some things here, like straightening up, getting a little laundry together, putting the massive laundry from last week away (no, still haven't done that), made the bed completely (it's just blankets and two pillows right now), take out the trash and recyclables, that sort of thing. Also I want to try out a popcorn popper I got some time ago, take it out, and figure it out. It and air popper, but it's round rather than the normal air poppers. Then I'll go over to their house, do my little bit of laundry and some things around there, and visit. I don't think we're all up to watching The Grand Budapest Hotel at the moment, so while I have it, that may be put on hold until sometime next week.

I went for a walk earlier

which is, of course, healthy and I'm glad I did, but it really kicked my butt and I wound up coming home, hydrating a bit, turning the fan on, and plopping onto the bed for 'a few minutes', and then fell asleep from about for four hours, which probably defeated the purpose of going in the first place.

Getting up, I took my nightly medicine (so glad my phone reminds me now with a little sound that is like a shaking pill bottle), made a salad to bring to work tomorrow, changed purses, and then sat down and put my pills into my container for the next week and figured out what needs to be refilled Thursday. Then I suddenly remembered my phone bill was due today. Now, unlike some bills, I have until midnight to pay on time, but it was almost midnight. I signed in online and there was a problem accessing the website. It signed me in, but kept saying there was a problem and to hit the back button, but that only gave a 'loading page' error. So I tried the backup of using my handset to pay, using the application for my carrier, and that was going great until I got to the expiration date for the credit card and the drop down box sat there and laughed at me and did absolutely nothing except get larger. No drop down, no keyboard coming up to type anything up, just bigger. So I went back and tried the website again and then, no doubt since it was after midnight, everything was working again. Grrrr.... Oh well, at least it's paid, even if it looks like it's a day late rather than mere minutes. It's my fault for not doing it before I laid down, but I really didn't expect to actually fall asleep, as I didn't feel tired so much as needing to cool down and chill for a few minutes. [Postscript: If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know this last statement is ludicrous. I was obviously lying to myself, as any time I go horizontal I pretty much fall asleep. So let me retract that. Apparently when the endorphins gave out, I crashed, even though I didn't 'feel tired' prior to that. I should have given a bit of thought to that before I wrote. Sorry about that.]