December 23, 2008

Shaking the fist of rue

Just now realized that my decision to give my dad a chance to sell the %^&*^% truck at a higher price than the dealer’s offered $4000 was stupid stupid stupid. As if I hadn’t already experienced the burn of not selling earlier in the year, that extra money would have defrayed the most recent car-related crisis by giving me a little extra cash and eliminating the existing truck note.

Baugh.

Ok.

Made the decision to give him a chance, just have to make the best of it. And not dwell.
Um, on the bright side, I got a friend’s opinion on the new suit and thumbs up! So I will only have spent $11 on a quite nice new business suit. Let’s hope I don’t outgrow this one in two years.

December 22, 2008

Notes, related or not

My new laptop: is pretty much wonderful. All but the part where I can’t figure out why it will no longer let me make my recovery disks. Just because I started installing/un-installing stuff that I didn’t want? Oh shoot, was it related to Windows Live OneCare? Because I junked that as soon as Avast was up and running. Darned Vista, I still haven’t learned my way around it. Oh well, new tech, keeps me young.

Wire transfers: despite costing $18-stinkin-75, are not guaranteed to transmit immediately. Citibank’s website is a liar. I read the fine print, there’s no mention of an up-to-48 hour review. Which, btw, takes me right up to Christmas Eve, and Christmas. Sure can’t wait to pay double the expected fee for “storage” because I was misinformed and didn’t just set up the wire transfer on Friday so that it’d have gone through by now. *sigh* I should just expect things to go wrong like this and you know, see into the future to prevent this sort of thing. Among others.

Escape Brooklyn: makes me even more trepiditious about living in New York. But then again, I only wanted to live there for a year or two.

Business suit: Is an all black suit too conservative for SF? I’m not a hugely fashionable person, so I tend to stick to the basics, and because they practically never have anything but basics in my size.
I found a close-as-anything-fit 0P Tahari suit yesterday for $140 at Macy’s. Twasn’t on sale, but I had my good friend look up coupons as I sat miserably in the dressing room with 4 suits that didn’t fit. He found a rumor of a $25 off $100 purchase so I trekked to Barnes and Noble for a copy of the paper and found THREE of those coupons! That gave me an extra burst of energy to check the racks one last time, and I lucked out big time.

I can’t find pictures of it online but they had two options: a skirt or pant suit. Both were two button jacket with rounded lapels on the pantsuit jacket, and thinner, sharper lapels on the skirt suit.

The skirt suit, after coupon, and after a fatty $113 gift card, cost $11 out of pocket. Just have to decide if it’s impressive enough. As I was told that I barely looked 18 at dinner on Saturday night while our 21 year old guests weren’t carded, I’m going to need all the help I can get to look legal, much less highly competent and employable.

December 17, 2008

JC Penney coupon, links, etc.

  • Getting drafts of apps together on Gmail during my breaks. I think it’s best to do that while I’m fresher during the day and send off at night. We’ll see what pans out.

  • Trivia: Do you know who wrote and sang Same Auld Lang Syne? I do! But wouldn’t without Google. That song always used to make me tear up as an adolescent. Now it just reminds me of being a kid. And sticks in my head for hours after hearing it. Also, why are Greensleeves and Canon in D (Pachelbel’s Canon) in the radio station’s Christmas music rotation?

  • While Ctrl+T is good for me, Ctrl+Q almost always screws me up. Thank goodness for Auto-Save because shutting down the whole program in the middle of a document drives me nuts.

  • I know money doesn’t “buy happiness” but there are days I wish I had oodles to give away where it could really help.

    It just occurred to me that it’s Wednesday. Payday!

December 15, 2008

Ctrl+T: today’s substitute for short term memory

Blame it on the cold – my synapses are frozen. No less than five times this morning I’ve remembered and forgotten what I needed to call and ask my best friend, what I was just going to do a minute ago, what I need to write on my to-do today list, what notes to add to my reminder post-it. That’d be five times, each, my friends. *tsk*

I’m about to forget my own head, and it’s still attached to my body!

Hm, also blame it on being so busy this weekend that I essentially took it off from the mile-long list of chores and wrapping-up activities associated with changing just about everything in your life. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but trying to start over, alone, in a new place, and not having a home base to come back to is a whole new experience for me. And the weather backed up the traffic and transportation all morning so that I started the day running pretty late. šŸ˜› I like rain but the first few days are always tough on transportation.

In good news: we might have a buyer for the truck! Cross your fingers with me that this will go through. That’s another thing to take care of, actually. I need to get an ETA on the title, am considering paying it off right now to hurry up the process but I will call the financing company first to find out what the best procedure will be. The lump sum wouldn’t clean out my expense fund, and if the buyer is serious about this and paying cash, it’ll be “paid back” right quick.

Also in good news: I have a nibble on the applications front. Kind of scary, but good, too.

Oh, and Ctrl+T? Every time I think of yet another thing to do, call, work on, etc., I open up another browser window and type it in. That way I’m forced to deal with each item before I can close the window. That doesn’t work well when I spastically Ctrl+W too quickly, though.

December 11, 2008

Comparatively speaking

As it turns out, going to the dentist IS better than going to work. The experience, I mean, not the paying seven hundred dollars instead of getting paid a fraction of that price tag. (Not that I paid $700 — I paid $78, and thank goodness for the dental insurance that picked up the rest! Can you imagine a routine visit costing that much money?? Do they have COBRA for dental? Eeesh.)

What I mean to say is: I spent 2.5 hours at the dentist having 4 almost-cavities drilled and filled, and I was much less stressed than I would have been at a comparable time in the office. It was a very scientific study.

Other things I accomplished in one day:
Dropped off dry cleaning before their one-day cutoff time.
Lovelied up the eyebrows. ($15)
Lunched with newly employed friend and caught her up on sad news. ($7)
Met with two old friends I haven’t seen in months, played with baby.
Picked up dry cleaning. ($10)
Picked up doggy ashes, chatted with old friend.
Dropped off doggy ashes.

Ok, see, my day seemed a heck of a lot fuller than that list shows. Really! I drove all over three towns to accomplish as much as … that. Thank goodness for sick time. I feel like there were a thousand other things I should have gotten done today because I’ll be busy all weekend, but I won’t undo all the good relaxing by stressing about what-should-have-beens. Oh I remember! I wanted to see if I could get my eyes checked today too, but oops! Forgot. Oh well, I have a clean trenchcoat! And isn’t ten dollars ridiculous for dry cleaning a coat? I should have read the tag before buying. Unless it just didn’t matter because I have the hardest time finding clothes that fit.

December 7, 2008

Holding vigil

Am worn out from trying to make up my day. Arrived home at 5 pm, had a short whirlwind of activity: did two loads of laundry, ate a little bit, showered, cleaned the tub, boiled eggs for tomorrow. Now, exhausted, so am giving up on job apps, organizing photographs, writing cards. Was rousted out of bed this morning to go to BF’s house to check on his dog. His sister was alone, distraught as their 15+ year old dog’s somewhat neurological behaviors and unsteadiness increased, so I went to keep her company and tender what advice I could.

Precious little advice it was, too. He’s had a good long life, and we’ve been blessed to have him this long after last year’s tragedies, but it was clearly his time to go. Finally, he had such rough bout of difficulty breathing after a bit of activity that I was about to recommend that they call the vet and let him go more peacefully when he passed on his own.

I was able to make a few calls and make arrangements since I used to work at the local vet’s, so that spared the family some little bit of stress.

I’m glad I could be there to help in BF’s place, but I fervently wish that after losing their father, their cousin and now their beloved family pet, we can be spared the need to hold vigil, please, for at least another couple of years. I know life’s not fair, but this is getting to be a bit much.

November 13, 2008

Why I can’t have nice things, Reason # I’ve stopped counting

Because BF is sweet and loves a useful bargain, he gifted me with a lovely vanilla white fleecey jacket for no reason whatsoever. Because I’m me, I wore it to work today, and promptly got a smidgen of purple ink on it. I don’t normally even keep uncappable pens at my desk for fear of this of stupid problem, why would I do that on the first day I wear a brand new white jacket?? Honestly. At least it matches my shirt and socks?

Never mind. I should have these sorts of things memorized by now, (and should carry my Tide to go pen!) but since I don’t and didn’t bring the pen, this is courtesy of HowStuffWorks.com:

Remove Ink Stains From:
Acrylic Fabric, Cotton, Linen, Modacrylic,
Nylon, Olefin, Polyester, Spandex

Try a light spray of hair spray to loosen the laundry stains. Soak in a solution of 1 quart warm water, 1/2 teaspoon dishwashing detergent, and 1 tablespoon white vinegar for 30 minutes; use care when using vinegar on cotton and linen. Rinse with water and allow to dry. If Stain persists, apply rubbing alcohol to the stain and cover with an absorbent pad moistened with alcohol (use alcohol sparingly on acrylic and modacrylic). Let stand as long as any stain is being removed. Change pad as it picks up the stain. Keep both the stain and pad moist with alcohol. Flush with alcohol and allow to dry. If any trace of stain remains, soak in a solution of 1 quart warm water, 1/2 teaspoon dishwashing detergent, and 1 tablespoon ammonia for 30 minutes. Rinse thoroughly with water and allow to dry.

And I’m banishing the pen to the bottom of my desk drawer. Again. Let’s hope it stays there this time.

 

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