Random Ramblings Are Random

Slowly but surely getting a grip on cleaning and organizing the stuff that was brought into the house when I moved in 30 days ago. It's been slow going because I find myself getting burnt out so easily with it all, but it is getting down to a manageable level. And it helps when I set myself a goal of at least one doom bag a day. Especially while my roomie is out of town and I have plenty of space to move stuff around. Once I get my bedroom fully sorted and arranged, ready to start bringing in my boxes of books, geeky collectibles, and other assorted stuff, I will start bringing in at least one box/bag each day to go through. Put away what I absolutely can't part with and donate/trash the rest. And donating is easier now with a friend who literally lives around the corner and has offered to help me with that any time I feel I have enough stuff to do a run. I had hoped to finally get into the shed today so I could dig out my gaming consoles and assorted games, but that probably s

My old place was posted for rent only a few hours ago. For $1200 a month, POU, and no off-street parking. Yes, work was done on the place, but not really enough to justify the $400 rent increase they are asking for. Oh, I'm sure it will get snapped up in no time due to the housing crisis in the province. But whomever ends up living there now will find that the windows aren't sealed correctly, the roof leaks, and so much more. Sure, the appliances are all new and there is laminate flooring throughout the entire place now. Oh, and the bathroom was completely remodeled. But it's still like putting lipstick on a pig. I feel for whomever moves in there - they're going to be in for a huge shock when they get their first winter heating bill. Just like I was. In other news, I'm settling into my new living arrangements in Mount Pearl. Buses suck horribly, but I knew that before I even moved here. It was a large part of why I had kept looking primarily in St. John's, but

Since my last post here things have definitely changed! I have moved out of the apartment I'd lived in for just over 12 years. But not in with the friend and her daughter like originally intended. That fell completely through, and in the end it is probably for the best. I am now living with a former co-worker. The same co-worker who was supposed to become my roomie last year. It's sort of strange how things sometimes work out, but there is it. I am no longer living in St. John's, which I'm surprisingly okay with. Now, I live in Mount Pearl within easy walking distance of a bus stop. Not that Metrobus has great service to Mount Pearl, but it is better than nothing. I am still working at the gas station job, and for those days I have to be at work for 7am a friend of mine is giving me a ride. Well, either her or her partner. There are two locations of the same gas station within walking distance of my new place, so I will keep my eyes peeled on the internal job posting si

Packing has started in earnest now. I will be moving at the end of November one way or another. As it looks right now, I will likely be moving in with a friend and her daughter. There is nothing affordable available for me to be able to live on my own. Not to mention that my bills have gotten a bit of out control and I will not have them back under control in time to switch them to a new place. Besides, this will allow both my friend and I to save money. Christmas is coming, and I want to save up for a vehicle so that I can maybe move outside of the city to somewhere affordable. Surprisingly, I have managed to move pretty much all my clothing into my tiny closet in my bedroom. The 'closet' in the other room currently has my bins of fabric and sewing supplies. I have gotten rid of a lot of clothes that I don't wear at all, and I still have more to get rid of. I have a feeling that many of my doom bags are just going to end up straight in the garbage. Well, after I pull out a

So, I'm taking yet another round of writing classes. I know that over the past couple of years that my writing has gotten better, but I would never have considered myself actually good. Passable, sure. Certainly no better than some abysmal writers who have somehow managed to get movie deals out of the dreck they've produced. Anyhow, one of the things about the writing classes I'm taking is that we do peer reviews. And the two people reading my work this time around are established writers, but only one writes in the same genre I do. The other one writes historical fiction for the most part. The fantasy writer has commented each time on my work that I'm clearly a skilled writer and he can't wait to read more of my work. I'm still beside myself after his comment tonight. Especially after he stated he wants to read the first eleven chapters - I had submitted Chapter 12 for tonight's class. It was re-write that stretched out the much shorter scene I had submitte

So, I still haven't received a written eviction notice from my landlord. But that doesn't mean that I don't intend to be out by the end of November. It does, however, mean that I likely won't be doing him the courtesy of giving him an actual notice when I move out. My tentative plan at this point is to move out first and then give him notice just prior to changing my phone number and blocking him from emailing me. Does this mean I likely won't get my security deposit back? Yeah, probably, but I have a feeling he'd be trying to withhold it anyway. Just my gut speaking. Also, as an older woman I have to get mammograms done once in a while. And I got the results in the mail of my last one. The results were normal, thankfully, but I do have high breast density. What this means is that approximately 75%, give or take on either side, is glandular tissue. I could probably have predicted that based on the fact that as I lose weight my band size goes down and my cup size

I haven't yet gotten a written notice of eviction, but I'm still getting my stuff packed and looking for a new place. And I'm wondering how the hell I'm supposed to save up for all of this...trying to save up for a damage deposit and u-Haul rental is going to do me in. It's not like I make a whole lot of money or anything. I make $1.55 more than minimum wage. As an assistant manager. I live on my own and recently started paying $100 more for rent per month. Plus, I've been playing catch up with bills for entirely too long - sometimes food is more important than paying that internet bill, especially when the cat needs food. I've been looking at renting a room and doing the roomie thing, but even the costs for that are insane. Everything just costs so much more than it used to, and nobody can afford much of anything. And, while I've found a few affordable options, they're ready right now...and I just don't have the funds available to make the move

So, I've been verbally given a three month eviction notice due to my landlord wanting to renovate the apartment I've been living in for almost 12 years. And he's made it clear that he will not entertain the idea of me coming back once the renovations are done. Yes, the place needs some work - I've been here for 12 years so wear and tear are only natural. Of course, the day he needed into the apartment was a day where the place was a state. I'd just worked my last day of a string of five days in a row and housework needed to be done. Five days worth of dishes in the sink, garbage that was in the process of being collected to put out on garbage day, and laundry that was in the process of being washed, dried, folded, and put away. Plus stuff on the floor because I'd been going through my collection of doom bags and boxes so I could get rid of more things I don't need or have room for. It clearly wasn't putting the best look out there for my landlord to see,

I know. It's been a while. I've just been going through the motions. Just trying to get by the best I can. I may have started sort of seeing somebody. That's been interesting. Well, more of a roller coaster where I've been trying to figure out the truth of that person's marital status. Especially after we had engaged in some sexual activity a week ago. No, not full on penetration. More like really heavy petting. Yes, we both came. I'd been lead to believe that the divorce was finalized, the paperwork signed and filed in a court of law. But I should have seen the writing on the wall - his 'ex' has still been living with him for pretty much all of the time that has passed since the paperwork was allegedly signed. I know he hasn't been happy with her since at least last December, and shit went down. And they both stated they were divorced. Yet. I discovered last weekend that they hadn't actually completed the process. And it was in a place where I c

I watched videos on YouTube today concerning misconceptions about German and the German language and found myself nodding along with them. Why? Because, even though I live in Canada, I've come up against many of these misconceptions myself due to my last name. My legal last name is German. My dad was born in Germany during WWII. My Opa fought on the side of Germany during that same war. I was born here. I was not taught German growing up. My dad never spoke much about his life before coming to Canada. Ditto for my Opa. Now, I'd heard Opa speak German so I knew that the language wasn't as harsh and guttural as a lot of non-Germal people seemed to believe. I understood where people got the impression that the language was harsh, filled with over-pronunciation, rolled Rs, and sounded angry. Listen to Nazi propaganda speeches and you'll understand. But what folks don't understand is that this particular pronunciation was an affectation and not common in most German dial

I hate being sick. I woke up last Friday feeling like I'd gargled glass. This is almost always a precursor to me being incredibly sick, and this time it was definitely a prediction of how sick I'd spend the past week. Yet, I still showed up to work. I was really grateful that for four of my five shifts were management shifts where I could essentially hide in the office because I was not feeling at all comfortable being around people being as sick as I was. I swear that was dealing with hot and cold flashes along the same intensity I experienced when I was dealing with menopause. It was horrible. I'm still dealing with the tail end of whatever it was I had. I did test to make sure it wasn't COVID, and thankfully the tests came back negative. I did end up finishing off the last of my supply of Buckley's cough elixir, and I think tonight will see the last of the Nyquil. Thank fuck I get paid tomorrow because my first stop will be the drugstore so I can pick up more Buc

So, I did end up working a shift last night. And the idiot who called out sick showed up to buy a few things from the store. I'm a firm believer that if you call out sick from work for whatever reason that you don't go near the place during the hours you were supposed to work. At least he looked like he wasn't feeling the greatest, but I'm from a generation that would show up to work even if we were half-dead. Different work ethics at play, obviously. And I did manage to get an hour of sleep before going into work yesterday. I did end up buying a few things to eat for today, but not the sandwich and the can of pasta I was originally contemplating. Baked beans, Cheese Whiz, gummy candies, and a bag of chips...and only because I had reached out to my daughter to help get me home last night due to how shitty the buses are late at night in this city. Originally, I only had enough on my card to get me home, no tip, so I reached out to my kiddo for $25 - she sent me $30. Whic

Today's journey in cleaning my apartment saw me finally fully clean my fridge out and also clear off the top of my dryer. Progress is being made! And I haven't started backsliding with the rest of the stuff that was previous accomplished. Slow but steady wins the race, right? I knew that my fridge was in dire need of cleaning. I hadn't touched it in around five years, other than to clear rotten and expired stuff out of it occasionally, and only because I'd had no room to put in anything else. Hell, around 5-ish years ago a bottle of home-made wine had exploded in the fridge and I'd never gotten around to cleaning the resulting mess in all that time. Oh, the bottle had been tossed in the garbage back when the cork had exploded out of it, but that was about it. And I have no idea about what some of the other sticky messes were from, but I did know that it all needed to be cleaned out once and for all. The top of my dryer tends to be where I just toss shit to be dealt

So, I've been doing my best to maintain the clean parts of my apartment and I've been poking away at the mess that still needs to be cleared out. But the place is looking way better than it has in ages! I'd say that I've got every reason to be proud of myself for the progress I've been seeing lately. In other news, I'm really beginning to hate winter with a passion that I only used to feel for the spectacularly hot days of summer. It probably wouldn't be so bad if the snow would just fuck off and stay gone, and that the winter storms wouldn't threaten to shut down the city. Mind you, if I could find a place the same size closer to work I probably wouldn't bitch quite so much. Or even at the same price point for something similar. Having to bus from downtown to work is for the fucking birds. It's bad enough when the weather is cooperating, but on those days where the weather is as shitty as it currently is? Well, it sucks donkey balls. Honestly, i

Six bags. Six bags of garbage just from my kitchen alone. Holy shit. I never realized how much stuff I had on the kitchen floor until this morning. But, it's all cleared now, and I was able to wash the floor for the first time in well over a year, if not longer. It will need another couple of washes before it's completely clean, but for now it's just so much better. So, because I couldn't get time off from work on Saturday for my landlord to come over we had to reschedule. To today. I don't know when he's planning on coming over, but I will be messaging him around noon-ish to let him know that I have an appointment this afternoon that I'd forgotten about and can't reschedule, but that we can reschedule his inspection if it's okay as I really don't want somebody in my home if I'm not here. If he wants me to text him when I get back, that's fine with me. He won't be impressed with the pile of garbage bags I have to get rid of, but I wil

So, my rent will be going up at some point in the future due to the increase in mortgage rates. Even with that increase I will be able to afford the rent here, so long as I don't get too behind in my utility payments. Especially with the pay increase that will go with my new position. But my landlord wants to do an inspection of my apartment next weekend. This has me scared shitless because my apartment is a mess. Shitty mental health and hoarding have a tendency to go hand in hand, sadly. So...take a wild guess what I have until next Saturday to get cleared out? Thankfully, I got a huge chunk of the living room mess taken care of. A bunch of stuff was donated to Value Village, and even more went straight into the garbage. I've had a bunch of stuff that was ready to donate since I worked at Dominion three years ago, and a bunch of my daughter's pre-transition clothing as well. Most of what is left will be going into various bins, boxes, and bags for me to put away neatly so

So, new development at work! I've officially had the title of Lead Customer Service Representative since the beginning of January. With our current store hierarchy it basically means that I've been the acting assistant manager. I've actually been doing the job since the middle of November, but Will wasn't going to make any definite move on it until his boss gave the go-ahead and Kelsey was removed from the picture. Today, his boss called about the current status of the actual store manager - her leave has been extended yet again and it really looks like she won't be coming back. This means that he wants me to be moved up to be co-assistant manager with Will. Will is still an assistant manager on paper but has all the responsibilities of the store manager, and I've been doing the assistant manager job despite not actually being one on paper. So, on paper, Will and I will both be assistant managers with Will being the senior assistant manager and me being the juni

Okay, missus, I get that you're excited about your trip to Florida in a month, but I'm getting really tired of hearing about it. Especially when you bitch about not being able to afford to not work more than one job to even be able to afford your regular bills. Trust me, I understand the need for vacation, but I don't understand the need to live so far beyond your means. And I'm really getting tired of the excuses for why you feel the need to go on these vacations. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it's mostly that you feel the need to show your sister and her family that you can do all the same things she can afford to do. When, in all honesty, you really can't. You've admitted that money, or the lack thereof, is a stress trigger for you. I know I was flabbergasted when you told me how much your mortgage payments will be going up to - and people wonder why I'm perfectly happy renting at my age. Holy shit, there is no need to blow money to put on a facade th

First week of February so I figure it's time for a bit of an update. The store is still standing, somehow. We've hired three new employees and fired one already - the first two we hired said they had open availability when they actually didn't.  The one that was fired was a guy we weren't certain about from the get go...he had his photo on his resume and he looked cocky. Brought him in for the interview and I guess he did okay. I didn't do his interview so I'm not entirely sure. But he was late for his first shift, didn't wear what we told him to (no sweats...he wore sweats), and didn't bring all the info we needed in order to properly get him into the system so he could be paid. And then when he was still in training he claimed he didn't know he was scheduled - despite the schedule being posted for over a week at this point and knowing full wll that he saw the damn thing - so he didn't show, and only came in because Will blew up at him. And then