Random Ramblings Are Random

So, the washing machine here is on its last legs. It's been like this since before I moved in but it isn't my job to repair or replace it. Although, I did look up the initial issue and found out that one of the stabilizer parts for the washing drum definitely needs to be replaced. But it was still usable. But for the past few months it has stopped agitating during the wash cycle. I didn't realize how much it would affect actually cleaning clothes, but yeah. Last night I decided to handwash all my underwear with laundry detergent and a cap of bleach. Why? Because now that I don't have the head cold from Hell, I can actually smell things. And I was NOT liking how my underwear was smelling. I knew that *technically* my clothes were laundered, but I got the distinct feeling that they weren't actually getting CLEAN. Yes, all caps intended. Which meant it was time to do an experiment. I took all the handwashed clothing and put it through the washer this morning. It was la...

December 25, 2024 I don't usually do much for Christmas. Neither does my daughter. It hasn't been something we have celebrated much, especially once we no longer had to deal with spending time with my dysfunctional family. Besides, it's just entirely too commercial. I am spending the night at my daughter's house because of work. Since I started at my current job I have worked most holidays, but the buses are off the road on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Which means, that instead of paying a small fortune on taxis, it was cheaper to stay at my daughter's. Her place is way closer to my work than my own place - $7-ish for a taxi as opposed to $30-ish. I could technically walk to work from here, but my feet have been really messed up lately. And it is way too damn cold. It has been a good visit with my daughter. She made us dinner - alfredo chicken penne. No slaving over a big meal, and this has been a regular thing for us for Christmas dinner anyway. The last time I we...

So, I didn't get everything out of the basement common area by the end of October. I got a LOT of it out, but there still remains some items that desperately need to go. I just haven't had the spoons to do it yet. Such is life when your health, mental and physical, decide to have other ideas. Obviously, I'm still working away at it all, and making progress too! A week ago, during my last two days off from work, I finally put together the free shelving thingy I got from Temu and started putting things on it. Talk about a huge difference from having things all over the counter! Organization of my kettle, various water bottles and travel mugs, spices, cereal, and other things have been accomplished and I have actual working space on the counter now. Given the space and time (and another shelving thingy at some point) I'll hopefully be able to turn the top of my mini-fridge into a coffee station and get rid of the two milk-crates I'm currently using to hold canned goods...

Living space update! I was off for nine days for a much needed vacation. No, I didn't go anywhere. I'm too broke to travel anywhere interesting. Hell, I don't think I could even afford to travel anywhere outside of the Metrobus limits. I just needed an extended break from work before I burnt out much more than I already was. While I was off, I caught up on some much needed sleep, and made a concerted effort to go through most of the bins/boxes/bags that have been in the common area of the basement since I moved in back in July. I think my body has enjoyed the extra sleep just a little too much...I slept through all three of my alarms this morning and was late to work. Thankfully, I don't have a cash shift today so it wasn't as big of a fiasco as it could have been. Let's hope that by the time I do have a cash shift that I've gotten over sleeping through my alarms :/ In terms of going through the stuff in the basement common area, it's been going pretty g...

Two and a half months in my current place, and so far everything is working out well! I *still* have too much crap, but I will be working on getting rid of more of it over the next while. Especially as my landlady let me know tonight that her mother is selling one of her properties and the plan is to store some things in the basement...where I've got stuff laying around still. Not as much as I used to have, thankfully, but still enough that it will be in the way of whatever my landlady plans on storing. Overall, though, things are coming along nicely. I've been going through bags and bins, and have even weeded out some of the clothes in my closet. I will also be making use of the space under my bed to store things out of the way too. It is amazing what losing weight can do - pants that used to barely fit were falling off my ass, so those got donated. I also don't eat as much as I used to because I don't want to make a mess of the landlady's kitchen. I do, however, h...

I now weigh under 200lbs! Go me! Now to keep it off and continue to take it off until I hit my current personal goal of 175lbs. I know it doesn't seem like much, but I've been overweight since I have birth to my daughter over 32 years ago. It doesn't help that I come from a family where weight issues were common. And I don't mean being underweight either. For most of my life, my own mother was quite overweight. Mind you, when I was rather underweight (hello, anorexia), she used to maintain that I was fat...no wonder I had issues with body image. Still do, but not I used to, thankfully. When I get paid next, there's a very good chance that I will finally go in to get my belly button piercing done. If I don't chicken out, of course. I hate needles, but I love piercings. Go figure. It helps that I don't eat as much as I used to. I know I'm bad for emotional eating instead of eating when I'm actually hungry. Such is life sometimes. But I've been mana...

The day I left my last place I weighed myself and found I was 214lbs. When I weighed myself three days ago, I found I was 200lbs. It explained why my usual work pants have started falling off my ass lately. So, with that in mind, I have picked up a couple new pairs of jeans. Well, new to me. Hello Value Village! If I could get away with wearing leggings at work, I absolutely would. But leggings don't belong in a gas station environment. Hell, they don't belong in most work environments. This means I basically live in jeans or jeggings (not those cheap printed-on type either). Stretch denim for the win. Seriously. And because I hate baggy legged pants on me in general I always go for skinny jeans. Yes, I'm well aware of the opinion a lot of people have about fat people wearing skinny jeans. But so many larger people that wear these kinds of pants tend to wear at least two sizes two small for their body. I get it, but there is nothing worse than a muffin top rolling over the ...

This same day last week saw me packing up a 15' U-Haul truck and cleaning my old place. The plan was to be at my new place by 7pm. That did not happen. No, instead I was still packing the truck at that time. One, I still have more stuff than I realized. Two, my former neighbours were complete assholes. While the first point is something I'm working on, the second is no longer my problem. Thank fuck for small miracles. I ended up at my new place at around 8:30am the following day. Thank goodness it was a holiday here in Canada, because there is no way I would have been able to get everything moved in by myself. At least not in time to get the truck back by 10:30am. My new landlady and her son helped get everything off of the truck in time for me to get the truck back on time. It was supposed to be back no later than 7:45am, but considering I'd left my old place at that time, it wasn't going to happen. Such is life. This past Friday saw me, with the help of a friend, fina...

So, instead of a new car I've had to get a new place to live. Thank goodness for the loan I took out or I'd be screwed. Earlier this week, my roomie came to me to let me know that she is going to be heading back to Alberta because her son needs her. I fully understand that because I'd do the same if my daughter needed me and we didn't live in the same city/province. I didn't get mad, I told her that family comes first and that I'd start looking for a new place right away. I went kijiji and started sending messages to some promising looking possibilities. And I got a bite right away for a room in a hourse directly behind one of the malls that serves as a transit hub. Perfect for me, especially because the deal for the car seems to be in the process of falling apart. Woo, right? I saw the room Thursday and was absolutely thrilled! It's in the basement of the house but there is an egress window in case of emergency. It also means that it should remain cooler du...

I may have a car lined up! A friend of mine and her husband have five vehicles between them, and I've long been after them to make arrangements to sell me one. Only half-joking about it too, because why on earth would 2 people need five cars? I can understand having one for each of them as daily drivers, and then one that handles our shitty winter weather better. But five?  So, my friend and I have been talking about the potential of selling one to me cheap or giving it to me for the cost of the transfer fee and registration. The insurance would be on me, of course. And I've already started pricing out insurance here. I wish it was easy to just go to a single website, punch in the necessary numbers to get quotes from the different providers, but it's simply not that easy. Even trying to get insurance through my bank requires me to make an appointment to go down there. I even tried online via TD and their website failed. I really don't like going into places in person, e...

Yesterday, a friend of mine helped me go through all the stuff I had in the shed. Now all that's left (other than furniture) is stuff that I actually have space for in my room and the space I have in the rest of the house. I can bring in one box, bin, or bag one at a time when I have the brainpower to deal with them. Part of it is that I have to clear the junk out of my bedroom yet again, and I really don't want to deal with it right now if I'm being entirely honest. I have decided that I need a dresser. Or plastic bins for the clothing that I can't hang up. I currently use fabric bins for that clothing and they are in one of my bookcases. And my cat likes to claw the shit out of those fabric bins, making them look trashy. I used to have a dresser, but I gave it to my daughter when she moved out. She had way less space to put all her clothes than I did at the time. I may reach out to her to ask her to pay for me to buy a replacement. Nothing too expensive, of course, an...

So, by the fall I need to have a road-worthy vehicle. Because the folks I've been getting a ride from on the days I work have decided that it's too difficult for them to keep doing it. Well, the person who actually does the driving hasn't said anything, but their partner has. Despite having only driven me once in all the time I've been living out here. But it is time for me to get a car again. I'm finally in a position where I should be able to save up to at least get a decent down payment. With my shitty credit it's not like I can just walk into a dealership and finance a car right off the bat, especially without putting money down. It will mean that I will be living very frugally for the next several months. My rent is $650, my share of utilities usually runs around $150, a 30 day bus pass is $78, and I can get my groceries to under a $100 a week (I'd just have to stop taking a taxi back from my shopping - I can carry them easily enough, but I'm genera...

Snowed in. Yep. We are going through Snowmaggedon 2.0 right now. No buses on the road. No drivers available for taxis. And I'm stuck in the next city over from the one I work in. Just fucking lovely. I'm so grateful that my overnight guy didn't just say fuck it, lock the store up, and go home when neither myself or my dayshift guy didn't get in at 8am today. I've also reached out to the afternoon guy to ask him to go in a bit early so that my overnight guy can go home and get some sleep before he has to come back in for tonight. I keep trying to contact a taxi company, ANY taxi company, to try to get a taxi sent to me. But nobody is answering their phones, and the apps just keep saying 'no drivers available at this time'. If I had a car, I'd have driven in and picked up my dayshift guy on the way. Yes, I'm just crazy enough to drive in this. Hell, I drove a sports car with nothing but all-season tires on it through a blizzard in the Rockies, so I...

I finally got to put my new gaming rig through its paces a bit tonight, despite leaving work early today due to being exhausted as fuck. It's amazing what a brief nap can do sometimes. I finally had the chance to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the new rig, and it is sweet. Smooth graphics, easy to navigate gameplay, and I love the storyline so far. I played a wee bit of the game on my old computer when I first bought the game over a week ago while it was on sale. It was glitchy as hell on the old rig, so I'd been waiting to try it out on my new one. What I hadn't expected was to not have the time and/or energy to do much with my new rig. Tomorrow marks 12 days of 12 working without any days off in between like I usually get. My plan for my first day off is to sleep as much as I possibly can and only get up because my body/brain is telling me to. Let's just hope that the weather isn't horrible at that point so I can get some much needed groceries before the nasty weather hit...

So, I now know why I was asked if I was a certain guy's new girlfriend the first time I set foot in a place I'm now a regular at. Apparently, his ex-wife/whatever told everybody that I was the guy's new girlfriend and she thought it was rude that he and I would pick that place for our first date when we knew she was going to be there, and how he was flaunting his new woman in front of her. At the time, I couldn't stand the man, and I didn't hide it. Everybody knew it by the end of the night too. But rumours persisted. Because, of course, they did. It explains a LOT about what has happened over the previous year and a bit, and why the missus kept trying to say shit about me. I was asked point blank today by a mutual acquaintance/friend if I had been trying to make a move on the guy all the way back then, because of the bullshit missus said about me. At the time I had no intention of even being friends with him, so I don't know where the lie came from. However, lo...

My room is mostly de-cluttered! And I have a new-to-me desk that I picked up today from what has become my new favourite furniture thrift store. The desk was a spur of the moment thing, honestly. I saw it on FB, posted by Again & Again, sent a message to my partner in crime, and she immediately contacted me back saying she'd take me to go get it. It was by the cash desk at the store, and I was in the process of paying for it when another customer put her hands on it. I excitedly told her that I was just buying it, that I had also posted on the FB picture that I was coming for it. Wooo! All mine! I didn't put it into my room right away. I needed to finish the decluttering process I had started earlier in the day first. It was something I had been putting away for too long. And now it's pretty much done. I do have a couple of bins/bags left to go to, but now the majority of the mess it gone. And I cleaned out the bottom of my closet finally, something I had been avoiding....

Slowly but surely I am decluttering my bedroom. I don't really have much choice in the matter, because I have way too much stuff. Most of said stuff are things I have held onto out of some psychological need to not get rid of things that I have bought with some use in mind or things that people have given to me. And tonight, as I was doing yet another round of decluttering, I figured out why I do it. When I was growing up it was nothing for my mother to get pissed off at me and throw out anything she decided was 'junk'. And it was only junk to her because she didn't see any personal need for whatever it was I owned. Not to mention her pathological need to simply destroy me in any way she possible could. I lost count of how many times she would 'punish' me by tearing posters and pictures off of my walls, screaming as she did so for some perceived slight that I had visited on her. So, once I was finally out of her clutches, I started to hoard stuff. It was mine an...

The man I love has cancer. I've known for a couple of weeks now, and I've been doing my best to wrap my head around it. I've also always known that it was a matter of time before he got it again. It's never been an 'if' situation, especially as he's been fighting it off and on for a lot of years. Hell, when I first met him he was dealing with stomach cancer. I had the chance to spend some time with him today. It was one of his better days - he had some colour to his face, and was up to having sex. He initiated as I'm worried that I'm going to hurt him or something. And it was almost like he was afraid it would be his last time being able to do anything like that with me. He was determined to make sure that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Which I definitely did, as usual. But it was all tinged with a bit of sadness, because who knows how many good days he has left? And all of his exes are making his life miserable because they all think they should be gettin...

At work lately I've served a few local celebrities. They've quickly figured out that I know who they are and they seem to appreciate that I speak to them just like normal folks. Which is really the only way to show respect to them. Sadly, I do know more than a few who would lose their absolute shit and complete fangirl over them. Not necessarily because they are fans of these people, but because of who they know. Meh. At one point I wouldn't have been so at ease talking to anybody even remotely famous, but after my experience at a fan convention that went very wrong, well. Let's just say that the experience left me no longer afraid to speak to people, regardless of how famous (or infamous) they are. I think that these folks have a certain amount of respect for me because I don't go gaga over them. And I'm sure I'll see them more the longer I work here. I just carry on with them like I would anybody else, and so far I have purposely not brought up their music...