Yuck. It's after 11pm and I'm just now getting around to writing! I do have a defense though...

My aunt called this evening to tell me about the new part time job that she's gotten....she's going to be working for a moving company as a packer. Now, if you all had a good picture of this woman, you'd know why this is so comical to me. I love this woman dearly and I'm never ashamed to say she's my favorite aunt, but she's NOT the kind of person you'd picture working for a moving company. She usually spends no less than $100 to get her hair done...by a gay man named Mr. Jacques no less...she just recently got a new set of boobs and a tummy tuck...and she was fretting that her husband is only going to make $100,000 this year. So I had to chuckle when she told me she'd taken this job. Now don't get me wrong..auntie is not a snob..not by ANY means. She just happened to land in a marriage to an incredibly smart guy who has had a lot of luck in the professional world. She wouldn't have to work except for the fact that their lifestyle isn't a cheap one. She'd been in the banking business for many years, but since that line of work isn't necessarily one that offers a lot of part time positions, she just started applying for "ordinary every day" jobs..and this moving company was the first to offer her something. So starting tomorrow, she'll be donning jeans, sneakers, and a black apron with huge pockets and going to people's homes to pack their stuff. No moving, just packing. Picture Heather Locklear in overalls and a ponytail packing up someone's home.

On the job front....
I'm going to get an offer, most likely tomorrow. Today I got word that I'm going to be most likely offered one of two shifts available..check this out:

Mon, Tue, Wed
11a-8p with Thu & Fri off
7:30a-4:30p on Sat and Sun
Ok, that one just sucks. NO way around it.

The other:
1p-10p Mon-Fri (no weekends)
Again, it sucks, but at least no weekends.

The good news is that both offer a 10% bonus for working fucked up hours. SO>>that's a good thing.

The tricky part is going to be the offer of money. Remember, I've got 5 years in this line of work under my belt. I'm the first person to come to that company in a LONG time with that kind of experience, and they know that. Moreover, they know that -->I<-- know that. So it will be interesting to see what they come up with. Yes, of course, I'll keep you all posted on what happens!!

Well, that's it for now. I'm pooped and I'm going to bed. My goal for this week (besides getting some dough at work!) is to make my rounds to all of your blogs out there!!

Have a good one!!

--->> It seems like everyone at work who's considered "temporary" are now going to be made "permanent"...admittedly, I was not only shocked but skeptical as well. I'm wondering if there's been enough uproar from the "temps" that someone was finally force to do something about it. Maybe it's the horrific way that even the "agency" has treated the people? Who knows...the only thing I care about is having some security AND the extra money!!

--->> Things on the homefront have yet to show much improvement. I suspect it's going to be quite a while before I'm back to my old self again. Don't worry, I'm ok..it's just that it is very much so an uphill battle this time around!

--->> The girl who sits next to me at work had her "status" interview today...the interview that will determine if she goes permanent or not. The poor thing was so jealous that she started to get a stomach ache! I cautioned her that perhaps throwing up on the folks doing the interview may not be such a good idea. She went to the bathroom, stayed FOREVER, and then came out and cheerily announced that not only had she puked, but she'd shit as well. Thanks for the FYI chick!

--->> Part of my 'financial recovery' unfortunately meant the demise of my having a cell phone for awhile. As I was on my way to work this morning it suddenly occurred to me that may not have been the best move...Christine the Truck is 20 years old and very unpredictable. Hmmm...I'm thinking TracPhone....

--->> Here in Central North Carolina, we're experiencing some pretty frigid weather. It only got up to 90 degrees today! I thought for a brief period of time that I saw snowflakes, but it ended up being nothing more than some dandruff.

--->> I'm SO looking forward to this weekend...I'm off of work the following Monday for Labor Day!! Obviously I'm too broke to go anywhere or do anything, but it'll still be nice just to be able to stay home for that extra day!

--->> You'll all be happy to know that the folks who live in the house across the street from me (their house caught fire this past Friday) are on their way back to some sort of normalcy. Their insurance company hired a professional cleaning service that specializes in fire clean up...they arrived today to start. The damage isn't really bad except for the kitchen. Every other room just had some serious smoke damage.

--->> The OTHER neighbor across the street (Kevin) is still recovering from his motorcycle accident. It's ironic that one of the doctors who treated him was talking about him going through extended physical therapy. Um, hello? The guy will be dead soon...there's really no point to long term physical therapy. Thanks for playing though.

That's about all for tonight! Only FOUR more days till the weekend!

As if the house across the street catching fire wasn't enough excitement for one weekend......

I've talked about Kevin and Cindy before. They're the other folks who live across the street...next door to the house that caught on fire. Well, apparently THAT was just something to get the weekend started off on the right foot. It started out to be a nice quiet morning here..and then some of Kevin's biker friends decided to drop by for a visit. TEN of them. You haven't experienced a fun Sunday morning until you have TEN Harleys come roaring down your street! The group decided that they wanted to go on a ride, so they convinced Kevin to join them...so they all then take off roaring down the street and onto the highway to parts unknown.

A little while later, I get a phone call from Cindy. Apparently Kevin has crashed his motorcycle and is in the hospital in a neighboring town. I'm not as panicked about the accident as I am the fact that he's in this particular hospital though. This is the very hospital that is partially responsible for my grandmother's death..but that's another story for later. Cindy tells me that Kevin's ok, but he's gotten a broken collar bone out of this ordeal. Word for today: OUCH!!!

An hour or so later, here come the original ten Harleys roaring back down the street. They wait around for a bit and then go roaring back up the street again...presumably heading back home. Then comes Cindy and Kevin home from the hospital. Much as I'd suspected, his trip to this hospital was not a very good one. It took the doctor an hour just to make the decision to give Kevin a bit of medicine for the pain. It took an ADDITIONAL hour for the good doctor to decide that perhaps it might be a good idea to put Kevin in a sling or something for his broken bone.

Somewhere along the line, someone with some common sense decided that maybe something besides Vicodin would be a good idea. So this genius gives Kevin a whopping dose of MORPHINE, puts a sling like contraption on him and then sends him home! Now, while I'm not a doctor, I'm pretty sure that it's not a great idea to pump someone full of morphine and vicodin and then push them out the door. Of course the alternative would have been to keep him at the hospital...which would have meant certain death. So now Kevin's at home, stoned out of his gourd...but at least he's alive. The ironic thing is that Kevin is the one who's just been told that he's only got at best a couple of months to live because of his cancer.

Today's lesson in life is this: First of all, if you have a friend who's in the last few weeks of life, it may not be a great idea to ask him to go riding a Harley to a town that's 30 miles away. Also, if you ever happen to be in the town of Sanford, North Carolina make damn sure that you don't get into an accident that requires a trip to the local hospital there....it'll be a flip of the coin as to whether or not you'll make it out alive!!

A little back history before I start my story: we have a very young couple named Jeremy and Rebecca who live across the street. Extremely nice people, but Rebecca has a tendency to be somewhat dramatic at times. It's just a part of being 25 I guess! So anyway, I came home this evening and did something very uncharacteristic...I was out in the front yard helping the roomie pick up a bunch of branches that'd come down during the bad storms we'd had this week.

All of a sudden, we hear Rebecca screaming. She's running into her house, hands waving. A minute later, here she comes running back out of the house STILL screaming and waving her hands in the air. She and Jeremy had a bunch of friends over for a fish fry and apparently someone had left a pan of frying hushpuppies on the stove and walked away. Next thing ya know, the kitchen is on fire!! Of course, once Rebecca started screaming, so did the other 5 women who were over there...and THEN they started screaming even louder when Jeremy and a few of the guys go racing into the house to try and put the fire out. By this time, there's smoke rolling out of the house and Rebecca is on her cell phone to 911.

Just a little side note here...in the 1982 mini series "The Thornbirds", there's this one scene when this old lady is calling the fire department because the mansion is going up in flames. So she's on the phone with the fire department and she says, "Fire! Fire on Drogeda!" I have no idea why, but that line has always stuck with me! Now I sort of wish I had been the one to call 911...I could have said, "Fire! Fire on Irene Court!"

All kidding aside though, everyone got out ok...even the dog! The dog, who's a reddish color, was black from all the smoke! The poor little fella!

Thankfully, the house didn't burn completely down, but the kitchen has definitely seen better days! Of course the smoke damage is really bad, though. As bad as flames are in a house fire, smoke damage can be just as bad sometimes!

So the fire department shows up...now anyone who knows anything about a volunteer fire department (especially in the south) can imagine the scene: every volunteer fireman in a 10 mile radius shows up, whether they're needed or not! Of course, what's a good house fire without TWO tanker FD trucks AND the EMTs?!!

This was the scene on the cul-de-sac this evening when all of the excitement began:







A couple of hours later, the firemen decided that they had done all they could do...keep in mind the fire was all but out when they arrived. I guess they didn't have anything planned for this evening?

So afterwards, the OTHER neighbor across the street, Cindy, invites Jeremy, Rebecca, and all of their friends over to cook hot dogs on the grill. She also invited the roomie and I as well as another set of neighbors. It was so weird, because none of the residents in this neighborhood have EVER been all together at the same time at the same place. It was almost like a block party! Hell of a way to have a neighborhood get together huh?

>>>In other news:

----> I've come to the conclusion that in order to be successful at my job, I'm going to have to learn how to speak the following languages:
Vietnamese, Chinese, Portugese, Cantonese, and Chuck-E-Cheese! Not to mention: Spanish, English (the kind from England), French, and whatever you call what they speak over in the Middle East. Finally, I'm going to have to learn New York and Massachusetts. They have a language ALL their own! Now, WHY do I need to learn all of these languages? Because I can't understand a DAMN thing that 85% of these guys in the field are saying! If I have to say, "can you repeat that please?" one more time, I'm going to SCREAM!!

----> Speaking of work...this poor girl that sits beside me had a horrific day. Her paycheck got delivered to another state!! She had NO money in the bank (hmm...THAT sounds familiar!), no gas in her car, and she had to pay daycare AND her mortgage today! LUCKILY, a bunch of folks got together and raised enough money to get her through the weekend until they can cut her another check! I was crushed that I couldn't do anything to help her out..especially considering that she's a single mother.

Well, that's it for tonight. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Well, today was the big interview for the job that I already have....

But...let me start at the beginning of the day. Anyone who's read this blog for longer than a week will understand that this is just the way things go for me. Nothing's EVER easy!!

I woke up at 6:30 this morning. Normally, I don't even THINK about getting up until about 7:45, but something told me that I might as well go ahead and get up. It's a good thing that I did.

I looked out the window and saw lighting and then heard thunder. So I come out into the living room and turn on the tv. Seems this storm was over an area just inside Harnett County....the county that I live in. Of course it was a fast moving storm so not much to worry about according to the weather babe on tv.

So I just start watching tv, waiting until the storm passed to take my shower and get ready for work. As I amused myself watching the cat and dog freak out over the storm, the lights started to flash. They normally do that during bad storms, so I didn't think much of it. A few minutes later, out go the lights! Naturally, I hadn't taken my shower, so I was in a bit of a panic. It's not good to go out into public when one hasn't washed one's ass for the day. Plus I had the interview at work to think about as well.

Luckily the electricity was on JUST IN TIME to get ready for work! Fate was playing with me again. Making me sweat. Damn that bitch fate...she's always screwing around with me!

The time for the interview comes and I head downstairs with the two folks conducting it. Luckily it was the same two that I'd talked to when I first came to the company so I felt pretty comfortable around them. The interview itself was pretty much a repeat of the first one, so I feel pretty confident about the results. I'll know something for sure in the coming weeks! Keep your fingers crossed!

>>>Other Stuff:

---> Those of you who have missed my "customer service" stories from when I worked at the home improvement store are going to be in for a treat soon. Now that I'm starting to deal with not only customers, but the engineers at work, I'm running into some good material....

---> I'm finding that I feel a little bit better the past couple of days, though still not to the point where I can breathe.Once I get back to a point where I'm at least a LITTLE bit ahead in the finances I'll feel much better. The old saying that "money doesn't buy happiness" may be true, but the way I see it, it'd sure make one hell of a down payment on it!! I don't life an extravagant lifestyle by ANY means, so that's why I find it very frustrating that I've had such a hard time keeping the very BASICS going!

Well, that's all for tonight.