You are more than due an update

 Around January of 2022 the company store in Secacus, N.J closed. Some retired, some transferred to the store in Peramus, and like me, a few of us moved down the street to the clearance store or the adjoining warehouse. 

Despite it being a Tommy store, even if it was clearance, there were a few more things that I had to get use to than I expected. But as I started to understand, never mind starting to really roll with things, we got the news that they were going to close down the clearance store and the warehouse in a few months. Well more like this year by September. But since they told us one date over at the company store and then pushed the closing date up, my new mangers thought it would happen there too, and it did. 

The last day for the clearance store was June 30th. Our last day open to the public was like a week earlier. But even with the signs up saying we were closed and the name taken off the building, people were still showing up as we were pulling fixtures out of the walls.

Thanks to the fact that I managed to cling to the company for just past my 5 year mark I got severance pay for 5 weeks. I thought it was going to be easy to get a new job and didn't search for a week, even though I had started to lay the ground work a few weeks before we knew for sure we would be done at the end of June. 

So I started to look for receptionist and data entry jobs, and on the face of it, it shouldn't have been that hard. But apparently you need to have a BA to file paper work, smile at clients and answer phones. Oh, and 1-3 years experience in the field. Yes, I'm still unemployed. After my severance pay finished I filed for unemployment. After a month or two, they started to check in with me to see what I was doing to get a job and give me a lead or two. Which they should be doing since if I didn't have the little savings I do have, I would be homeless. I pay my share of rent and the lights bill and it's done. 

So I've started to apply for cashier jobs too. But apparently I'm not the only one looking for work and those great job numbers mean nothing for me. I don't want to work on the sales floor again. I don't want to travel for 2 hours in each direction for work. And since I fell down the stairs a few months back, I don't lift much of anything on my bad says and I don't have many good ones. 

After month 3 of job hunting, it's depressing. Especially when you have to dig your way through job alerts that you aren't qualified for, have already closed, are way, way too far away and even in other states, in fields that I have no talent for or wish to be in, or are outright scams to get a bit of the little money I have left, you can understand when I just take a day or two. 

But I'm still trying. I have to. I need to work. Well, I need money, but I have some standards in what I'll do for it. 

I'll let you know when I'm once again gainfully employed. 

The Weather and A Photo Of Mine

 Hi ya. 

A few days ago I woke up to near white out conditions from low visibly fog. I don't remember if it was forcasted or not, but it surprised me as I stepped out of the house on my way to catch the bus for work. 

Clearly I had enough time to take some pics, because I took a few with my phone and even sent one off right away to a friend. 

I posted one of them two days ago and it has actually proven popular and it's gotten quite a few faves. I haven't seen numbers like this in a while and the sad thing is, it's not that much. That just proves how hard it is to be seen if you aren't already famous. I'm sure the famous ones say that they worked at it too, and know that it take time for them to turn something good out too, but they already have their 10k followers/watchers so they haven't lived in the world where getting 900 views over two days is a huge deal. 

So here is my little splash in the large sea of art. 

https://www.deviantart.com/jemgirl/art/Dim-Morning-Sun-909485968

Mundane little things

 On Friday I forgot my hat. Yeah, I walk out into falling snow without a head covering. It’s a good thing I had a long scarf. I draped it over my head when the snowing picked up on my way home that night

I was off this weekend and I barely got around to touching the third bedroom/office/storage space. I had better luck on Saturday then Sunday. At least I able to move a few things around and found three sets of earbuds. Two of them wireless. I didn’t even make it into the room on Sunday.

And I “cooked” Saturday too. I fried some breaded okra that we have been holding on to for months. Some cauliflower rice that I mixes some red beans into after I steamed it.  And then there was seasoned fish that I steamed/baked in the oven. 

On Sunday night I forgot to put the trash out for pickup because we are still getting use to the schedule. 

Today, I have a dental appointment. It’s for a cleaning, but my sister is trying to wedge in a root canal or two. She has a dentist that is fast. She clams. One time, once, I turned down getting it done when I had a very rare Monday free, he is in office only on Mondays. Because my feet were killing me and I had a long week ahead of me and I just wanted the day to rest and she has not let it go and it’s turned into me dragging my feet to get anything done, dental wise. I will not rant. I will not rant.

So today when I was leaving to catch a bus this morning And I was locking the front door, I realized that I didn’t have my scarf on, Hat yes, scarf no. Guess I don’t get to hangout outside today taking pics. 

Oh well. 

Still playing Hedges everyday. I started to edit this old story of mine and reworked it into a guy telling a story and posting it over on DA for feed back. Which I don’t expect by the way. And as I posted the story I realized that I had given the date a name. I spent the second day dealing with the ending and inserting some needed formatting to separate the story he was telling from what was going on in real time and I missed whee name of the guy so for the rest of the story I just call home ‘dare’. 😆 So I know one thing to fix today when I get home.

It just about time for my cleaning, so that is it for now. 

Later. Take care. 

Good Cold Morning To Ya

I was wondering why I felt so cold. I failed to check the weather today before leaving the house. I was supposed to leave like 15 mins before I actually did. 

I was hoping that the Broadway bus would show up before too long. The transit apps don’t track it so I was just hoping it was before the bus I did know about that wasn’t showing up for like 30 mins. 

And it did. I just forgot to get off at the overpass. I was waiting for the bus to turn like the 81 does, forgetting that it didn’t. So I panicked when I saw that we were driving pass train tracks on the wrong side of the bus. 

I started to get off, when I realized that I could just stay on until we got to the next station. Below you see the station that I ended up at. 

When it’s summertime this open air concept is great. But we live a good deal north of the equator. We should have enclosed options too. But nope. They are all open to the elements. I hope I make it to work on time today and get to order and eat breakfast. 

 

I packed my gloves

 

I just watched "Don't Look Up"

 So, the movie just finished, and I'm mildly impressed. 

It was better than I thought it would be. I put off watching it from the time I heard about it, and today, I decided that the idea of watching it, wasn't such a bad one. 

I went into it thinking that it was going to be a spoof comedy, on past the world is going to end by asteroid movies, but it wasn't. Not really. There was a little, very little, of that. It was more commentary on how Washington DC is and politics in general is being played these days. Which is down right sad. 

Near the end, things got even more somber and then the odd twist at the very end made me and possibly a few other people, question something that had been stated throughout the whole movie. 

I'm not going to give it away. That isn't why I'm writing this. I'm writing this to let you know that it's actually a good movie. You will get feels from this. 

As for the rest of my day. 

I was home today, woke up late, did just about nothing until I made myself go to the laundromat. It's been raining outside for most of the day. It's just gotten heavier now that the sun has set. It's washed away most of what was left of the snow, but if it's in the 20's again tomorrow, I'm looking at sheets of ice. 

Oh yeah. She-ra. Netflix is scrolling titles at me now that the movie is over and I stopped it from showing me previews. One was of She-ra. I started watching that and forgot to continue. I watched their, Netflix, version of He-man first. That was good. It didn't rehash anything. Thank goodness. It just picked up and did a nice little arc of it own and kinda ended things. 

She-ra on the other hand, that is an all new re-write. I'm only 11 eps in, but I like it so far. It's better than the original and I watched the original when it first aired. They meant well, but they didn't have a real clue, was only out to sell girl toys, and were very much a product of the times. 

I have to take out the trash later, like an hour from now. I think. 

Later.

Guess what?

 I was sitting at the cold bus stop waiting for my bus and before it was ready to leave, I got a text from one of my managers. They were opening later today and that I didn’t have to come in today and I could use one of my sick days, so I don’t loose my pay. 

After all, between delays and possible injury that could befall me trying to get to work, it wasn’t worth it. Also, they needed to cut some over head due to poor sales lately. So I took a day and now I’m back fixing myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I just tied up some of my clothes first. 

Got more snow pics for you too.

I may post one or two over at DA later. 

My day has started

 Well, it started with my alarm an hour ago, but I didn’t get out of bed right away, which has me sitting at the bus stop instead of boarding the light rail. But I’m still early which is a good thing considering the weather I have to contend with. 

Ok, day is over now.

I got up, around noon. Officially. 

I kept waking up before to use the bathroom. I'm starting to think that laying down is what makes me want to pee so much. Once I'm up, I don't have to run to the bathroom as much. 

So I got up, made some egg salad to have with some bread. I tinkered on line for an hour or so, after I mostly emptied one box. No, two boxes. One was in the kitchen that I emptied as I looked for some pepper for my eggs. I still didn't find it. And another box that I dug out when I realized it held my cardigans for work along with my head set that I gave up looking for the day before and broke out a new set that I had found since the first night here. I'm putting it back in it's box. I wasn't suppose to use it until this one died. Which may not be much longer. It seems to be turning itself off these days and don't even bother letting me know. 

Then I went to get some hair/curl pudding. My hair was so dry, and I made my sister tag along to get her new toilet seat. I wasn't going to get it for her. I would get the one that I thought would be a good fit, and she would find something wrong with it. So, she wanted a new toilet seat, she was going to get it herself. 

I wanted to leave about 4pm to catch the bus, but she took her time and we left closer to 4:30. We then waited for the Broadway bus, and she complained the entire time. I told her I was waiting for this bus since it was going to take me right to the place that I knew I could get my hair stuff. But she was cold and I could understand that. But I told her before we left, that we would be waiting for this bus and why. 

She got a few things from the hair/beauty store herself, and some stuff from the Dollar General store that was in the same area. We then got back on the same bus to go back to the hardware store to get her seat a few more things. Then we walked down to Ave C to another bus home before her bus ticket expired. There are three buses that end at the stop by our house. 

I was then witness for about 20-30 mins as my sister took off the old seat, sanitize the toilet like three times before putting on the new seat, that was wrapped in plastic, that she also sanitized. Yeah. I just kept my mouth shut and handed her Lysol disinfectant wipes one after the other. Why was I there at all? She needed someone to be in the room with her. I told you she wasn't all there, and I meant it. I wasn't being mean or trying to make a bad joke. She knows she's off, but she would freak out doing some things if someone isn't there with her. She freaked out a little just whipping the toilet down and found small evidence that it was used before she got there. 

Now I've stayed up too late and I have to go to bed to make sure I can get up in time, to get to work on time. Just because my boss said that he won't make fuss with me for showing up late, that doesn't mean that I'm going to stop trying to get to work as on time. 

I just have snow to worry about now. Yesterday it was ice, now it's snow. 

I. Hate. Winter. 

I made it to work...

 Amazingly. 

Not only did I make it to work, but I made it there like 30 mins early. I just had to leave home like 3 hours before I had to be at work. 

So, today of all days, I woke up to a frozen rain and a 45 minutes delay alert NJ transit wide. I some how got lucky and made it all the way to Secaucus Junction just fine. Then there were no buses. I had time, like almost an hour, so I sat down and waited. 

The other two people who I found waiting for the same bus, panicked and left when it never showed. Where they went, I don't know. But I got on a bus about 10 mins later. 

I got a drink and some empanadas from the food truck and got to work with 30 minutes to spare. My store manager found out today how far and what I have to do to get to work and he said that showing up late won't be a mark against me since he now knows how far I have to come from to get to work. 

In case you don't, here is a slight break down. 

So I live within two blocks of last stop for the 81 bus. I take that to the first or last stop of the light rail at 8th street. I take the light rail up to Hoboken. I then take a train from Hoboken to Secaucus Junction. From there I get one of three buses to the same stop about two blocks from my new store. 

Oh, I mentioned the freezing rain right? When I left the house today, my steps were covered in ice and I almost fell because ice covered the railing too. It wasn't raining that much, but by the time I was waiting for the bus in Secaucus, it was a down pour. I was a wet, and slightly cold mess when I walked into work today. I was more wet than cold. At least I wasn't soaked.

Cold as heck was all of Monday. Cold was last night. Tonight was, dare I say, pleasant. Granted, I've been wearing two pairs of pants, my winter coat for the week so far, and today my top was a sweater. So there is that. 

Well, I have tomorrow off. Who knows when I'll go to bed? Who knows when I'll wake up? :D

Later.

And yes, I messed with the look of my blogs again. I fingered it was time.

A little jump in time

Hey. 

In my defense I was busy. And tacked on that I'm no longer use to blogging constantly, gaps are bound to happen. 

So the year has started. This is the 4th day in, and so much has changed. 

One, we have moved again. I'm on the border of Bayonne, looking across a body of water at Staten Island. 

Two, I'm trying to understand how to get to work now. Monday, my first day back after the week I took off to move, I got to work rather well. Just 4 mins late. Not bad at all. Today, not so much. It was so hard to drag myself out of bed, and even though I thought that I was getting back the ground I lost, I just started to miss connection after connection until had to jump off the light rail and order an Uber so I would get to work at a decent time. I was 5 mins late today, but it feels worst since I had to get an Uber. I will do better tomorrow. The third time I will get it right. 

Three, I have a new work place. My store, #17 has closed. We weren't fired, our building was sold and we spent just over 2 weeks transferring all our stuff to other stories. I was there helping for 2 weeks, then I switched to my new store. The clearance store. It's in the area, but a longer walk from the bus stop. Some people are still finding where they fit, while mangers didn't really have a choice I think, other than quitting, and a few people, mangers and associates, did I think. 

Four, I'm leaking money like a sieve and I need to stop. But other than my lunch I ordered from Uber today, for today and tomorrow, it has been needed. We had to buy floor lamps because none of the bedrooms had light fixtures in them. I didn't realize that this was done in 1980 homes. So we got them on Saturday, and it was during the rain and late, and I ended up spending $68 to get home because there was no other way for us to get home. The next day I bought a microwave. We didn't have one and it's not all the practical to turn on the oven to heat up everything we want to eat. 

The microwave has it's own story. 

I went online to BestBuy to get it since I have their card and I can pay it off later, after I get paid a few times, and I forgot to change my shipping address, or thought that I already did. It was said to be shipped the next day, and the next day I went to see when it was going to show up so my sister, who was home, could make her plans for the day. That is when I saw that I hadn't changed the address. So I tried to see if I could change it, and they said that I could once it was picked up, but it wasn't picked up until the next day. I wasn't able to change the address for the delivery, even though I tried like three times. One person said that they did. It didn't happen. Someone told me that they changed my address on my account. I checked tonight. They didn't. Also, since they weren't able to deliver the microwave the next day like they said they would, they gave me $20... somewhere. Yeah, I haven't seen it, nor have I gone looking for it. 

So, my sister went to get the microwave from our old address and pick up a poster that she left on cabinets in the kitchen. I don't know why she bothered, but she wanted it and she got it. Anyway, the microwave is 1.6 cf I think. I was told to get a decent sized one, I thought this was decent sized. It was just bigger in person than we both thought. But it's good. It's family sized and we will take it with us when we move for the last time. :) 

It's almost carved in stone now. We have now both agreed that the next time we move, we are buying our own house. 4-5 years out from now. 

I think that's enough for now. Tomorrow I'll tell how my travels went and tell you tales of how we ended up in this apt.

Night.