Planning a plan

After spending an hour or so in the backyard pulling weeds and deadheading the peonies, I think I have a revised version of The Plan. The Original Plan was made a couple days before I actually heard I would not be renewed. It's needed a bit of tweaking.

Since I already have secured a 4-in-the-morning job at a Big Box Establishment, I will keep it. The job doesn't pay well and isn't full time and is only supposed to exist for a few months of the pre-college-student-arrival season. I anticipate brightly-colored reading lamps and ersatz milk crates. I do not expect to remain at this job much longer than a month.

I'm not as bad off, financially, as I feel. I have the money that didn't go toward the down payment on the house (they do a percent down, not an amount) and the new homebuyer tax credit. I was hoping to spend this money on a new kitchen, but a new kitchen is just going to have to wait. I know people who have lived with their disasterkitchens for years. I am just going to have to deal with it.

I also have one more paycheck coming that is "the balance of my contract." I'm not actually sure how much this is, but it's a paycheck.

What the Big Box job allows me to do is refrain (slightly, for a limited amount of time) from dipping into my savings. It requires me to get out of bed (even if I get back into bed and have a nap right after) several days a week and engage with the other humans. It allows me to sit in front of the computer every day and apply for jobs. If, in a month, I don't have something (and I may not - I fully realize that it could take months), then I will sign up with a few temporary agencies. By that time I should have applied for enough of the jobs for which I am qualified that I will only find a few jobs per week that I need to apply for.

What I need to do right now is 1) not panic and 2) apply, apply, apply. By that time I will also know if I am getting unemployment compensation and how much it is. It allows me to have a little leeway to spend money on things like coffee and yoga and West Coast Swing classes - things that make me happy and make life just a little more bearable - without feeling like I'm spending money that should go toward bills. Everyone says to keep trying to do the things that make me feel good, which is hard because so many things cost money.

Filling your garbage can with weeds, however, is free, and quite satisfying, and I get to spend time outside with these beauties.

Newly detached

When I first conceived of this blog, it was the high-flying adventures of a single gal with her own house, career, cats, and home repairs. There were going to be stories of how I decided I needed my own house, my search, and each of the projects I took on, with pictures and missteps along the way.

Then my job let me go, and I became more detached than ever.

In the week since I was told I was not coming back, I've had every idea from retraining as a computer programmer to stocking the shelves in the middle of the night at a well-known chain store (which I'll be doing starting Monday, it turns out). I've thought about renting out a room and despaired at the paint (and other) stains on my carpet and the questionable electricity. I've tried to clean my ancient kitchen linoleum. I've learned through examining my bills that the window air conditioner really doesn't take that much electricity so it's worth it to be able to sleep at night.

And, yes, I've cried a lot because it turns out that teaching isn't the stable, always-in-demand job that it once was. It took me two years to get the job I had, and I only had it for a year and a half.

I also managed to break one of the planters in the picture. Those things cost $100! Oopsie.