He had been coming home more stressed all the time, talking about how he wanted to get out of that office (working for his grandparents). So he stared to put in for some webdesign jobs, a small company, that is partnered up with a bigger company, ended up coming through for him. So after 9 years of working for his grandparents he is having a whole new experience. He’s going on his third week there, and he loves it. That makes me happy for him! I’m glad he found a place where he likes going to work. He has a longer day now, but sometimes things like that are worth it to be able to work in a place you like.

On another work note, I get the feeling that some chick is trying to steal my job. Ken thinks she is asking to work a job that she believes was his (she knows he no longer works at KLA)…But still…Maybe someone should tell her, “We have someone who does the social media.”. Honestly, it’s kind of ticking me off.

I don’t know her, I’ve only just heard of her and all I know is that she’s a reporter, is into running, was hired as a coach for their mini marathon training program, and obviously knows Ken’s grandparents. She also decided, on her own, to start a twitter for the training program. Imagine how surprised I was to log into the work accounts (that I created, because it’s my job) to find out I was being ‘followed’ by our training program…An account I did not create and knew nothing about.

Now she keeps offering to do the Women’s Half Marathon one, she wants in on the facebook pages as well. I created a B2B facebook page before she could (she said she wanted to), and made her an admin. She has no clue who did that, because evidently no one told her about me, she thinks it was Ken. Someone, who actually talks to her, needs to tell her they have someone who does the social media. I have no problem with her updating the B2B stuff, but that’s because she’s a coach for that program. Also, in my opinion, anything to do with social media should be created by me, and I should have access to them because, you know, it’s kinda my job. I managed to get into the B2B twitter account and add the bio, location and website because she decided to leave that vital info off. The only reason I was able to get into it was because her email and password were the exact same thing. I mean…Really? Who does that?

Now for something off topic; Over a month ago I wrote a post about how no one out here in Indy carried Marshmallow Fluff anymore. Then we went to Meijer last night, and guess what we found…MARSHMALLOW FLUFF! I already loved this store, now I love them even more. They are also the only place out here that carries B&M baked beans, and I found some awesome pumpkin spice butter, I have not seen this anywhere else. If you didn’t know, I happen to love everything pumpkin flavored.

Well, time to wrap this up. Looks like I ended up venting a bit about the social media stuff. Oops.

1. Take better care of my health. Which means eating healthier pretty much all the time and working out more. This is actually pretty important, and not for vain reasons, because I have been having some health problems.

2. Find a steady job. I don’t know what more I can do to find one, but I am determined I will find one this year. I have to catch a break sometime, why not in 2012?

3. Get more involved with the “geek community” in Indy. Make some close friends, which I am lacking out here.

4. Find ways to spend less/save money. Ideas: Cook at home every night (don’t get temped by fast food, which is not good for my health anyway). Do as much of my grocery shopping as I can at Aldi. Things like that.

5. Work with my daughter on getting her GED, we already have an awesome GED prep-guide.

Umm…That’s seems to be all that I can come up with.

Anyway, since we’re not religious, and a lot of those folks are making such a big deal out of “taking back” Christmas, I decided they can have it. Even though Christians stole the holiday and it’s traditions from Pagans, then called it Christmas and now claim it all as their very own. But that’s beside the point…Evidently.

Almost everything that I love about the season are Pagan traditions; trees, decorations, wreaths, mistletoe, etc. My other favorite things about it are all make believe, like Santa and a certain red-nosed reindeer. Then there’s the food, gifts, pretty lights. You get the idea.

Our Winter Veil celebrations will include:

Thursday: Going downtown to check out the lights, then coming home for some hot chocolate.
Friday: Going to a movie (Sherlock Holmes) and making the Winter Veil feast (ham, baked mac & cheese, corn on cob, dinner rolls and apple pie)
Saturday: Watching Holiday movies, playing some WoW together, and making Candy Cane crunch brownies.
Sunday: Play some RockBand, and just relax.

Yes, it’s a four day event. Why the hell not? Next year I also want to give a small, inexpensive, gift on each day.

Happy Winter Veil!

So today I noticed a package sitting on my porch, not where the mail carrier usually leaves it. Looked like it was kind of thrown up there & was it was on the edge of the porch. Typically when the mail carrier delivers a package it’s always right near my door, and he will ring the doorbell. This is obviously not what happened. Then I brought it in the house, started to pull the tape off and noticed it looked like it was re-taped. Hmm.

I suspect one of my neighbors did get my package, not sure why they waited so long to return it to me though (they would have gotten it on Saturday), and they probably accidentally opened it (this is understandable). But at least it was returned. So, yay! Warm flannel sheets!

Maybe other things will start going right now. I hope.

I’ve been in my house for 4 years now, and during that time I discovered that my mailman is an incompetent moron. Don’t get me wrong, places I lived in the past we’ve had mail mis-delivered, etc. But it rarely happened, and when it did my neighbors were decent enough to get it to me. Then I moved here, and at first it was happening constantly, almost on a daily basis. Now it’s down to about once a week, that is not acceptable. There are things we have not received that people could use to steal our identities, etc. I’ve even gotten important looking mail that should have been delivered to my neighbors. I don’t open it or keep it, I try to make sure they get it, even if I have to bring it to them. The thing is, I don’t think my neighbors can say the same. Because, well, where is all that mail, and those packages, that I never received? In all this time I only had one neighbor who came by to drop off my mail that they received (which included a package and a card).

OK on to what just happened. I ordered some things from Kohls (as mentioned in my previous post) when I went to track the packages I hadn’t received yet I noticed that one of them arrived at my post office early Friday morning, oddly enough we did not receive anything on Saturday, not even junk mail. The package which arrived on Monday morning at the post office we received the very next day (today). So umm…Where’s my other package? The one I’m pretty sure I should have gotten on Saturday. Let me guess…One of my neighbors is enjoying my new flannel sheets? BTW, I can’t track the packages past when they got to my post office, Kohls sent them there UPS, and that is where the tracking ends.

Packages rarely get mis-delivered, because there is no way to “mix them up” like you can with ‘regular’ mail. They are large, and the mail carrier HAS to look at the address before dropping it off. This is the 3rd time it’s happened in 4 years. The first time was when my neighbors came by to give it to me, and the second time was an import item that I ordered my daughter, which unfortunately could not be replaced because it was no longer available when I contacted the company (I ended up replacing with something not as cool). And this time I have no clue what is going to happen, so far dealing with the post office and Kohl’s has given me nothing. Hopefully Kohls will replace my sheets.

Screw you, USPS. You suck.

First I went to a Dunkin Donuts, that I have only been to a couple of times, once we got our drinks I remembered why. They suck. I actually like Dunkins, just not this particular location. They water down the drinks seriously bad, and they taste nasty. Undrinkable. I imagine it’s what sewer water would taste like.

On Black Friday I tried to take advantage of a deal from the Kohl’s website. It’s getting cold and I need some warm sweaters, and I figured we could all use flannel sheets (Ken was actually paying, not me, I was just doing the ordering.) so I picked out 3 sweaters, and the sheets (still waiting to get the sheets). Got the sweaters, but the order was completely messed up. I did get 3 sweaters, but they were the wrong ones, and all the wrong sizes. That’s what I get for ordering from a place that used Rebecca Blacks “Friday” song in their Black Friday ads.

Next deal I tried to take advantage of was free shipping at ThinkGeek, I was buying Ken a gift, a TARDIS mug. Well it came in, and the handle was broken off. Annoying, but not really a big deal because ThinkGeek is really good with shipping out a new replacement. Unfortunately the mug, that I had just ordered 2 days before, was now out of stock.

I have at least one more paycheck coming in this month, should have gotten it earlier this week. Unfortunately they don’t have the funds to pay us right now. I know they will, but yeah…Just kinda adds to my problems. And because of this it looks like Ken will be paying my credit cards, again (or one of them). I went grocery shopping at the start of the week, thinking I was getting my paycheck the next day, so I basically spent some of the money that would have paid for my credit cards. My parents had sent me a check recently which helped a lot, but yeah…was still depending on the income. I’m not completely broke, just don’t have enough to cover both of my cards.

Last, but not least, as my last post mentioned, I discovered that stores in Indiana are no longer selling Marshmallow Fluff. I was craving a fluffernutter, and wanted to put some fluff in my hot chocolate too. Comfort food, it was supposed to make me feel better. *sigh*

At least we had a good day Saturday. Ordered a pizza and watched “Serenity” with Ken and Amanda. Nothing went wrong.  Yay!

It’s gone. No where to be found in Indiana anymore. How can I have fluffernutters without fluff? Before you say it, marshmallow creme will not do. They are called FLUFFernutters for a reason. It’s also awesome in hot chocolate. Besides, I am from New England and we only use Marshmallow Fluff, because it’s the best. Stores back home do not even sell that other junk, no one wants it, and it’s against the law out there. What? I’m not making that up! …Stop looking at me like that.

Seriously, this sucks. No B&M brown bread, no Ah-So Sauce, and now no Fluff!? Why do you hate me, Indiana? Why?!

OK. Now for some fun, let’s break it down…

WHAT A CROCK OF SH!T….. We can’t say Merry Christmas now we have to say Happy Holidays.
No one is stopping you from personally saying, “Merry Christmas” on your facebook, to your friends, family or even some random stranger on the street, and you know it. Stop pretending otherwise. Saying ‘Merry Christmas’ in your personal everyday life is not banned, or against the law. BUT it is poor taste, and should not be said when addressing large crowds of people from various backgrounds (like in schools, etc) or if you are a cashier it would be rude to wish everyone who comes through your line a “Merry Christmas”, because you have no clue what they believe, or don’t believe in. You’re being self-centered and inconsiderate. There are other holidays that are celebrated this time of year, and those ones were actually around long before Christmas. “Happy Holidays” is simply a harmless way to include all of them, and not let religion be a focus.

We can’t call it a Christmas tree, it’s now called a Holiday tree? 
That Christmas tree you are whining about? That tree was a tradition that Christians stole from Pagans. But that aside, are you seriously trying to say that when you set your tree up that you HAVE to call it a Holiday Tree? Is that what you are doing? No. It’s not. Stop being a drama queen. Again, no one is stopping you from doing whatever you want in your personal day to day life. You can have your Christmas tree, which started as a Pagan tradition, and you can call it a Christmas tree. No one cares, not even the Pagans who started the custom.

Because it might offend someone.
Saying Merry Christmas, or calling your tree a Christmas tree is not offensive. The offense is in that a lot of Christians think they are the only ones who should be of any importance, and those of us who do not conform to your beliefs should be treated as though we do not matter. We are second class citizens to you, or something nasty that you scraped off the bottom of your shoe. Despite what you say, and what you want others to believe, this is NOT a Christian Nation. America is a melting pot of people who come from all kinds of backgrounds, religions and beliefs. You can believe and celebrate however you want, no one is stopping you, but the rest of us also have the right to believe, not believe, and celebrate as we want. We also have the right not to have yours, or any other religion constantly shoved down our throats.

If you don’t ike our “Customs” and it offends you so much then GO HOME. I will help you pack. They are called customs and we have our traditions
Remember what I said about your Christmas tree? Well pretty much every single custom and tradition you follow, and the way you celebrate at this time of year, are Pagan traditions, stolen by Christians (and not just on this Holiday, Easter too). So really, they are not YOUR customs, they are Pagan customs & traditions, and you’re obviously not a Pagan. You have your manger with your baby Jesus and your wise men, but I think that’s about it. And “go home”? This confuses my brain. Are you implying that if someone does not believe and think as you do that they are not an American citizen? Or was it something more simple, like, did you want to send me back to Boston, maybe? *shrug*. Also, it’s a safe bet that if you look into your background you will find that your family are immigrants. So maybe you should go home! There, I told you!

If you… agree with this…please post this as your status!! I AM A PROUD TO BE An American , MERRY CHRISTMAS Do you have what it takes to repost this?
Hmm. Yeah, it seems like you are implying that I am not an American, or at least that I am not proud to be one? But hey, good for you, I am glad that you are proud to be an American. But I am confused about what that has to do with celebrating Christmas. I have friends who are English, are Christians, and celebrate Christmas. So you know, with them being from England and all, it means they are not American. Yet they also celebrate Christmas, and have the same religion as you do….So…umm…What was your point again?

For anyone ignorant enough to post these stupid memes, you should probably know that because this is America, it means that we all have the right to believe, or not believe, how ever we choose. So get over yourselves, you are not oppressed. There is no reason for you to be this full of hate and anger. You might want to think about why you hate those of us who do not believe as you do. What kind of way is that to be? No one expects Christians to stop believing and celebrating the way that they want to. The problem is that Christians want exclusive rights to what the holiday greeting is, while every other faith is simply asking to be included along with Christians via a universal greeting.

Well, I hope that everyone has a happy whatever they celebrate, and if you don’t celebrate anything this time of year, then I wish you good cheer, or something like that. At the very least I hope you get a paid day off from work.

Also worth noting: I have seen other variations of this for people in Canada and England. Pretty much everything is the same, just take out “America” and replace with other country.

I’ve spent the last month, or more, applying for every single seasonal job there is. I know they are only for a couple of months, but that’s a couple of months of income I wouldn’t have otherwise and would gladly take it. There is also the odd ‘steady’ job that crops up that I also apply for. But a couple of weeks ago I thought, “Finally! I found something I’m sure to get!”. Back home I worked for over 4 years as a “lunch lady”, and actually really loved that job. Well I recently discovered a school food service job open up out here (3 hour a day position), and it wasn’t too far from my house, so I immediately applied. They said they needed someone ASAP, well hey…Here I am! I need a job, and can work ASAP, and I have over 4 years experience. Have I heard anything? Nope. The job is still up, yet for some reason they are not going to hire me? I haven’t called them yet, thinking I will do that next week to see what is up with the position, and let them know I am very interested in it. But in my experience, calling never helps in anyway. I just get to hear verbal rejection, and a lot of times annoyance from them. This makes me wonder why everyone says, “Call them!”. From what I have seen 90% of employers seem to HATE it when I call them. It gets me nowhere. What is the point?

It’s been very discouraging, and stressful, looking for a job, but this made it a thousand times worse. I had assumed that one of the reasons employers were not hiring me was because they had more experienced people applying, so when I apply for something that I have a lot of experience in and still can’t get it, I feel hopeless and depressed.

And of course, this is when things at work slow down so I’m about to go broke. Thankfully Ken just gave me $100 so I could pay my credit cards. Ken buys his own food, and sometimes helps me with what I need, but I usually buy whatever me and Amanda eat, the pet food and necessities (cleaners, etc). I have no clue how I will be buying food next week. Luckily we do have a couple of races coming up at work this month, so I will be making a little money.

Migraine is getting worse, so I guess it’s time to wrap this up. I was hoping that my next blog post would have been about me finally finding a job (the “lunch lady” job), but it seems that hasn’t worked out. I still haven’t given up on it, but I’m also not feeling optimistic.

I’m not fussy, I apply for anything I can; fast food, retail, office positions, entry level stuff and anything that is ‘willing to train’ and I have no problem working for minimum wage. I tailor my resume to fit each place, I’ve had to alter my previous income so they won’t think I want too much money, etc. I’ve called back, looked into temp agencies, etc. Yet, no one will hire me. It might have something to do with the fact there are not a lot of jobs available, and that for every job I apply for there’s at least 50, or more, people applying to it as well.

I have even thought about going back to school, but I can’t afford it. And going back to school would not guarantee me a job, even if I took up something that there was a (so-called) high demand for. I already know what I would face with that, they would simply hire the other people who are actually experienced in the field, because they are unemployed too. And honestly, they’re the ones I would hire. Seriously, if you have a company, there is one position available, and 50 people apply, out of all those people they will go for whoever is the most qualified/has the most experience. I can’t really blame them for choosing those people, but where have all the damn jobs gone?!

The economy and job market are seriously messed up, and sometimes it feels like no one wants to fix it. I’m tired of the people out there (who all seem to be conservatives) with the attitude of: ”Oh, you’re unemployed? You must just be lazy and not trying hard enough and are only looking for a handout.” Those people are completely clueless. They have no idea how much time and energy is spent on trying to find a job, or how stressed we are, and how badly we want to work.