Employer Confidentiality

Picture this ... let's say you work for the city of Philadelphia school system. One day you learn that your employer has called the city of Camden school system and faxed over your employment application and resume. They tell the city of Camden that you are looking for work. Would you be horrified or upset or even angry about that breach of confidentiality? Well, that just happened to me. I've mentioned here that I'm on unemployment, but actually I work a few days here and there online for the last client I worked for via an IT agency. So I might work for five days one week then collect unemployment the next. I'm also looking for similar work in my field so I've got all the bases covered regarding the "looking for work" angle, plus I'm relocating, which is part of my personal plan in life. Well, the twit that kept me from getting paid several times at the agency took it upon himself to send my resume to his friends and proceeded to tell them that "she is having a hard time finding work." That is slander because it is NOT true. He has no idea what I'm doing to obtain employment and in fact his "help" can actually hinder my efforts.

By telling anyone in the industry that I am "having a hard time finding work" he has made me appear "desperate" which is the surest way to prevent me from being able to work with other agencies or recruiters. A person having a hard time finding work is usually labeled as a problem. I'm already over fifty and have that little matter of gender to surmount. If I had serious intentions of staying in the field in the Philadelphia area I'd be blacklisted, if I'm not already. Usually I get lots of job opportunities coming my way but since the twit started "handling" me I've had the poorest and most meager opportunities and they've been dangled like carrots to keep me "interested." Now I see the pattern. He has taken it upon himself to decide my fate in the IT industry. This is a pup who just graduated college about six months ago and has no IT industry experience. That's ok, I am gathering the evidence now and he is being duly handled.

>^;^<

Drama

Our nerves are pretty much shot this morning. For the most part Mavis and I have done a good job of managing Brain and the four children so that drama is kept to a minimum. But this morning the baby mama drama intensified. This is the woman who is bipolar but will not take her meds. She is paranoid without cause, has dropped the children in their father's lap within days of them living with her in every single case, but suddenly feels nostalgic and motherly when she calls the trailer at 7:00 am and is told the children are sleeping. This is a household where the adults work late hours and it is set up during the summer so that the children don't wake before 9:00 am. It is critical that we all get our rest so we can function. Now the baby mama wants to come get all the kids. Great! If you do will you just keep them already? Instead she calls during the work day and demands that daddy leave his job and come to get them when she can't handle them. I'm a staunch defender of custodial parents, and they don't always have to be the mama. Brain is a good father and was the stay-at-home parent when they were born because she preferred to work and couldn't handle them then either.

Get this! She has no car, no drivers license, and is homeless. She stays with her 22 year old boyfriend at his parents' trailer, along with their daughter and her two children. We have it bad with four kids and three adults, and Mavis and I will move into our own trailer this weekend. There they would have five adults and six children under the age of ten in a smaller three bedroom trailer. I'd like a vote please. Should the four boys stay in a three bedroom trailer that is clean and organized, is safe and well provisioned, with their father who is working and has five great sitters lined up,and who cooks meals and spends time with them? Or should they stay in a tiny three bedroom trailer with their mother, her boyfriend, his sister, her two kids, and the boyfriend's parents, where the mother sleeps all the time, doesn't work, fights with her boyfriend's sister, and doesn't cook or spend time with the kids? Hint: all four boys want to live with their father. Daddy lets the baby mama visit the children anytime they want and has invited the baby mama and her boyfriend to one of the boy's birthday party next week. He just asks that she call at reasonable times, not 7:00 am or midnight, and that she plan the visits and give him a day's warning. In fact he does not want custody, he wants the kids to have a stable home environment, to go to school well dressed and well fed, and to live where there is no screaming and yelling.

Well, it doesn't matter because he is getting an emergency order for temporary custody ASAP. It has to be done to protect the kids. Mom needs to go to the psych ward for awhile, which is where she goes when she attempts suicide several times a year. Sheesh!

I put this type of post under "Drama" because I am only watching, from a distance. I don't want no drama!

New Life

I've been busy making a new life in Missouri. The weekend was spent getting away from it all in the Ozarks, and I had a lot to get away from already. I did some impromptu car camping and made some jewelry while sitting at a lake. I put up my folding table that I got for two bucks at a thrift store, covered it with a gorgeous gold suede look cloth found for fifity cents, and spread out my work. I had several customers come up to see what I was doing and who browsed my selections and kept me company while I worked. I made eighty dollars over two days. That was awesome because I wasn't really trying to sell anything. I keep the prices at ten to fifiteen dollars, and up to twenty dollars for a full set with a necklace, earrings, and a matching charm bracelet. I'm getting lots of requests for rings to match so I'll have to figure out a good source for ring bases to glue charms onto them. This set with just a pendant necklace and matching dangle earrings went for twenty-five dollars because I was reluctant to part with it. I planned to give it to a friend. But, I have enough glass beads to make four more sets so this was money well earned. It is made with silver chain and silver plated findings, so it's not a shabby set. And it took me less than an hour to assemble the pieces for the first time. I judge it will take me about 20 minutes to reproduce the design.

As to what I needed to get away from, well we are now seven in a three bedroom trailer or mobile home. It is fairly large, but Marie has the master bedroom, Brock has the next largest room, and he now has all four of his sons (10, 8, 4, 3) in the smallest room. I have the living room. We came to an understanding on Friday. If you come into the living room and wake me up you are going to be shown to Daddy's door. And that isn't something they desire to do first thing in the morning. So they quietly play with a video game and then dress and come out and make their breakfast. By that time I'm showered and dressed and my bedding is stashed.

The really good news is that on Friday, Marie and I went out and got a small trailer to rent for $325 a month. Brock will take over the bigger trailer. We'll probably live semi-communally because he is going to need our help to establish a household and raise the kids on his own. By that I mean that I will probably babysit a few evenings week at the big trailer. We'll all use the washer and dryer at the big trailer, and I'll keep the DSL on for internet access at both places. The trailer should be ready in about a week. I will furnish my half of the trailer with a normal height air mattress in the bedroom and an el cheapo dresser if I find one at the thrift stores or a yard sale.

Well, I have an hour to get dressed and wrap some Ebay stuff to mail. I want to be out of the house before the Jehovah's Witness bible study starts. So I'm going to get busy and finish up as fast as I can!

Milestone

Today is a milestone. I've reached the 10 day mark of being in Missouri, totally homeless, but happily couch surfing. I've hooked up with the Universalist Unitarians here and have met some Jehovah's Witnesses and just kept quiet and observed. That was interesting. I have realized that people stop searching for the truth once they've reached their comfort level. They do not want to learn anything further and it's not helpful to agitate them with pertinent questions or anything that distracts them. That was a very big milestone for me in my personal journey. I've been so incessantly busy throughout my life that it is pleasant to be idle and allow my thoughts to roam. The discipline of raising a family and providing for them is becoming a more distant memory. Yesterday was spent writing. Just writing. The book is fleshing out nicely. I have it outlined and the characters are interestingly enough that I dreamt about them. I woke up with more ideas which I plotted out and now I'm ready to just live the rest of today.

I sold a lot on Ebay yesterday and that is the first order of business, to fill the orders and wrap the items to mail. I was hoping to mail out the rent check for July for the crazy roommate situation in Pennsylvania, but the balance in my checking account doesn't reflect the unemployment check yet. I think their system is not working because I had trouble getting to the website. No matter. I could pull cash out of savings but I prefer not to. I'm planning to work at a job that pays minimum wage to keep me busy and to earn the allowed $208 extra each week when one is unemployed. I have no qualms about accepting unemployment because it is another bugger flicked at the system. I worked all my life and then the health insurance and the legal system not only failed me, but they actively harmed me. I won't allow that again. And the employment system is flagging me as too old to work at any job that pays well or has benefits. I have feelers out for contract work here, but would rather not at this point. I have a lot of things to accomplish.

So I'll live out today, make jewelry, run errands, mail products, and have a delightful time with two young people. We "cook" every day and they just realized last night that we never cook with any meat. I told them about being a vegetarian and what it means to our world and our animal friends. You see, children are not generally exposed to the harsh reality that the lump of grey or white chewy stuff on their plates used to be a creature that hopped, and flew, and ran around the house, like the cats, the dog, the hamster, and the birds. If you put a toddler in a playpen with a rabbit and an apple she will pet the rabbit and eat the apple. If you put a kitten in a playpen with a rabbit and an apple she will attack the rabbit and play with the apple. There is really a natural order to things. I'm playing with a cup of coffee right now and plan to attack a cantelope for breakfast in a few minutes. Now that's the natural order of things!

What do you do all day?

What do I do all day? Well, mostly I follow a set of priorities in life. Shelter, food, trash, dishes, clothes, cats, and income producing projects. Then I tackle paperwork, helping others and getting involved in the community, then on to fun stuff like playing trivia, hiking, camping, and biking. I usually knock off around 6 pm on a busy day, whether I'm "done" or not. Because you should always live by some type of routine. I'm currently working on a book and you can be sure that global warming, healthcare, and the nuts currently residing in Washington will be well represented. I'm also working on a technical book in my field. Sort of an old-timers take on the modern "agile programming" concept. I've seen it all, from the waterfall methodology to RAP (rapid application prototyping), sometimes known as RAD (rapid application development). RAP is my thing. So I have a full life, in spite of being homeless, unemployed, and poor. I've decided that homelessness is my mission and my community outreach is through any of the social justice projects of the Universalist Unitarian Fellowships that I align with. Please though, I pray that I can get through a bible study with Jehovah's Witnesses without biting my tongue in half. I'm working on being more tolerant of quasi-christians in all their varied and perplexing forms.

Couch Surfing

I do like couch surfing. All my life I have had an uncanny ability to sleep anywhere, any time, and any place. Like an orangutan I make my bed wherever I go. So I've been couch surfing for an entire week here in Missouri. The only thing odd about it are the tiny birds who aren't sure if they should wake me up or not. These are Marie's grandsons, who are very polite little men, responsible, and alert. They've had to be because they were raised by wolves, though we can see them relaxing and coming into their own personalities now. They have a room in the trailer, along with their dad. I helped him get out of jail and advise him on getting on his feet. Marie and I are pushing him along to get his own place by August 1st. I'm fronting the cash for that, then I'm taking the back bedroom for myself.

So far we have obtained a student desk and a matching two drawer module in white for $12 at a thrift store. I got a very nice formica topped table with tall 70's style round tapered legs for $5 at another thrift store. It is all set up for my laptop, printer/copier, and my jewelry supplies and tools. So far I've sold 15 items on Ebay this week and I've made Marie a custom necklace and two earring sets for her favorite turquoise outfit. I'm afraid that when the Jehovah's Witness bible study occurs here this afternoon that I may have more "orders" for custom jewelry. It is a poor area here and I'm not sure they can afford me. But, we shall see. (I'm not really that worried. I like to make jewelry and I keep my inventory moving, trust me.)

I found an obnoxious $14.99 charge pending on my checking account and tried to call the number. But they aren't open until noon. That's weird. I cannot even remember what the other $14.99 was for a month ago. Now that I have a decent new laptop I'll keep track of these things in Outlook. For now I plan to deal with it this afternoon. I searched all my e-mail and can't find anything about it. WTF?

The morning routine is simple. Coffee and read a fun book, morning constitutional with said book in the bathroom, wash hair, shower, dress, and grooming. Then start laundry, fold up and stash my bedding, pack away the toiletries, clean up my area, take care of the cat's litter pan and vacuum up the debris, put away dishes, trash out, and bring in Ebay wrapping supplies. Then wrap all the Ebay items and return the supplies to the car when I take the packages out. Then bring in some paperwork and root through that for a bit, gathering things to mail back to son and friends, prep some correspondence to mail, and etcetera. That should eat up most of the morning. Then around noon I'll decide to either stick around for the bible study or leave for the post office and perhaps other errands. I do want to fit in a bit of job searching, but there is no hurry. DAMN! We just had an incident here. It felt like something huge fell inside the trailer or there was an explosion outside. Marie just got up and informed me that it was probably something going on at Ft. Leonard Wood. But, that is over thirty miles from here. Sheesh!

Anyway, I could observe the bible study and decide if I should stay and make them uncomfortable or should I go into town then. Probably I'll stay and mess with them. Tee Hee!

Well, the chores aren't going to do themselves so I'm off for a bit.

Health and Wellness in a Nutshell

I want to say I don't understand illness, but I do. After being around people who are chronically ill I understand that it is absolutely the choices one makes that contributes to either health and wellness or to chronic illness. Period. No excuses.

I know someone who has MRSA and RSD-CRPS. She gave it to herself. When she was first injured I tried to help her. She was hysterical about how the system was mistreating her in regards to Worker's Compensation. That's a given. It is how you handle it that is the measure of your health. Instead of relaxing a bit, and making better choices regarding nutrition and lifestyle habits, she drank pots of coffee, chain smoked like a steamboat, and focused only on herself and her issues. I begged her to stop the coffee and the cigarettes, and to please at least eat some fruit and take some B vitamins. RSD affects the nervous system. When my ankle shattered I suffered from RSD symptoms too. I decided to be well instead. I used a dry washcloth to force my skin to accept touch and desensitize the creepy crawlies. I gave up caffeine, a nervous system stimulant, and I focused outside of myself. There are three things we must have to be healthy. Sleep, rest, and relaxation is number one. Pure fruit and some vegetables is number two. And exercise is number three. That is all we need to be healthy. The human body is in charge of its own health and only needs these three things to accomplish it.

Orthopedists can also be quite useful in helping the body repair bones in a way that preserves function, as long as they do not prescribe narcotics, ice, or sloth. RSD was first diagnosed during the Civil War when soldiers were treated with narcotics, ice, and bed rest. Voila! RSD, reflexive sympathetic dystrophy. Take that to the hospital for unnecessary surgery and you have got yourself a lasting case of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

My friend in Missouri is the opposite. She is 57 years old and holds down a job and supports her son and grandchildren. She is a no-nonsense, no excuses type of person. No alcohol, no cigarettes, one cup of coffee in the morning, lots of fruits and vegies, and only a little meat or a cinnamon roll a few times a week. She has no health insurance, and only goes to the doctor if a sinus infection won't resolve on its own. She has a Scottish heritage but doesn't eat a Scottish diet, so the doctor is happily astounded that she has no issues with diabetes, high blood pressure, or cholesterol. She is active, involved, and focuses outside of herself while still enjoying a rich inner personal life. When we talk on the phone we talk about the kids, the fur babies, and how jobs and finances are going. We talk about bible study or giving donations. And we talk openly about how we feel about things, then we go on. Health is a choice!

Those aren't the only examples I've seen. My mother smoked over three packs of cigarettes a day and died young from emphysema. My father ate nitrite laden foods, smoked, drank, and died of pancreatic cancer. We weren't allowed to discuss environmental issues in our house. Yah, right! If we pretend it isn't a problem, maybe it will go away.

My choice today is to eat my fruit for breakfast with a fresh squeezed lemonade. Then I'll have a bowl of steamed squash and zucchini for lunch after we tramp the yard sale circuit. Dinner tonight will be the usual tomato and avocado salad, with vidalia onions, diced cucumber, and mung bean sprouts. Maybe we'll pick up some farm fresh produce at a roadside stand or two. I want to be healthy and enjoy life every day. I want others to get it, too.

Please take a broccoli chill pill and make yourself well! Honestly, I don't get a single dime for suggesting that people eat fresh produce, while the junk food manufacturers are making billions of dollars at the same time the pharmaceutical companies are making record profits. Neanderthin diet book gurus make millions, yet millions still fail to maintain a healthy weight. You do the math. In Shanghai, women who eat the traditional Western diet of manufactured foods that is heavy on meats and sweets get breast cancer at rates not seen in in the population that eats the traditional vegetable-soy-fish diet. You are indeed what you eat.

More Tidying Up

See the "hoopty car" the "hoopty cat" on the "hoopty road". >^;^<

While couch surfing at my old roommate's house we got her hair colored, visited and enjoyed each other's company, did some shopping, and worked out several survival scenarios for me. I finally got the car loaded up with everything I absolutely needed to run my online business and conduct personal business. The car was divided into six zones. The trunk was one zone and contained the jewelry making tools and supplies, camping/survival equipment, shipping supplies, and miscellaneous stuff crammed into the available space. The backseat was three zones that housed paperwork, Ebay items to sell and listed, and the electronics. That would be the laptop, printer, lighting, postal scale, extra camera, and such. The backseat also contained a box of stuff for my friend in Missouri that I'd stored for her for years, plus five full boxes of dolls and props and items to sell. I'd say I managed to cram my poor little Ford Escort with at least $4000 worth of saleable items. As I drove I was making $60 per day on the Ebay site.

In the passenger seat I had three more boxes crammed in, plus a litter pan, scoop, and a huge animal cage that was broken down so that Spike could sit up high in the pan looking at the traffic and scenery whizzing by. I have some great pictures to upload, however I just bought a new laptop and no software for the camera so that will be a separate project sometime today.

I got on the road around 5:00 pm Sunday night. I made it past Wheeling as I headed west on 70, then I stopped for the night at the 350 mile point. I roughly estimated that there was another 650 to make on Monday. It was more important to get on the road and stop for a rest by 11:00 pm. I stayed at a Red Roof Inn which is pet friendly. Being somewhat organized I brought in the litter pan, Spike and his food and water dishes, my pillow and bag, and the map and directions. I even carry a water heater to make my coffee in the morning. I cleaned up, popped a Benadryl, and sacked out. In the morning I was able to hop out of bed refreshed and rested by 8:00 am. By 9:00 Spike and I were on the road. The car did great and by 9:00 pm I was at the house. I was sweating out the condition of the car the entire trip.

It was great seeing Marie, Brock, and two of the grandkids. These were the quiet ones, thank goodness. I got a load of the younger grandkids a few days later and that was a shock to the system! I'm glad they are staying with their mother, while the two older boys are staying with Brock in the trailer. All last week I worked on my projects and supervised the boys while grandma and daddy were at work. I never heard a word about the potential contract jobs in Philly so the plan now is to take some temp or Walmart work here and earn the $208 a week allowed while still collecting unemployment. Between that and Ebay I should be able to make over $4000 a month with expenses now of just $400. That should certainly help me buy a van by the end of October. It would be nice if the accident case would settle, but I will no longer rely on that.

It is a beautiful Saturday morning. I think we are all going shopping for a cheap computer desk for me to set up a permanent workplace. I expect we will find something for about $20-30. That and a fold-up chair should work fine. So there is nothing much else to share. I have loads of paperwork to finish sorting and handling, and am ready to push major items onto the Ebay store on Sunday. I did find a Universalist Unitarian Fellowship in the area and will try to get to a service on Sunday morning. That may be a good way to network for jobs, vans, and free zucchini and squash. Plus I enjoy doing good works. I see now that homelessness and social justice appear to be my personal missions.

Still Tidying Up

Wow! I got out on Wednesday night after selling the sleep number bed for $375 cash to a very nice young man. We laid on the bed together to get the air out of the inner chambers and just chatted about moms and sons, pouncing on good deals on Craigslist, and working with computers. I was sweating it out a little that the bizarre and crazy roommate would come home and there would be a scene. But she never showed up.

It was a hot, humid, enervating day. I moved out in stages. The first stage you couldn't tell anything was gone and the car was crammed full of my craft organizer drawers, bags or crafts, and other miscellaneous items. The second trip consisted of the two sets of white plastic drawers, perfect for my van one day, plus nearly all of the Ebay items, jewelry business supplies, and every single thing that is important to me. The kitchen still looked like nothing was touched, the AC, TV, and bed were still set up, and the bathroom things were in place. Someone would have had to search my bedroom to glean my plans. But the kitchen cupboard that I used was M-T! Is that stealthy or what? LOL

After Dan came and got the bed, and after we loaded it into his teeny, tiny car, I cleaned the basement, bathroom, and kitchen. Then in order of importance I loaded the car. I didn't get any serious bites for the TV or AC, so I ran them over to my old roommate's house to give to her. She has the cats for me--a real friend! Then I made one last run back to the house for last minute stuff. I actually forgot my bathroom scale and a USB cord for my printer. Dang it! But I was out of there and felt so happy and free for the first time in months. I sang and giggled all the way back to Little Bird's house to spend the night. I told the crazy roommate in a text message the next morning that I was driving the cats to Missouri--all true except for the exact details of when.

As it turned out I couldn't make the trip happen on Thursday as hoped. It was incredibly hot and I was feeling poorly from the stress, the heat, and the lack of good nutrition, and just couldn't get moving. I actually ate nothing on Wednesday which didn't help. It felt like I was getting a cold or sinus infection so I loaded up on fruit and started to recover Friday night. I did a few more loads Friday and was still moving things into storage on Saturday morning. I spent four hours at my son's apartment just going through paperwork and finding his tax information. I threw away four huge garbage bags of paperwork and consolidated everything. My son and I went over his list of paperwork things to do and prepped for his court date Tuesday for a traffic ticket. Then I loaded up the car with more things to give Little Bird and headed over to her house to spend the night.

We went out to dinner last night and watched several episodes of The Rifleman. She gets such a kick out of the phallicly charged opening scene where Chuck Connors is rapidly firing his specially engineered rifle. It is the money shot that makes all grandmas' hearts beat faster. We often wonder if they knew what it looked like when the series was filmed. That little smirk on Chuck Connors face tells me that he knew exactly what he was doing. Heh heh.

So now it is Sunday and I'm still not on the road to Missouri. And I didn't win anything on PowerBall for July 7, 2007. Shoot! It is 8:45 am and Little Bird won't be up for hours. I'll dress and unload the car, and then work on my son's taxes with a nice cup of coffee. Around noon I'll go to his apartment and load my basket of clothes, box of toiletries, and whatever. I'll stuff food into the nooks and crannies of my trunk. Then it's back to Little Bird's house to color her hair and try to load my boxes into the back seat. Anything that won't fit is getting wrapped and addressed to mail to Marie's in Missouri. Little Bird will hold those boxes until I get to Missouri and know for a fact that I do NOT have a job. If I have a job there is no reason to mail anything out there. Then when the car is loaded and I've eaten a veggie burger for lunch, Spike the big fat kitty will be put into the car and off we'll go. It is a 983 mile trip, the beginning of it on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a long, boring ride. And oh joy, it is the end of a major vacation week and the start of a major heatwave. It isn't getting any better this week. Oh, I have to remember to do some errands today on the way to and back from Dawg's apartment. Close safe deposit box at the bank, return item to Walmart and buy some necessities, see if the Mailboxes Etc place is open today or not, and check the PO box. And leave some envelopes for Dawg to mail my mail to me. Whee!

This is why I'm not on the road yet. LOL

Tidying Up

I think my roommate is starting to get the picture that there is something wrong with this picture. I went to bed early last night because I'm going to be super busy moving out today while she is at work. I woke up to find that the crappy shelves in the dining room have been cleared off and one of the three crappy shelves got moved to the basement. It is too late, of course. Earth Mother is moving on.

Yesterday morning my lithe old bod was wrapped in a very sheer, gauzy little robe that left next to nothing to the imagination. It was about 7:00 am and I was at the computer downstairs in the dining room. I heard footsteps coming down the stairs and assumed it was her, but the masculine voice that said "good morning" scared the crap out of me. I was debating how best to permanently disable him when the owner of the voice staggered into the kitchen to help himself to my private stash of Heineken from the fridge. I took that brief moment to log everything off and dash upstairs where I locked myself in my room and quickly dressed. It is easier to disable an attacker when one is fully clothed. I didn't want to accidentally knock myself out with a stray boob or something.

It turns out that she brought him home around 2:30 am after a drunken debacle at the local tavern where she plays pool and moons over the abusive ex-husband-to-be. She dates the owner there when not picking up strangers. She was still drunk when she had to get up for work yesterday and was still hung over when she got home last night. She makes it so easy for me to leave without a trace. I was going to offer to help her with the August rent, but that offer is off the table now. Her bad decisions have put me at personal risk. There have been two strange men in the house in the past week alone, not to mention the fact that her abusive husband accosted me in a public place. She is still mooning over him and has been at his house at least three nights a week since we moved in together. All it will take is another drunken, maudlin decision to bring him here for a boinking and then what am I supposed to do? She can take the abuse, I don't have to!

Unbelievable! I stopped at my old roommate's house yesterday, where she at least is trying to fix things in her life and has never put me or anyone else into any kind of danger. We had an interesting chat about this situation. Anyway, will add more later. It is nearly 7:00 am and I want to get showered and dressed, clean out my car for loading stuff, and clean the kitchen and basement. I want to get this done before the dingbat gets up and staggers off to work on the 4th of July. I'm not sure how much time I will have to get out today. I plan to leave the bed and obvious signs of my existence on the kitchen counter until the very last moment. If she doesn't search my drawers and closet then she won't realize I'm gone right away. She might get on the road for her tryst at the New Jersey shore without looking too deeply, giving me more time to get out of here. I'm hoping someone will come by and exchange some cash for the bed before 2:00 pm today, so I don't have to move it. I'm not taking any other furniture. I'll leave it for her to sell for cash. Just some nice but heavy wooden shelves and some organizer do-dads. If I don't have stuff I don't need furniture or organizers to display it on!

Countdown

The timetable isn't exact, but I'm doing it. I guess I still have more stuff than I realized. I decided to let people come and pick up the sleep number bed, the tv, and the air conditioner on Wednesday. The roommate will be at the shore that day, and I will be moving stuff out that I do want to keep. I need Wednesday to concentrate on clearing and cleaning my part of the house. I'm basically a responsible person and I want to clean up after the cats where the litter pan was in the basement. Then I will spend Thursday clearing my son's apartment in case I'm not coming back soon, and load the car with just what I want to take. Friday I'll check the radiator and the oil, stop at the bank for cash, and then for a fill up. Then I'll get the cats last and hit the road to Missouri. I expect to arrive Saturday, sometime. It depends on if I drive straight through or stop for the night. I'd plan to sleep in the car except it will be filled with cats, cages, litter pan, cooler, and luggage. The trunk will be filled with Ebay items, jewelry supplies, and packaging material. Wish I had a van!

Tomorrow I plan to get the mail forwarding service and the storage room. Today I kept putting more stuff on Ebay then had nearly 20 packages to mail. It should be the same tomorrow, so it is worth it to delay for a bit. Still no exact news on the job.

I'm fine with it all. I still need to help my son with some of his paperwork. I could do that Thursday. So now I'm resting at his apartment and having a bite to eat. In a few minutes I'll bring in more stuff I brought from the house. Stupid stuff like a brand new ironing board, a broken TV I want to fix (I know I should put it into the dumpster!) and other detritus. Why can't I stop dealing with stuff?

>^;^<

Really Downsizing Now

I don't think I can come up with any more barriers to escaping to a life on the road, at least for awhile. I've been putting more items on Ebay, and they are selling as fast as I can list them. Just some collectible items that I acquired while in the acquisition phase of life, with the great plan of reselling the items on Ebay--voila! That is what I'm doing. I'll keep listing those things today and try to get some charm bracelets listed. I backed off that for awhile to do the downsizing of the collection, trying to get the Ebay business down to a just few boxes and the jewelry making supplies.

The crazy roommate is at work and I'm slowly loading the car while she's not looking. As I mentioned before it perturbs her when boxes go out the door and her psychiatrist says she "must not be disturbed", ahem, "any further." I had been joking when referring to her as the crazy roommate, but I have been finding suicide/attention seeking notes and other things laying around. It's more like the fake suicide notes she doodles when she thinks nobody is watching. For an example of what I'm trying to escape, check out the pictures of the common rooms in the house:









OK, maybe my house looked like that once or twice but come on! After seven months shouldn't something be unpacked? Anything? I live in one small room and it is neat and orderly, even when I'm working on a jewelry or craft project. Is it me, am I expecting too much for $800 a month? Sheesh!

The tiny little spice bottle things in the right corner of the kitchen above, that is the only thing of mine you can see in the kitchen! My sprouts are in my room! LOL

OK, I'm getting out of here. Today is a quiet day of Ebaying my clutter away, and tomorrow is a day of packing and stashing into a storage room. Thursday I'm bugging out with my cats.