Categories
Uncategorized

Oh, for crying in a bucket…

Well, I signed the lease to get the store today, and it was in HORRID shape. The carpet and tile floors are CAKED in dirt from seven years of neglect, and the whole place reeks of urine, especially the storage area. I don’t know if they cleaned it when they moved out, but it sure as heck didn’t look like they even tried. Fortunately, my partner and I aren’t afraid of a little (okay A LOT OF) hard work. We tried using pine-sol on the tile floors, but that just made them smell better. Surprisingly enough, what worked the best was scrubbing bubbles! I brought a can from home on impulse (I brought a lot of cleaning products with me when we went over there, from febreeze to rubbing alcohol), and when the pine-sol was failing and Steve was getting discouraged, I had a wild hair and sprayed the nastiest tile I could find with scrubbing bubbles. In less than a minute, it was a LOT cleaner, and we got a ton of dirt up off of it. That tile took a couple of treatments, but it looked 1000% better when we were done. As a result, we decided to go to Sam’s and buy some more scrubbing bubbles. We also wanted a sponge mop, but Sam’s didn’t have any, so we went to Target and got a Mr. Clean mop there. It looks like it’ll do a good job, but we’ll see.

Anyway, Tom’s volunteered to help us get the new store set up. He got fired from his job today because he was holiday help, and we’re all pretty pissed about that state of affairs. I know that the economy is bad and all of that jazz, but Tom is a fantastic worker, and he really knows his shit. He’s also a master of tactics, and he’s a great go-to guy from strategy advice. If I had the money to pay him, I’d hire him in a heartbeat…but I don’t, so it’ll be a little while before we could even offer him a spot. Hell, it’ll be awhile before I can even afford to pay myself for working there full-time!

And so that brings us back to my own job-hunting woes. The temp agency keeps on jerking me around about assignments. The only thing that they offered me that would be a sure temp spot is in an area where there’s a 99% chance that I’ll get stabbed while I’m on the bus. While I have no issue with tempting fate as far as riding a bus is concerned, Steve would rather have me and the baby in one piece, and he doesn’t think the pay is worth the risk. In addition, they never called me back to tell me what hours I would be working, so I’m sure that they gave the assignment to someone who is willing to risk her life for minor change. If so, more power to them. I want the job that pays better and is in a safe area of town near a bus line where I won’t risk stabbity death for being a pale-skinned, pregnant female.

Fortunately, a friend of mine turned me onto WAHM.com. It seems that they’ve got real WAHMs who earn enough money to pay their bills and stay home. I’m still fudging on cover letters and nervous about phone interviews, but I have the voice and manner for telephone work, and I have the skills to do a damn fine job at data entry. I’ve applied for a few open positions so far, and I have hope that I’ll do well working at home.

Anyway, I got my first paying assignment for Kasamba.

Unfortunately, they won’t send me my money until I get a minimum of $50. For some reason, they also took almost $4 of my $13.14 charge for my services as a copy editor. I’m only going to be getting $9.20 of that, and it really pisses me off. Still, it’s better than all of the work I did for that lady who contacted me through facebook. I edited her article, communicated with her back and forth about the changes she wanted to make, and then, when I finished working on it for her, I never heard from her again. I even emailed her and asked if she was dissatisfied with my work, but she never wrote me back…and that’s REALLY annoying.

Speaking of consultations, here are a couple of the widgets for my Kasamba virtual office (assuming the HTML works right):

'Ask

'Ask

Blah. I’m tired from all of the cleaning and BS today. I don’t feel like I accomplished much, but I did get some networking and word-of-mouth advertising going on. I also feel like I’ve got some ideas to help get the store off the ground…

But now, it is time for bed. I had more to say, but my brain died…

Categories
Uncategorized

Well, at least it’s not pink anymore

My blogger is now a decent shade of green…you can all be jealous of me now.

I’m also going to do the bulk of my rambly writings here, because I can actually get PAID when people click on my little Google ads. Sure, it’s only a few centavos a click, but it’s better than writing for nothing.

Today marked the first day that I actually did some copy editing under contract on Kasamba. I’m supposed to get paid for it, but I haven’t seen any notice to that effect, so I don’t really know. I was actually shocked that someone used the service and didn’t want me to right a paper for her, but I was glad for that. When I was in college, paying someone else to write your paper for you was called “plagiarism.”

I may be ugly, I may be poor, but at least I’ve got some personal integrity.

The job hunt continues, somewhat successfully, somewhat not. It would help if I would stop pissing and moaning over the damned cover letters and just send them out. Sure, I may only have a job for a couple of months, but any job is better than going under while trying to make a business work.

The really bad thing is, though, there are a few jobs out there that I would like to keep on a permanent basis. I know I’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell of getting one, thanks to how I got screwed over at the clinic, but it still bothers me that if I were hired, they’d probably look for someone else when the baby is born, and it would make it look like I’m a fucking job-hopper.

Anyway, I did the best I could each day, and it just didn’t satisfy the people in power. Would it have helped if I were someone else? Maybe. Would it have helped if I weren’t pregnant? Maybe, but I’m sure as hell not going to blame the kid for my job loss when it wasn’t the kid’s fault. I tried to do the right thing, I tried to solve a problem through the “proper” channels, and it blew up in my face and got me fired six days before Christmas.

Now I understand how Mary must have felt when every inn in town was full. “Hey, we’ve got no room here, and we realize you’re in labor, but why don’t you snuggle up in the barn with the rest of the livestock?”

Bah.

Sisko threw up all over the living room tonight. He must have thought that I needed some practice at cleaning up vomit, because he sure left a mess. He also didn’t cover his poo when he went to the litterbox, so I guess he’s just expressing himself, feline style. Oh, well. He’s cute, I love him, and I’m sure the baby will be playing with him a lot, so he needs to get his mischief in before he’s too busy hiding from the kid to get into trouble.

Thank God for Woolite Pet Stain & Odor Eliminator. This beigey-gray carpet would have been stained many times over were it not for the geniuses who created a product that can successfully clean up even the messiest cake puke without leaving a spot or odor behind. I have a feeling that I’m going to be buying it by the case after the baby starts trying to eat solid food…

For some reason, I’ve had the urge to watch Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. I guess I kind of identify with Auntie Entity’s desire to make something better for herself after the disaster…but I’m not sure if I want to be “up to my elbows in blood and pigshit.”

Anyway, I think I’ll watch Colbert and head to bed. I’ve got some other letters to write, and I could use a few laughs.

Categories
Uncategorized

I hate Pink

Still, I really like this layout style.

More to come, when I have time.