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:: Friday, January 07, 2005 ::

A late happy holidays to all!

I had a reasonably good time - we went to his Grandmother's for Christmas Eve Dinner, and it felt more hectic than last year, but it was fun seeing the kids and everyone nonetheless. Anita and the kids got me a bunch of candles from Yankee Candles - Karen looked through the whole store to find the right ones, and I love these. She's such a cute kid.

Joe's mom got me a really nice Scrapbook kit that I have yet to decide what I'm going to do with; Joe and I might be outgrowing the photo album we got, so maybe I will use this one for odds and ends like our movie theatre tickets. She also got me this knit pink hoodie (not as hideous as I make it sound) that actually looks really cute on me.

Mom got me a shitload of earrings, all my style, of course, and 75 bucks to Old Navy, which I've already used about 2/3 of in the after-xmas sales on some fantastically nice stuff: A pinstripe blazer, dress slacks, socks and a few other things. I still got 20 on it, too!

Dad gave me $400, which has already been used to pay off a bunch of my bills. Peace of mind is really the best xmas gift. No more sears card bill - Yay! I set up a financial plan to get all my bills paid off within a year, but I signed up for a college class ("The Short Story" online with Sandy Varone again - had to drop it last time) that's going to cost me at least $300 and I'm determined to pay it myself, so it puts a bit of a dent in my plans. I'll manage somehow. I need to know I can do it myself. Also, the AWP (Annual Writers and Writing Programs) convention, the one I had gone to in Chicago, is in Montreal this year, and the crew is going from March 30th til April 2nd, and that'll be like, at least $400 for plane fare and food. I wasn't going to go, but it's a shorter trip than Chicago, it's another country, and Joe and I barely see each other anymore with our work schedules, so I'm more tempered to his absence than I was. Plus, last year I had gone very shortly after the whole you-know-who debaucle had finally surfaced, so we were on shaky ground and I desperately didn't want to go away for so long. Joe and I will have a year and a half under our belt February 1st, so I think I can grow up a little about being away from him. It's never gonna be easy, though.

Valentines is coming up, I think we may try for an Atlantic City trip. We need some time away from the house!

Yesterday, I finally had an interview with Barnes and Nobles. I think it went really well. It would be such a great opportunity for me, after putting so much time in the purgatory of Luigi's. I'm going to try to work 2 jobs for awhile, until I can be sure of a full time position at B&N. They pay $7 to part-time employees, and my benefits wouldn't start until a year from my hiring date. My benefits (health, dental, vision, 401k, college reimbursement, stocks, etc) are the primary reason I'd be working, and a year is a really long time to wait. If I'm a full-timer, though, it's only 60 days. $7 is a great starting salary, but now I'd be paying taxes, it'd be more like probably $5.50 in pocket. That is a huge hit to the money I'm used to - with my countergirl and manager pay and the hours I'm currently working, I'm bringing home between 200 and 250 a week. Say I got a part time position at B&N and left my other job; with an optimistic 20 hours a week, *maybe*, I'd be making between $110 and $120 a week, after taxes. Joey and his father are both telling me to leave Luigi's and set it on fire on my way out, but they don't understand that if I want to actually pay my bills, that isn't a possibility. I was explaining to my mom the other week: I pay $200 a month for rent here, $50 for my phone (on the lowest possible rate plan), $50 for my car insurance (lowest company in Jersey), and I have three credit cards, $900, $350, and $200, respectively, that I pay $50 to each month (else I'll never pay them off - horrendous interests above 22%) So right there that's $450, two weeks pay and then some, and that's two weeks without a dime to myself. At 20 hours a week after taxes at B&N, the most I can hope to make a *month* is $480, which would leave me with $7 a week for things like food, female items, and other necessities. It's literally not financially possible to leave my current job completely for another like B&N. If I try and work both, I *might* be able to get my foot in the door to clear the way for a full time position, but that would only pay $8.25 even if/when I get it, so I will have to have definate 40 hour weeks - I'd make about $280 or so. But I have a sinking feeling it'll be far off, and I'll be left juggling these two jobs in the meanwhile, and effectively barring taking any real shot at finishing my degree.

Joey and I are doing pretty well - I'm happy with him. Joe's dad is starting to get on our nerves a little, though, nitpicking like crazy. I put a clean and empty box in the garbage from a small container of frozen veggies I had made for breakfast yesterday morning, went to work, and was home for an hour and talking with Joey when his dad interrupts, box in hand (mind you, he was home all day) and proceeds to fold it in front of me, saying in his annoying fake jewish-mother-whining accent "What's with the not folding the box when you put it in the garbage?". And I was trying to do laundry on my day off and *Gasp* I only used a dryer sheet once. He got the dryer sheet, put it on the table, and told me SEVERAL times "There's plenty of life left in this, make sure you use this one and not a new one.". Then he went and told Joey the same things a bunch of times when he was helping me with Laundry after he got home from work. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I was doing some of *his* laundry with dryer sheets that *Joey and I* bought. ::growls and sighs:: It's driving me slowly insane. I just keep telling myself it's because he's unhappy, but it does no good in solving the problem. He helps out when it's needed though - yesterday my car died at Luigi's (long story, I was looking for something in my car the night before my day off, left the light on, the light was on my whole day off, Joey drove me to work the day after that because he was working on my radio, found it was dead, jumped it, did what he had to, and it was dead yesterday morning after that again, another jump, drove to work, got in the car after work yesterday to drive to my interview, dead again, jumped again, turned on the headlights, dead again, Joe's dad is driving me into work and jumping it again to take it to sears today) and all that. So, I mean, he's a good guy...I just don't understand why he had this hellish drive to nitpick about the most inane things.

Other than that, things are basically alright. I'll keep everyone posted on the whole B&N business.

~Fox


:: Fox 1/07/2005 08:38:00 AM [Say what?] ::
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