Darwin's chickens.

Best week ever.

I am in the middle of what is surely one of the best weeks of my life. I don't want the girls to leave! I feel like it's kind of condescending to call them the girls, but I can't seem to help myself. Mostly we've been Grannie, AED, Coco, and Kiki.

Portland feels different with them here. It feels even better. More like home.

Honeydew

Good things:

1. I planted my rose bushes last week, and two out of the three are growing like crazy. The third is just starting to put out buds
2. I made more mason bee houses yesterday. The weather cooled down again, but hopefully there are still a few bees doing the bee thing out there.
3. Obama is maybe going to save my house.
4. I have really, really great friends. Every now and then it hits me hard, and I can't believe how lucky I am.
5. I cannot wait for May!! I've always thought it was the perfect time of the year for a wedding. Hee.
6. Closure.

List of things:

1. Get large map of Portland, thumb tacks, and colored thread.
2. Hit up garage sales for bikes.
3. Get a minivan somehow?
4. Breathe.

I found a TX job that offers a weekend schedule; apparently you can also set your own hours, although I'm not sure how that would work. If I get a decent pay rate, that's possibly another $500 a month. If I can get the right full-time TX job for during the week to go along with my current one, that would be ideal -- especially if I can get IC status and set my own work rate instead of working at an hourly rate. I'm really fast, so if I kill myself I can really max out my line count. Then I've got my plasma farm and my knitting....I wonder if I can knit while I'm selling plasma?

Number crunch.

• Apr. 1st, 2009 at 12:13 PM

Did some math this morning. If I bust my ass at my current job, I can maybe hope for $1400 a month -- and that's as long as there's a steady flow of work, which you can never count on. As it is, my work gets shared with transcriptionists with more seniority when things slow down.

If I sell plasma twice a week, I am guessing I could make another $160 a month.

If I get another full-time transcription gig with a decent line rate (at least 9 cents a line), there's a possibility of another $1800 a month.

After taxes, what is that? About $2400 a month? It's just not enough.

I'm fairly certain I can make a little money with my knitting, but the amount would probably be negligible. Still, every little bit counts.

I can't figure out how to make any more money. I could still do the paper route, but I don't have a car. As it is, I can't figure out how I'm going to be able to get myself to the plasma donation center.

Do you have Prince Albert in a can?

I sat in my cute little baby bear Goodwill recliner ($29! The cooties are free!) last night and knitted an entire penis chapstick keychain while I talked to Syd on the phone for two hours. TWO HOURS! And I initiated the phone call! There is madness afoot.

Who is this phone-talking person? People, if you call me these days I actually answer my phone. Can't say anymore about that now, as I'm going outside to wait for frogs to start falling from the sky.

 

I am Joy.
I am Everything.
I can do all things but two:

1. forget that I love you.

2. forget that you no longer love me.

A few random things:

1. I would be completely and totally lost without KJ.

2. It still hurts the same, and I still get just as scared, but I am starting to bounce back quicker.

3. Sisters are a good thing. Twin sisters are the best thing.

4. Cats can cure just about anything that ails you.

5. I feel better:

  a. I just got the urge to make RANDOM PHONE CALLS. Can you believe it? I called AED in the hopes of getting her voicemail so I could leave her an amusing message. Then I called Syd, also in the hopes of getting her voicemail since it was 11:00 and normal people are at work at that hour, but no. She answered. Slacker! So we chatted, and for the first time in I don't know how long, I realized I'm a healthy, functioning human being.

I literally cannot remember the last time I made a phone call "just because," just for the heck of it, just to talk to someone. Isn't that strange? And sad? I don't reach out to anyone. I have all of these wonderful, amazing friends, and I avoid them like the plague. Depression? Or just the general weirdness of me? No idea. But something's starting to shift.

6. I miss having a dog.