They officially offered me a job, and I accepted. As of November 9th I will have two full-time jobs. I just doubled my income, and the sad part is that I still won't be making very much. Still, today is a good day.

Love, Choice, and Destiny knocked on your door; you were gone. Sold your world to keep it free. Are you lonely tonight, Mr. Gone?

Anybody know anything about grants? And/or writing grant letters?

All righty, Loyal Reader. Forty-four degrees is too damn cold. Time to fire up the woodstove. I can conserve pellets no longer. I will leave you with a lovely love story before beddy-bye time.

But Prince saves me anyway.

Last night I had a dream that I was at a Prince concert in Canada (near Alaska). I drove there in a beat-up van with bad brakes. During the concert one of the female backup singers took a stroll around the audience. She would tap random seats while she was singing, and Prince started handing wads of cash to the bouncers in the front row. They passed the money to audience members, who would then pass it over to the people whose chairs had been tapped by the backup singer. I got $125 dollars! Then one of the bouncers came over and said that someone else had gotten my money. He handed me another wad of cash totaling over $2,000. I put my hands over my face and started crying because I knew I had enough money for my mortgage payment and part of my overdue flood insurance.

Then I got out my phone and Tweeted to all of my friends: PRINCE JUST GAVE ME TWO-THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!

I don't need to be saved

I passed the typing test (duh), and they want to offer me a job! Next is a phone conversation to discuss "employment options."

Whew.

P.S. I didn't pass that typing test. I took it out behind the bleachers and got it pregnant. Hmhmmm.

I worked over 12 hours today. I'm still trying to make up for the work I missed when the office's DSL was down earlier in the week. I lost more than a day, which is going to take a huge chunk out of my next paycheck.  Speaking of which, I'm an independent contractor now. This is good and bad because I have to look after my own taxes. It's good because I'm using my taxes to pay more bills, but it's bad -- very, very bad -- because even this isn't enough to pay what needs to be paid, and in April I'm going to have to somehow come up with the money to pay those taxes. For the past year or so I've been Jo Beth Williams running down that hallway in Poltergeist -- the harder I run, the further behind I get. Safety and security keeps moving further and further away.

After my 12-hour day, I took a 2-hour typing test -slash- job interview online. I kicked its butt, of course. It was actually a lot of fun to do hospital transcription again. Fingers crossed that they hire me. If I can fit a full-time shift into my schedule on top of my current full-time job, this company actually offers pretty decent benefits. No benefits for part-timers, unfortunately, but at least there would be a little bit of extra money coming in.

I'm so tired of being sick about money. It's immensely gratifying to be handling my own stuff, but that's no consolation I'm about to lose it all despite working so hard for so long. I wanted to go back to school, but I can't see how that will ever be possible.

I just realized I haven't eaten in 24 hours. Jeez.

Questions I Wish I Could Ask: #283.5 (It's a two-parter)

Did you ever tell anyone about the time you shoved me on the kitchen stairs because I walked away from you when you started screaming at me?

Probably not. I just wonder sometimes.

I also wonder why the first thing you said to me immediately afterward was

 

"Do you think I just hit you? Do you? Tell me: Do you think I hit you?"

instead

of

"I'm sorry."

I just found another lump.

So it's probably nothing...but even if it was something, I have $17 in my bank account. Even if I had money to see my doctor, if it turned out to be something, I could potentially end up with a preexisting condition in my chart that could ruin things if I ever get health insurance.

I don't know what to do. Actually, there's nothing I can do, it's just that now I'm starting to worry. Just a little bit.

I'm just fat and lumpy, right? Right.

You can build a mansion, but you just can't live in it

I am posting this entry under extreme duress. By that I mean AED has guilted me into it. Apparently I am required to supply her with fresh reading material on a daily basis -- this despite my efforts to explain to her exactly how boring my life happens to be. I mean, it's not like she wasn't here for almost 2 weeks in May to witness it for herself.

Found a large 300-ounce bottle of half-chugged Corona outside my therapist's office today. K took a picture of it -- it was still foamy! See?

Let's see, what else? I gave K another 2-hour lecture on why she needs to really start selling prints of her work. She listened, but I could tell she wasn't really hearing me. As usual. When AED gets here, I will have all the backup I need for these butt-kickings.

And now for something completely different!

Only a few more weeks until AED and Mr. AED come to town! I've got a ton of work to do before they get here, so I'm trying to break out of my lifelong procrastination habit and get everything done ahead of schedule (instead of driving myself into a blind last-minute panic the night before they are due to arrive). Slowly but surely my brain is being retrained. No miracles here, just a lot of hard work (and complaining).

Random:  It makes me incredibly nervous when chickens stare at my toes. Not even an angry, charging goose can inspire such deep-seated unease. Weird.

Okay. That's it for today. Time to get stuff done. I almost want to rake up all of the leaves in the yard into big piles -- they're so pretty, I just want to jump in them and roll around. But yeah, that's totally not going to happen. Besides, I'd only end up rolling in goose poop.

House insurance.

Flood insurance.

Car insurance.

The Ghost of Property Taxes Past will visit you three times before November.

drip

drip

drip

I found a weird lump recently. It's on the opposite side of my other weird lump, and neither of them are going away. I have decided not to freak out. There's absolutely nothing I can do about it. I'll just keep hoping that I can get health insurance very soon. Maybe the health insurance fairy will visit me.

How the fuck did I get here? Nevermind. Don't answer that.

What I can do is finish up my work for the day, take that typing test, and then hop on my bike to pump out a hat or two. It's a beautiful day, and I want to go for a nice long walk when K wakes up.