Symon sez; "Hello blogging humans."
Yes I know the blog has been idle for quite a while. Working 60-hours a week, six days a week has been quite trying. In hindsight, the long break was good for me as it allowed me to clear my head of unwanted clutter and dust. Ideas and plans are slowly coming into view.
More later...
Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
The best show on now...
Even when I am home on Sundays, the television no longer appeals to me. As I am typing this post, I am swimming the channels seeing if there is anything remotely interesting showing...
OK, the days of History Channel being the Hitler Channel have long gone. "Ax Men" and "Pawn Stars" are NOT history. And I don't want to keep up with the Cardassians (Klingons still rule). Obvious News Flash: Television has gone even further down the toilet.
Same with movies. I think the last movie Lisa and I went to see was regrettably "Dances with Smurfs" (aka "Avatar"). We've been out of the motion pictures loop for some time, which is good since I missed that there was a "Thing" prequel shown last year. From the clips I've seen, it's CGI garbage. The 1982 John Carpenter version was much better with good old make-up, puppets, and stop-motion cameras. Oh I'll spare you the gross videos here. You're welcome!
Good news: we just bought a new chair! Now I can read without hurting my back. So back to my books and I'll let Lisa enjoy her Project Runway and Top Chef.
And have company too!
As I type this, well...
I admit, even with both our new jobs, things are still a bit tight financially. But we're adopting our own austerity measures including cutting back on excessive eating out or extra junk food. This was motivated by new things entering our lives including:
A NEW CAR!
This purchase was motivated by a major safety issue. The loyal Saturn after eight years had to be put down. When Lisa drove it to a dealer in Greenwood 50 minutes away (the nearest place for a Saturn service) we discovered it had worn wheel bearings and a broken control rod in the front right tire. And they let her drive away with that problem!!! It's a miracle the steering didn't give out!!!!
After clearing our heads after a bit of panic, Lisa and I decided to go with a new car rather than pay for car repairs that we couldn't afford at the time. Lisa gets a discount with Ford for being an Indiana University employee so she decided to call them. After telling the Ford dealer our situation, he advised us to "Not drive the car!" We did in fact drive carefully to the nearby Bloomington Ford dealer and traded in the Saturn for $1500.00 (not bad actually). Within an hour (and 30 minutes past their closing time), we were driving off in a 2012 Fiesta!! Lisa put this model on her wish list after reading good reviews about it. One of the dealers said quite proudly; "We saved two lives today."
Bless you, Bloomington Ford!
And yes, we have full platinum warranty on it. :-) Now Lisa and I can sleep better knowing that I am in a much safer car when driving home from work at 4am.
We also have new cell phones with a contract. This allows us to text and talk to each other for free for less than we kept spending on pay-as-you-go phones. Signal is good in these parts, not perfect but it'll do. The old cell phone I have is now an alarm clock. It still has it's uses, right?
Our jobs are good. Not the dream jobs we both wanted but it's what we needed, like The Rolling Stones would say. There is still a long way to go as Bloomington, IN is more of an extended waystation. But we needed this to clear our heads and plan our next moves. The nice apartment with decent rent helps.
And yes. Symon was the best thing to enter our lives since we met each other back in Memphis.
We couldn't have made it without him. >^.^<
Yes money will be somewhat tight, but not as bad as in the past. And we already feel much better about things and are so much happier than we have been in years. How strange that the way to curb bad stress-induced spending habits is to get a bit more into debt. But we are so much happier these days. Now we can focus on our mission to calm our minds and view things with a clearer perspective and do what we want with renewed energy.
Yes! An actual weekend with my Sweetie and Symon!
Ummm Steve...I was napping.
Ok ok Symon. Sheesh :-) At least you are sleeping more. You needed it after the move. In fact, all three of us needed this weekend to decompress.
We did laundry at Ken's then lots of shopping yesterday. Today was the making of mass quantities of Chex Mix, enough to feed two armies. She can never make small batches of that. Oh yes, it's made with lots of Frank's hot sauce. Quite spicy! :-)
Then came an evening of Shogun!
Ahhh the good old days of feudal Japan
So yes, I think things are finally settling down, and we can relax. We both are employed (FINALLY!!!) with Lisa working at Indiana University School of Business and me working for a manufacturing plant 45 minutes away. Night shift though: 5pm-3:30am sometimes six nights a week. But with the rent at the new apartment at a decent rate, we can finally pay down our debts to more manageable levels and even put money into savings.
Now is the time to recover and figure out the next steps. It will take time but we need it. After three and a half years of hell, we finally have caught a break.
(I'll spare you a random "country" picture this time so here's another Symon pic)
Well Bloomington, IN isn't really all that bad.
Granted we don't have reliable internet (dial-up is too antiquated), but a fifteen minute drive to the library when my brother-in-law isn't home with his laptop and Android with a hotspot App is just fine. And we don't miss cable at all. We watched so little TV while in Evanston; we just put on the 24/7 Weather Channel local station for background noise (and the constant bad music would drive anyone shit-bat crazy). Most of the time we watched Daily Show and Colbert from the computer. And cable was the largest chunk of our bill. So when either of us get work and money, we'll get a Verizon hotspot transmitter and a USB receiver for the PC. And when the PC goes, we'll get laptops but still get a mouse. :-P We'll have to sign a two-year contract with Verizon, but we can take it anywhere Verizon is provided. Where we live, there is still no cable or DSL set up; seems it would be too expensive to lay down cable and deprive eleven households of basic cable/internet needs (so much for modernizing America's infrastructure).
We do have issues with the bugs not to mention the heat and humidity! I suppose we'll get used to it...NOT!
I am pleased that downtown Bloomington has some diversity. Earlier, we went to the Farmer's market and bought a few veggies and some basil. It's not the big city, but the big city has become too expensive. It's like Springfield, MO as far as being a college town and cost of living. And we had some good vibes from the Indianapolis job market, even if it's an hour to drive there. Lisa and I had good interviews with the Office Team branch there. They appeared very professional and understand that we just need work for now and the dream job can wait. Unlike Chicago where they demand to know what is you "ideal job". How interesting that a smaller city has a better pulse on the job market than a metropolis. Or is it because Chicago was insular and unwelcoming to new people? If you weren't born in Chicago, they want nothing to do with you.
So as far as Chicago is concerned: We Came! We Saw! We Left!
It's time to plant new seeds here and see what blooms.
Wish us luck!
Symon says; "Mew" >^.^<
So after landing in Bloomington, we had little idea we would have a new sidekick so soon.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Symon!
Always great to have a friend while reading
Day One: Eating chicken from my hand already
What can I say? Now we have something to look forward to when we get home.
Symon adopts his human.
Now that we're settling in, time to get to work on rebuilding our lives. One blog post at a time.
Cheers!
Dude! Just let go!
Well as I mentioned on Facebook, Chicago is not working out for us. Nobody will hire me even for a crap retail job. And Lisa's underemployed at a temp job that doesn't pay enough. Sadly, we can't get out of the apartment lease without first renting it out or paying three months rent, money we don't have. The management is actively trying to rent the place. Hopefully, Northwestern students will want to rent it as the fall semester will arrive very soon and the choice apartments will go very quickly. But we can no longer afford to live here.
Lisa's brother asked us if we wanted to stay at his place in Bloomington, IN while we get back on our feet. We agreed. We have just enough in savings and Lisa's remaining paychecks to afford the Penske truck and movers as well as next month's rent and bills. Then we're tapped out. Since Indiana is one of the few states in the black, we're hoping to find something there. We will be living out in the country somewhat isolated, but a short drive to Indiana University as well as all the shopping we need. In addition, there are furry things that will keep us company. A very old dog, Lady. And an Emmett-like cat, Ivan.
Old Lady and Ivan
Being there might be the mental and emotional break we need. Living on the financial edge has made us overly stressed and at our wit's end. That doesn't mean we are dropping off the face of the planet. We'll be able to have the internet out there, but it'll have to be dial-up. It'll be enough to look for work online and keep in touch, not to mention I'll still be able to play EvE Online. Ultimately I think we'll be fine, hopefully much better than now. But at this point, we have no choice but to admit Chicago failed us.
It's time to let go and see where we land.
I've been having some difficulty getting my blogging done as much as I had planned. It's due mostly to finding work which has become more difficult as the days pass. It is hard to think of my writing when one is worrying about money.
So one question constantly comes up in my mind: "Did we make a mistake moving to Chicago with no safety net?"
NO! NO! I say, "NO!"
We knew there was that risk coming here at the time. But we were willing to take that risk for the chance for better lives.
And we still have time.
It's called life, Steve. Sit down!
Ms. Bitters! The evil school teacher from Invader Zim (fanpop.com)
Wish us luck, folks!
