It's Been Six Months....
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:08 am
....since mom's passing. I thought I'd give you an update.
I'm still looking for work, but most of the jobs here are in retail, which as we know hasn't really picked up lately. It's discouraging when you go to one job board after another, & see all the jobs you know you don't have the skills, experience, or education to do. I went to the Santa Ana WORK Center, they told me that since I was out of work so long & was fired from my last job, the only thing I qualified for was ROP. After waiting for the fall class schedule, I found out that the ROP is reducing the adult admissions, focusing on high schoolers. I wanted the office training course, but needed bus passes. I asked my sister who's in control of my inheritance; she rudely stated that she wasn't going to pay for a course that didn't guarantee me a job at the end. She also said I didn't have the clothes for it (I guess she's never heard of clothes closets for women who need business clothes); basically she kept me disenfranchised.
I've tried most of my life to do something; whenever I tried to do so, I was told you can't do this or that, or otherwise kept from doing what I could to improve myself. Oh, well, it would've meant rescheduling a clinic appointment, which they had a hard time doing because the Dr. had to be in for them to dispense my B. P. medicine. Last time I was there, the supplier didn't show up; they had to write me a prescription which I filled at Target for $10.
My sister announced she's cutting my food money from $200 to $150, to make the money last longer. I shop at 5 or 6 differant places to stretch my money. Last month I didn't get my money until the 29th; she usually sends it around the 25th, so I had to use my pennies to get food for Tripod.
I finally got hooked up with a church, & was discussing the possibility of working for the church as a janitor. We'll see.
Tripod is adored by my landlady & her husband; my roommates seem to like her too. One of my roomies has a cat who tries to make friends with Tripod, but Tripod's a grouchy old lady & won't let him near her. The other cat's name is Gator, he's a total gentleman, though shy. Tripod actually started "aiming" outside the litterbox because Gator kept coming upstairs to see her, so Gator's owner gave me a squirt bottle to use in case Gator comes up again. Haven't had to use it on him, but I've used it on Tripod whenever she'd freak over my grooming her.
In the past week, a new development came up: Suddenly, realtors were coming over with people, showing them the house. That's when I found out that my landlord & landlady don't own this house, they're subletting the rooms. We hadn't been informed that the house was on the market, so my landlady called the owner. Since the conversation was in Vietnamese, I don't know what was said. She says don't worry about it. But everyday between 5 & 7 p.m., I'm playing hostess to one realtor & clients after another.
I hate moving; in 53 years, I've moved 18 times, an average of once every 3 years. The longest I've lived in one place was 12 years. I keep hoping that before I get too much older, I'll have a place of my own, & my expenses will only be utilities, food, & taxes. No having to share facilities, esp. when you have roomies who don't put the seat down, or when I'm the only person who cleans the hair out of the trap in the shower. No more having to tolerate my roomies' smoking, esp. when one of them uses medical marijuana. No more going to the fridge to discover a certain pair of roomies have taken some of my food without my permission, & play innocent whenever I confront them about it. No more being limited to doing dishes by hand, or cooking on a cooktop and microwave; & being able to wash my clothes whenever I want, without other people bogarting the washer and dryer, leaving their clothes in it all day. It took me 6 weeks to find this place; they were the only ones who didn't worry about my credit rating, age, having a cat, or being unemployed & living off an inheritance. Where am I going to find another?
The good news is that since the beginning of this year, I've lost 23 lbs., with 71 1/2 to go. I just cleaned out my closet, removing every top that was larger than a size Large & my 3 pairs of shorts I'll never wear again, as well as 3 pairs of size 22W jeans, which fit me like clown pants. Now I'm down to 6 Large shirts, 6 pairs of size 20W jeans (already loose), & the only thing I have that's smaller is a pair of slacks, size 18W, that I bought along with a blazer & blouse for an interview suit. I'm hoping to be able to get some size 16M pants, then I can get Medium size shirts. I can hardly wait until I'm down to a Small size.
So, if you're of the praying persuasion, I'd appreciate some prayers, esp. regarding the house. At least it's not a short sale--I found the ad online the other day.
I'm still looking for work, but most of the jobs here are in retail, which as we know hasn't really picked up lately. It's discouraging when you go to one job board after another, & see all the jobs you know you don't have the skills, experience, or education to do. I went to the Santa Ana WORK Center, they told me that since I was out of work so long & was fired from my last job, the only thing I qualified for was ROP. After waiting for the fall class schedule, I found out that the ROP is reducing the adult admissions, focusing on high schoolers. I wanted the office training course, but needed bus passes. I asked my sister who's in control of my inheritance; she rudely stated that she wasn't going to pay for a course that didn't guarantee me a job at the end. She also said I didn't have the clothes for it (I guess she's never heard of clothes closets for women who need business clothes); basically she kept me disenfranchised.
I've tried most of my life to do something; whenever I tried to do so, I was told you can't do this or that, or otherwise kept from doing what I could to improve myself. Oh, well, it would've meant rescheduling a clinic appointment, which they had a hard time doing because the Dr. had to be in for them to dispense my B. P. medicine. Last time I was there, the supplier didn't show up; they had to write me a prescription which I filled at Target for $10.
My sister announced she's cutting my food money from $200 to $150, to make the money last longer. I shop at 5 or 6 differant places to stretch my money. Last month I didn't get my money until the 29th; she usually sends it around the 25th, so I had to use my pennies to get food for Tripod.
I finally got hooked up with a church, & was discussing the possibility of working for the church as a janitor. We'll see.
Tripod is adored by my landlady & her husband; my roommates seem to like her too. One of my roomies has a cat who tries to make friends with Tripod, but Tripod's a grouchy old lady & won't let him near her. The other cat's name is Gator, he's a total gentleman, though shy. Tripod actually started "aiming" outside the litterbox because Gator kept coming upstairs to see her, so Gator's owner gave me a squirt bottle to use in case Gator comes up again. Haven't had to use it on him, but I've used it on Tripod whenever she'd freak over my grooming her.
In the past week, a new development came up: Suddenly, realtors were coming over with people, showing them the house. That's when I found out that my landlord & landlady don't own this house, they're subletting the rooms. We hadn't been informed that the house was on the market, so my landlady called the owner. Since the conversation was in Vietnamese, I don't know what was said. She says don't worry about it. But everyday between 5 & 7 p.m., I'm playing hostess to one realtor & clients after another.
I hate moving; in 53 years, I've moved 18 times, an average of once every 3 years. The longest I've lived in one place was 12 years. I keep hoping that before I get too much older, I'll have a place of my own, & my expenses will only be utilities, food, & taxes. No having to share facilities, esp. when you have roomies who don't put the seat down, or when I'm the only person who cleans the hair out of the trap in the shower. No more having to tolerate my roomies' smoking, esp. when one of them uses medical marijuana. No more going to the fridge to discover a certain pair of roomies have taken some of my food without my permission, & play innocent whenever I confront them about it. No more being limited to doing dishes by hand, or cooking on a cooktop and microwave; & being able to wash my clothes whenever I want, without other people bogarting the washer and dryer, leaving their clothes in it all day. It took me 6 weeks to find this place; they were the only ones who didn't worry about my credit rating, age, having a cat, or being unemployed & living off an inheritance. Where am I going to find another?
The good news is that since the beginning of this year, I've lost 23 lbs., with 71 1/2 to go. I just cleaned out my closet, removing every top that was larger than a size Large & my 3 pairs of shorts I'll never wear again, as well as 3 pairs of size 22W jeans, which fit me like clown pants. Now I'm down to 6 Large shirts, 6 pairs of size 20W jeans (already loose), & the only thing I have that's smaller is a pair of slacks, size 18W, that I bought along with a blazer & blouse for an interview suit. I'm hoping to be able to get some size 16M pants, then I can get Medium size shirts. I can hardly wait until I'm down to a Small size.
So, if you're of the praying persuasion, I'd appreciate some prayers, esp. regarding the house. At least it's not a short sale--I found the ad online the other day.
This is a young man who can run 3 miles without stopping, has volunteered and done work training programs for YEARS successfully, has graduated from high school, taken and passed regular food safety and handling as well as nutrition classes at our local college.