Category: Blog

Still Hunting

I have an interview coming up with Verizon for a job in their store.

There isn’t much available in the way of jobs I want / am qualified for. I only have two rules: no 1099 positions, and no cash registers. That’s not true, they’re more like guidelines. I’m ok with commission if there is base pay, and I’m ok with using registers every now and then, but I don’t want to live behind one. Excluding those types of jobs, most of the available positions I’m seeing require education or experience in specialized fields. Not much else.
Still looking.

See Tee Bee

I’ve been losing sleep over work. Not things that I have left undone, or problems left unsolved, but larger problems. Kip, my boss, is leaving at the end of the week. He’s one of the founders of the company, and is pretty much singlehandedly responsible for any success managed since it was bought by Tristate. He keeps the trains running on time, so to speak. He has also insulated me from much of the troubles that come out of the New York office. With him gone, all of that will be falling on me. I’m not looking to hang around for that.

I had a talk with our CEO today, he was wondering of I would like to take on a greater role in Connecticut operations. It isn’t worth the money. They’ve been trying to get me to work fewer hours for a while now, about as subtly as they can manage. They don’t want me doing customer service anymore, mainly because they’re already paying other people to do that. I started doing it because they weren’t. This very morning I got a call from a client who said she was hung up on while talking to the main office. Not helpful.

On top of that, we are paying half of what our biggest competitor pays. Trying to get clients in an environment like this is harder than selling refrigerators to Eskimos. My commission so far this year is about what I have made on good weeks in the past.

The worst part is that I was really hoping to stay with this job for some time. I’m not in a position to fix it, and I’m not going down with the ship. I really enjoyed working with Kip.

Ugh. I hate job searching.

Pretty Damn Proud

from scratch
I’m not one to usually take pictures of my food before eating it, but I was pretty damn proud of this homemade pizza. Scratch made dough and hand shredded cheese, it came out delicious. We made this last night as an early 3rd anniversary celebration. We have enough ingredients for another!

Physical Changes

I’m growing a beard. Slowly. It’s been about two and a half months, and it still only tenuously meets the definition of a beard. My facial hair just naturally wants to be a goatee, and the rest begrudgingly grows. And today felt like spring, so my time with it may be short. I started growing it in mid-December, and I think I’ll need to start far far sooner in the future.

I’m also really quite out of shape. I’ve started trying to exercise regularly again, though I’m having a bit of trouble with the regular part. I think I just really need to be out and about, and I’ll be fine. I just wither away when I’m working inside, but when I’m out doing things my body takes care of itself. At least I don’t have a desk job, but this lifestyle still isn’t particularly healthy.

As the weather is getting warmer outside, thoughts are drifting towards the bus, and what will happen this spring. It’s exciting, and scary. Our landlord really doesn’t want to see us go, she likes us as tenants. I’m honestly a little reluctant to leave, and I know Nishi feels the same way. It’s a nice apartment, in a nice part of town, and I’m sad we couldn’t spend more time here. The savings will be worth it long term, but it will still be sad to go.

It isn’t clear yet when we’ll be moving out of here and into the bus, but I’m hoping for Juneish. I’m a bit excited about the novelty of parking my new house outside my old one, and only moving things once.

Things are changing quickly.

Hibernation

It’s cold out. We got a lovely delivery of snow a little over a week ago, and it’s slowly melting away. I always imagine my ideal winters like snow days in my childhood. When we get lots of snow, we either go out and work, go out and play, or stay inside and get toasty. Trying to do other things in the face of harsh cold and snow is not fun. I think that’s why so many people up here hate winter. I don’t mind shoveling or chopping wood, they keep me warm and able to enjoy the outdoors when it’s quite cold.

We missed a good sledding opportunity with that last storm. I didn’t have any sleds, and we were snowed in. And, AND, the town stopped plowing the side streets, so there were long, flat stretches of space begging to be sled upon.

I imagine future winters without work, where I stay in and stoke my woodstove, and read. I will stay in and try to perfect a skill, like baking or making pizza. Something warm. Then I’ll go out, breathe in that special winter air, and chop more wood for the stove. Shovel a little path to a firepit outside, which I can get roaring hot enough to enjoy the winter night sky.

Summer is for work. Working on my car or my house is a miserable prospect this time of year. That’s what summer is for. Work is easier in the summer. We were offered some gigs selling ice cream at festivals this summer. That’s a nice paying gig that’s fun in the summertime. Maybe that could be a more regular seasonal thing.

$2012 in Review

Mint.com is great for me. I’m really interested in breaking down my finances, but far to lazy to ever actually do it out myself. 2012 was the first year I’ve had consistent full-time employment, and also the first year I’ve had consistent rent payments. It’s interesting breaking down all these numbers, and using them to project forward when I won’t have many of these expenses.

Income: $23,311.85, not including reimbursements ($7,199.75). This is a little tricky to calculate since I am reimbursed for mileage driven in my own vehicle. This is to cover gasoline, upkeep, repairs, etc. I spent $6,644.94 total on Auto & Transport, though this includes greasecar and bus stuff. At least $2557 was veggie related, so we’ll exclude that. So we’ll subtract the remaining from the total reimbursement, and get a rough yearly total. $7,199.75 – $4087.94 = $3,111.81 to add to the rest of my income. Total: $26,423.66

Starting with Home expenses, I had a year’s worth of rent at $825/month (first, last & security were technically 2011). Total: $9,900. Then there are heat and electricity, which varied in price, obviously, as the outside temperature did. We did run air conditioners in the summer, so electricity fluctuated with the seasons. Total: $1,745. The one service we really pay for otherwise is our internet connection, which varied thanks to an introductory rate, and renegotiation when that expired. Total: $469.
Grand Total: $12,114

This brings me down to $14,309.66 to spend on everything else. Incredible. Almost half of what I make goes into living in this apartment. That said, it is a very nice apartment. But that $12,114 will be entirely saved living in the bus. That is huge.

Of course, many expenses won’t go away. I’ve been paying the minimum payment on my student loans, so that cost will actually go up in the future. Last year that totaled $1,652. And I’ll be paying more for cell service in the bus, since that will be filling as my ISP.

I’m curious whether my Shopping expenses will change. Mint’s categories concerning Shopping are a little weird, but they generally include anything non-essential. Groceries don’t fall in here, but some other home goods do. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but I had a total of $2,278.90, 49% of which was Electronics & Software. Sounds right. Clothing was 15%.

Overall, I saved significantly less than I had hoped I would. I should save more this year. And even more next year. I’ll be free soon.

Game Night

After a brief hiatus, game night made the transition from TV to tabletop very smoothly.  It also successfully moved into our new apartment.

It is also my only regular social activity. I guess that isn’t particularly new, but it feels like less since I work alone instead of in an office. In school, I only really went out one night a week, but I felt more engaged since I was constantly around peers.

Since starting tabletop game night, the caliber of games has risen dramatically. The cleverness of many of these games amazes me, and I’m glad I’ve been exposed to them. I’m glad people get the same things out of it that I get, and come over week after week. I’m glad for fridge magnets and good root beer.