Austin Tour Day

Thank you all for all the lovely comments of support regarding Kevin and I and our three cats moving to Austin. 

I went there the other day (Wednesday) to look at rentals. 

I drove by a mural that said Black Lives Matter. That’s wonderful, and Austin really is a blue dot in a red state, but let me say Houston is pretty blue and actually very diverse. When I first moved here in the early 2000’s, I was surprised to find out that 90 languages are spoken here. 

It’s a beautiful place, but time to move on. I was almost 24 when I moved here by myself and I’m almost 48 now. I’ve lived here half of my life! 

One thing I noted about people that I talked to in Austin about rentals. Every. Single. One. Asked if any of our cats are emotional support animals. This is because if they are, then you do not have to pay pet rent, and I think you get out of the deposit too. 

They are not-not officially- but, they do the job. 

I kind of chuckled, because that seems like a blue city thing. No one in Houston asks that. In fact, if they were ESA’s, and I brought it up to a property manager or landlord and said “This is my emotional support animal,

I’m not going to pay the deposit” I think most of them would laugh me out of there. 

I did ask a shrink once if Alex could be consider one. This was the shrink that got me hooked on gabapentin. We went through the whole conversation with her thinking Alex was a dog. It seemed like she was about to do it. Then I corrected her that Alex was a cat, and she said, “Oh a cat?  Oh, then no.”  Lol. Immediately no!  

I’ve shared that story online with cat people just to hear their reactions, and it’s always negative. 

We looked at this little blue house. This house is only 600 square feet and somehow has two bedrooms!  

We haven’t seen the inside yet, but drove past it. It’s cute. But idk yet. 

Also, gift card boss seems to have cut my hours because I told her we are moving. My schedule next week looks abysmal. It’s actually only 6 hours with the 89 year old that’s going to be super sad that I’m leaving. This 89 year old asked me to come on my free time to help her out with her paying me under the table so she doesn’t have to pay gift card boss. I had to decline. I signed a paper saying I would not do that. She understands. Not looking forward to telling her about the move. 

 

Special Announcement

My husband and I are moving to Austin! 

I suggested it a few months back.  Kevin liked the idea, but the rent is too cheap here to really try and leave. 

Then, my in-laws announced they are selling their property, and we will need to move out of the guest house. 

 

Austin has started to grow on me the last couple of years. I’ve been there a lot, due to my daughter going to college in San Marcos and my side jobs (apps) having more lucrative opportunities in the area. 

There are some other reasons why I’d like to live there, which I’ll get into later. Kevin would also like to transfer to work on the Austin crew of his company due to how toxic the manager and his wife have become. Kevin tried to job hunt and had no luck due to the fact that this is all he has done since the mid 90’s. I have experience in a couple other areas, so it was easy for me. My father always told me to have three careers, even if it means being a “jack of trades”. Turns out he was right.  

Well Kevin got it approved to transfer to the Austin crew, so plans are underway. We are looking at places and have until September. 

I told gift card boss about us moving, and she was sad, but supportive. She said I would be very, very missed and offered me a reference. That company has two offices in the Austin area, and one slightly outside the area. I could get a job there, but it would be a last resort. I’m unhappy as a caregiver, but once I actually do the act of moving and setting up house, I may not be so down in the dumps and ready to take it on again. Like I said,

It’s a great job when the clients are great. 

So wish me and Kevin, and also Alex, Mitchell and Jordan  luck! Anna is also excited about having us nearby. She’s getting a townhouse near Texas state with four or five other girls. I’m very anxious about it, but I don’t show it in front of her. When I was her age, I did the same thing!  I would say, “But that was before Brian Kohberger”,

And it was, but that’s my mom fears kicking in.  

Anna is also not having a great summer. The kids at the YMCA day camp are behaviorally challenged, and a boy is giving her mixed signals. I just want to fix everything for her. The young adult phase is harder than the infant and toddler phase!  Those phases were fun!  

Fake Hair Don’t Care

 I ordered some inexpensive fake hair pieces on the TikTok shop. It’s been a little hard to match the coloring of my natural hair, but this is the closest I have come so far. I love the way this looks. I only had my husband take a picture so I could see the color difference between my real hair and the ponytail. I would think that this slight difference is ok, but any other opinions welcome. And after this picture was taken, I did redo my real hair so that little piece wouldn’t stick out the side. 

I also actually love how my back and shoulders look. Before I lost 20 pounds, they looked way different. I feel like my upper arms have shrunk, and I look more toned although not the most toned person in the world. I stepped on the scale this morning and it read 196, so up a pound or two, but another downside to being a caregiver for elderly people is that the constipation seems to be contagious.i always seem to catch it from the ones who freak out about it the most. I was 212 when I started the weight loss pill, and 215 about a week or two before.  

Tidbits

 I got this text out of the blue from my company. Well that’s helpful. My mom said “Why couldn’t they round it up to $120?”  

Yup, idk. Then I found out that it’s based on how much you drove in April and May. Everyone’s bonus will be different. I’m happy with $119.94. 

My daughter turned 19 on June 11.  I’ve been worried about her, as she’s a little overwhelmed by her summer job. When I worked at the children’s museum, kids from the YMCA day camps had a reputation of being the most “behaviorally challenged.”  I was very worried when she said they added a kid to her group who has a problem with eloping. I was relieved when I found out that kid had his own aide with him at all times. Thank God my daughter doesn’t have to keep this escape artist in one place while having to supervise other kids. She’s often too tired to talk much in the evenings. We are celebrating her birthday this weekend. 

I was thinking back to 2007, I used to be on a website for women called Ivillage. They had message boards for everything, including “expecting clubs” for every month. I actively posted and commented in the June, 2007 expecting club, even though my OBGYN really wished I wouldn’t- it seemed like those women had every complication known to womankind, and they made me paranoid. But, there was one woman in that group who was a “sovereign citizen.”  This means she didn’t believe in government at all. My husband often watches arrest videos on YouTube, and I think of her whenever sovereign citizens come up. She gave birth unassisted to a boy 6 days before I had my daughter on June 5, 2007. She didn’t give him a birth certificate or a social security number. In fact, she didn’t even give him a name, claiming he would choose his own once he could speak. 

I’ve been thinking about that kid a lot lately- how is he doing trying to enter adulthood with no documentation? They lived in Florida, somewhere near Sarasota at the time. I wonder if he is able to work, go to school, get his own place to live, and so on. Perhaps at some point he may have been taken by social services if his parents were arrested and grew up with another family who encourages him in the right direction. 

Thrifting Thoughts

I have been thinking lately about the person that wrote the recipes in cursive in the first 16 pages of the blank book I got on 25 cent day. I started wondering, if I try one of those recipes and do something odd, there might be a situation like this: 

In other words, I wonder if her spirit would be judging me. There are those memes going around with an elderly woman looking judgmentally down from heaven, and the caption reads, “Your grandma watching you cook chicken in an air fryer.” 

I’m also wondering that about the clothing I’m cutting up. What if this was someone’s favorite pair of jeans, and they’re watching me from heaven as I desecrate it?  Meh. I shouldn’t think too hard on it. 

The act of taking all these clothes and cutting them up into 6 inch squares is very anxiety reducing. It’s great. Sewing them into quilts is also anxiety reducing. I felt the same way about doing inventory in stores back when I worked with my husband. Scan, quantity, enter, over and over again, I mean it balled up this static energy and forced it out. I like that feeling. 

I am ending two days off in a row now. Tomorrow, which is Friday, I’m working with the woman who has ten hour shifts. But, she’s going to the cardiologist. She can’t get into a regular car, so GCboss arranged a transport service in a wheelchair accessible van. GCboss said the driver will help me get her in and out of the wheelchair. You know what, I really hope so, because she isn’t able to bear weight at all during transfers. And she’s larger. I cannot lift her into the wheelchair by myself. A smaller person I could, and a larger person who can bear weight during transfers I could. But neither apply to her, and even though GCboss says the driver will help, I’m still worried that they won’t. It’s causing me a TON of stress this evening, but I’m trying not to think about it. GCboss DID say they’d help. I’m just worried it will be someone with the “I don’t get paid enough” attitude.  

I also have to wear scrubs that match, because of going to the doctor. I admit, my scrub bottoms and tops often don’t match. Or I will just wear a nice t shirt with scrub bottoms sometimes. I just have to remember that in the morning. It was so much easier when I had a uniform. 

 

Thrifting 25 Cent Day

Every Wednesday morning from 7-11 am is 25 cent day at the Family Thrift Outlet on Hwy 6 in west Houston. There is another Family Thrift location on Hwy 6 about 4-6 miles north of the outlet location-

And the one 4-6 miles north is NOT an outlet. The items will be more expensive. The outlet is next to a Chinese restaurant called Cafe East. 

My daughter wants plaid flannels for her own projects. She’s doing something with them on hats and jackets. Above is a picture of all the plaid flannels I could find, but it was towards the end of the morning once I started having an eye out for them. 

It’s seldom that they’ll have books left on 25 cent day, but I was able to find this blanket book. On the first page, someone wrote recipes tried after 12/1/1986. Then, there are a few pages of handwritten recipes. If your cursive reading is up to par, you might be able to try some yourself. I can read cursive, but I have to strain and make it out slowly. This was the best find for a while, and I plan on writing my own recipes in subsequent pages. 

 

The Ups and Downs

 I’ve said it a million times. Being a caregiver in people’s homes is a great job if the client is great, and it’s a crappy job if the client is bad. I’ve had an “up and down” go of it lately. I had a 99 year old who was suffering panic attacks. She passed away on June 1, luckily not while I was with her. GCboss texted me notifying me of her passing. I then sent condolences to her daughters, and they thanked me profusely. They were a great family, but I felt like I was peering into the future, because her panic attacks were so much like mine. I think I would actually like to live to be 99, I just don’t want panic attacks at that point. 

I’m with another person during the week with 10 hour shifts that is extremely easy. She needs someone to tend to her every couple hours or so and is very pleasant, and there is a lot of down time between tasks. I worked very well on my writing in my notebook one of those days, but another day with her, I was too focused on horrible experiences with therapists. So I just sat there with her and watched Alfred Hitchcock back to back. This lady likes very disturbing old shows. When I googled Alfred Hitchcock and told her some facts about him, she got on a very long roll of asking me about all these different old actors- what year did they die and how old were they when they died, she wanted to know for all of them. Wikipedia came in handy. One of them was married five times and had kids and stepkids from most of these marriages. She wanted to know how many kids he had total, so I had to add them up. She ended that conversation with, “He was busy.” 

The other client whom I’ve been working with since I started, had a pain level of ten yesterday and would yell if I barely touched her. I felt extremely bad and had to apologize twice. I told GCboss. Not much happened. She’s better today. I don’t know what went on with her, but I was stressed out the whole afternoon. 

I’m very down about this being my life. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not cut out for therapy. I think it’s unfair that I was talking about a past experience only to be told “Just don’t focus on the past!” In a shitty tone. For literally any other woman in this society, that would have been considered “processing your trauma” and other women would have been all buttered up and coddled. Not me!  I have to shut the fuck up apparently. 

I’m glad I’m off tomorrow. Tuesday,‘I’m working with the 10 hour Alfred Hitchcock fan. I’m going to psych myself up to work on my writing instead of watchin that with her during my down times. This lady’s also very appreciative of me. Sometimes they aren’t!  I am going to work on focusing on the positive. Yeah it sucks that I have to watch people die, but at least there’s downtime where I can jot things down, because writing is my true calling.