January Wrap-up

 So first of all, yes, Oscar the Grouch the wreath was made from fabric scraps about 1 inch by 6 inches. That technique works better with other colors, lol. I know that now. I have a denim one on my wall, and when my mom requested I make her a red white and blue wreath, that’s what I did. It’s still hanging on her rusty ass screen door, and it’s still going strong. 

My mother in law put our mail in a plastic bag on our doorknob, but wound the handles so weirdly around the knob that it took me a while to figure out how to get it off. While I was, Jordan escaped out the front door and started hauling absolute ass all across the front lawn, back and forth like he was the starship enterprise. He does have a microchip, but I still don’t want him escaping. I ran inside to grab some food to lure him back in and when I went back out, I couldn’t find him anywhere. He was in my mother inlaw’s garage with her cat, Buck. Jordan then saw me coming and went off at warp speed again. I ran after him, and Buck caught on to what was happening. When Jordan approached Buck again, Buck jumped in front of him and hissed in order to stop him so I could pick him up. I picked Jordan up, and Buck was rewarded with the food I was holding. Buck is the only cat I know that’s both a cowboy and a gangster. 

January has been eventful. I decided on December 30th that I was quitting my job at the inventory service. I can’t remember when my last day was. It was more than a week ago. I know I’m still getting one more small check this Saturday.  I’ve explained before that the local crew consisted of two couples. Me and my husband, and the manager and his wife. Lately, it’s seemed like they (the other couple) has absolutely turned on us for no reason. It’s very difficult to deal with. They were always cool, and then one day, bam. They’re trying to make our lives hell. I also have a ton of trouble interpreting the wife of my manager. She has extreme smokers voice and always yells, and in the past, Kevin has always reassured me with saying things like, “She isn’t yelling/mad at you, that’s just how she is, that’s just how she sounds” etc. so I always gave her the benefit of the doubt. Then instantly one day, Kevin my husband tells me, “Honey you were right and I was wrong, she is yelling at you, she is mad at you,” etc. Normally, people want their spouses to tell them “You were right and I was wrong” but I didn’t want to be right about this. I was bewildered and confused, and I just didn’t know what to make of any situation whatsoever. 

For the last month, I’ve been trying to work out what happened with my therapist. However, my therapist took away my time slot and asked if another one worked for me. Since I wasn’t working that much and then not working at all, I said ok. Then she pushed my time slot again to the alternating weeks, and then I got this new job which is a 9-5 basically. My therapist doesn’t have any available time slots outside of M-F, 9-5. She’s referring me to someone else, but I am not sure I’m comfortable with this new person. I might feel differently once I talk to her, but for the time being I really hate this therapy situation. Trying to find a new therapist was an absolutely brutal process for me, and the “free 15 minute sessions” that felt like job interviews were emotionally destroying. I could only handle one a week, and I don’t think I can go through it again. 

I tried to explain to her that I was semi in crisis, hoping I could get an off hours appointment just this once, but no. I really wish I could have explored in therapy- what happened here?  Why did this couple seemingly turn on my husband and I and was I the problem, at least somewhat, with my interpretation of her and my visceral reactions to being yelled at that I can’t help? I didn’t get to though, and really the best thing to do would be to stop ruminating in writing about it. Therapy isn’t the answer like society portrays it to be. It’s just not. We have to help ourselves, period. 

My husband still works there, and they are really struggling without me. This gives me even more Schadenfreude. My husband insists that he won’t quit, that they’ll have to let him go and he will collect unemployment. That’s another thing that I wish I could have explored in therapy. WHY did I assume I had to quit?  A lot of it is upbringing. My parents and extended family raised me in a way in which my husband wasn’t raised. But again, I’m not a person that therapists want to help I guess. I just have to figure it out on my own. Two new people were supposed to start working there last week. I love how they thought they needed two to replace me. But both ghosted. 👻 

Now that I have no bills besides the absolute basics and student loans, and my husband pays the household bills, I really only needed to make $500-$700 a month.  I can do that easily with my side hustles, especially with so much time on my hands.  After a long talk with my husband, we decided that I would be reaching higher.  I wouldn’t just be taking any low paying job because I need one, but I would be trying to use my non-useable degree and trying for jobs that are more “dream job” or “goal” status.  

This led me to discover a scam world called Devil corps.  Devil corps is a nickname coined online for companies that hire the annoying people that sell phone plans inside of stores and other things like that.  They are commission based only, and well here’s a documentary.  The first company to call me for an “interview” after Kevin and I decided I would try to reach for higher things in life was actually called Universal Events, and it’s part of Devil corps.  Universal Events advertises itself on Indeed as a job fundraising for nonprofits.  That’s what they do, but I thought I would be doing it in a legit manner.  These people actually stand outside of stores and solicit donations for charities.  The charities get only 10% of what people donate.  The person doing the solicitation gets about 30% and the corporation Universal Events gets about 60.  That is what I learned in my research.  Something seemed way, way off when she called me for an interview. She was wayyyyy too bubbly.  When she emailed me for interview instructions, it said to wear business attire.  I didn’t really have any, and Kevin said to take his credit card and go shopping for interview clothing.  I remember walking around Target and Ross doing research on this company and thinking yeah- I’m not going to the interview tomorrow.  But I’m still buying new clothes, and I did.  

I ended up not sleeping at all that night listening to interviews from people who were taken advantage of by this organization.  One man in the comments said he quit after his first week.  He worked 55 hours that week, and his paycheck was $199. 

If you want to donate to a charity, please only do it directly on the charity’s website.  Don’t ever donate to people standing outside of stores! 

I spent the next couple weeks doing side hustles on the apps and cutting up large hauls from 25 cent days.  One foster care agency called for an interview.  I went, and the receptionist gave me and two other applicants papers and a pen to write our answers to basic interview questions.  Honestly, I liked that approach a lot better than speaking.  Then one of the other applicants and I handed ours in at the same time.  The receptionist talked with us for a while saying, “You’ll be doing this, you’ll be doing that.”  She was using language that sounded like she was hiring us on the spot, but then said the executive director needed to read our answers and then call us back.  She also said the executive director often left things on her desk and forgot about them.  Later on when I checked the “my jobs” tab on the Indeed app, that foster care agency was marked “unlikely to hear a response”.  Sounds like other applicants flagged them somehow.  

In the midst of this, I had a nice sit down interview with the office manager and therapist of the ABA center I’ll be starting at this Friday.  They took me on a tour and watched me interact with a child.  It was nice, but they said “we’ll call you”.  I followed up with a thank you email and then they responded that their interview process was taking longer than expected because some were rescheduled to the following week.  I was not expecting them to hire me, but they did, one week exactly after my interview.  (One week exactly, down to the hour in fact)  I was in a Food Town taking pictures of shelf stable non dairy for the Merchandiser app when I got the email and said out loud “holy shit.”  A woman shopping looked over at me.  

I have a lot of experience caring for children and the elderly.  My goal in life has always been to be a career advocate for children, but I never had any idea how to implement that.  I know now that writing is a good way.  I just didn’t know that when I was younger.  When I got my college degree and couldn’t find the type of job I was told I should get with my degree, I was told that I failed at my goal in life to help children and was made into a laughing stock.  This is when I transitioned into working with the elderly, and I do not regret it- working with the elderly has made me “ok with death”, the clients taught me a lot of old school life hacks (more on that later), and was an easy enough gig for the mental place I was in at the time. But at this time, I’d rather move on from that and return to working with children.  Children are easier to lift, and they don’t die. Plus, feeling like I was a failure at it was incorrect and unnecessary.  

I’m really looking forward to my new role as a Behavioral Technician and later a Registered Behavioral Technician. I love children with autism, and I know this field is controversial, but I feel like the controversy is fading.  January has been a wild ride!  My husband still wants to quit the inventory service, but insists that “he needs to find a job first”.  He really doesn’t, especially with my new role and our financial position as a whole.  I wish he would just quit honestly, but that’s for him to decide.  

What will February bring ♥️