I’m also super behind on blogs and looking at my feed reader makes me nervous because it’s so full so if you comment it will remind ms to check out your blog and return the comment love.

I can’t wait to get back into this!

KC and I stressed about what it would mean and where else I could go. I told my supervisor I was still interested in staying with the company and to let me know if there were any other open positions.

A week later I got an email saying there were two positions open to me. One was part time and an hour away. The other was full time, but 1 hour and 40 minutes away.

KC and I spent a long time discussing the pros and cons and finally decided on taking the full time position. So, yes that means I will now be driving almost 4 hours round trip to and from work every day. Yeah…

I might be crazy.

The thing is that I live in the Poconos. My family has lived in this area for generations. The area now is over populated and there just aren’t enough jobs. So for me to find a full time (WELL PAYING) job where I live just hasn’t been possible.

I do have a plan. The plan is to move to Philadelphia this Summer. KC and I fell in love with that area and hoped to move there in a few years. My new job is only 40 minutes from Philly. So we;ll be looking at apartments and seeing what the new plan will be.

It’s also dependent on KC finding a job that pays as well and is as secure as her job now. That might be difficult. So there might be a period where we live apart.

I’m also still unsure of the company and the job, but I look forward to learning more about it.

I’m hopeful. I don’t think it will be easy, but nothing ever is. I just want this to be the catalyst for my life to move forward. I do feel like there has been a period where my life sort of felt stuck. No college, no real job, no place of my own. I think it might be starting.

That is why I chose this job. Things will begin to move forward.

It’s the path less traveled. Will it make all the difference?

As random luck would have it, my comment landed on the thread directly after Angela’s from Lost in Splendor. I say luck, because having the opportunity (and excuse) to interview her took me on a journey from the (relative) comfort of my eccentric life and on a mission to learn something completely new.

Join me for a moment in a world where Neil’s version of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood brought together a Buddhism-studying, mountain-climbing, river-kayaking, scotch-imbibing writer from Alaska and a 100% German, bunny-hugging, style-conscious lesbian from Pennsylvania. Here is the introduction and interview, exactly as we experienced it:

I emailed her out of the clear blue:

You don’t know me from anybody and here I’m about to get all kinds of personal with you and interview you for Citizen of the Month’s great interview experiment. I put together a list of questions which are by no means comprehensive, inclusive, exclusive or even things you want to discuss.

If you hate one of the questions, feel free to tell me so- I’ll come up with a new one. I tried to write them the same way I would ask them in person, if you and I sat down together at a coffee shop.

Surprisingly, she answered all my questions:

1. The name of your blog is “Lost in Splendor”. There’s indication that this is not your first blog, so is the title a carry-over or is it something all together brand new?

This is actually my third blog! I began blogging in 2003 at a website called Xanga. A friend of mine begged me to join and I was hooked to blogging instantly. At the time I was 19, me and my significant other had gone on a break, I just moved into a new apartment and worked at a job that had me in front of a computer for 8 hours a day.

After I got into other blogs and more involved in commenting I knew it was time to get a website of my own. I called it SparklieSunShine, which was sort of an inside thing. Sparklie being a fun way we used to describe gay people and sunshine was my nickname growing up. However, when my ex and I broke up after being together for almost 7 years I needed something new. Something that was my own. Lost In Splendor was born!

2. KC seems to be one of the defining forces of nature in your life: tell me four things about her that the entire world NEEDS to know. Tell me one thing that you would change about your relationship with her.

She certainly was! She’s much more shy about the whole blogging thing (even though I got her to keep up her own blog for almost a month!) Let’s see….1) She is an amazing songwriter. She doesn’t share many with me. I fear I’m too enthusiastic, but I do feel that she could easily have a job as a professional songwriter. 2) She has been to Paris, twice and Hawaii once. I am SO very jealous of that! 3) She could also work as a travel planner. Whenever we go on trips she always picks great hotels, books amazing activities and take us to fantastic restaurants. I’m seriously in awe of that ability. 4) She’s extremely caring about the environment, world issues and animals. I don’t think many people would easily get that from her.

(I really hope I’m not being too long winded with my answers!)

The only thing I would change about our relationship is that I wish we were more settled and secure. We met each other during that transition period in your mid twenties (We’ve been together since 2007) and we’re not at the jobs we would like, we don’t have the savings we want and we definitely aren’t living in the space we would like to be. However, we do have a plan in motion. So in the next two years we’re looking forward to some big changes. Right now I think that’s the only thing.

3. You’ve made the choice to keep blogging long after it stopped being easy, convenient and just-for-fun. You write the hard stuff. The things you do and say, uncensored and unfiltered. You’ve grown into self-esteem and courage. Tell me about your journey and what keeps bringing you back to your blog.

Blogging has been the one constant thing I have kept going with. I feel like I have to keep going with it and not give up so easily. It has been a comfort to me through so many hard times in my life. I think back to when I worked alone in an office and was literally alone all day long. What a comfort it was to have this blog and my lovely readers to make me not feel so alone.

When I was going through my break-up I literally lost every good friend I had. Literally! Some of them felt like they didn’t, but every aspect of our relationship changed and most just simply stopped talking to me. That was really hard for me because I don’t make friends easily. Through all that the friends I made through blogging stuck by me. Those people still read and email me today. That really showed me this isn’t just about posting on the Internet for nothing. It’s about making connections. That keeps me coming back, always.

My posts also can be a little scrambled, words might be misspelled, etc… This is because I don’t edit. I know! So bad of me! I just know that if I edited I probably wouldn’t say what I wanted and I would tone it down more. No editing for me.

4. How far is the farthest you have travelled from PA ? Where did you go and why? What made you come back?

I still have only ever lived in PA. My parent’s still own and live in the same home I was born in and my two older brothers still live with them. My older sister lives down the road! People don’t seem to move easily around here. The farthest I have traveled was the Caribbean on a Disney Cruise, but I had to come back when the trip ended. Boo. I don’t intend on living in the Poconos forever. I hope to move to Philadelphia in the next two years and there are many other locations in the US I would be thrilled to live. One step at a time.

5. Your writing expresses a tremendous amount of solidity and consistency in your relationship with KC, mostly by what is unsaid. In your opinion, what is the key to communicating with her?

Oh goodness. My relationship with KC continues to surprise and amaze me. She really lightens up my life. I am a far better person when I am with her. She completely balances me.

The most important key to communication in our relationship is that from the beginning we have acknowledged that relationships are work. We continuously make the effort to do nice things for each other as often as possible, we never take our free time together for granted, we are careful to communicate our feelings and we try to always make sure we express our appreciation for one another. That seems to be working well right now, though by both our admissions we still seem to be in the honeymoon stage of the relationship. We’ll see what years to come bring. I just feel blessed everyday to have her in my world.

6. Why bunnies?

Through owning them and working at a Pet Store I have found bunnies to be the completely perfect pet for me. I really don’t get on well with others who own rabbits though. I’m pretty strict with how I care for her and it breaks my heart to hear of rabbits being mistreated.

They are silent, cute eaters, good snugglers, clean, trainable, adorable and endearing. I’m madly in love with my Penelope and I am constantly trying to get KC to let us get another one. (That probably won’t happen for a while.) They are definitely my favorite animal.

7. Which single blogger makes you come back for more, like a crazed addict, and if s/he doesn’t post often enough you feel the need to go back and re-read things from their archives?

Hands down, Mimi Smartypants . Especially when I worked my office job if she hadn’t posted and I was on my lunch break I would eat my lunch while reading her archives. I have read every single one of her entries and I own her book. Hers is the very first blog I ever read and she introduced me in one way or another to all my other favorite bloggers. Plus I have never corresponded with her (well she’s never responded to me, lol) so I don’t feel like I’m crazy for reading everything. I’m just a fan! If I read my blog friends sites that much I would feel like a stalker.

8. What single habit would you break if you were given a free pass to do so effortlessly?

I would totally kick my sugar/soda addiction. I love both so much! I never realized how addicted and how much I crave them until I tried to stop eating both. Good lord! I would love to break my dessert habit. For serious. I could eat just dessert. I love it all. So sad for me.

9. When you look twenty years down the road, where do you see yourself?

You’re going to make me look like a mushy hopeless romantic! In 20 years I will be 45 so I’ll still be pretty young. I hope to be married to KC with a job I love (or that pays decent!) and living in a nice home. Not big, not expensive just nice. I would also LOVE to have children by then. I really want to adopt at least two, hopefully one that is a little older. That would be nice. I see myself living in a completely new area. I see myself happy.

10. What is the one single thing that you would admit is at the absolute top of your “bucket list”?

This is so stupid. I want to lose some weight. If I’m being honest and I had to choose one thing before I die it would be that. Believe me I’m working on it right now. I say it’s stupid because I am just extremely turned off by the whole world of fad diets and perfect body weights. I don’t care if I’m bigger. That’s fine with me…just maybe not this big. I would like to get under 200 lbs. Hopefully that will happen sooner than later. It is my #1 though, which really annoys me about myself right now. Haha!

11. What makes you laugh uncontrollably, un-self-consciously, with tears of glee streaming down your face?

Wow! That is some good laughter! I don’t laugh easily. KC laughs at pretty much everything and I find that very attractive about her. I guess it takes a little more to get me. I think scheming makes me laugh the most. I love plotting silly schemes and shenanigans. I think the last time I laughed that hard KC and I were just talking about silly little pranks we could pull on our friends.

12. You’ve made peace with yourself and accepted who you are and what you’re about. You used to be a tomboy, and had the power-to-weight ratio of a busy child: climbing trees, swinging from the monkey bars… do you ever talk to that child? What does she say?

Everyone says I am the most girlie person they know so it really is funny to me to think back to those days and try to think about my thoughts and feelings then. I never wanted to feel like I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t want anything to be impossible. I hope that part of my tomboy days is still with me. That yearning for adventure, never wanting to avoid doing something just because it was something women ordinarily do.

Then there is the other part, the me in over sized boys clothing because I didn’t want to dress like a middle aged church lady. That part still hurts me a little. I remember so desperately wanting to dress like everyone else my age and not being able to fit into juniors clothing I wore the skater boy cloths. It so was the opposite of who I really am and I feel bad I dressed like that for so long. It even affected the friends I attracted! I would give that me a really big hug and tell her things were going to get better. It’s most of the reason I don’t wear pants now.

13. At my heaviest, I weighed 306 pounds. I was a size 28. If you had met me then, would you have passed any judgment or made any assumptions about what I was capable of accomplishing?

Being a larger person myself I try to never make assumptions about anyone based on their weight. I would however carefully scrutinize your outfit. I would either be very impressed or very dismayed. I love larger women with confidence!

14. What’s your favorite color of toenail polish (I know you never paint your fingernails)?

Red! I love having my toenails painted red. I own several different shades and OPI is my favorite brand of nail polish.

15. You are 100% German. When you have kids, what culture would you blend with to bring your first child into the world and why?

Even before I realized I was gay I wanted to adopt my future children. I am heartbroken over so many children without homes and have always wanted to make my family that way. So it would be a complete shock to me if my children would be German like me. That being said right now I see a future with KC and if I blended with her the child would be half German and half Caribbean, Cuban and African American.

No matter what race my child is I do plan to force them to eat pork & sauerkraut every single new years and I might even hid a pickle on our Christmas tree!

_____________________________

(Originally posted here. I left it as she wrote it because she did such a fantastic job!)

If you stood Angela and I side by side, you might see our shared Germanic ancestors peering at you from under our furrowed eyebrows. You might see two different people from two different backgrounds- or you might see two women of two different generations, with a common interest in extracting every last bit of goodness from life. As it turns out, her dad and my husband both grew up in the same town.

My challenge to you is this: have you stepped outside your comfortable corner of the world today and learned someone new? Not just browsed, anecdotally sideways-hugged or loosely contemplated… but really learned.

In closing, and in Neil’s words, “Wouldn’t it be cool, if for one day, we really did believe that everyone really did have an important story to tell online?”

Thank you so much for interviewing me! It was a joy!

My lower legs have been impossibly itchy also. Usually after having my tights on for about 8 hours. Sometimes I make KC itch them for me. Is it to early in our relationship for that*?

None of this is the point. I wanted to tell you about the trip Kalani and I recently took to Philadelphia. We had been trying to get away for months now, but each time something would come up and we would have to cancel. Now this time due to me still being part time for horrible hours KC treated us and while the money would have been much better used to fix up our cars or something else very responsible I’m really grateful for all these new memories.

We left on Friday and stayed in the Hotel Palomar. I think perhaps because KC booked over a month in advance and it was Valentine’s Day weekend so the lower rooms were getting overbooked they totally upgraded our room! We ended up getting a Spa King Room. It had a nice king size bed, couch, desk and then a bathroom with a walk-in shower and a “fuji soak bath”. Totally amazing!

Also amazing was the food. We ate at Roy’s, Lolita and Delilah’s.

I ate way too much on this trip and came home with two pints of delicious gelato from Capogiro that I have been avoiding.

On semi-related but pretty much unrelated note when KC and I move in July (or possibly before) I wanted to get a treadmill since our apartment will be a basement level and I’m way too anxious to run outside. I thought $300 might get me a decent one. Oh my god. Do you all have ANY idea how much treadmills cost?? (Jill I know you do!) The nice models run about $1,500 – $2,000. Wow! Yeah…I don’t think I’m going to be able to afford that one. (If you guys have treadmill tips please let me know. I would be willing to spend $500, but not more than that. Perhaps if I got one and used it for a few years regularly I would upgrade, but certainly not to start.

Also unrelated: One of my male roommates constantly plays a game called Call Of Duty while listening to sexy R&B. Pretty much the same music that KC and I get spicy to. Is this normal? Can’t that mess with your subconscious to listen to highly sexual music while playing a game where you kill people for hours on end? Seriously. Wouldn’t your mind flash to that during sex or something? He seriously plays the game for hours every single day and our other male roommate has gotten into it to.

Back to Philly: So it was lovely and I was just really thrilled to have some time away to reconnect with each other. We took many spa baths and it was just so nice. It really got me ready for the busy months ahead while I get settled into my new job.

*Then again I just realized that the deodorant episode happened May of 2008 and I said, “I am so glad KC and I have been together for such a long time that she wouldn’t be grossed out by this.” Was I insane?? We had been dating for less than a year at that point. I think I get comfortable way too quickly.

I will say that I am very satisfied with my decision to leave Walgreens. I was very unhappy there and had I not left I wouldn’t have had the chance to put so much effort in to job searching. There is no way I would have come across this position. In essence (not to sound dramatic) it was a life changing move for me.

It’s really excited to be at the beginning of all of this. I’m so excited to see where this takes me. I’m so ready to begin.

The actual position I am going to be working I will be working with my (client?) in their home. It’s a new program the company is doing so it will be great to see how it works out. It’s not fully in motion yet and they are still waiting to fully staff it. So I’ll have to wait a bit before I am officially full time. In the meantime they are going to have me working for them part time and I am going to begin training next week. I can’t wait for that part. The fact that I am so excited about the training process should say something about me.

This week (I hope!) I will be filling out my hiring paperwork. I am really ready for that to happen also. I feel like this job could still not happen for me or that something will change…filling out that paperwork and being in the system will make it feel real.

My main goal for 2010 is to become financially sound. I have some school dept that is overdue and a credit card that I have let fall way behind. I am so excited for the opportunity to get those paid off and be back on solid ground.

I haven’t felt this positive in a really long time. Actually the more I reflect on it this is the most confident and excited I have ever felt about a job in my entire life. Every other job I have taken has been because it’s what I could get. I always felt I would never have a real career job until I went to college and I honestly put that dream aside. I really felt like I would never accomplish that.

This job feels like something I have always wanted. I know it’s not going to be easy. These jobs tend to have a high turnover and burnout rate. I’m really confident in myself. I do not take the work I will be doing lightly. I am passionate about it. I absolutely love that I will have to opportunity to move up within the company! I love that I can get tuition reimbursement! I love that if I move I will be able to relocate to another branch within the company! They even work with a university to get an extremely discounted Masters degree in Social Justice! That is something I would have attempted anyway.

I am so ready for this journey to begin. I am ready to learn. I am ready to grow.

I spent hours applying to multiple jobs (sometimes 10 a night) and hearing nothing back. I feel that I’m a good worker. I genuinely love to work. I’m definitely a people person when I’m in a work environment and I love making people happy. Yet nothing!

I found that my resume just wasn’t good. Probably because of my own lack of faith in myself it was sparse and really undersold me. I researched resumes on the internet and discovered that when job hunting you’re really trying to sell yourself because in essence when you get hired a company is buying you.

I worked diligently to make my resume as effective as possible. I reworded things, played up all my strengths included some extra curricular activities I do within the community, things I did in college and high school, etc….

It worked!

All of the sudden I had MULTIPLE job offers. (Well three, but when you’ve been hearing nothing on full time jobs in a year three is a lot!) One of as a receptionist at a salon and spa, one was a receptionist at a local resort and one was for a Day Staff position at a national non-profit agency working with people who have developmental disabilities.

Guess which one I wanted?

Yeah, I’m all for the non-profit stuff. I wanted that job the most. It was full time, paid well, came with training, offered the opportunity for advancement with the company, as well as tuition reimbursement and other kick ass job perks. The only downside would have been the hour commute.

The other jobs were good because they were full time, but the non-profit really seemed like somewhere I could make a career for myself.

I interviewed there last Wednesday. The woman who would be my boss was a small and funky. She was young and had short hair that was dyed bright red. She has on a really cute sort of hipster outfit with nice vintagey jewelry. I liked her instantly. As we talked through the interview it was easy to tell she loved her job and she explained the position I would be in and it seemed completely perfect. She said they would have to have another interview with me so I wasn’t feeling too happy about doing the 4 hour round trip again just to not have the job work out.

After the interview I reflected on how that job would change my life. I had another interview near my house at a hair salon later that same day. I went and it just didn’t seem like a good fit for me. I could just tell I wouldn’t be happy or fulfilled there. I knew I would take it if it was offered and it would certainly be a good start…I was just holding out hope for the other job.

As I waited I updated my Facebook that waiting is the hardest part. An hour later I checked my phone. I had gotten a call HOURS ago from the woman who interviewed me offering me the position!!!!!

I got the call a full two hours before I even interviewed at the other job.

I GOT THE JOB!!!!!

How should I phrase this? I have been having trouble going since I was a teenager. I will only go in certain places at certain times and I really get stressed out about it and have forced myself to hold it far more often than I should. A few times in the past and far too often in the last few months I have had pain and bright red blood almost as much as if I had my period. (So sorry about the TMI.) After one of these episodes it would be extremely painful to go for over a week and I just prayed that it healed before it started to bleed again.

I’ve also just been feeling so bloated and easily made nauseous. My energy has been lower than normal and I’ve been feeling weaker and I just had a feeling it was all related to these bathroom issues I have been having.

I started researching doing a colon cleanse and a lot of the stories I have read people were having the same symptoms as me and they started to go away after they cleansed. Well the notion of having relief and feeling better without going to a doctor (which I don’t have the option of) sounded really good to me.

Then I had to pick which one. Many of them just don’t make sense to me. They have kits in store, but then you find out that it’s a daily regimen you’re supposed to continue permanently after. It doesn’t sound safe to do it for such a prolonged period of time. Then when I looked them up most got terrible feedback and were said to be scams.

I finally chose the Dr. Natura Colonaide (yeah, I got it at Walgreens. I don’t think it’s sold anywhere else yet.) It makes more sense to me because it’s a 14 day program. Every morning you mix a powder into 8 ounces of juice, drink 8 glasses of water during the day and then a cup of their tea every night.

I started it last Friday so I’m only on day 5 of 14, but I have to tell you I’m already feeling so much better. It isn’t uncontrollable. It hasn’t effected my life, but it just makes me feel so much better to go knowing there won’t be any pain.

I’m also feeling really good about drinking so much water. It’s always been hard for me to get into the swing of keeping well hydrated, but knowing that it could make me feel really sick if I don’t has been keeping me motivated and I’m really enjoying it now! I’ve had only water, tea, juice or milk for the last 5 days (I know that doesn’t sound like anything major, but I am a total soda ADDICT) and I’m really excited to continue with it.

I’ll be sure to update once this is all over and let you know how it went (I know you’re dying to know!) For now I’m just really feeling better about my body and health than I have in a while. Hopefully this is the little push I need to get myself in a better direction.

So much has happened since my last post…It’s been almost four months! I’ll try to keep everything concise and organized so this post isn’t too long.

1. Walgreens – I feel comfortable writing the company name of the drug store I worked at because I no longer work there. At this job I was able to do something I genuinely enjoyed. I really loved being around all the beauty products and I enjoyed helping the customers find what they needed. It made me realize that I would love a job in the beauty industry. Whether that would mean being a make-up artist, esthetician, or even working at a beauty counter.

I have also really started taking more pride in my personal appearance. I’m wearing more make-up and wearing my hair down more. It feels good. I really like doing little things that show I care about myself.

Also at Walgreens I made some good friends. It was nice going to work knowing I would see people I was genuinely close to. I got a new bestie out of that job! It’s hard to complain about that.

Another positive thing that came out of the job was learning how to use coupons to my advantage. I really know how to look for deals now and work sales to my advantage when possible. That’s a good thing! It’s really been helpful.

Now to the negatives (and you knew it was coming). Working at Walgreens sort of felt like I would imagine working at Wal-Mart would feel…only the company didn’t feel successful. It became apparent very quickly that this job was very different from The Pet Store. My first week there I was working along side another employee and she was explaining to me the department and how things worked. She was helping to train me! Immediately the manager on duty came over and started saying that we couldn’t be standing around talking and we needed to break it up. That was one of the first indicators that something was amiss.

I could go on and on about my experiences there. The bottom line is they were super uptight. They hated employees being friends with one another. We were never able to talk without getting in trouble. They never praised us for good work. I had customers compliment me to the manager and call in about me and I heard nothing about it from the manager. They actually seemed resentful of how much the customers liked me. I got written up three times also while working there. The first time I was scheduled for a day that wasn’t my availability (I worked at The Pet Store that day) and I couldn’t find someone to cover the shift. The second time I was trying to do them a favor by working a day shift, but I was scheduled at The Pet Store so I would have to be 2 hours late. I told them 4 days in advance, left my number and told them to call me if there was a problem. I heard nothing and two hours into the shift I got called into the office and received a write up. The third one I actually received immediately after I put in my two weeks and really confirmed my decision. That one was for being late 3 times to work. Despite the fact that it was right before Christmas and I had to drive by a mall to get to work…and I called them.

The nail in the coffin two things that happened at the same time. The first being hour cuts, which cut my hours completely in half. Also the head of the cosmetics felt like I was trying to sabotage her department by not ringing up enough sales and was going to move me out of the department.

So if I was getting half the hours, not doing what I enjoyed, getting written up and not even allowed to talk during work? It was time to go.

Walgreens goes down as the worst job I have ever had and I once had to clean poo out of a urinal at a past job. Yeah.

2. The Pet Store – Yup, still there! Things are still going well. The managers actually manage unlike the other job and things flow. I got moved over to Pet Care so I’m no longer just ringing people up. I’m over cleaning cages and selling pets. The hours are really good for me. It’s usually something like 6-11 in the morning so I get the whole rest of the day. I’ll still need another job to supplement the hours, but I’m still happy working there and it’s almost been a year. I’m so glad I kept this job at while I was at Walgreens.

3. Apartment – Still there, kind of waiting for the year to be up so KC and I can move on. We’re definitely at the stage where we are getting more serious and we’re ready to settle in with each other. All our roommate went home for the holiday so we had a good amount of time to nest at home with each other. It solidified that we’re past the roommate point in our lives and we’re so ready to be on our own together. So we have till July to save and get things in order. Then we’ll be looking for somewhere nice, but easily affordable so we can stay there a while. I don’t want to keep moving around. Hopefully we’ll be able to find something we’ll be happy with.

4. Job Search – Ugg!! Trying to find a full time job completely sucks and makes me feel worthless. It’s been almost a year since I was laid off from my office job and started looking for a new full time position. It’s just not fun and I’m going to keep trying, but it just really makes me worry. I’m going to take a class at the Career & Technical Institute on resume writing and job hunting. Hopefully that will help spotlight what I might be doing wrong and what I can improve upon.

Alright that’s enough for now…more soon.

I’m going to try to organize this so that it’s not just one big long explosion entry.

So today I’m going to talk to you guys about my car.

It occurs to me that I haven’t posted anything since BEFORE this issue came up. You guys (unless we’re friends on Facebook) don’t even know there was ever an issue. Boy do we need to talk!

Let’s start at the beginning.

In June KC and I realized our car needed new tires. At this point we didn’t have much money, but we did what we could and bought a tire a week for four weeks until we finally had a new set. Hooray for tires! We were very happy to have that out of the way.

In July our car was having a few more issues. We were having multiple problems with the headlight going out resulting in getting pulled over by various officers of the law and a few written warnings. Despite getting it fixed the light continued to go out.

While taking it in we also got various things done (I honestly don’t remember what) what I do remember is it cost $280. The VERY NEXT DAY the car wouldn’t turn on. We got a jump start and it seemed alright. We turned it off again at home tried to turn it on again and…it wouldn’t start. We got it towed to the auto shop and it was determined that we would need a new alternator. That was an extra $350.

Alright. We were upset about it. It was hard to pay for, but we did it and we actually felt really good about it. This was an investment into a car we really needed. It was one less thing we would have to worry about later.

In August the car went out of alignment. We had just taken a trip to Philly for my B-day and we were working on moving so we ignored it for a week. We would have to wait till we got paid to worry about it. It continued to get worse and I noticed that the tires screeched when we went around bends or turns.

By the time we were able to get to KOST our steering wheel needed to be held completely sideways in order for the car to drive straight.

We waited a while at KOST and about a hour later a man came over wanting to know who owned the car. I said it was both of ours. He said we should follow him and he took us out into the bay where they were working on the vehicles.

He took us to it and it was still up in the air. He began to tell us that the A Frame was completely rusted through. He said there was no way to align the car with it in that condition and the rusted frame was what had caused the misalignment. He told us he could look into a way to fix it, but it would cost us at least $1,200.

I was devastated.

I told him not to bother looking into it. There was no way I was going to put that much money into that car even if we did have that much, which clearly we didn’t. He also showed us that our tires had been riding sideways and our brand new tires were already worn to the threads.

Then the guy told us that he couldn’t believe we had been driving the car in that condition, how unbelievably unsafe it was and he recommended that we have it towed home. Now, I really didn’t want to pay to tow it and we only lived about 8 miles away. We had been driving on it for this long…we decided to drive it home.

He then made us sign a paper saying that he recommended we never drive it again and that they aren’t liable. Lovely. Just the sort of thing you want to sign.

We did make it home. Once we were there we thought perhaps we should just take it down the block to get some dinner and then that would be it. We would never drive it again. We pulled out, drove a few feet and then there was a loud “POP” and lots of shacking.

We had popped out tire. The car was done. We backed it up into the driveway and left it there. This happened on August 28.

Moving is not enjoyable when you don’t have a car. Luckily we were able to borrow my father’s car for a few weeks, but after that we were on our own.

(I’ll say more about moving in a different post.)

So since September 20th KC and I have not had a car. I’ve been working two jobs around 65 hours a week, taking buses and taxis. It has not been fun. I don’t even want to think about the amount of money I have wasted on cabs.

Back to the car. So I decided we should post the car on Craig’s List. I thought $500 would be fair.

Someone contacted us and it turned out the A Frame had ben recalled by Hyundai and we would be able to get that part fixed for free.

Great! So the car was towed to Hyundai at there expense to be fixed for free. Woo!

That was on September 30. A week went by and I called my dad to see how things were going. He told me they had found a few more things wrong with the car. It would cost a little over $900. He said he and my mom had talked it over and told them to go ahead with it and I could pay them back. The car would be done in a few weeks.

What? $900! A few more weeks? I could have passed out.

I just couldn’t imagine putting that much extra money into this car after already spending all that money during the summer. I am the third owner of this car. I bought it in 2004 for $3,000. I was so upset over that. I really don’t like owning people money either.

However, KC calmed me down and we decided it was still cheaper than buying a new car and if this worked it would still be a good thing.

Time kept passing by. I kept taking taxi’s, buses, and depending on thoughtful coworkers giving me rides.

I do have to say I’m extremely grateful that KC and I moved while this first happened. We probably would have lost our jobs.

This past Monday I decided to call the dealership. They said the car was getting fixed that day! It would either be finished later that day or on Tuesday. Fantastic! I called Tuesday and left a message. No one called me back.

I called them around 2:00pm. They said the car would be done by 5:00pm. Super, but I had to go into job #2 by this point so I wouldn’t be able to get it until the next day. Boo.

Still 5 came and went with no word. I called at 6:30 and they said they were waiting for the part. It would come in on Thursday and be done Thursday night. What? I was annoyed, but fine.

Thursday came. I called to check. They were working on it at that moment, but it wouldn’t be done will the next morning.

On Friday I called at 11:30. They said it wouldn’t be done will 2:30 at the latest. At 2:30 I called and they said it would be done at 3:15. Grrr.

At 4:30 I finally got a call saying the car was done, but they couldn’t get a hold of my father for payment. I gave them my mom’s number. Still nothing. I tried calling both numbers. Both calls failed. I called one brother, no answer. I called my other brother and when I got a hold of him I asked if he knew where my parents were. “Yeah, They’re on a cruise”. What???

I was on emotional overload at that point and so upset knowing I would have to take ANOTHER cab in the morning. I must have cried for the next two hours.

Finally I was able to calm down and see the positive. The car is done. My parent’s got home today and my dad said he would call and pay on Monday so HOPEFULLY on Monday after my 6am – 11 am shift I will be able to pick up my car and DRIVE IT HOME.

I’ll keep you informed.

Next Entry….The Drug Store.

I have been working at the drug store for about two or so weeks now. Long enough to earn my first paycheck and certainly long enough to give me swollen ankles from multiple 12 hour days on me feet. Ouch.

Things seem to be going well. I’m enjoying being somewhere new and meeting new people. I also love being in the cosmetics section to the degree that it’s really making me consider other career options and I really want to kick myself for not pursuing cosmetology at the trade school while I was in high school.

I love academics so much and I have always wanted to prove that I could achieve something really great, such as earning a doctorate. That’s always the goal. Earning a doctorate. I’m not saying that I’m going to give up on that. I’m not. I truly believe that will have that one day. Right now I’m just thinking that until I am able to make that happen it may be worth my while to learn a skill that I can make money off of now doing something that I enjoy.

I have to think on this for a while. It’s not something I am just going to jump into, but I am hoping to start saving some money away so that when I’m ready I can afford to go. I would really like a career as a make-up artist.

Does that sound crazy? I feel like I am often getting these ideas in my head, but this one feels so wonderful to me. I’m really good with people. I’m motivated. I love art, color and make-up and I’m good with long hours on my feet.

So that’s where I am now. I’m considering pursuing a job at a make-up store or counter to give me some experience in the field so that I can decide if this is really something I am going to enjoy long term.

It is something to think about.

The only bad part of the second job is that it’s sort of slow there right now and very often there is literally nothing to do. During those times I sort of wander around tweaking things and rearranging things in a sort of OCD manner to pass the time, but when there aren’t customers or tasks to accomplish time seems to stand still. It’s awful!

I also came out to my coworkers pretty quickly. I mean, when you’re standing around with your co-workers making small talk it really doesn’t take long to get into significant others. I decided that whenever it naturally came up in conversation I would refer to KC as my girlfriend. It seemed to have gone over very well. I’ sure there was some talk about it when I wasn’t there between people, but everyone has been very nice and treat it as nothing out of the ordinary. Perfect for me. That’s all I want.

NEW DIGS

I hinted at a possible big change coming up in a past entry and with money exchanging hands I think it’s safe to talk about.

KC and I are MOVING!

No seriously!

Ever since KC started her new job and I started my new jobs things have been pretty hectic. We don’t see each other often and the commute is seriously bringing us down. We each work about a half an hour away from home. All three of our jobs are within a 2 mile radius of one another. KC works nights and I work nights and days.

Here is a typical day for us:

3:30 am – Go to sleep
7:30 am – Wake up, shower, get dressed, wake up KC
8:00 am – KC drives me 30 minutes to work, we stop for coffee
8:45 am – I go into work 15 minutes early to hear the morning meeting and drink my coffee, KC heads home to sleep.
2:45 pm – I’m done at job #1, KC has napped, done our laundry and cleaned she comes to pick me up
3:00 pm – We eat dinner together
4:00 pm – KC drops me off at job #2, she goes to the library to read.
5:00 pm – KC drops the car off to me and has a coworker pick her up and bring her to work.
10:30 pm – I get off of work and drive to KC’s job. I sit and wait in the car for an hour.
11:30 pm – KC is on her break and we spend a half hour together.
12:00 am – I sleep in the car for 2 hours.
2:00 am – KC is done with work. We drive home.
3:30 am – Go to sleep.

Rinse and repeat.

This gets old pretty fast. It also costs us $10 to $20 a day in gas. That’s killer.

However, this new house will change all that. We’ll be moving into a house at the end of this month. It’s got 4 bedrooms and we’ll be sharing it with 3 other girls. I realize that sounds insane, but it’s super affordable and it will give us a chance to really save so we can be on our own by next year.

It has a living room, dining room, kitchen, ONE bathroom, a nook for Penelope and a full basement.

Most importantly it is in WALKING distance of KC’s job and a mere 2 miles from mine. This is going to save so much gas and so much stress for both of us. I’m really so excited about it. I can not wait!

There are definitely a few drawbacks, but I’m hoping that the positives will far out shine them and that KC and I will have a wonderful year living there.

It’s a new chapter of our life together.