Apr 22, 2013

Socks, Work, and Life in General

Whenever I get the song "Shots" stuck in my head, I sing "Socks! Socks, socks, socks socks socks! EVERYBODY!"

Anyways, a friend of mine has an unusual problem. She has too many socks. I personally find that I never have enough socks. My boyfriend has even less socks than I do, but that's because I get cute ones at Hot Topic and Spencers and he prefers just plain old Hanes.

So, what to do? Well, I suddenly thought earlier today, "Why don't I just look up a list of things to do with socks?" So I did. I found a perfect one, so here it is; I'm not going to sit here and repost half of what is already on this one page.

Work was.... Boring. A nice guy named Ceaser drove me to and from work, as he was working there as well and probably lived somewhat near by. I finally found out where the damn place was: In a completely different town than where I live. It was a 20-30 minute drive there. So, I found myself waking up at 4:30 in the morning, to get to this place before 6:00. When we scanned in with these little cards, that was when they started paying us. When we scanned out, they stopped. So, everyone was either trying to leave on time or they were trying to stay as late as possible. There was one guy who would get there at 5 and leave at 7. 14 hour days! I couldn't possibly do that. 12 hours was more than enough, although I got a few more hours than that the few days I worked.

It was only a temporary job, and technically I'm still on call until Wednesday, but I consider myself to be done because they try NOT to call people in...

Basically, I watched some guys throw some equipment in some holes at each other, then some other guys welding. I had to sit around with a fire extinguisher for the remote possibility of a fire starting. Why was it remote? Fires rarely start around this place. Yes, it's a paper mill, yes, there's wood chips, sawdust, and wood lying around, but everything is kept wet. So that fires don't start.

If you're caught smoking anywhere near the premises, you're fired on the spot.

Now that that's done, I have a possible job opportunity working as a vet assistant! Only 3 days a week, but that's okay with me, it's not only a job, it's a job doing something I would like to do! Maybe... MAYBE with donating blood plasma (which can net me about $240 a month) and doing jobs at Labor Ready, (I have no idea how much that will get me) we can move out. We can GTFO. I want to live in my own place, taking care of it, decorating it, coming home and having to clean and cook and only maybe having time for crafting... At least I will be busy. (Just joking... of course I will have time for crafting!)

Anyways. I've had a couple of days to get rid of this constantly tired all day from the long hours, and I plan on crafting again soon. I only have my chainmaille here, but we brought a bookcase over from my dads and there's space in the room for my jewelry making stuff which will be good to have because my BFs mother has some things she'd like me to fix. Plus it's nice to change what I'm working on because I have that ability too. I could finish off my sweater, I'm almost halfway done with it! However it's starting to get hot and it's kind of stupid to make myself a sweater now... However I won't let myself knit anything else until it's done, and that means either finishing it now or not knitting until it gets cold again!

Now that I'm used to sleeping during the night, I'm super sleepy at 9:41 PM. This is not how I work! Oh well.

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Apr 15, 2013

Yay, my first job!

So I start work tomorrow. I'm scheduled for the next four days, and then the last four days of the outtage I'll be on call. If I go and sit in the parking lot, I'll most likely be called in to work each one of those days. I hope that I can do that, more experience, and more money!

I don't have a car, so I have to go wait at Labor Ready until some guy shows up. I forgot to ask for his phone number, and I didn't say when I was going to be there, so guess who'll be sitting around outside at 5 in the morning? This gal.. Hopefully he'll get there at around 5 instead of 5:30, because I think we're supposed to be there at 5:30, but we're scheduled to START working at 6:00. It's a half hour drive. There's already been some trouble with the way they say to get there at 6 for a class that is listed on our ticket to start at 8, so we all sit around for a while before leaving and when we get there at 7:40 we're yelled at for being late... Whatever... It's not our fault, it's Labor Readys!

I'm not going to post while I'm doing this job. It'll be way to difficult and plus, what am I going to even post about? How I stood around watching some guy weld for 12 hours? Maybe if I end up putting out a fire and saving the whole building. I hear that a lot of fire watch people end up being a semi-celebrity around the building if they put out a fire. Sounds fun, I guess. I'm pretty shy IRL, so... Whatever! I'll just deal with it.

I'm worried that I'm going to end up starving. If I start getting hungry, I get woozy, vomit up bile, and get to the point of passing out. I've never passed out in my life, but I get REALLY freaking close. My boyfriend will go to work for 8 hours and only eat 1 dinky little cup of noodles. I can't just starve myself like that. Plus I can't take cup of noodles because I have to just have stuff I can eat where I'm standing. I can't just be like hey I'm going to take a half hour off! I'm watching people do their jobs in case they don't notice a spark starts a fire. Or if they suddenly fall down a silo and I need to call for the rescue team. I can't just leave, and there's only one me watching them. So, sandwiches and crackers it is, then. Lots of them. Buckets full. Truck loads.

I'm not happy that my first job ever isn't starting with 4 hour shifts...

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Apr 13, 2013

Oh training. Of course.

So my training was, of course, during the first day of the yard sale. Seriously. Every other day of my entire LIFE I'm not doing anything, and training had to be scheduled on one of these two days.

I have this issue sleeping when I know I have to wake up early. So of course, I don't sleep. I get up at 5:20, get ready, walk to Labor Ready, where I find out that even though we were supposed to get there at 6:00, the training class is supposedly starting at 8:00! So we all kinda stand around for a while, before we all decide to leave anyways. Then one guy stops at his house to grab some trail mix because it's a 5 hour class and when he comes in, we're all there and the instructor says "Well, thanks for being on time!"

We're all like, ".......uh. The thing says... This starts in another half hour..."

Well we tried too, but the instructor just started talking to himself about how there's supposed to be 12 of us, but the ticket we brought only said there was 9 of us, but 10 of us came....

Well the class was enlightening. I learned a lot. Like what I'm actually going to be doing... Sitting outside of a confined space, watching people inside of it working... Calling about emergencies. Etc.

The yard sale was a flop, for me at least. I made $10 the first day, but I gave that to my friend to pay her back for something she kept forgetting about, then I figured more people would come today but no... I made 25 cents. I had planned on using this money for some goddamn work clothes, and this is what happens? I made more money when I wasn't there! I saw a lot of people looking at my clothes, but they put them all down. I didn't have any prices on them, and a lot of people felt awkward when we told them to make an offer on things that weren't priced, so I put masking tape on them and wrote something in. Still no takers...

I, however, obtained a nice comfy recliner for $10! It's pink, which I'm not fond of, but it's fine. I can throw a blanket over it. Or just not care. I didn't even pay, I asked my dad to get it for me. I know I shouldn't try to collect things for moving out yet, but this was a deal! There was also a couch, but honestly it was fugly and I didn't think it was that comfortable... But it ROCKED! Like a rocking chair! Which was awesome. Some one bought that because couches always go.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the things that didn't sell. I don't need all those books anymore, I have a Nook Color. The clothes I just don't wear and don't know what to make out of them, especially the silky-ish dress. I tried getting rid of my dice bags, which I literally knit a bunch of them FOR the sale... No one bought my jewelry, but I expected that because it was all full price, not yard sale price. I bet it all would have gone if it was $1 each though. In fact, I should have done that for some of it, and laid it all out instead of having it all nice on the jewelry hangers. Oh well. I can sell it for full price somewhere else!

Anyways. That was my weekend. Maybe I can work on more stuff that isn't going to sell now.

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Apr 11, 2013

Music makes everything better if it's loud enough.

I woke up and no one was here. So I hooked up some speakers and blasted music all day long! It does wonders for me to be able to listen to music that loud.

Instead of making things like I planned to, I ended up cleaning my room. Apparently that's what loud music does to me. It was windy today, and I opened my window. The opening to the attic is in my room, and I learned that the cover isn't very heavy, because I looked up in time to see it lift up as if a raccoon was trying to get out. It was just the wind, but omg I nearly shit myself!

I ended up finding some clothes I don't know what to do with and don't like, so I put those in the box for the yard sale this weekend. I also priced some stuff. The room is still a mess, but it's cleaner than before. In fact I went through some drawers and took all the clothes out and FOLDED them! I usually just cram stuff in because I'm lazy and honestly, my BF will dig through the drawers looking for a pair of socks that doesn't exist and ruin any hard work I've done. But, he doesn't live here at my dads, so I guess I can fold the clothes here. They fit a lot better now.

I also hemmed some pants, which I rarely ever bother doing, but my sister gave me some pants that were actually sized "petite" and they fit perfectly, so I can just put those on top of longer pants and mark where I need to hem at. I also now appreciate having pants that aren't ripped and horrible at the ends! I used to not care ever and actually liked them, but now I realize that wearing pants that are too long DO make you look shorter because of the way they bag at the bottom. I can't stand laying in the bed/chairs at the biomat (where I donate blood plasma) and my pants that are the right, short size ride up and show my mismatched socks. But they always do that when they don't drag on the ground. Annoying. Then again I guess I usually am not laying down when I'm wearing pants. Like public pants I mean... Jeans and stuff.

I ALSO! Fixed up a pair of jeans! They had holes in the thighs. When they started doing that, I stopped wearing them, but I finally took some scrap fabric and sewed it to the inside of the pants, then sewed all over the hole and around the hole with thread that matched the color of the jeans. Sort of. It matches the rest of the jeans, but the inner thighs are worn down to a very light blue/white color now, so it's definitely noticeable when I sit with my legs wide open like a guy. Or a slut. Or just like a regular person because honestly we all sit like that!

I broke a needle. It's the first time I've had to replace the needle in my machine, but it's not the first time I've broken a needle... I was pretty hard on them when I handsewed, too. Here's a pic of the broken needle and a new one, to compare the damage I did:


Sad needle is sad! 

I also FINALLY managed to make a freaking scale maille flower: 


It was unbelievable the problems I had trying to make a flower, any kind of flower, until I found this tutorial. I don't even like it... The rings are so huge, they stick up a lot in the front of the flower. Oh well... It's a flower. I will just deal with it, I guess -.- 

Anyways. That's what I did today... That was crafty, at least. It was a nice productive day! 

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Apr 8, 2013

Yard Sale Stickers

I'm not going to do the 52 weeks of happiness thing anymore. I just have too much of a problem remembering what was this week and what was last week. Even going back and reading my own posts here on blogger and on facebook. I don't really write down what I do doing the day. If I continue doing it it will be on paper, writing things down as they happen. So I can look through it to give myself a bit of happiness when I'm down, which is a lot, lately. I stopped taking my anti-depressants because they're expensive and recently I have finally started noticing all my negativity coming back. Which is not a plus, but oh well. It was to be expected. I will just have to live with it.

You know what makes me happy? The super clean feeling after a shower. You know what doesn't make me  happy? MY FIRE ALARM. It's beeping at me all day today. This usually means the battery is dead, which is ridiculous because they die 2 times a year but we never have had, you know, A FIRE. What really ticks me off is that it's 11:30 at night, it's beeping like it has been all day, but! There isn't even a battery in it. It's connected to all of the other ones in the house (There is one in every single room except our tiny bathrooms) so it still goes off when all the others do. They're really sensitive and they go off often when we are cooking.

I can hear all of them going off, so it wouldn't be a problem that mine doesn't have a battery because of that, however, the most ridiculous thing is that mine is in my doorway. There is one in the hall about 3 feet away. So, even if mine didn't go off, I can hear the one right outside my door.

I'm sure they do save lives, but when they go off 5 times a week you get really annoyed with these things!

I plan to spend tomorrow morning sewing up some T Shirt purses, and maybe some more wallet gloves to sell at the yardsale this weekend. I really want to make about $50 simply to have a goal, but I think that if I do good I can make more. The thing is, this is a yard sale, where people are expecting really low prices, however some of my jewelry are expensive. I have some necklaces that are $25-30, and I'm not willing to lower the prices for a yard sale because... Well, I made this stuff, and the materials were expensive. I need to make a profit.

I have a bunch of books to price tomorrow that will fit yard sale "standard pricing" as well as some clothes, though, and maybe some other stuff if I look around. I'll probably sell the purses for like $5, since they will all be made out of shirts that were given to me. It's a good idea to get rid of some stuff because I hope to move soon. I've been hoping to move soon for a long time though, however now that I have this job (that will certainly lead to other jobs) I hope to actually move soon. I really would like too. I want my cat allowed to live inside again. She wouldn't let me touch her earlier, and I'm worried that she's already getting to the point of hating me. She'll hate me when I bring her to a new place and never let her outside again, though, so I'm prepared for that. She's just going through "teenage years". She's 5 now!

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Apr 7, 2013

When is my training!?!?!?

I've been waiting for a call from Labor Ready asking me to come in for my next session of training, but they didn't know when it was and apparently still don't. I don't want to make plans, say, going to volunteer at the Humane Society for a few hours, because they could call anytime and I don't know if they're going to ask me to show up in ten minutes or in the next couple of days.

The actual job doesn't start until the 15th, so I've got a while yet before I'm going to be exhausted all day. They said they couldn't promise us whichever shift we asked for, but I put down night because I'm sure that most people there would like to work during the day. I'm sure that I'll end up with night shifts, so I'm going to end up sleeping until 4 in the afternoon and then it'll be too late to volunteer. I think we are only allowed to volunteer from 8 to 5...

I know that if I call in ahead of time, they still won't know, because that's exactly what they do all the time. Finally find out, immediately call the people involved.

I'm super excited about finally doing something instead of sitting around thinking about cleaning. But not cleaning because I don't like doing stuff when other people are here for some reason.

Today I made a couple more dice bags out of camouflage yarn, and another pair of earrings. I think I'll post a group photo of them all soon, because I need to start thinking about how to display my stuff with a very limited amount of displaying things and no guarantee of a table. I have earrings to figure out, as well as the dice bags, but I have a ton of bracelets and necklaces as well. I'm thinking about piling books into a box and just labeling them all under one price. I want to put the earrings into small ziplock bags attached to cardboard with the price written on the cardboard. The tags I have for other jewelry would work best hanging, but then you would have to take some jewelry off to get to the stuff behind it. Maybe just lay out the bracelets and necklaces, to take up some room on the table. Then I have some Wallet Gloves/Wrist Purses. I might make up some more of those this week, because they're pretty cool and people like them. I'll have to wear mine so people understand what they are. I think I'll treat this as an introduction to doing vendor type stuff! I like the idea of putting like items into a bowl to dig around in, people expect to do some digging at a yard sale anyways. So, we'll see what I come up with this week!

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Apr 6, 2013

Busy week!

I apologize for not posting a lot recently, however, I have some very good reasons!

We have started spring cleaning, and suddenly now that's it's warmer it seems a lot easier to be doing house chores. Especially if they're actually yard work! Everyday there's something to be cleaned because even though the dogs both are short haired (they literally have no hair on their bellies) they definitely still shed A LOT. We could probably vacuum every freaking day! Plus, with the three of us here there's always dishes to be done and laundry. The garage is FILLED with tons of my BFs stuff so he has been told to at least organize it. We bought space bags and so far, I am not impressed with the zippers. The plastic part you grab and pull along the top slides straight off!

I had a job fair to go to on Monday at Work Source, where I had a great interview with Starbucks, however I haven't heard back from them and I never found out which Starbucks they even were, Tuesday I had a volunteer orientation at the Humane Society with a friend, then Wednesday I had an "interview" (that's what I thought it was going to be, at least) at Labor Ready. I didn't know what Labor Ready was, but basically you go there, sign a bunch of paper work, list skills that you have and they call you up when companies call for contract workers. You come in and end up working for a day on someones house or something. I'm basically going to be a "Fire Watch", I'll be walking around a building that shuts down for 2 weeks every year making sure no fires are starting. I'm going to be doing training with fire extinguishers soon, and I've already done some other training.

The job is only for 2 weeks, however I'm getting training and experience so I'm hoping this will lead to more jobs! Or at least 1 more permanent one. SO EXCITING.

Then Thursday I had an appointment. Plus hanging out with friends. Then Friday we drove around doing chores... I have to get steel toe boots for the job. I found some awesome ones that we'll probably go back and get, they're actually womens boots too and crazy comfortable.

I have a yard sale I'm going to participate in next weekend and I hope to sell my huge amount of homemade jewelry. I'm also working on knitting some dice bags to use up some yarn. Here are a couple of those:

Dice Bags
Small and Big Dice Bags

The smaller one I just made, it was all the yarn I had left in that color. Obviously knit on straight needles, it holds about 15 dice if you kind of cram it. The bigger one I knit on DPNs, and can easily hold 30+ dice. I think I like knitting them on straight needles better... It goes faster. However, I actually knit the gray one on circs and just treated them like straight needles because I only have 2 pairs of straight: size 6 US and size 13 US. 

.... Yeah. Big difference... I like the size 9 and 8 circs and DPNs better. 

So I'm hoping to make a few more of those and sell them. I feel like they might sell better than my jewelry so I will try to make a bunch! I might sell a bunch of books as well. I'll have to look through my room... There's probably a dress or two I could sell as well... I'll have to get stickers for some of this stuff. 

MONEY COMING IN! WEATHER HEATING UP! GOOD TIMES!!!! 

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Apr 1, 2013

School is crap...

Random, but I'm talking about it with a friend and I think that there's just so many things that high school did wrong. There are so many classes that don't do us good when we could have classes that teach basic working skills. EVERYBODY should know how to work a cash register. I learned how to use a industrial dishwasher at a church, helping the boyscouts make chili and corn muffins for the church goers. However, this all should be taught in highschool. I know that in highschool they try to encourage everyone to go to college, but some of us can't get financial aid, can't get through college on just scholarships, and need to get a job.

They have been making students go to a mandatory class in which you are supposed to learn things about getting into college. We had to make resumes (didn't LEARN how to make them in the class, just had to make them to pass Sophomore year) and learned how to fill out a McDonalds Application. Otherwise, we just ended up with a lot of papers, a lot of copies of one paper, that we had to stuff into a binder and keep otherwise we'd get in trouble and not pass, then not graduate. We did almost nothing in that class and yet we had to go every other week for 15 minutes. Why not do something worthwhile in that class?

Yeah, we learn math, and how to spell correctly (some of us do, at least) and some history and about our government. We learn how to type and how to search on Google and how to use word and excell. Now, teach us what we need in order to get a real job. Cash register? Easy. Industrial dish washer? Also easy. How to serve people food? ALSO EASY. This could all be in one class that everyone could take. They could bitch about it not being useful to them specifically, but this way, we could all get jobs because we would KNOW already how to do it.

Also, illegal immigrants would be at more of a disadvantage. Muahaha. Seriously... I'm getting sick of not getting a job when these people who can't speak english or are only 16 years old.

Another thing. I'm shy! I have a really hard time making conversation, and making eye contact. This is just the way I am. I'm now at a huge disadvantage. I'd be best at doing something behind the scenes, like stocking merchandise. At night. However. I try really hard to make conversation, I try really hard to get over the discomfort of looking at people. At least I'm trying, right? I think that school should try harder, too.