The New Adventures Of The Rogue Wolf

You know, I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. (Aside from one- "Don't make New Year's resolutions". I figure it's best to break 'em right off the bat, to keep stress from building up.) But if I'd had a list for this year, I'd say that over the month of January I made some pretty heavy inroads towards accomplishing it. Here's what I've managed to get done, either last month or over the past few:

- Get a better job. Accomplished, and how. I passed the testing with flying colors and now have a permanent position with the new company. Better pay to start than I was making after 9 years with PetSmart, much better benefits (and cheaper, too!), and a whole lot closer (about a five-minute drive rather than thirty). It's a whole lot less stressful, too! And I get a corner cubicle all to myself! I love elbow room.

- Start saving more. The new job and shorter drive will help with that, definitely.

- Be healthier. I'm doing fairly well on that now, eating healthier- at least in part. (Low-fat butter, lasagna with low-fat cheese, more steamed veggies, lots of potatoes.) But since I'm not going to be spending upwards of 35 hours a week on my feet walking around, I have to be sure to get more exercise on my off-time. I'll probably have to replace the punching bag I no longer have, as well as spend more time on the exercise bike.

- De-stress. Not being stuck in PetSmart, and not being absolutely dependent on my car to get to work, will go a long way towards that!

Which leaves me with just one major problem to solve:

- Get a better car. The Putt-Putt Mobile is running into problems again- the rear brakes are having problems, the coolant system has a leak, and the fuel filter needs replacing. Quite frankly I'd rather replace the car outright, but with my terrible credit score I'm not sure who'd give me an auto loan. I suppose there's some saving up I have to do. At the very least, that $120 a month I'm not spending on gasoline would handle payments on a newer used car.

We'll see what the future brings, I suppose.

So I'm three days into training at this new job. The training's actually going pretty well- the instructor's a decent guy and does a fair job teaching, and nothing here so far is beyond my grasp (aside from why they're still using a 30-year-old interface program, but hey, I've seen worse). It's going to be a lot more involved than simply being a "type this in verbatim" drone, and I actually find that a bit exciting. And maybe a little intimidating, but hey, I've faced bigger problems down.

Here's to the future!

I meant to write about this during the weekend, but forgot to. Anyway.

Last Wednesday, during what was supposed to have been my last week of work at my old job, I got a call from the new job. It seems that they wanted to consolidate two smaller training classes into one large class, and so moved the beginning of my class (and thusly my start date) back by a week. This meant that my first pay date would likely be pushed back as well, and I might not see my first paycheck until a couple weeks into February. Now, I imagine these guys are used to dealing with people who have things like "money saved", but for a guy who lives from paycheck to paycheck like me, this is a Bad Situation. Missing a week of pay would seriously impact me, possibly making it impossible for me to be able to cover my rent check and therefore overdrawing my account when it hit.

With no other options open to me (aside from selling blood plasma, and I don't think my body holds enough to cover a week's pay) I had to go back to the managers at my old job and practically beg them to give me another week. At first it wasn't likely that they could- hours keep getting cut back over there and they're already on a skeleton crew- but the head manager actually found a way to put me in for a couple of days to help with a major price-change load. Then I had the idea of possibly using some of my leftover sick time (I had 240 hours) to cover the rest of the week. The answer came back: "Can do!".

So, yeah. What could have been a critical situation turned into a three-day paid vacation. For all the years I've spent bemoaning how the company just screws up time and again, I have to admit- when the chips were down and I needed the management to come through for me just once, they actually did. See, kids, this is why I don't believe in burning bridges- you never know when you'll need someone again.

And then, new job starts next week! And thanks to a gift from a friend, I have some shirts to wear. I suppose I can manage to get used to business casual attire. At least there's no ties!

(You have to say it like Dexter from "Dexter's Laboratory" to have the full effect.)

I'm going in this Monday to talk to the folks at the data-entry company for them to make me an offer. I have a very strong feeling that, unless one of the terms of employment is to feed myself to Shub-Niggurath, I'll be accepting.

I realized something today. For the last THIRTEEN YEARS, I have been a slave to my vehicle. If it broke down and I couldn't afford repairs, then I couldn't get to work and was therefore screwed. This job will finally end that.

I feel like the weight of five worlds has been lifted from my shoulders.

So I went in to test and interview for this job opportunity today. Aced the tests (77 words per minute, 97% accuracy... hey, my fingers were still cold, it was 9 degrees out and windy when I got there) and did pretty well on the interview. The interviewer actually winced when I told her how far I have to drive to work every day. As far as I can tell, there were only three of us that made it to the interview part- so I think I have a good shot at this.

So yeah. Please send all well-wishes, thoughts, karma, mojo, and freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies my way. (The cookies won't get me the job, but I'm hungry.) Fingers crossed here.

So, in my neverending quest to escape both the soul-crushing drudgery of retail employment and the 60 miles of driving I have to do every weekday for it, I applied online last night for a nearby data-entry position that was advertised on Monster.com. (How close? It's a TWO MINUTE DRIVE.) Today I got home to find a response: They want me to come in next week for testing and possibly an interview. Quick turnaround like that sort of makes me nervous, but really, it's getting difficult to make ends meet with all the money I'm spending on gasoline, so this can be considered a positive change.

I'm not at all worried about meeting their requirements. Why? Because their listing included a requirement for a minimum 35 words per minute typing speed. HA HA HA HA. I could beat that with my left elbow.

Here's to hoping!

And so I was like "damn it's warm" and winter was like "oh crap I'm late" and then he came in and said to me "yo, man, sorry I took so long, here's a month's worth of snow for ya" and I said "dammit".

Heh. One of the questions I asked when I first moved to the latest Casa del Lupo was "How well are the roads plowed here?" Apparently the correct answer was "No!", because when I went to clean off my car from the six inches of snow that had already accumulated, I was perturbed to find that no plow had actually touched this street yet. Which is bad, because I live on a rather steep incline that lets out into an extremely busy road. "No problem," thought I, "I'll cut a K-turn and go up the hill, and take another more flat road." Ha ha charade you are. Physics was not in my corner this morning, because I could not get my car to complete the K-turn, and ended up actually sliding a little bit down the hill SIDEWAYS. This is bad, for those of you who don't know.

So I ended up having to literally rub up against the curb so that my car didn't simply ski into traffic. And then there were literally nine accidents on the Interstate I take to work (which wasn't getting plowed with the sort of efficiency I'd hoped for), so I ended up taking almost an hour to get to work. Then I found out that the other cashier due in that morning had called out... and she's ten minutes away.

My first words to one of my coworkers: "I'm an idiot and someone should slap me." Man, can you tell I need the money?

If we're not supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?

So. Look at me! I'm on the Internet. "But RW!" you exclaim. "Didn't you just move? Didn't you say something about not being able to get the Internet because of the service still being active in someone's name?" You're right, Billy! But I still have the modem from the old apartment, and amazingly enough it works here! So I have full connectivity until I go off to the TW office to get it shifted over to my name. Hopefully this will be a straightforward process requiring only the changing of data in a system.

So! Upon moving here I had four problems to overcome.

Dead batteries in watch- FIXED
Dead fan- REPLACED
Power bill in someone else's name- RECTIFIED
Cable bill in someone else's name- IN PROGRESS

Once I get that knocked down, things will be fairly sweet. And once I get that transfer to the store near me (about 8 minutes away) then I'll be set. Because an hour of driving to/from work every day just does not work for me, my car or my wallet.

From: Austrailian Government

"Your Refund Amount is $250.50"

...c'mon, guys, it's like you're not even trying anymore. Although I like the fact that you think someone using a Hotmail account might have a winter home in Brisbane.

(Note to self: Don't ever use 80's glam-rock song lyrics as LJ entry titles again. Bad lupine! Bad!)

So I know I've been quiet for a while, but that doesn't mean I've been idle. Y'see, the lease to this apartment expires at the end of this month, and the roommate is heading back down to North Carolina. I do not wish to return to those overheated and slow-driver-crammed climes, so that has necessitated me finding a new apartment. Gee, it seems that I've done all this before....

Thankfully, I do have a nice new place to live waiting for me at the end of the month! Not terribly expensive, either. Now I'm just in the process of getting everything set up so I'm not sitting there with no Internet for weeks on end. And, of course, I have to rent a moving truck for my stuff, which is going to cost me a bit ($.99/mile starts to build up when the new place is 28 miles away). But, still, it's better than when I left North Carolina, with nothing more than what would fit in the car for one trip.

And I'll be living alone again, too, which will help both my mood and my power bills. Yay!

You know you're getting old when you start seeing less spam for Viagra and Cialis, and start getting spam for health insurance and blood-glucose testers from Liberty Mutual.

Am I going to open the front door soon and find Wilford Brimley waiting to talk to me about diabeetus?

So! I've not updated in some time, have I? Honestly there hasn't been a whole lot to talk about. Taxes are done (I owe Feds about $80, state owes me about $70, so that balances out), I spent a week of vacation vegging out, then promptly got sick a couple of days after going back to work. Ended up having to go to the doctor for that, and there's a bit more to that story that I'll get to later.

One major thing that's changed for me is my issue with work stress. While I still don't really like my job, I've finally figured out how to stop taking the whole situation so personally. I used to worry that I would get fired because of not being able to do my job well- but the staffing situation has gotten so bad that NOBODY really can, so I've decided that I just need to "let it be", do the best I can, and not invest myself so heavily on results that are almost impossible for me to achieve.

Unfortunately, not everything is peach-keen up here in a northern town. Nothing major, thankfully, but I had a bit of a checkup done while I was at the doctor. It turns out that my weight and blood pressure are higher than I'd like, and my cholesterol levels are somewhat high, while my HDL (that's the good kind of cholesterol) is a bit low. I think it's time to spend a bit more money on healthier foods, and start implementing those plans I've been sitting on to get in better shape (such as buying a bicycle now that the weather is warming up again).

Still, considering the way things have been, I'm still a lot better off than I could have ended up. That's something.

So here I sit, in a comfortable chair in a comfortable room in a rather nice and fairly affordable apartment, eating a turkey leg of sufficient size to beat baby seals to death. Considering that at this time one month ago, I was worried that I wouldn't have a place to live at all within the next few days, I think I've got it pretty good right now. Things could be better, but they also could be a lot worse.

So yes, this year I actually am thankful. If you're reading this, I hope you've got things to be thankful for as well.

Hoo. It's been a rather crazy two weeks for ol' RW, kids. The first one was spent looking for a new apartment on an emergency basis, as the roommate (in whose name the lease for that apartment was signed) let that lease lapse, as he was convinced that finding a better apartment in the area would not be hard. Unfortunately, as I was co-applying, he fell victim to my horrendous credit rating; the fact that, as someone starting a nascent moving business in the area, he had little verifiable income, did not help in the least. The possibility of having no place to live at the end of the month was looming larger and larger.

Then the roommate tells me we might have a place, but the landlord is suspicious of my poor credit history and would like to meet me face-to-face. I turn on the lupine charm and chat with the man, who turns out to be several orders of magnitude more friendly and understanding than the idiot we most had to deal with from the old apartment (I've since dubbed him Smarmy McAsshat). Ten minutes later, the roommate and I are signing the lease.

Saying that this new apartment is an upgrade isn't really saying much, as the last apartment set the bar quite low. While we're paying quite a bit more per month for rent ($900 here, as opposed to $625 for there), we're really getting quite a lot for that. Hardwood floors! Lots of room for everything! A larger kitchen with literally ten times the counter and cupboard space! A full-sized bathroom with a shower that feels almost like a sandblaster (and that's a good thing)! And did I mention the hardwood floors? (The only downside to these floors- my desk chair rolls EVERYWHERE. Especially when I don't want it to. A $20 area rug from Wal-Mart solved that problem.)

Bonus event: The roommate ended up purchasing a rather sweet wide-screen projection TV for a pretty low price through Craigslist back in August. The problem? Our apartment was on the second floor and the staircase was far too steep and narrow to get it up. The TV ended up sitting on the porch, under a couple of sheets, straight through to the end of October. Storms, freezing weather, you name it. We expected it not to even be working once we finally got it into the new apartment. Surprise, surprise- it works perfectly! (Not that I'll use it much, but hey.)

So, yeah. Another problem solved, moving on. ^-.o^

Act 1: RW goes to NYC to see BMG! OMG!

So I finally, FINALLY got the chance to go to New York City to see Blue Man Group. It was too bad that they didn't allow photography during the show, because lemme tell you- it was totally freaking AWESOME. You can't get the full effect of the show by watching a video; you have to be there, to feel the bass of their instruments, the energy of it all- not to mention that it's funny as hell. The finale of the show- where the Blue Men send streams of paper over the audience while blacklights and strobe lights alternate- was practically surreal. Despite all the trouble of getting there, I loved every minute of it and don't regret going for a moment.

As a bonus, an old friend of mine came down to spend some time with me. She and I used to talk back in the day, but we drifted apart, until I ended up sending her an Email because something (I won't go into specifics) had gotten me worried about her. We talked a lot, had some pizza (NYC pizza is great) and went to the Natural History Museum. We didn't have enough time to see everything, but there were a lot of great-looking animal displays. Amongst them:


I really couldn't capture the scale of this giant whale sculpture. There was a giant TV in the way or I would've taken a head-on photograph.


Aw, look, they're cuddling!


Hey, look, they want to come play with me.

All in all, it was a hell of a trip. At least until I tried to leave the city.

Act 2: Escape From New York, The Miniseries

So yeah, there I am, driving along towards the Lincoln Tunnel. No worries, right? Ha ha ha. Of COURSE something has to go wrong! In this case, my car started sputtering as I entered the tunnel. And then it sputtered some more.

And then it died.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TUNNEL.

Thankfully, a really nice guy in an SUV literally pushed my car the rest of the way through the tunnel, and some Port Authority folks guided me in to a little culvert where they keep their emergency vehicles. No problem, though, right? I have AAA, I can just get them to send out a tow truck quickly.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

It took them nearly three hours to get a truck to me. Despite my telling them I was on the Jersey side of the Tunnel, they sent my call to the New York office, which of course couldn't find me on the New York side of the tunnel. And then their computers lost my call. So I finally get towed to the parking lot of an R&S Strauss at quarter to two in the morning. There are three hotels in the area: A Hotel 8, which wants $160 a night; a Days Inn, which wants $150 a night (kind of odd, since it was MUCH nicer than the Hotel 8), and... well, the third one had a marquee sign advertising "Jacuzzis" and "Mirror rooms", so it wasn't hard to guess what sort of clientele THEY were catering to. So I ended up sleeping in my car for five hours until the shop opened.


I had a fairly odd mechanic. ^-.o^

I'd been afraid that the fuel pump was gone. As it turns out, the pump was fine- two sensors in the engine had died at the same time; as they were responsible for delivering, and timing, electricity to the spark plugs, the car simply couldn't run without them. (I think it was a murder-suicide, myself.) Expensive? Of course! The final repair bill came out to $498 dollars.

But I'm not really that upset about the whole thing. Sure, it would've been better if this had never happened, but it could have turned into a total nightmare too. Consider that I was lucky enough to run into the following situations:

- Good Samaritan gives me a push out of the Tunnel
- Port Authority folks give me a place to leave the car until the tow comes
- An auto-parts store with repair bays just happens to be within two miles

If the car had quit on the George Washington bridge, or on that I-95 interchange I was stuck on for half an hour, I might STILL be there. And if it had died halfway up I-85, I could've been stuck with monumental towing fees (my AAA plan only covers 3 miles). Plus, since the problem was electronic and not mechanical, it was likely to end up happening pretty soon anyway, and I doubt I would've gotten off much lighter as far as cost. Plus I deliberately budgeted $500 for just such an auto emergency, so I still have money for bills and food and the like. Am I sore and tired? Yes. But I had a great time in NYC, and it all proved more than worth the trouble.

I've been having some trouble sleeping as of late, but I've also noticed that when I DO get enough sleep, I have the strangest dreams. I've been able to remember fragments of some.

- I've had a couple of dreams before where, for some reason, I was trapped in China. This time, however, it seemed as though I was in some bizarre Chinese soap opera, where things were fairly lighthearted for the most part- but near the end of the dream, while I was talking to one of the few people who could understand English (this one being an older woman) some huge sumo wrestler-type guy walks in; for some reason he has a bag over his head (with a hole cut out so you can see his face) and a hang-dog expression. For some reason I just knew he was there to deliver terrible news, but before I had the chance to learn what it was, I woke up.

- I dreamed that I was in the body of my Oblivion character Hears-The-Runes as she was sneaking through some burned-out village. Yet, for some reason, during the entire sequence, I heard some boring monologue being read in a droning and completely annoying voice.

- Last night I dreamed that I was hanging around the wasteland around the Chernobyl site, killing off mutated horrors with an AK-74 (I've been playing way too much STALKER recently). Thanks to a weird case of broken logic, I realized that it was a dream- but just as I'd started to explore the possibilities of lucid dreaming, I woke up. Feh.

In the waking world, I've finally bought the ticket for Blue Man Group! Unfortunately I can't find a train that leaves NYC at any point later than 3 in the afternoon, so it looks like I'll be driving there. Yuck. Oh well, I've had worse trips.

In other news, the first minute of ths music is absolutely breathtaking. And the rest of it ain't bad either.

So! That little annoying problem where my car would eat through a battery? Well, it got worse. As in, a battery I had installed on Tuesday was dead on Friday. Well, I say to myself, if the problem is THAT far along, maybe the mechanic can finally pin it down! Such was my hope when I arrived at my mechanic's today. Their first suspect was the alternator, despite my assertions that all was fine with it. I waited for a couple of hours as an in-depth checkup was done, and lo and behold, they finally located the problem that's been dogging me for two years!

The trunk light was stuck on.

That was it. The trunk light. I never, ever thought to even look at it.

Hoy.

Oh well. The mechanic just up and disconnected it, since a repair wasn't possible. I think I can do without it for the time being. There's another problem knocked down, only a handful more to go.

In other news, I had a rather interesting revelation about myself today. I was watching a YouTube video on meditation (I've lost track of which particular one this was) which had me envision a sort of "meditation guide" that I could speak to. Mine was apparently named Chuck and had short spiky hair. Anyway, while I'm holding this imaginary conversation with Chuck, he says something to me that I hadn't expected.

"You're angry at yourself."

And to be honest, that's what seems to be the primary issue regarding my anger issues. I'm angry at myself for not having a better situation than I do now, and I could rectify it if I simply spoke out and put in more effort. It's one of those self-improvement things I need to work on. Of course, if I were living by myself most of THOSE problems would be solved- but then I'd have entirely different ones. So, I'll just take things as they are... improving.

So yeah. It's been pretty quiet up here in the rather warm North, but things have been going on with your friendly neighborhood wolf.

- The car situation continues to improve. I've finally gotten the front suspension and brakes completely repaired, and replaced the steering wheel (and its faulty horn) and rear-view mirror. Since I'm stuck with the thing, I suppose I might as well make sure it's not going to crumble out from under me. All I really need to worry about now is the rear brakes (not too much of an issue) and the A/C (I live in the North now, this is not a vital component).

- My plans to visit NYC for Blue Man Group continue apace. I'm trying to schedule it so that an old friend of mine can meet me there, but her schedule is rather hectic (full-time job, full-time college) so it's not easy. But I don't mind waiting a bit- I've waited this long.

- It's raining again. In fact, it has rained pretty much every single day for the last month. And we're not talking about gentle summer drizzles- these are full-blown downpours, thunderstorms (replete with gratuitous lightning) lasting for up to three or four hours at a time. We're up to three times our normal seasonal precipitation levels here and it's showing no signs of stopping. I love the occasional rainstorm, but I think we've had about enough, thanks.

- I'm still feeling bleh. This is like the cold that won't go away, seriously. It would help if I got more sleep.

Oh, and there's this.



Thirty-nine inches, ladies. ^-.o^

So it's been a while, huh? Don't worry, I'm still around and getting by. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually doing better than just "getting by". Due to a combination of my being a smart little saver, and my roommate finally getting in a good chunk of cash he's been expecting for a while, I am actually fairly well ahead of the game for once. Sure, the car is still being a pain in the rump, but I can afford to have some of the more pressing problems fixed without having to worry about making rent or getting other bills paid. It's a really odd feeling for me these days to not have this feeling of dull fear every time I look at my bank account.

It's also kind of a neat thing to see some small, relatively inexpensive thing I need or want and not have to triple-think about getting it for fear that I'll come up short when a bill comes due.