I'm a Big Girl now

Now that I have a new job and internship, I've decided to spend some time focusing on making my self more healthy and well-adjusted. After all, I'm technically an adult, so I really should start learning all of those things that adults are supposed to know.

 Adults know to:

1. Do household chores - Laundry, dishes, basic plumbing, electricity and clean different surfaces
2. Cook - 10 practical and healthy dinner recipes
3. Sort out money  - They understand loans, can keep a house budget, pay bills
4. Transport themselves - Know how to get around and fix/have alternate transportation if fails
5. Socialize - How to dress/socialize/communicate for different occasions. Also, how to memorize people's names.
• Be interesting - Have two hobbies in different areas of interest
6. Extra Credit: Understand and create investment/401K.

Looking at the list, I'm surprised at what I can do - and what I can't.  I can clean pretty much every damn thing - if I have a problem, it's that I don't want to.  I can do money, for the most part (after all, I do live on my own).  I take public transportation, and usually know multiple routes to get where I am going.  I usually know what is appropriate to wear to an occasion (although I may not follow it.  Or care.  Maybe I need to work on this?)  Investments I don't really understand, but I don't really have money to spare on future finances, so that's fine for a few years.

My main hangup is cooking - I don't and won't cook.  It's become a problem since I moved out of any place where someone else will cook for me.  Although peanut butter is amazing, it isn't okay to eat it by the spoonful as all three meals of the day.

Believe me, I've tried.

There's a few complications - as a self-sustained college student, I don't have much money to spend on food.  And, as a vegetarian, there is a significant portion of things that I can't eat, or have to modify to fit my diet.  So, I really do need to learn how to make more actual things from scratch.  I've gone online for help and recipes - I bought my first batch of canned pinto beans for an eventual burrito night.  It should be interesting.

Interp Practice

Laid off

Remember how I wasn't terribly worried about finding a new job?  Yesterday I got a crude awakening via text.  The owner of the business where I work decided to lay me off, citing slow business.

Through a text message.

That misspelled my name.

6 hours before my shift started.

When I called back, to ask questions, he screened my call and sent it to voicemail, listened to the message and then would text back.

I'm not really sad to not work there anymore - it was a dead-end job, with terrible hours, where the better manager had just been let go/quit, and the owner has no respect for his employees.  I was looking around for something before this, but the way in which the situation was handled was really hurtful.  I really just want to find him and tell him to grow up.

Coordination Costs, or How Did People Ever Survive Without the Internet!

I've been doing a lazy second job search for the past two weeks, secure in the knowledge that a) I work 16 hours a week, minimum already and b) I have a bank account with money in it, so I can still buy food and housing.

Still, I have more time than money and I would like to exchange the two at least temporarily.

Getting a serving job in DC seems to consist of three areas - wandering aimlessly around restaurants, pumping friends of friends for job openings, and applying online to the bigger chains.  None of these seem to be very efficient way of finding either workers or jobs.  It also doesn't indicate anything about their actual level of talent in the field.  There has to be a better way of doing this than waiting for someone qualified enough to wander in based on a piece of paper that was put up on the door.

I Can't Have Nice Things

After 9 months, I finally got around to getting my computer screen fixed.  For some people this would be a long wait, but there is nothing new about me putting off spending money on something I need/want.

My last four pairs of Converse are pretty good examples of this - they all were retired only after each pair developed noticeable holes in sides - and in one memorable pair, the bottom. 

(I was going to google image a picture of old converse, but not even google can match how bad my shoes were.)

For me, it's a combination of not liking to spend money and being lazy.  It takes too much effort to do all the things without having to pay people at the end of it.  Living is expensive enough without shelling out for all the accessories.

And yet.

My glasses are held together with tape, I eat donated oatmeal, nuts, and Top Ramen instead of buying groceries, more than 75% of my wardrobe is used clothes and still don't have lightbulbs or sheets because I don't want to have to buy them.  I'm not sure if I could afford to have another lifestyle, but it sure would be nice to not have to fret about expenses Iis this even a thing that will go away?).  Or to just be able to buy an ice cream without the induced money-guilt.

... I really want an ice cream now.

Back to October...

This weekend was the Carnival of Resistance down at Occupy DC, marking the half-year anniversary of our camp. Despite the music and festivities, you could feel how bittersweet the mood was - our own personal goodbye to the way Occupy was. Once green grass has been trampled by cops and protesters into dusty dirt patches. Tent communities have faded, post-eviction, into solitary, abandoned units. Energetic dancers were forced to stop when US Park Police announced that the balloons hanging from the central circle needed to be removed Or Else. Occupiers hustled to obey without questioning - a sight unthinkable pre-eviction.

But now, we know what Or Else means.

We have been beaten by police with batons. We have been stopped and spied on by Homeland Security. We have seen members of our community disappear suddenly, without explanation. And we know we have not seen the worst of the government's abilities.

(And yet, people still return to dance.)

Nothing ever changes

I'm a bad blogger, again.

I've been having existential crises, getting moar jobs, dating boys, and procrastinating on schoolwork.

As per usual.

Life has been crazy

My friends are on the front page of every newspaper out there. My boy was being denounced on twitter. I have slept 5 hours total the last two days. Occupy DC is making a stand - and the amount of crazy media attention, it's nuts.

If you don't know what I am talking about, the Guardian has a pretty good article.

Everyone is very wound up. Rumors of raids, riots, and other night-time abuses have been running rampant around camp, from the plausible "the police aren't happy with us" to the 3 a.m. electricity-cut pepper spray and tear gas police mass beatings.

Needless to say, Occupiers were a little wound-up.

Eventually, people started going to bed, playing scrabble and guitar to accompany a group sing-a-long which diffused much of the stress temporarily.

Even with all the stress, the freezing cold, the constant threat of a raid, they aren't ready to leave.

NDAA

We passed!