Archive for the ‘Day-to-Day’ Category

Rent it today!

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

I received the news about my new job over the phone (while she was driving, no less) two weeks before I set foot behind the counter of my training store in Tinley Park. I had two weeks to find residence for this danville position.

First things first, bike 56 miles in 8 hrs. Then swing by danville on the way back home to scope out apartments. There were two. One doesn’t allow pets and only had a ground floor apartment. The other had many units, second and first story. And a liberal pet policy. I went with the latter. (Because I could not abide the thought of sharing a wall with a conservative hedgehog.)

I signed a lease the Thursday ten days before my move-in date. During that ten day’s time, I had 40 hours of training in Tinley Park, one 14-hr shift, and a BSOD that had me relearning the alphabet. But more on that partidubar pojnt lafer.

First, I had to acquire all the trappings of modern day life, which ironically didn’t involve any of my trapping equipment. Mostly paper towels, at least that was mom’s stratagem. I needed 16 rolls worth. And 52 pairs of boxers. And 3 toilet brushes. What does she think I do all day?

Whether or not she was trying to clean out her hall closet of coupon-ed goods, I totally went Giving Tree on Mom’s house.

2014-10-24 10.34.42

All this (sans bitchin’ black leather sofas) fits in one Honda Fit and one Toyota Sienna. Along with two and half Asians.

It turns out cornfields terrify my mom. There’s just… nothing. No one to hear your scream for help as you’re assaulted, she says. (By who, mom? A scare crow? A wind turbine? You spent a childhood playing in a rice paddy, for frick’s sake. Those have… tigers and shit.) She got an up close look at “rural” when we turned off I-57 to take some of those narrow two-lane country roads. She wasn’t so keen on danville either. No sidewalks and a lot of empty mall parking lots. And my landlord is black. But she was probably salty for other reasons that day.

Now me, I was less surprised by the economic non-activity and scratching my head at other observations.

Like a Little Caesar’s. And *gasp* a Family Video. (What year is it? Did my Honda Civic pull a DeLorean?) Do they not have Netflix here? This is like one of those weird time-warped towns whose anachronism serves as an allegory to complement the greater narrative. Or the internet sucks here.

Oh, wait.
Comcast. *exasperated sigh*

Surviving

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015

I was really busy so I had to really focus and buckle down. For 5 months. Not that I could do anything from home to make work easier. Mostly, I was focusing on sleeping and eating enough. Eating enough entails grocery shopping enough. Then cooking enough. Then not poisoning myself with under cooked food. Then not poisoning myself with trans fats.

And I have to do all this around about 3 16-hr work days per week (as well as a couple of shorter 9-ish hr work days). I would gladly trade it all for 5 8.5-hr work days in a row as opposed to working long shifts every other day. The place is only open for 12 hours, but I come an hour early (because that’s when the electronic inbox starts filling) and stay an hour or 3 late (because I don’t want to leave 50 things to do for the next morning). So my days are somewhere between 14 and 16 hrs. I know I can leave anytime after close. But I don’t because I come back in 32 hours and the more stuff I leave for the next day, the more stuff they leave for me. So really, I’m just watching my own ass… recursively.

On the plus side, I save so much money by not eating lunch or dinner. Just blowing it on sugar-free Monster Energy drinks and Cliff bars. On my days off, I’m trying my hand at new recipes. I spent about $45 on spices. I made a chicken pot pie casserole.

It was awful. (So dry. Not enough sauce.)

I tried chicken soup.

It was awful. (Waaay too salty.)

I tried a Mexican rice crockpot recipe.

It was awful. (Way too watery.)

I tried chili.

It was alright. (Even I can’t screw that up.)

Also, BLTs, oatmeal and cereal. My old accidental weight-loss diet. Only now it’s steel-cut oatmeal for a lower glycemic index. And kale because it doesn’t go limp. It just goes rotten. But it’s a dark leafy green and I like it.

And danville. Ah, danville. There is no Starbucks. I don’t even like Starbucks, but I like having them around. It stands as a watermark for how civilised a society is. It’s a sign you’re in a “nicer” neighborhood. Something a Steak’n’Shake doesn’t quite live up to. It’s the retail operation equivalent of a seeing someone driving a Prius. Thank Zeus then for the Mad Goat Coffee Shop, an independent outfit that makes banging lattes. Now if only they would install a bike rack.

*I will capitalize danville when it starts acting like a real freaking town.