Got a new job, had lots of free time, and pretty much only access to WordPad last night, so randomly typed out what appears to be an update on my life at the moment. Had planned on just deleting it, but I figured it would give me a chance to feel like I was actually contributing something. =p

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Now lets see here... Its been far too long since i organized my thoughts simply by funneling them through a keybaord. Soo, thought I'd give it a try, and see what came out.

Alright, so here's the deal. I just recently got a new job as Night Auditor at a rather nice new hotel right down the road from my home. Honestly, this job is a good deal better than I expected I'd be able to get when I decided to get away from retail and food service. I work with good, friendly people, when I work with anyone at all.. A lot of my time is spent working on my own, since things are pretty much left in my hands once I take over for my shift.

Weather thats a good or bad thing is a matter of perspective. On the positive side, I'm free to work at my own pace, spend as much time as I like with individual customers (Guests... Need to start thinking and using that term.) and once I finish my work, or between tasks, while the computer is busy, I get to occupy my time on the internet pretty much as I see fit. Within reason of course. No place would look too happily on someone browsing porn in their lobby, or downloading programs to data sensetive terminals. We've had enough trouble with one emplooyee who apparently managed to infect the main work terminal. Which, funny enough, is why I'm here typing to myself.

You see, the 'within reason' part happens to include browser based chat programs, specifically the ones I use to talk to and RP with friends I've had since I was 13. Most of them online only. Haven't ever met them in real life, and not really intending to go out of my way to do so. Not because there's anything wrong with them, or any insecurities on my behalf. But for more practical reasons. Most of them live either in Canada, fairly close to it, or even further. The few who are within ten states of me aren't likely/able to travel, and, while I do consider them friends, we get along soo well online, that there really doesn't seem like that much motivation to go meet face to face at that great a distance. So for now, I content myself with having good friends online, and being happy with that.

Not to say that I haven't come across a nice little group of good friends offline mind you. Heck, it seems at this point in my life, I've surrounded myself with more of a clique than the entire time I was in grade school put together. I have two really great friends whom I met through my work at the mall. Trevor, a rather overly energetic and terribly good guy. He's the type who'd literally offer you the shirt off of his back if he thought you needed it, or even just wanted it a great deal. Sometimes I worry his niceness will get him in trouble, but so far, he seems pretty good at picking out good people to bestow it upon.

Through Trevor, I met and started hanging out with Chris. Chris is more of the quiet type, likes to think of himself as brooding. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of how I used to be, particularly when I was back in Florida. Come to think of it, his circle of friends is probably abnormally large for him at this point in his life as well. Huh... Anyways, He's really a pretty good guy, even though he jokes around (like we all do) that he's evil or a jerk. Honestly though, I think its all part of the 'dark and mysterious' image I think he's tried to cultivate. I did something similar when I tried to come off as 'cool and collected' back in the day. Honestly, looking back, and looking at his situation now, it just tends to result in you being overlooked. He's finally opening up though, and he's got a sharp wit, and once he gets used to people, he's great company. Still doesn't like large groups. Really don't blame him there.

I've also picked up some other friends, and some of them got picked up alittle further than others. When my ex, Amy, left to try to work things out with her husband, My mother moved in with me, to help me with the hole she left in the bills. Well, the time came for my mom to head back to Charelston and spend time with one of her other kids (My sister recently had her lungs collapse twice. Yikes! She can definatly use the help more than me now.) so it came time for me to get some roommates my age. I also got a new job, this one, which will hopefully make me easily capable of supporting myself with or without roommates soon enough. Still, while mid and long term goals are great, they don't mean much if you get kicked out on your butt or starve until you reach them.

Enter Michael, Chyanne, and Amanda. The new residents of The Lair, as we've taken to calling my little two bedroom appartment. Amanda is the Assistant Manager of the 'Spencers' Trevor works at, and Chyanne used to work there as well. She was let go when they cut out a goodly majority of their non management employees. Still, she and Michael are engaged, work out together well, and desperatly needed a place to stay. They were going to go into an appartment with Trevor, but it ended up working out better for them to move in with me. Michael has a lung defect that makes it rather impossible for him to get work. Namely, his lungs can shut down at any given time. To most places, this makes him a liability and his doctor doesn't reccomend it. To be fair, he did hold down a job at a bingo hall despite the health risks, until the hall shut down and laid him and everyone else off. Now his disability checks cover the difference.

Chyanne is his fiance, and had been living with him and his mother up until they moved in with me for several months or a year... Not quite sure which. She had held down the job at Spencers for quite awhile, but when one of the managers was caught stealing merchandise, and it turned out that Chyanne and a few other employees had suspected but not reported it, they were let go. On the one hand, I can't blame her for not saying anything. Accusing someone of theft is pretty harsh. But on the other, mentioning it to the head manager, at least telling them to 'keep an eye out' for it, only makes sense if you suspect something like that. Especially in retail. Still, she's a good person, and, despite job hunting not working out, thanks to that oh-so-lovely market, she is bound and determined to get a paycheck. She's signing up with the Military Monday. Not something I would be willing to do, but maybe it'll work out well for her.

Well, the plan was just for the two of them to move into the bedroom Mom vacated, however, about two weeks before Mom moved out, I got a call from a friend of mine. She was sobbing over the phone because the lightning had not only fried her AC, but now apparently having her computer plugged in was too much for her current, ancient wiring to handle. Her appartment had become a fire hazard, and she was stressed to the point of desperation. Amanda and I had talked, while hanging out with Trevor, maybe a half dozen times. She had to have been pretty desperate for someone local to turn to to call me up. Still, the call ended with me feeling all heroic for calming her down and relaxing her by telling her about my own appartment complex, which had plenty of vacancies, and was only about ten bucks more a month than where she was. And it wasen't likely to burn down!

So, since I had stolen Trevor's roommates, the brilliant master plan was hatched. Trevor and Amanda would move in, both of them would be my neighbors, we'd share wireless internet between both appartments, and the two places would become the interchangable cool-kid hangouts for the terribly nerdy crew living between them and their friends! Too bad Trevor caught hell when he talked about moving out from his parents, and the plan fell apart. Apparently, his mother, being a good mother, is concerned that with his little part time retail job, if something happens, he won't be able to support himself (Gee, that sounds familiar). Soo, he eventually said he was going to move out when he was ready, and she agreed that if he had a full time job or a second part time job, and was making reasonable money, she would support him one hundred percent.

Well, while that was a nice ending for Trevor's half of the story, Amanda was back to having stress breakdowns. Finally, the idea for her to just move in with the rest of us was proposed... Four people in a two bedroom appartment. Now, this would make sense if it were two couples, or even four single people, but Amanda is happy in a committed relationship. Long distance, but committed. I'm very happy for her, and wish them the best. So it boils down to a platonic friendship between the two of us. Still, it was really obvious that she would barley be able to cram all the junk she had stored in her current appartment into a whole new empty one, much less one room in mine. She eventually managed, but that still put Michael and Chyanne out of a room... What? I wasen't about to give mine up! Besides, the big argument Amanda had in her favor, aside from the mountain of stuff she could bury us all under, was that she could actually be put on the lease. Michael and Chyanne don't make enough to do the same. Which is kind of ironic, because if Michael could be put on the lease, his disability income would go up... Go figure.

Sooo, originally, the couple was going to take over the living room. However, once Mom started packing, we realized just how large the hall closet was. Giving the idea a nudge in their direction, Mike and Chy jumped on the idea of turning that into a cozy little bedroom. So now I have two people living in my closet. So far its working out alright I suppose. They have their privacy, they don't have much in the way of stuff, they spend most of their time socializing, with us or others, and so far there haven't been any major problems. Plus the bills all get split four ways, giving everyone living there a little bit of breathing room money wise.

Or at least, thats the general idea. Sadly, while Im transitioning to this new job, my pay has taken a slight lull. Leaving UPS was a tough thing to do, but it was the right choice. Still, once again running into that 'mid/longterm good, short term rough' situation. You see, working UPS and GameStop, I was mostly scraping juuust enough money to get by. Maybe even save one or two dollars here and there. But as recent events showed, a minor financial hiccup can kill your bank account when you're that close to running on Empty. Sooo, after much hunting around, I managed to nail an interview with a popular hotel chain, at their brand new, super green, very nice location. Doing general upkeep and shuttle runs. With very short hours. And minimum wage, or very nearly so, pay. Which probably could have worked out if I'd stacked that on top of UPS. But once again, the mid term goal jumped out and grabbed me.

During the interview, I told them I had really been looking for a front desk position. I figured it would be decent pay, and on top of that, it was a position that would look good on a resume in a number of fields. At least a lot better than 'really good cashier'. The General Manager who interviewed me, told me he wanted me in one of those positions, but they were currently full. However, he told me in this buisness, that was likely to change fast. There were no less than three people who either wanted to train into a new position, had to leave soon, or were about to get promoted. He wanted me at the Hotel to take advantage of that position when it opened up, and the Houseman and Shuttle Driver position was something he could give me in the interim.

Now don't get me wrong, Shuttle Driving isen't bad at all, and the Houseman wasen't 'bad' really. But I was basically given a short list of things to come in and do every evening. Once they were done, I could either ride the clock, or clock out and go home. Well 'Dont ride the clock' is practically ingrained into my brain. My dad was a workaholic, even if he was a loving father and great person to hang out with, and neither retail nor foodservice, my previous job experiences, smile on anyone who does that. My dad gave me a great work ethic, and wandering around doing nothing made me alittle twitchy. Fortunatly, that lasted all of two weeks, before I was asked if I could work the Night Audit position. I jumped on it eagerly, solving both their problem of needing someone immediatly, and my problem of needing solid hours and a good position. My pay rate went up, my hours got longer (MUCH longer) and I was given more useful work to do. All in all, a huge improvement! Still, Pay being every other week kind of makes it so that my first paycheck, a half check, was 'meh' at best, and my next paycheck still hasen't arrived just yet. Still, with the fact that I'm actually going into overtime, both this week and next it looks like, my next two checks should be AWSOME! I'm really looking forward to it. The bills are starting to loom rather threateningly...

You see, moving is expensive. And I got to help four different people move in a very small ammout of time. On top of that, three of the four moving in, had to pay the majority of their own expenses, meaning that my roommates moved in at nearly broke. Rent came due, and Mike and Chy covered it with his disability check, but now Amanda and I owe them a hundred and ten dollars each. On top of that, between my Mom moving out, and getting the cable TV canceled, my internet bill has fallen behind. Need to get that caught up. Can't let electricity fall behind... They'll cut that crap off REAL quick. Amanda owes her fiance money he spent that he shouldent have for a plane ticket for her to come up and see him. It was to get ready for an anime convention, as well as to see each other, so it was not really optional, but still. Plus she had to take care of her other bills. I ended up having to borrow money to cover my car insurance. My phone is about to come out. And I'm left with about... thirty or so dollars to run on until Friday. It's currently Saturday. So yeah, every other week paychecks will take some getting used to. Still, it seems like we're all just within reach of stabilizing things financially, so hopefully things will work out soon.

I guess thats about it really for the general situation. There's a lot more I could go on to talk about, but most of it would just be little details, so I think I'm going to cut this off here. Besides, the sun is comming up, which means my shift is almost over. Have I mentioned I love the free time I get at my new job? Next time I do this, I think I'll talk more about the people I work with. That'll be interesting to see what pops out of my head when I just let my mind and fingers wander with a keyboard..

...Holy crap. I diden't realize quite how much I had typed. Heck, I was just planning on deleting this once I was done typing it, but now I'm kinda tempted to save it and send it to myself... Maybe I'll post it as a journal on FA. That would be a little bit of a switch. Me, actually contributing something, even if it is pretty pointless. Hmmm.