Well, it's been just over a year since I lost my job and was forced to seek other employment. This journal is basically just an update on the whole situation.

I did find another job, in March, and have been there since then. I work in a call center now, taking phone calls 40 hours a week. The pay isn't great, and the calls tend to get bad, but it's money, and that money has helped me stay afloat. If I had a choice, I would be working elsewhere, but I have not been able to secure another position anywhere else as of yet. As soon as I am able to find a job with comparable or better pay, I will be putting in my two weeks notice at this call center.

As for the money I make at this job, it's enough to make payments on my student loans and put a few little treats for myself in my pocket, but it's sadly not enough for me to make payments on my loans and afford rent in an apartment, even with roommates. I would need an apartment with 4 roommates, rent split 4 ways, to make enough, and even then, it would barely be enough to get by on. Hopefully I will be able to find a better paying job and get out of my parents' house within the next 6 months.

As for the situation at home, most folks don't know much about it. Suffice it to say I am forced to live with my teenage cousin, because her worthless father is in prison serving out a four year sentence for two meth charges (he got minimum sentence for ratting out his accomplices). This wouldn't be so bad, if this little demon-spawn wasn't a teenage sociopath, who I know would not hesitate to kill anyone who denied her what she wanted if she knew she could get away with it. She has even threatened me a couple of times, threats ranging from calling the police and screaming molestation to taking a knife to me herself, none of which she has acted on because she knows she wouldn't be able to pull it off.

Anyway, little rant over.

Long story short, I'm surviving, slowly stockpiling some savings whenever I can, and hoping to be out of this house within half a year so that I don't have to deal with a lot of the stress in my life anymore.

On a happier note, Thanksgiving was nice this year. Wasn't chaotic and insane like the last couple of years, and I'm looking forward to the Christmas holidays. A lot of people I know are worried about December 21, but at this point I've decided if anything's going to happen, then it's going to happen, nothing anybody can do to stop it at this point.

Hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving and got to spend some quality time with their families, or the ones who are most important them!