HAPPY BERFDAY KRAMIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday and Friday can’t get here soon enough :P

So today is Wednesday and while I have some more things to do at work, I’m not nearly as busy as I would like to be.  I’ve been reading articles on changing careers and while I think perhaps service is not my career of choice anymore… I think that I’ll still be roped into it because it’s what I’m good at.  Maybe just doing service with a company unlike the company I work with, in that their procedures work FOR the customer instead of AGAINST them, might make me feel less frustrated ?  Heh, I don’t know.  

I’m tired…   I need to sleep more soon.  

Well in preparation of payday, I decided to balance my checkbook.  So far so good, no surprises…  Hopefully I can avoid a payday rant then :D  I still need to at least find a job that makes equal to or more than I currently make WITH benefits.  I’m really starting to stress over retirement.  Perhaps prematurely perhaps not.  I just know that if I were disabled for any reason right now, I’d be screwed.  I know that if I were to retire right now I’d be screwed and I know that looking at retirement even at the age of 75 (only 40 years away) means I would have to live on $20,000 a year and that’s to stretch what I can save between now and then another 10 years only…  

It’s not as easy as it used to be for me to just get a job and move on.  Once upon a time my talents were sought after in telecommunications.  Since 2001, the telecommunications industry has suffered greatly and now I’m not so sought after.  Customer service in any other field doesn’t pay as much.  So I’m a bit stuck.  

Apparently my neighbor psycho man has been warned that if there is a single incident again, he will be evicted.  If I can get the Rossi’s to fix the few things that are wrong with my apartment, there is a chance that I may stay as long as psycho man isn’t a factor.  But we’ll see.  I really want to take Mushu with me.  I can’t there, unless I try to negotiate that *light bulb goes off*.  We’ll see.  I like my neighbors short of psycho man.  But psycho man has been very quiet lately.  So maybe he got some medication or a job or something.

I’m still considering Tennessee as a place to live.  There is an apartment there I’m very interested in.  They take dogs, they have washer/dryers in the apartments, the floor plans are spacious and the rent isn’t too bad for a two bedroom ($695 for the one I wanted which is high end).  The problem is the “catch” is that the cost of living is DRASTICALLY reduced there. In order to live like I live here but in Tennessee, I need to make $32-$35 a year…. In TENNESSEE.  That is laughable.  The customer service jobs there are $8 an hour lol.  My salary here is even at an hourly rate almost twice that.  

Why Tennessee you ask?  Well for one, proximity to home.  I kind of want a change of pace, warmer weather (even mildly so) without having to go to California, or Florida for it.  Admittedly moving out of state makes me nervous.  But there are a few people who live close enough to Tennessee that I wouldn’t be alone.  AND if things got really bad, I could drive home in a day (10 hour drive to Chicago).  

The truth of the matter though is I do not think I will find a job that will give me in pay, what I MUST make to live on my own there.  And if I don’t have at LEAST that, I can’t move.  I just wont uproot my life on a whim.  I must have a secure base of funding at least.  
So seeing as I haven’t found a place here (yet) that takes dogs, has a washer/dryer IN UNIT, and is $850 a month or less, I may wind up staying here since I have a good job and at least half the battle won with my current apartment.  If psycho man stays away or if he leaves and the new neighbor is good, then we’re all good.  

For now, too much is up in the air to make a decision.

I’m still hoping I’ll come across a philanthropist who meets me and is smitten with my ideas and just showers me in funding for my business, my writing and whatever else I want so that I can pursue the things I want to pursue.  But… that’s along the fairytale lines.  Sigh

Well for now, I will say goodbye lest I get all philosophical (I’m horribly bored at work today) and start crying about my love life or lack thereof.  Be well friends…

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRAMIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
*grin*