I am still alive, but barely

I haven't blogged in ages because I got a job. I am now employed by a very well known retail store that sells soap, shower get, bubble bath, body wash, eau de toilette, etc. I actually like this job. My position is something similar to assistant manager since I get at set of keys and the opportunity to boss people around. The pay is even decent. It is better than that damn furniture store job that I quit after one day.

I am tired and my feet hurt all the time. I have lost weight though so standing up selling soap has all kinds of benefits.

I am hopeful that BIll will finish school someday and get an internship and then a job. It will be nice to be able to get my studio set up and have the time and energy to design and make something.

I have picked out some soapy presents for my friends and family (Big surprise there).

The California Project is in its final stage. Paper work arrived today, I will notarize it and fed ex it tomorrow. and hopefully have a huge wire transfer enter my bank account. Then I can tell all the people who have irritated me since may to F#$%-Off.

I still have my California cell for those of you who call and leave messages. I will call you back someday.


Love to all!

For Sale

As I blogged a few days ago, I have started selling my stuff on eBay. I am also doing some consignment sales for a few of my friends. Check out the link to "My eBay Sales" and buy my stuff or beg me nicely to just give it to you. This mask is just one example of the crazy stuff we will be selling. 

Because I just AM.

I quit.

I just couldn't work somewhere I was expected to address my co-workers as Mr. Jones and as Ms. Smith. I think that there would have been severe personality conflicts with my new boss.

One of my personal management mottos is:"Don't muzzle the Ox that treads the wheat."

I always imagine some poor hungry Ox tied up, walking in circles and treading wheat while wearing a muzzle. I think that is torture. Why not just let the Ox take a bite every now and then?

I think employees are valuable and should benefit in more ways than just a paycheck. A few copies and missing pens are just the cost of doing business. Trust your people, train them well, expect them to do a good job, and then fire them if they don't work out. Don't waste time on ridiculous little things.

What makes you think you're so damn special?

I have a new job. I want to cry.

This is for Emily

Emily is correct. I did not have a link to the horrid pictures of the house in Modesto on my blog. If you go to the favored blog list on the left and down a little, you will see the awful "before" pictures. I will post the "after" pictures as soon as I sell enough of my plasma to be able to afford to get them devoloped.

I have begun the dreaded job hunt. Dreaded because I need at least $10 an hour and there are no jobs with this outrageously high amount of pay. Just who do I think I am to expect over $10/hour? It's not like I have a business degree or any work experience, then I might even be able to expect $15/hour. Alas, I have an over inflated view of myself, but I will prick my pride and deflate my self worth to join the multitudes of impoverished souls slaving away for $6.00 an hour. (My 18 year old sister will be making more money than me and I don't even have a criminal record.) A dear friend told me that she feels like her soul dies a little every time she takes a minimum wage job. I would get back on Cymbalta, but by the time I went to the doctor ($65) and filled the prescription ($75) and talked to my therapist ($140) I would have to work a whole week ($7/hour) just to be happy the rest of the time.

3 Weeks = 3 Months

Wow! We are finally back in Texas. Bill and I thought we would be in California 3 or 4 weeks. It ended up taking just under 3 months to get his house remodeled and choose a realtor. Fortunately his classes were online so he didn't miss too much not being home. I didn't get to take a single art class :(

I have made a list of all the things I have been wanting to do and based on its length, I won't be bored for what remains of this fall. In addition to the art work and jewelry I want to create, I am also going through our two houses and eliminating the crap. Why do we have all of these "accessories" anyway? My house is full of knicknacks that I don't need. Some of them I don't really even like. What do I need Harry Potter bookends for? or a cat nightlight? or countless lantern things for candles? Some were gifts, some were on clearance (I will resist in the future) and some I just thought I couldn't live with out. After spending the summer with nothing, I realize that we have a lot of junk. I look at each piece and say, "Do I want to take this to New Zealand with me?" It makes it much easier to part with stuff. We may not move to New Zealand any time soon, but Bill will be starting an internship somewhere else in the spring and we will have to move. I don't want to move a bunch of stuff that I don't need.

Just Drop Me Off Here!

 

It's Cold Here

 

Coit Tower

 

Lombard Street, SF

We actually drove the Altima. 

Is that Alcatraz in the distance?

 

San Francisco Sea Lions

 

"Where Quality And Precision Is What Counts!"

The slogan on the back of a carpet installation truck. I wouldn't hire them.


I am still in California. Two nights in a row I have sat on the floor sobbing because the easy to install laminate flooring wouldn't lock in place. I am tired. The house is looking beautiful. If people (males) would quit screwing up things I have already done, I wouldn't have to redo them. I get so tired of the assumption that because I am a woman, I couldn't possibly know better. Well, I may not have developed the nail hammering skills of a man, but I can calculate the hell out of a wood floor and I can figure out how to fix anything given a little time.

Men use force. Women think.

I am turning into a sexist sow!

You can tell that KMart bought Sears

I bought a spray gun at sears 2 days ago for $109.99. After reading the book of instructions it was determined that I needed to purchase the 2.2mm spray nozzle to use the gun most efficiently. I went to the store again today and asked about nozzles for the spray gun. The gray haired man disdainfully informed me that they don't carry spray nozzles and walked off. I tracked him down, "Sir, this is a craftsman, I bought it here and it says that I need to buy this nozzle. Where can I get it?"

"Try the parts and repair place across town." He didn't give me a phone number, didn't offer to call, nothing.

I went to the parts place and of course the part numbers didn't match the almighty Sears computer (the Sears Department store had a better computer that might have been able to identify the part). Margherita was a good person and called several paint stores to try to find a tip that would work. She deserves a raise. Unfortunately, there is no nozzle in Modesto.

I will be returning the spray gun. (I bought one for $12.99 at another place that will probably be fine.

Boycott The Home Depot

Why do I get bad service? The odds of getting bad service as often as I do are incredibly high so I can only assume that there has been a steep decline in training, intelligence and customer satisfaction skills found in today's employees.

This morning I ordered a piece of banana cream pie at Bakers Square. The toasted almonds were soggy, the bananas were brown, and the whipped cream was rubbery. That slice had to be at least three days old. Of course I didn't get a free piece of pie to make up for tasting this travesty, I had to pay for the replacement slice of boysenberry.

Last weekend, I bought paint and painted the garage and the front of the house and all of the trim. I requested EXTERIOR satin paint.

Today, while getting more paint I noticed that the exterior paint cans have black on them, my cans have no black. The f#$%ing morons mixed and sold me 5 cans of the wrong paint.

All of my work has to be redone, not just the part Bill decided to ruin. I am getting an ulcer.

I am going to return that paint and they are going to give me a refund. If they are smart, they will also give me a big gift card. If not, I will return everything I haven't used yet and go to Lowe's to repurchase it. I will buy, use and return things so that I cost Home Depot as much money and time as they have cost me.

I HATE HOME DEPOT.

The Mighty Mopo

I am driving down Carpenter in Modesto and I look in the rearview mirror. A Mopo is tailgating me. I am going 2 miles below the speed limit so I go a little faster. He turns on his lights and pulls me over.

"May I help you?" I hand him my Texas driver's license from the window of my Texas vehicle.

"It is illegal to drive a vehicle with tinted windows in the front and sides in the state of California!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" (I am thinking don't you see that I am from Texas)

"It is illegal to drive a vehicle with tinted windows in the front and sides in the state of California!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" (Are you a moron?)

"Do you live here?"

"No, I am just visiting."

"OK" he hands me my license and walks away.

Bill said that because I was a white girl with an attitude, I probably wasn't a drug dealer even though my car fits the profile. A guilty person wouldn't act the way I do.

San Francisco

Bill is returning today. I have a few suprises for him. The front door of the house has been painted purple, the front of the house has been painted green, almost all of the floor has been laid (with the help of my dad), the outside trim is painted and waiting to be hung, the inside trim has been purchased and I don't feel like painting it, and I have painted all of the existing house trim white.

San Francisco is supposed to reach a high of 69 degrees today. I am actually wearing a sweater to pick Bill up. I hope he takes me out for Rice-a-Roni and a trolley ride. I may have to leave him in Alcatraz if he doesn't get the house finished quickly.

Bill has left me :(

I am still in Modesto! Bill left last week to go play in NYC and then go to Nacogdoches this week and go to class and water the plants.

I am still in Modesto. Fortunately, I am staying with a friend who has air conditioning and cable and I don't have to stay at the house. The house is coming along nicely. The wood floor is laid and the walls are painted. I still have trim to buy and paint.

My finger is doing ok. I cut it with a razor blade, dripped enough blood for a crime scene and almost fainted during the whole ordeal (anything to get out of work). I went to the Public Health place and got a tetanus shot just to be safe. The tetanus shot was the only good deal I have found here, only $10.

Fire the day before.

 

 

 

I See Mexico 

Help, a rock is about to crush my car!

 

Mojave Desert

I just got my pictures! 

Indiana Payne in the California Hut of Doom

I woke up early this morning to eight little legs scurrying across my face, I brushed them off and went back to sleep. I woke up a few minutes later to more little legs crawling across my lips. I was fully awake this time. I lay there thinking, “ooh it was a spider. I bet they are coming in the house because the teardown in the back yard has stirred them up.” Then I thought about the black widow spiders I keep hearing everyone say probably live in the back yard. I finally fell asleep again figuring if my face and hand weren’t in pain, I probably hadn’t been bitten.

I headed to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast. I opened the Mexican pastry cabinet and six flies flew out like they had been waiting all day for someone to open that door. I went ahead and picked out three buns and gave them to Bill. When the flies were attacking me yesterday while I ate pizza, he said he didn’t think they were a big deal, so I didn’t mention the flies trapped in the bread case. I ate a packaged nutty bar because I kept thinking about the flies. There are flies all over this stinking state, in every restaurant, the house, inside, outside, there are these strange sewer flies in the bathroom because the water dried up in the pipes since the house was empty for six months. They are constantly buzzing around me and landing on me and I am hot. Imagine how irritable I must be. Poor Bill.

Tonight, I was cleaning the rest of the spider webs and dirt off of the walls so that we could paint and I headed into the front bedroom to finish up. There is a giant black spider with the telltale red hourglass. Oh my God! I hate poisonous spiders more than anything, because they are small and you never know one is there until it is too late and webs are nasty sticky things. Bill finally went in the bedroom and killed it. He then casually mentioned how many black widows they were finding outside. “Dave handed me a board for the dumpster and said, ‘Watch out, there are at least four on that board.’” I reminded him that the spider is female because she kills and eats her mate.

Now I have to sleep in this house (on an air mattress on the floor), wondering when death is going to crawl across my face and bite me.


 

Fire2Wire Supports Free Internet

Wi-Fi should be FREE everywhere. Down with Starbucks! Support your free wireless internet coffee shops if you can find them. I mean really, I am going to buy coffee or something if I go in their business, so the internet is an incentive to get me to shop there. It is a disincentive if you are going to charge me for it.

Note: I was ranting and raving when I thought it was $10/day or $20 for one month. It is $40 for one month, $20 to $30/month only if you sign up for a year. Now I am really mad! I already get DSL for $20/month. Why would I pay twice as much for the inconvenience of Starbucks? I think we should start a boycott! I know I am not going to shop there anymore.

Uh oh, I am starting to sound a little Socialist, Communist, or Anti-Capitalist.

Support Plantation Coffee Co. in Modesto. Good food and free internet. They even have a plug if you start to lose power.

The State Dog

I have another stereotype for California. Everyone owns a Chihuahua dog! These little guys run collarless through the streets of Modesto. I wonder how dangerous a pack of them would be. They outnumber the other dogs 5:1. I think I am going to go to the pound and adopt one to take home as my souvenir of CA.

Now that I think about it, Bill's dog Cali, was chihuahua colored. Maybe he was a halfbreed. 

Destination Achieved

Modesto is a blue collar town of about 150,000. It is a full of cheap delicious fruit, way overpriced houses, and gangs.
Currently there is a heat wave in California. Yesterday it was 104 degrees. I am staying in a stinky dirty house with no A/C and it is over 100 every damn day. The things I do for love. There is no Wal-mart supercenter with 24 hour grocery and all of the shopping centers seem a little out dated. The evenings are cool so that is wonderful. (I can't imagine sleeping in a hot stinky house).
Apparently our renters were running a refugee camp in the back yard. the neighbors say there were 30 Cambodians, dogs, ducks and chickens living in our house. There are several mysterious structures that we are tearing down. I think the women and children slept outside with the dogs and chickens and the men slept in the house. It is pretty wild, but I am sure it was better than a dirt floor bamboo hut in the jungle.
So far, California is OK, but I wouldn't want to live here. No earthquakes yet, but I am going to be here for a week or two. Oh, I also haven't seen any beautiful blonde men or women flying down the side walk on rollerskates so I think maybe the TV has been exagerating all these years. Personally, I think Texans are more attractive, after all, we win those stupid pagents every other year.
I am painting the house green! I am an American Mexican 

Travel Day 4

Today is the fourth day of our trip. I am taking my Somas a lot closer together and popping massive quantities of ibuprofin as well. The spasms in my back and legs are almost unbearable. We pulled off the highway at Fresno for lunch and paid a dollar to drive into a park so that I could lay on a picnic table in the shade and have Bill massage me. People kept driving by and staring at us. I guess they thought we were weird. It finally helped my back feel well enough to get back in the car until we got to Turlock where Bill got his degree. Then a few more miles to Modesto and the house.

Travel Day 3

We made it to California last night and stayed in Blythe. We started out this morning and headed for the Joshua Tree National Forest/Park It was amazing. There was a cloud keeping the sun off of my head so it felt about 75 degrees it was wonderful. I saw a Jackrabbit, horned lizard, prarie dog, lots of other lizards, a desert squirrel or chipmunk, and an abandoned gold mine. We spent all day there and ended up spending the night about 100 miles closer to Modesto than the night before.

Travel Day 2

I drove across Arizona today. It was 106 degrees. Dry heat is hot, you just don't sweat and you start feeling sick even though the air conditioner in your car is on high because the sun has been beating on you through the windshiled and when you stop to go to the bathroom at the rest stop you rest your elbows on your thighs and get burned. It was 107 in the shade and 108 when the sun went down. Where the hell am I?
By the way, I hate to be hot, I hate to be sweaty, but I really hate to be hot.

El Paso

We spent the first night of our journey to California in El Paso, Texas. Cuidad de Juarez was this huge city of lights on the other side of a dark area known as the Rio Grande. It was exciting and felt a little dangerous to be so close to Mexico. The next morning I saw the Rio Grande. It was about as wide as Lanana Creek (about 6 feet wide?). I thought people swam to freedom, not leapt accross while staying dry. There is no wet back involved in crossing this river.

El Paso and beyond.














The mighty Rio Grande!

Feminist Literature

Bill and I went to the library to get some books on CD for our road trip to Cali. The library had almost no romance novels on CD. There was lots of macho crap, self help, and murder mysteries but no romance.

Why is murder and crime more uplifting that romance? I get so sick of having one of my choices in literature denigrated. Most of the non-romance books on the best seller lists have some kind of sex scene, so it's not that. Is it because they have happy endings? No, lots of books have happy endings. Are they too predictable? No, in our day and age almost everything is predictable.

I know why people discriminate against romance novels, they are a declaration by the woman reading them that she is intelligent and likes or looks forward to sex. This makes people uncomfortable because everyone knows that women hate sex, it's only for men to enjoy and women are modest, less intelligent creatures who spend their time reading home decor magazines and sweet little murder mysteries with recipes. Only an immoral, wicked woman would read a romance novel (and that includes the Christian ones).

I'm bound for California!

Wow, Bill and I are finally going to California. Unfortunately, it won't be a pleasure trip. We are going to clean up the rental property and sell it. Finally. Please pray for our safety, good people for hire, and a speedy sale at a fair price.

I will keep you updated and post pics of the things we see.

Five Years Together!

Today was the fifth anniversary of Bill's and my first date. We went blueberry picking for our first date, so today we went blueberry picking again. It was a lovely evening outside after a refreshing afternoon rain.
  

I guess my brother and sister don't love me.

I didn't get a birthday present from my dear Katie and Scott. I got a phone call, but no card or present or excuse. Not even a stick of gum in a hand made card. Hmmm.

Ghosts

We had lots of fun chasing these little guys late at night with flashlights. It was crazy the way the ran sideways on their little legs across the beach. We caought tons of them and then let them go again.
 

Happy Birthday

Well, I had a great day. It is good to be alive. I am finally thirty-@#$%. I got lots of phone calls, emails, flowers, and some really neat presents. Kristin gave me this gorgeous tourquoise outfit with matching jewelry from India and Bill gave me pink roses and a gift certificate for a professional massage. We ate dinner at Red Lobster and I wore my new cream and gold tiered skirt with beads, a fuschia tank and my gorgeous colorful shawl that I bought at Christmas in Chicago. My outfit was completed with vintage earrings and orange and rhinestone flip-flops. After dinner, we had Marbleslab icecream (swiss chocolate with strawberries) and margaritas in the pool. I am exhausted and headed for bed.

Shrimp and Whale

I decided what the hell and wore a bikini to the beach. I think even the seagulls were frightened.

Floating House?

  

INdie Girl

 

Which One?

  

Our Beach House

 
aka Tequila Sunrise 

Beach Fun?

After a fun morning playing in the surf, Bill and I decided to take a break and sit in the beach chairs with Mom Peg and watch Dad and Kate play in the water.

As we were sitting on the sand relaxing, a huge black fin emerged from the water just a few feet from Katie and my dad. I believe I said, "OMG what the hell is that?!" Then the fin emerged again a few feet further away. I jumped up and yelled, "Shark! Shark!" Katie and Dad ignored me. Bill offered to go out there and tell them. I said, "Please be careful."

My heroic Bill heads into the ocean to warn them and Peg spots the giant fin a little farther away. Bill returns to shore without them. They thought I was hallucinating! There were three of us that saw it. My dad and Kate finally come in a few minutes later and tease me about seeing seaweed. Hah!

They didn't know I got a picture! Here is the proof!

Look out!