This thing called growing up

The awesome part about being a "grown up" is having your own place. You come and go as you please, stock the cupboards with whatever your little heart desires, and leave crumb messes whenever you just don't feel like cleaning up. While all the listed items are truly wonderful, the whole money thing has not been.
I suppose we'll start with work taking away my $0.30/hour raise for mentoring new hires. They chose to take it away last month, saying it wasn't incentive to mentor, because you get the raise whether or not you're helping out. Thirty cents doesn't seem like much, but add it up with an 80 hour paycheck. Twenty-four bucks, or forty-eight bucks for the month. Before I had to clip coupons to afford groceries, forty-eight bucks meant nothing to me. Now, however, taking away that money is taking away my ability to pay the water bill.
Ever had to sign something saying it's okay for them to LOWER your wage? Imagine someone asking if they can kick you in the crotch. As hard as they can. Now imagine the pain as they do it, and having to grin and bear it, and act like everything is just peachy.
I don't know about you, but docking your employee's wage isn't really the fast-track to retention. I could be wrong. But I'm not.
This leads me to the next part of why being a grown up is sometimes the lamest thing on Earth. I'm seeking a second job to help me catch up on bills and get some money set aside to get back to school. Talk about an exhausting search. Of course with the economy, finding a job isn't nearly as easy as it was 2 years ago, but I've been able to find a few new job postings everyday. Hopefully something will fit. I'm dreading the day that I have to work 8 hours then drive to the next joint and throw down another 8 hour shift. Come home, sleep, and do it all again the next day.
It's not going to be fun, it's not going to be easy, but it's necessary. I'll keep you updated on the search, and if you know of anywhere that's hiring (NOT customer service!!!!) let me know!

It's been awhile...

Hello again. Not really sure why it's been so long since I've posted anything. BUT! Here I am... I can't believe it's January already. I'm still denying that Christmas has happened, let alone that we've started a new year. I'm still at 1800contacts. They feed me and it pays the bills, so I suppose I'll hang around for a while :). I'm planning on having my car paid off in the next six months or so. What a relief that will be! And then I'll get a new car and have a new loan to pay off... seems a little silly, but I'll go with it. I'm taking this semester off from school so I can get my finances in order.
I created a budget and it's been amazingly easy for me to stick to. I give myself $100 every check to do as I please (cash only, debit card stays tucked into my wallet, burrito style). It's funny how much harder it is for me to spend it when I have the actual bills in my hand. Of course I have a list of stuff I want to buy that's 1000 items long, but I'm reluctant to make any purchases. The debit card is used for gas, paying bills online, etc. Every time I use it, I transfer a dollar into a high interest savings account. It's adding up to a pretty sweet little stash.
Anyway, enough about money. I'm gettng back into oil painting again. My hope is to set aside one day a week to paint for a few hours. It's quite messy, and messy paints plus a messy Ran equals a really long time to clean up.
The grandma side of me would like some more face time, so I've started scrapbooking again too. It'll be neat to have all these pictures in chronological order for my kids to see some day.
Speaking of pictures, I've discovered a sweet option for printing pictures with Windows Vista. I don't know why so many people have horrible things to say about Vista, I think it's got a lot of really cool features. One of which is the option to digitally send your pictures to Walgreens, Walmart, really wherever you develop your film, and then you go pick up the prints. Or if you're super lazy, they can mail them to you. I dig it because I love pictures printed on real photo paper, not something that came out of my laserjet printer complete with gross smudges. And it's super cheap, like ten cents a print. You should check it out!
I'm planning on moving our here pretty soon. It'll be nice to escape the mulleted wonder. I'll be sure to keep you updated.
I think that's about it for now. There's something on TLC about child beauty pageants (which creep me out) so I suppose I'll finish watching that.