The Records of the Clow

I need to be asleep now, I need to leave for work in like, 9 hours!! But I start my new job tomorrow. Yes, a new job. Old company, new position. MTS called me last Tuesday to ask if I wanted to work for them again. I won't be editing videos this time around, I'll be a full-time office manager. With benefits. And paid vacation. I'll be making about $1,000 more per month than working at Yankee Candle.

I'll be honest, it was a difficult decision. I'm comfortable at Yankee, but there's the money, and should I be selling candles to people my whole life?

But that's it for my update. Like I said, first day tomorrow, and I have an hour drive to get there!

Less than a week until Thanksgiving, which I'm hosting at my apartment this year. Then it's officially Christmas for about 3.5 weeks. I don't even remember what I came on here to say. Damn. I'll come back later.

I'm just gonna post something really quick since I should be in bed right now. I'm working an open-close shift tomorrow (12 hrs) and I really need to sleep!

Alas, I am awake. Probably because I took a 3-hr nap this afternoon. I'm online, playing on facebook and looking for wedding rings. It's actually proving pretty difficult to find wedding rings that I like! Since we're doing the whole Renaissance wedding, we just can't go to a jewelry store and pick one out. I don't find those too personal, anyway. They're rocks sitting on top of circles, with little or no personality. In my opinion, anyway. I don't want a plain gold band, I want something to compliment my Claddagh engagement ring, and since it has such a unique look and shape, it's making the journey that much more difficult. But I guess I shouldn't be worrying about it right now... we have a whole year yet to find it, right?

Oh, speaking of that, Shawn and I decided on a date. I really shouldn't say much because the date's not set in stone; we need to pay the deposit to nail down our date. We should start doing all that wedding stuff, though. We have enough saved up to make the deposit, and then we can start refining the list and mailing save-the-dates. It's just a bunch of stuff to think about.

This is kind of tricky, because really none of my friends have gotten married yet. I know a lot of people my age who have married already, but none were close enough to me for me to be able to go to them for advice and things like that. Everyone's engaged, though, but I don't think anyone is in the planning stages yet.

Ok.... really need to go to bed. Nite!

Today are the 2nd round interviews for 1st Asst. Mgr. I decided to try for the position this time, so it's me and some other people vying for it. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

So for those of you who have no idea what's been going on with me:

It's been 13 weeks since my last update. That's what lj is telling me. That's like 3 months. 1/4 of the year and I've not written a damn thing on here. The irony is, I'm on here like every day seeing what everyone else is up to. And I don't even have the time to be like, "oh I'm working today, lah dee dah."

Kinda crazy.

Anywho...

We have a wedding plan!! We're going to get married NEXT September (2010 for those of you who don't know what 'next' means.. believe me, I've been asked) at the Renaissance Festival. We don't have an exact date yet cuz they're working on the wedding plans for those who are getting married at THIS year's Ren Fest. More details will come later about that.
I have been sticking to my gun about savings. So far, we've successfully put away 10% of each of our paychecks since the beginning of June! It seems like it's been a lot longer than that, though. What's even better is, I figured out how much money we'd have if we had started saving that 10% as soon as we got engaged, and I managed to put all that money into savings, too! So it's LIKE we've been saving as soon as we got engaged! So far, we have about $1,100 in the savings account. We would've had more, but I had to pay my mom back (long story).
I'm proud of our savings. I've also figured that our wedding is going to be around $5-6,000 with everything included, which I think is a pretty awesome deal, considering everyone at MTS' average wedding was about $10-12,000.

I'm full-time at Yankee. Never thought it would happen. The 1st Assistant position is open again (this will be the 3rd time since I've been at South Hills), and I'm trying for the position. I can only do my best, so we'll see where that gets me. I've been very happy working with everyone there and I hope I get that opportunity. :) It'll be awesome.

I didn't even get a chance to post about my car accident!!!
I got hit like a month and a half ago. The damage was mostly cosmetic, but I'm still upset about it. The thing was, it was my first accident and I didn't know what to do, so everything that I should've done, I didn't do, so filing the claim was kind of difficult. I didn't get enough information from the driver that hit me so it's been very difficult trying to track down the responsible party so I don't have to pay anything to get my car fixed. It really is aggravating.

Also, I got my hair cut twice today. Let me explain this one.
I've been wanting to get my hair cut for a while now, but I've just been putting it off. Today I got my oil changed at WalMart (which I was also putting off), so I decided while I waited to get my hair cut. I told the lady that I wanted a few inches off the bottom because it's getting too hot to have my hair as long as it was. It took her about 15 minutes, and she only cut off like 1/2" if she cut off anything, and I paid $17 for it. I should have been like, "lady there's no hair on the floor, I'm not paying that," but I'm weak-willed and I paid it and left. I was so pissed the whole way to work that I didn't say anything to her. I got to work and told Veronica that I (didn't) get my hair cut. Could I even consider it a trim?? She told me that I should spend a few extra dollars and get a really good cut. I couldn't justify paying twice for a haircut, but she told me exactly what to say and to not be such a pusswagon about it. She also said, "clock in an hour late and get your hair cut!!" So that's exactly what I did. I went down, got my hair cut exactly how I wanted it, and was very happy with the result. Paying another $33 kinda hurt, though. I'm gonna try to go to WalMart tomorrow and be like, "I got my hair cut twice yesterday. Guess which one I didn't like" and try and get my money back. It probably won't work, though.

But anyway, the reason I'm so excited and can't sleep!
I just worked 9 days in a row. It's been a long time since I worked that many days in a row. The reason I was scheduled for that many was because Veronica felt bad about me working whole weekends as often as I was, so she let me have a weekend off (Fri-Sun). Shawn and I are going CAMPING!!! We have a tent already, we just bought an air mattress, and we have most of the other camping stuff that we will need. I'm so excited because it's just going to be me, him, and our tent. I've never been camping before and I'm so excited to be trying something new with him. I've been looking forward to this for WEEKS! I killed the battery on my camera so I could charge it back up so I can take all kinds of awesome pictures while we're up there. I'm also going to have my cell off the whole time. I think it'd just take away from the experience if I'm texting away on it (I don't really text anyone anyway). Plus no one really calls me either. But I will change my voice mail message for the first time in 3 1/2 years! I'm also excited about that. How dorky am I??!?!

Ok, so I can't think of anything else monumental that has happened in the four months that I haven't updated.
Oh! Shawn's and my two-year anniversary is coming up at the end of August! This camping trip is kind of what we planned to do for our anni, but since Veronica gave me this weekend off, we decided to do it early. :) I love him. <3

Ok, really out of things to say. and I've been typing for like, 1/2 hour. And it's 2:30 in the morning. I think I'm gonna try to go to sleep. Or watch TV.

I hope this post keeps you entertained for the next 4 months. :)

Two months have gone by and I'm too lazy to play on the internet. WTF?

We're no further along with our wedding plans than when we started. Haha. I'm kind of in no rush. It'll happen.

So here's an interesting story: I had transferred back to the Mills (as a sales associate) since it's only about 15 minutes from my house. I got a call from V from South Hills asking if I could come back for a few weeks (as a 2nd assistant manager) because some things happened and they needed a manager. So I agreed to go back there and take a temporary promotion while they got things under control and found a new manager. I didn't want to stay there as a manager because it's a long drive and I didn't feel it was worth it. Well, after being back in South Hills and getting the paychecks that I've been getting, I think it's worth it. So now I'm there as a permanent manager. And I might be getting a second job (also in South Hills) as another kinda manager gig. I'm not gonna say anything else about it until I get it, but it'll be awesome if I do get it!

So with that being said, I want to start putting money away for the wedding. We may not have any plans yet, but you don't need plans to start saving! I want to take 10% of our income and put it away. I think we can safely afford that much. If I can see we can put more away, I'll do so as I see necessary.

Um. I thought I had more to say, but I can't think of anything else. :)

Go Pens!

So, I've been engaged for a week. So far I bought 3 wedding magazines. Shawn and I have been talking about what we want. Nothing's set in stone yet, not even a date! That's okay. We're gonna take our time. I want a baby, though. Like, now! Shawn disagrees. He wants kids, but says we don't have the money. I agree, but I REALLY WANT ONE!!!!

Other than that, still looking for jobs. I wanna start saving money for the wedding! Ash and I are going to a bridal show tomorrow. Chelsea may or may not be coming. She's not sure yet.

Being at home is so boring! I really need a job.

We bought a bedroom set today. As of now, our bedroom is filled with totes and we have our mattress on the floor. It'll be nice to have a complete set.

That's pretty much all that I've been up to. Hopefully something exciting will happen soon.

It's been about 8 years since I updated this thing and thought this would be a great time to do so. Shawn is playing a game on the Xbox and his brothers are over watching him, so I have a moment to myself.

The work area hasn't really been improving. I'm working 9 hours/week, and I really need to start looking for jobs. Shawn's work has been picking up, and in the meantime is collecting partial unemployment to help pay for the rent and other things we need to stay alive. I did work at Macy's for 3 weeks in December. I hated it and quit. There's a position open at Shaler Waterworks Cinemas for PT Assistant Manager, I'm gonna apply there and see what happens. It'll be awesome if I get it, for sure.

The new apartment is awesome! I love it, it feels so homey and it's so close to everyone.

Anyhow, today is Valentine's Day. This'll be my fifth year spending it with someone, and I couldn't ask for a better person to spend it with. Shawn made reservations for us at Shogun in Monroeville, so we went there and had delicious hibachi food and wonderful hibachi entertainment. Shawn told me our chef didn't have a right thumb (after he was done cooking and left), which made the whole show that much more amazing! I didn't even notice!
After we ate, he drove us to our high school and PROPOSED! It wasn't a huge surprise, but it was a great experience. I knew the ring was here, Shawn teased me about it. I saw the ring box in his pocket when we went out to eat. But getting to the school (that's where we met, of course), and the sun was setting so the sky was an amazing red/orange/beautiful color. We were standing looking at the sunset, and he had his arm around my waist, and he said, "how about it baby, will you marry me?" I cried a little and said yes!



I think the ring is absolutely beautiful and I love it! No, we don't have a date yet, but everyone will know when it is set, and everyone will be required to come in Renaissance attire!!! :)

It's been 3 weeks since I was told that my services were no longer required. It's been two weeks that I've only been working 1 job. I'm very fortunate and happy that I got some nice chunks of money when I did, because I don't know where I'd be had I not received them. We're trying to keep a very close eye on our finances, and we're trying our damnedest to pinch every penny. The money in our account is slowly dwindling, and I'm really worried that we're not gonna be able to keep that number in the black come January when we need to move out. I think tomorrow I'm gonna look around the mall and get a seasonal job at Macy's or something, to help with the money until we move.

Then I worry if it's even worth it to keep my job at Yankee after we move.

I get worried, then I spiral. Everyone does it, but that doesn't mean it's the best course to take.

I probably should get started packing up everything... it's kind of depressing.

Once we move, I'm gonna look for another part time job out by my mom's house.

I wanna hope that everything will be okay, and know that this is happening for a reason, but it's only human nature to think of the worst possible scenario, right?

:/ this entry wasn't supposed to be such a downer.

I'm gonna stop spiraling into depression and think of something creative to do.

So, November has just begun, but it's been very action-packed for being the first week.

I left for Carolyn's on Saturday night. This is the 4th year that I've babysat her kids while her and her husband are away on a business trip. It kind of seems weird to babysit a 16 year old and a 13 year old, but hey, what else can you call it? Sunday, I think, was pretty uneventful.

Monday was the kicker.

I went to work (at the office) like normal, worked my day like normal. The big boss called everyone in for a meeting that day, so the out-of-towners had to commute in. I thought nothing of it, meetings happen. Around the end of the day, about 15-20 minutes before I would leave to go home, my immediate boss called me outside to talk with me. I honestly didn't think anything of it, either. Well, he told me that after this week, that my services were no longer needed. It came as a shock, for sure. The money in the company had been running out. There were money freezes and notices of no raises or bonuses. I really didn't take all the warnings to heart like I should have. My time at MTS was ending, and not in the way that I hoped it would. The other contractor and I received apologies and condolences, what could anyone else have done to prevent this? Nothing much, the market's going sour.
I should have worried more about losing my job, I should have cherished more the lifestyle we were living while other people are on the brink of losing their homes, if they already haven't. What could have been different if I did those things? Probably not much. We probably could have been more prepared for the event by rationing money beforehand.

There were tears, for sure. What are we going to do? How are we going to survive? Are we going to have to move out of our apartment that we worked so hard for? I called Shawn immediately. I told him everything. The first thing we're going to do is get rid of our cable and our house phone. We'll keep the internet for job searches and for a bit of sanity, I suppose. We'll have to see how things pan out these next few weeks to see if we can manage our apartment with our income or if we'll have to move back home. I called Yankee Candle, too. I told my manger of what just happened to me and that I needed more hours. She gave me as much as she could.... and it's not enough, I'm afraid. I'm going to have to get a second job, at least for the time being. I don't think there was ever a point in time where I thought I coud just get by at Yankee.... at least while I'm just 2nd assistant.

I spent this week working my ass off to make things a little bit easier for the people that are still there, I know it's going to be hard for them in the coming weeks, with less help. They'll be spending a lot more time working and less time with their lives. And I hope for their sake that it's not going to be as stressful as I imagine it will get.

Today was my last day at MTS. Probably ever. If they called and asked me to come back, I don't think that I would. I've been unhappy there since practically the beginning, that was no secret. I stayed around because it was comfortable and I was living comfortably with the paycheck. The hardest day of this week was Monday.

I am thankful for my time at MTS. I will miss the friends I made there, I will miss seeing them everyday. I am thankful for all that I learned since I started my internship there in April of 2006. I hope for the best for each of them, and the company as a whole. I'd hate to see them all lose their jobs.


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I finish up here at Carolyn's on Sunday, where I'll go back to my apartment and Shawn and I can sit down and figure out how we'll survive until the end of January, when our lease is up.

If you guys have any other questions, hit me up. The crying is over, and I'm open to suggestions on how to live frugally.