A Wee Bit Behind

Soooooooo. Happy Belated New Year! Hang onto your seats folks; I’ve got a few things to cover on this post to catch up January and February. Finally got my stuff moved in by the first of the year. (Last day at work was January 4th and then straight to the unemployment line, but first the moving and the chaos/oddness there that ensued.)

While packing up my apartment with Adam; weird family pulls up into my usual parking space in front of the house, they notice me and wander and meander before settling on a place to park. (Be prepared, I have much babbling to do.) I wait for said weird people to figure out where they want to park. Upon looking closer at the weirdoes, I realize I don’t know them, and they certainly don’t look like anyone the Ex or my girlfriend Amanda would hang out with; at least I wouldn’t think they would. The weirdoes ask if they can park in the driveway. I tell them to park there at their own risk since the Ex was parked there at that time. I note just how friggen weird these people are; perhaps a few chromosomes short of a 50 point or less IQ.

Meanwhile, back at the bat cave, I am packing boxes; Adam is loading my bicycles into the back of the Jeep for a load to take back to the house. Weird new neighbor guy, referred to as “special in the head boy” for now on in this post, who by the way sports an IQ below 50 or better, asks Adam for a ride somewhere. Uh- Hello? Do you not see the man loading my bicycles into the back of a Jeep? Duh. No we won’t give you a ride. No, James and Ashley don’t live here yet. They don’t live in the other apartment either. Go away!

A few days go by with the packing and loading and cleaning bits. I notice the special in the head boy that moved into the efficiency has now placed four penny nails in the door downstairs (his door mind you) on these four nails is a piece of paper tacked on that says “If you don’t know the code, ring once.” Or something like that. Friggen weird and odd no less.

I finally get stuff moved out of there so James and Ashley can get their stuff moved in. They kinda knew this special in the head boy that moved in, because he was looking for a cheap place to rent. He was definitely special this guy.

Rob, the Ex, tells me that special in the head boy banged on walls ‘til three in the morning the first night there, then came downstairs to knock on his door. AND that this banging on the walls went for a few nights. Anyway, this continues for a short few weeks. I am told Brian, the maintenance guy, relayed a message from the landlord to special in the head boy that he was to leave the premises and move out due to all the noise and problems he had been creating. Apparently he has also been knocking on my girlfriend Amanda’s door at three in the morning as well. Rob also reported that special in the head boy had inquired about the kayak and how much Rob wanted for it. Wait for it…..

Rob comes home from work, hearing running water, thinking maybe he left water running somewhere. He turns on the light to see water pouring into his place from the efficiency upstairs. Rob calls the landlord, gets a hold of Brian, etc etc etc…. They find that special in the head boy had torn out most of the walls, tried to set the kitchen on fire, the toilet and bathtub were missing, and there were holes in the floors as well. Meanwhile, Rob also discovers the kayak is missing! LOL Somehow, I can’t quite figure out how an idiot of that kind of magnitude managed to get away with a kayak when he buggered everyone for a ride all the time. Who the hell doesn’t notice a man dragging a brightly colored kayak being towed down the street by a single person who doesn't look quite right in the head anyway during this time of night or day for that matter? Too funny. And I couldn’t’ make up this shit up if I tried.

I feel kinda bad the house got tore up; James and Ashley were shocked to hear about the damage. Rob got most of his stuff replaced that was water damaged. The house itself suffered about $15,000 in damage due to about six inches of water in the basement and the upstairs damage. It’s slowly getting fixed up now.

Now about the unemployment. It was fairly uneventful to apply. I noticed that at opening office hours, no one happens to be there except employees. By noon or so, the place is packed with people that remind me of the toothless miscreants that lived in my old trailer park. I shudder to think of ever having to move back to that place or any place like it. Either way, it seemed apparent to me those that were there after noon were likely to have just woken up long enough to pack their sorry asses into a beater car and make the trek to the unemployment office. All the while I am the only one sans hangover.

I have always believed that unemployment should be for those who have worked a steady job, been laid off from that steady job, or at least done something besides get fired from Wal-Mart or McDonalds. I think I’ve been working since I was 16 and have rarely had much down time in between jobs if any at all. This would be the first time the REALLY BIG WORLD has been a threat to my standards of living due to losing my job. ARRRRG!

So I file the paperwork, fill out more paperwork, talk to an unemployment rep who does little to reassure me as to how long this should take for benefits to kick in etc- etc-etc… Or better yet, does little to reassure me that I would even be eligible for benefits due to how I was forced to resign or be terminated from my job. It all depended on what they had to say about it at my former employer. Well, of course they’re not going to tell unemployment I was forced to resign! The exit interview gave me the impression that there was no such thing as forced to resign in their vocabulary, yet plainly resigning or being terminated were. Being terminated much worse that forced to resign. To apply for a state job, well, they specifically ask that question. Have you ever been terminated? Well no, actually, I was forced to resign which is somehow better than terminated. I don’t claim understand employers and their terminology.

Slightly over six weeks later, a whole lot of nervous wreckage, and shear panic, I finally get a check from the state for unemployment. If I had not gotten the check, my car payment would now be a few weeks overdue along with a few other things.

Here’s the joy of being unemployed, no insurance, I live in paranoia of becoming ill or injured. I cannot get my prescriptions filled without skipping a bill payment of some kind. I feel frustrated that no matter how many resumes I have put out there, no one has responded to any of them. It’s depressing, it’s humiliating to think I might actually have to suck it up and work for Wal-Mart of all things. :(

Anyhoo, that’s it now. I am still looking for a job. I have calculated that the money will run out by mid June this year. Then I will be unable to draw unemployment money again this year. I’ve checked into returning to school for a masters degree. I found that by the time I had looked into it, I missed the dead line for applying and certainly didn’t have time to fill out the whole admissions questionnaire or write the papers they wanted on time. I will try keep up on my blog more often too. It’s time for me to run after pecking away on this thing for an hour or so.

Tammolly

...So if I die today I'll be the happy phantom
And I'll go wearin' my naughties like a jewel...
I'm still an angel to a girl who hates to sin