I’m pleased to announce that I start my new job on Monday.  Unfortunately things are at a catch-22 right now.  I know for sure that I’ll be bringing in about $2,000 a month with everything I have going on.  At the same time, however, it just doesn’t seem to want to come in the way I need it to.

I woke up yesterday to see a load of green slime under Sean’s front right tire.  Knowing that we already had the water pump replaced, it obviously has to come from another source.  So today Lucy took me over to NAPA so I could get some antifreeze to fill the leak, and then when my neighbor showed up I ran right up to him and asked for help.  He sent me up to a guy in Sea Cliff with the goal of having a pressure test done so we can find out where the leak is coming from exactly.  We were happy to find out that the guy took us right away and threw the car up on the list.  After a little bit of waiting he came back and we were then told that we’re going to need a new radiator and a new set of some kind of tubes.  We explained that this is the third radiator in the car (since it’s purchase) and he was dumbfounded as to what’s going on.  We left it with him (thank god for Lucy today, she really helped us out) and we’ll know tomorrow why things are as screwed up as they are.

So basically, Sean and I were just getting ahead on the bills and now it’s to the point where we’re so far behind it’s absurd.  This job is going to set us back a few hundred dollars and then I need to scrape money together in order to prepare for work over the course of the upcoming week.  We also need to put money aside so that we can rent a UHaul and pick up our stuff from Delaware.  It’s a never-ending cycle of annoyance these days - I’ll tell you that much.

Sean and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary. While we’ve known each other for more than two years, we’ve only been together since July 21, 2006. Knowing that we’re tight on cash, when we happened to be running errands last night in New Hyde Park we wound up stopping at this place called “Charlie Browns Steak House”. I’ve never been there before but Sean went numerous times when he was living in New Jersey. I picked up some ribs and the salad bar came included. He got himself a burger with the add-on of the salad bar as well. It’s a bit healthier than picking up the mozzarella sticks for an appetizer. Dinner was relatively nice, the food could have been a bit better (something we both agreed upon) but it was nice to just get out for a little while and have it be just the two of us.

For the last couple of weeks it’s mainly been family-time for me. I’ve been around my mother’s, I’ve hung out with my aunts, grandmother, father, sister, friends from around town (which are considered family in my opinion) so it really just hasn’t been the two of us, so it was nice to get out for a bit.

We’re in the process of figuring things out in regards to who’s going where. Unfortunately, I have too much going on up here where my life in Delaware is just not an option anymore. I love DE, and I adore Sean’s mom, I just can’t be down there at this point in my life. Too many family members are sick, and I’ve really missed my friends. I only have two people in Delaware. Sean and I are fine, and I get along great with his mother but I do need the friend input and I don’t go out and ‘make friends’ I’m comfortable with the people I grew up with. I know if I were ever able to FIND a job down there I’d be able to meet some more people but with every 100 applications sent, I’d get one phone call back and it would either not work out or just be such a shitty job that even wasting my time there just wasn’t worth it.

So the answer - I move back to New York. I’ve put in some applications up here so that I can bring in enough money where Sean and I can afford an apartment here on Long Island. My most recent application was sent to human resources as the hospital. It’s per-diem work, which isn’t even ‘Part-Time’ it’s a “call you as we need you” position. It’s my mother’s old job and per-diem work can very quickly turn into a full time job with the way people are rotated in and out of departments. When my father first started at the hospital he was working per-diem on the weekends, the guy he was covering for (full-time employee) decided to pick up and move to Florida a week after my father started. Dad was then asked if he wanted to switch to full-time and the rest is history. Five years later he’s still with them and making pretty decent money. He’s still in debt but at least there’s a solid paycheck coming in to take care of the bills.

So it’s my hope that I’ll be able to do that. I think it’s kind of funny that at this point in my life I’m about the same age as my mother when she first started working there. While I, in no way, see myself going down her route in life, I know there’s a lot of stability working for one of the top 3 employers on Long Island. Unfortunately, even with the economy, medical based jobs aren’t going to change, especially in the ER.

After a few months of working I’m hoping to be able to refinance my current loan so I can get some money for a down payment on a car for myself. I’ve narrowed it down to three choices - Chevy Cobalt, Honda CR-V, or VW Jetta. At this point, however, anything with reasonable mileage that I’m not going to be putting a lot of money into will do just fine for me. Maintenance is one thing, having to constantly fix engine parts is quite another. So I’m setting myself up with a budget of about of $12,000 MAX and I’ll see what I can come up with. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something really good with that amount of money, especially if I’m working at the hospital considering employees get a discount at numerous different stores, including car based ones.

Once everything else is taken care of, Sean and I will begin looking for an apartment up here. We just need something big enough where we can have a less-cramped bedroom, a decent sized office and it would be nice to have a formal living room, so I guess we’re looking into a two bedroom. On Long Island that doesn’t come cheap but we’ll also have a budget so we’ll be able to work it out. He’ll get to experience life with a very attached puppy, based heavily on the fact that she’s never been away from me. We’ll also be able to start our lives together without any outside influence from family members.

Should be interesting.

For the past couple of days I’ve been getting my resume in order. While I’m content with working online, this time of year it’s hard to really earn any decent money. October is when things tend to pick up for me, everyone is looking for a new site to launch in January almost as fast as the ball drops. January itself is a bit boring so I tend to look into outside methods. Unfortunately, this year isn’t bringing in very much for me. Thanks to Google’s recent drop in Page Ranks, I’m no longer bringing in the $150 a day I once was. I’m lingering in the $60 a day mark and even though that’s still about $1800 a month, it’s no where near the almost $4,000 I was bringing in up until that point.

So what do you do in a situation like this? Look for jobs in the area that will give you at least some of your money back. I’ve applied at the typical retail jobs, something I told myself I’d never go back to, and I’ve also been bulking up my resume for the design firms in the area as well. Hopefully within the next few months of working I’ll have my own car so I don’t have to use Sean’s anymore and the rest will be much easier on me. For now, I’m just miserable with everything going on.

I don’t like the housing situation, I’d like to be in my own place and I’d like to go back to earning $4,000 a month so I can get all of my bills paid off. I’ve been slacking, I’ll fully admit to that. There are bills to be paid and all I can do is figure out new and interesting ways to make the big bucks and leave the mundane jobs up for grabs for everyone else.

Hopefully something will fall in my lap. I honestly can’t wait for it to happen considering how badly I want a new car, to get back into school and then eventually have enough of a nest egg so I can get the house of my dreams. I’m even looking into “rent to own” properties right now, I just can’t afford the $2500 a month price tag that’s attached to them, even with Sean’s income matching mine. There’s still a personal loan to be paid off, a credit card, I’m putting out about $500 in other bills each month - it’s just not going to happen anytime soon and it sucks.