Well, for the first time in the history of this website, I am not employed at the newspaper job. Last night was my last night. Today I am throwing out a bunch of work clothes. I will not miss that job, but I hope that the place is not too unkind to the people I have left behind in the time that they remain employed there (Though I don’t predict a lot of years remaining in that place).

So the question is, “now what?” I’ve got to find a way to pay rent, of course, so I’m pretty much required to start finding some sort of part time thing. I guess that as soon as these holiday things are over, I’m handing out resumes. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. Anyway, I’m off school until the Seventh of January, so I’ve still got a few weeks where I will have the time to look, though ideally I’ll be able to find something quickly so I will have some time left over before classes that I can get a few things done for the site.

Haiku!

You have to pay rent
or you don’t deserve to live
you witless bastard.

If any rich people and/or wizards are listening, I will again put forth my assurance that I am willing to take up to half your riches. It’s easy to unburden yourself with PDR’s help! Remember that.

Oh how silly I felt as I reached into my pocket to find not a wallet. Usually that pocket contains a wallet, so not a wallet was not what I had expected. I had already been through the whole lost wallet thing once this year and I thought I’d like it if that was the maximum number of times I did so.

Luckily I found the wallet in my apartment. False alarm everybody. But here is the thing: It seems like every time I take my wallet out of my coat, I lose it. Today I went to the school bookstore to get my superexpensive books for my classes, right? They don’t let you take your bags with you into the bookstore, I assume to prevent stealing (because broke students would clearly benefit from having their superexpensive books for free and we can’t have that), and I left my coat with the bag. I wasn’t wearing the coat, just carrying it around (it is like my security blanket as those who know me already know) so leaving it with the bag made more sense to me than putting it on. Thus, I took my wallet from the coat! Anyway, I guess after I bought the superexpensive books (they were appropriately superexpensive), I stuck my wallet in my pants pocket, gathered my stuff, went home, and dumped my pockets. When I left, I gathered my phone and keys, but not the wallet. What an idiot! What an imbecile!

Anyway, when I went back to the bookstore because I had to buy one more superexpensive book, I didn’t have my wallet. I headed back to the apartment, on the way encountering and petting a black cat. I took the kitty visitation as a sign of good luck and, sure enough, my wallet was found. Hooray. But I’m too tired to go back outside tonight, so I will buy the superexpensive book I still need tomorrow.

Now, you may not have noticed, but I have just used the story of my wallet as a framing device to mask my real point. I think the books I’m buying are a touch expensive. If only we lived in a futuristic age wherein a digital copy of all relevant information could easily be distributed to all who were trying to learn! What a shame it is that that is beyond our technical limitations.

Tomorrow I go back to school after a thirteen year-long Summer, I guess. I do not anticipate this being a great time for PDR while it is happening, but maybe it’ll be good in the long run. Here’s hoping anyway.

Over the last few days I have tried and failed miserably to switch to a daytime sleeping schedule. My first class tomorrow is at eleven-thirty, which is late by Day People standards, but is going to be a rough rise for PDR.

Haiku!

The gods of fire sleep.
They wait in the wood for you.
Why not let them out?

By apparent coincidence I just had my Visa limit upped by over $2000. This is almost like getting another loan for school, which I desperately need. And it also means I’m going to have more to pay back when this is all over. Uh oh.

Okay, the times continue to be changing for PDR.

This is the last full week of me doing the job I want to quit. After this it’ll just be two nights a week while I am in school. I am, as I have said before, disappointed in myself for sticking around those two nights a week, since I want to get out of there so badly, but I really, really do need the money*. And. who knows, maybe having something familiar on the weekends will help keep me from losing myself in the all the change? I guess. Is that an upside?

To help me with that I’ve got a new roommate. It’s another case of me taking in someone I don’t know, but I think it’ll work out better than last time. He’s already managed to pay me for the first month, which comes to more money than the previous one gave me at all. I can afford some food today! (I can, but I should probably still save it for food another day…)

Anyway, to sum up, I start school next week. Weird.

*Really.

All week I’ve been talking about worries I have about going back to school apart from money. Well, the last one is money. I’m so worried about money it even shows up on the list that explicitly excepts it.

My financial state has not been good this year, that is for sure. As you may recall I even went so far as to get a roommate to help with rent because I wanted to climb out of debt (that hasn’t worked, by the way, what with the roommate apparently deciding that paying rent was optional and leaving half-eaten plates of food around would suffice). So here I am, kinda screwed. Still in the worst financial state I’ve ever been in and I’m quitting my source of income to go to school, which I have to pay for. Not the wisest plan.

I have no idea how people afford things. People out there have cars and smoke and drink and can apparently pay for all these things somehow. People have pets and children that do nothing but drain their resources. I don’t get it. At the job I am leaving I made a pretty decent amount of money, but it never seemed to get me anywhere. After rent and bills and stuff, I made enough to occasionally buy a dvd or a book (though not as often these last few years). I guess I did travel about once a year, but always as cheaply as I could. And anyway, it seemed like that was always coming out of credit, rather than ever being the result of any amount of money being saved. I’ve met people who can go on week-long trips at least yearly, whereas all but two of my trips in the last five years have been crammed into weekends without missing work. No monetary progress has ever been made.

I guess a lot of the people out there have people helping them, spouses or families who also have an income to help out. But still, it seems like I should be climbing out of this hole faster than not at all. I know I pay a lot for rent, so that’s a big chunk. I also give a little to some charities every month. That takes up a little of the money too. I am lucky that I don’t eat much, but when I do eat it often includes restaurant takeout and fresh produce oranges/apples/grapefruit/melons. That stuff probably adds up. I have always tried to pay back more than the minimum payments on my credit card, but the debt just grows and grows. Every time the statements look good some other fee comes out of nowhere and keeps me from getting closer to paying anything off. Are those four types of expenditures enough to use everything I earn?

And if they are, how am I going to manage without the money I make now? It looks bad.

Continuing my attempt to look on the bright side I find that the bright side of this is pretty bittersweet. First of all, I’ve cut my charitable donations by more than half. That makes me hate myself all the more, but it will probably be helpful. I always credited those as the reason for getting so much back on my income tax, though, so I sure hope I don’t end up with less coming back to me, or worse, owing money.

Another sad victory, Amazon has told me it can’t find a copy of the Black Panther Masterworks to give me. It’s good because it saves me like forty bucks, but also it is sad because I want to own those comics.

Perhaps I have to look for this silver lining from a different angle. How’s this: I’ve got a paying job now, which means I can just barely afford to buy a laptop before I go to school. So I did that yesterday. I have a new laptop. I’ll talk more about that in the future.