The End of a Bad Week

A week that began badly ended...well, mostly all right. My first stop was the bank to get the check trouble with Nelnet settled. A manager checked my account. Yes, I quite clearly wrote $124 on my check. Someone in their office made a mistake. He contacted them and got it settled. The money should be back in my account by Tuesday.

Next stop was the farm market. It was packed elbow-to-elbow today. In fact, I had to elbow my way through a crowd watching a cooking demonstration...right in front of the first two booths. I eventually bought asparagus, strawberries, spinach, Florida celery, sweet potatoes, and bananas and grapefruit from the wholesaler. (They carry small pink grapefruit for 2 for a dollar. The same fruit costs $1.29 each at the Acme!)

I rode around for an hour after that, checking out yard sales. I did make a few good finds. Picked up six records from one house in Oaklyn - John Cougar Melloncamp, Phil Collins, the Bay City Rollers, the Kinks, and the soundtrack to Flashdance. Found something for Lauren at a sale around the corner. Grabbed the DVD for the 90s comedy Captain Ron in Collingswood for a dollar. (My video copy has been around at least since the early-mid 90s and was a family favorite for years.)

Arrived at home around noon and spent the rest of the afternoon having tuna salad and leftovers for lunch and continuing spring cleaning. My next project is dusting the apartment. It's time for my bi-monthly major dusting session. This means I dust under everything - dolls, DVDs, videos, toys, books, CDs. (The exception are the records, which are so numerous by now, they're just too heavy to lift.) I got the living room done, unable to resist dawdling over some of the entertainment history books in the music area.

I received a major setback on my arrival at work. I only have 13.50 hours next week...and one of those days is 6PM to 10PM! First of all, 13.50 hours is NOT enough for me to live on. Second, I am on a bike. 10 is too late to be out riding around. Third, all of the managers know this by now.

I'm not the only one who's fed up, either. A stock manager complained that his hours had been cut severely as well. I tried to ask one of the head front end managers for more hours, but she said there were none to give, and that I'd only get extra hours if they called me in.

Well, this is a fine kettle of fish! After three months of 30-hour weeks, with some weeks having only one day off, they all of a sudden decide they don't need their entire workforce anymore? I know we've been quiet lately, but they surely could have given me 20 hours! I'm not a college student or a teenager, and I'm getting tired of being treated like one. I feel stupid and worthless. It's time to go through the annoying hassle of looking for a real job again. Not that I'll find one. As everyone enjoys reminding me, the economy is too bad for businesses to hire anyone, much less someone like me.

Work was steady tonight, right up until I left. Thankfully, it quieted down enough by 9 that I was able to shut down with no relief.