Minimalism 11.28.2014

Lately I’ve been trying to rid myself of unwanted or unneeded items in my life.  This has proven to be a bigger task than I once thought.  First, there’s the obvious, like clothes and kitchen items but when I start to dig deeper, I find little things everywhere….too many paperclips, notebooks, and ink pens. Too many little trinkets, earrings I have no use for, accessories I’ve been holding onto and haven’t worn, you name it.   I’m also a list maker and a paper stacker.  I will write something on a sticky note and stick it on my desk to get back to later for whatever reason. I also do this with things I get in the mail, or things I print, so it’s a constant battle.  Luckily, I don’t do this with bills.  I long to have a desk as clean as the one in this photo.  I also keep receipts, which I have to remember to go through every couple of months.  I think right now, I have them in at least 3 places, not including my most recent purchases which are still in my checkbook.  Before I started the process of receipt purging, I had receipts that dated back a few years.   Some of them, I could barely read, others were blank because the ink had completely faded away.  I thought I had been on top of my tax papers until I found tax papers dating back to 1999.  I did spend a few hours one day tackling the tax papers so I don’t have anything that old anymore.

Then there are the things that I have too many of and can’t bear to part with, like coffee mugs and scarves.  I have gotten better with my mugs and managed to get rid of 6 not long ago, and they haven’t been replaced.  The scarves, hmmm, well, I got rid of 2 or 3 and I purchased 2 or 3, so yeah, kind of pointless, unless you follow the one-in, one-out rule, which I don’t.  It just happened that way.  A part of me wants to get rid of 90% of what I own and only buy what I feel is completely necessary but honestly, I think 30 scarves is totally necessary…seriously.

Years ago, I used to collect refrigerator magnets.   At one point, the front of my refrigerator was completely covered with them.   Whenever I would get a new one, I would squeeze it in and the weirdest thing would happen:  My girls would say “You got a new magnet.”  I could never figure out how they could even tell.  I guess they memorized the way it looked.  They were always able to pick out the new one.

It’s like I have spent my entire adult life accumulating things, only to realize that I don’t need to have all of these things and they are adding to the stress in my life, as well as costing me money.  I moved over a year ago and a lot of my things have been in a storage unit the entire time.  I got rid of a some things but the fact that I even have a storage unit tells me that I still have too much stuff.  Luckily, it’s not completely full because I have been going through the stuff, getting rid of items but clearly, there’s more work to be done.   Granted, some of the boxes belong to my daughters, one of which moved to another state on a last minute decision but that was a year ago.  I have been going through her things and sending some of her items to her, while purging things I know she doesn't need. The other is a freshman in college so most of her things are spread between her room and her dorm but she has taken the liberty to get rid of a lot of things as well in an attempt to simplify her belongings. She only has 1 or 2 boxes in storage. My original goal was to have the storage unit for less than a year.  Sadly, that didn't happen.  Now at the very least, I'd like to downsize to a smaller unit within the coming months, only because I have some household items that I want to keep and don't have the place for them right now but the other items will be gone through more thoroughly.

People tell me that it’s a long, never-ending so I try not to be discouraged but I have to be honest, this is an overwhelming task and I’m tired already.   I’m not giving up though.  I know my mindset is changing because I don’t just buy things now.  I actually think about if it’s something I need or if I already own something that I can reuse.  I tend to shop mainly for groceries now.  That’s my next challenge:   Changing the way I grocery shop.  I need to plan my meals so I don’t end up in the store every few days, which has been the case of late.  Years ago, I shopped once every 2 weeks.  Then it changed to once a week, and now I end up going whenever, or several times a week.  I know that’s hard on my budget too, so I definitely will be working on that.

Okay, clearly I’m on to another topic so I should end this post. 

~Pamela Denise~

Bosses 11.23.14

Happy Monday!

I woke up this morning thinking about bosses in general, probably because I don't have a job right now.  For the most part, every one of my bosses has been a dream to work with.  They have been compassionate, caring, listened, were never loud and unruly, or rude in the slightest way.  I wish all bosses were like that.  I truly feel being a good boss is part of having a good employee.  If you are rude and unruly, people are less likely to want to stick around.  Who wants to be yelled at, whether it be in person, or via email with words capitalized or in all red?  I sure as heck don't.  I'm not a cry baby but I don't take too well to scare tactics.  They make me quickly look for a way out because dealing with tyrants physically affects me, and my healthy well being is far more important.  You can't put a dollar amount on physical and mental well being.  You just can't.  If I'm no good, it seeps into every aspect of my life, every relationship and I become hard to deal with because I'm cranky and irritable. Because I know this, I feel like I'm hypersensitive to the bad vibes that people give off and I try to avoid those people.  It's not easy avoiding your boss.  Besides, who wants to be spend years avoiding someone just to have a job?  Not me.  Don't get me wrong, I know bosses have a hard time as well, dealing with different personalities and different work styles.  I get that but that in no way excuses child-like behavior when you are clearly an adult.  No yelling or scare tactics are required to get your point across....ever.  People will tune you out.  Trust me, I've done it.  Nobody wants to deal with that.

All of my bosses, except for 1, have been women.  My very first boss was a man.  He was great.  I often wonder if he's still working for the company, and if not, what is he doing.  I only left that job because I became pregnant and climbing up and down ladders with boxes was not a good idea.  He told me I could come back if I wanted to.  I should have gone back.  It was actually a great company to work for.  I still shop there to this day.  Maybe I will look him up.

Well, being that it's Monday, I need to focus on earnings today so I suppose I can't just sit here and blog all day.  I mean I could, and maybe one day I will become a professional blogger.  You never know.  For now, I just enjoy talking about what's going on in my life.

Until next time,

~Pamela Denise~

I'm ready for a Moped 11.22.14

Yesterday was the parking day work of the devil!  I picked my daughter up from her current college to head to the new college she wants to transfer to.  We made our way downtown and still had 20 minutes to spare.  The problem:  Downtown!  I have been driving for close to 30 years and I still hate driving downtown in any city.  It's always a pain with the one way streets and minimal parking.  I finally made my way into what I thought was the right parking deck, only to be told that I had to go back out, make a right out of the structure, make a right at the corner and then another right to bring myself back around to the correct visitors parking deck.  Fast forward to $7 and a token later we get out and walk to the proper building and things are going smoothly from that point.

Anyway, because I paid for all day parking, there was no way I was going to leave and come back when we needed to find lunch, so we walked.  Let me tell you, my daughter is a foodie and an avid Yelp stalker LOL.  She had me walk blocks to get to this one place she found on Yelp that had good reviews.  Your girl was tired by the time we got back.  The good news is there are plenty of food places for her to walk to on her own to feed the foodie in her.

Okay, back to the parking.  After getting our food, we were going to sit in the car but realized what time it was and decided to walk back to the building.  The lady was actually waiting on her so it was good that we went back when we did. After she got her response and what her next steps were, we headed back to the car, and that's when the drama unfolded, again.  I admit, I am horrible when it comes to remembering where my car is parked, except for when I'm at Disneyland.  That place is much too large to even take a chance on not knowing where your car is parked.  Anyway, let me ask you something.  Have you ever been lost in a parking deck?  I had never been....until yesterday.  It was not pretty.  All of the floors started to look the same.  We spent a good 20 minutes looking for the car, going up one level and walking around, going down one level and walking around, until my daughter turned into mini-me and said what I would usually say "Can't we just call somebody?"  I thought she was crazy but she found a number and called anyway.  The lady on the other end asked if I had a panic button for my car, to which I responded no until I looked down and saw the little red button labeled "panic."   Ha, don't judge me.  In 9 years of owning that car, I have never had to use it so I had no idea if was even there.  Needless to say, we were on the wrong level and the lady basically told us to try every level using the panic button, so down one level we went and there was my car.  Talk about somebody being happy to see their car.  Looks like I need to do better with remembering where I parked.  Next time I will take a picture of the sign outside the stairwell as well as the one inside the stairwell so this won't happen again.

Well, it's about 8:30 Saturday morning.  I guess I need to get started on my daily job hunt. If I could just win the lottery, I could be something fun this morning.  Oh well.

~Pamela Denise~

Why be normal 11.21.14

I was watching a podcast and the guy quoted this.  His talk was called: Four Ways To Quit The Rat Race. I will link it here if you are interested.  It's rather long (just over 45 minutes) and includes some Q&A but I found it interesting.

I've been normal for the better part of my life and grew up with parents that were normal too. I'm not sure that I want to spend the rest of my life being normal.  When I think about this quote, normal really doesn't seem appealing at all. I know I need money to survive but this further reinforces that I just need to earn money and not necessarily have a standard 9 to 5 (although it would beat unemployment at this point).  I really want to call the shots and have more control of my life.  Hopefully I can make that happen soon.

That's all for now.

~Pamela Denise~

Short parking space rant 11.20.14

I hate it when people don't park properly.  I didn't want to post an actual picture of my neighbor's horrible parking so I found a random photo. You know, that's how I do it LOL.  Anyway, her parking isn't this bad but it's bad enough that I never want to park next to her.  I don't understand how people can be so inconsiderate and park any sort of way when they know there are only a certain number of parking spaces per building.  It's just rude.  If I park my car and realize that it's over the line, or too close to the line, I take the time to fix it.  Besides, I'm not trying to take the chance of someone with a bucket pulling up next to me and putting a major dent in my car door because they are angry with my parking.  No thanks.  Folks are crazy these days.

That's it...I'm done ranting.  Have a wonderful day!

~Pamela Denise~

A new day 11.19.14

I'm ready for my second cup already.  No, I didn't make this cup of coffee and mine never looks nearly as pretty.  It's okay though.  It always tastes delicious and that's what's important to me.

I don't have much planned for today other than some job searching, a little cleaning and maybe I will get out of the house again today, and maybe not.  It's quite cold outside still.  Speaking of cold, my heart goes out to the people in Buffalo, NY who have lost loved ones already due to this freak winter storm.  I pray that no more lives are lost and that the city gets back to normal quickly.

This weather reminds me that I need to make sure my college student is well-stocked with everything she needs in her dorm in the event that things get crazy quickly.  I don't want her to be stuck without things she wants to eat, or things she needs, like toilet paper and such.  I will have to take care of that next week when I take her back after the Thanksgiving Holiday.

I need to focus on what I'm going to be cooking for the holiday.  I don't want to cook.  I miss the days of going to my parents' home for holiday meals.  My parents are still alive and doing well but they moved back to California and my girlfriend's mother lives in Virginia so we won't be traveling to either of those places. With my recent job loss and the bills we have, it's not really in the budget, but oh well...what else is new?  Maybe next year.

Okay, so it's time for that cup.  Enjoy your Wednesday people!  Wait...today is Wednesday, right?  I'm still losing track of days.  I need to go back to work soon before I start losing track of weeks and months.

~Pamela Denise~

Reason #27588 11.18.14

Happy Tuesday!

I've had a productive day thus far.  I've been to the unemployment office, the bank and even the grocery store to pick something up for dinner and it's not even 12:00.  Go me!

Anyway, I'm going to make this brief.  This picture is reason #27588 (LOL) as to why I hate public restrooms.  How can you not replace the lock?  I mean really?  I can't help but wonder how many women have been walked in on in this bathroom because they failed to check for feet before grabbing the handle and swinging the door wide open.  SURPRISE!  That's bad. No fix, no nothing.  If this were my business, I'd be embarrassed to the say the least but I guess the state does things differently.  At least it was clean but c'mon son...get a lock.

That's all for my rant for now.

~Pamela Denise~

It's Monday....11.17.2014

Normally, I would be stressed out on Monday from all of the work that I have to do BUT since I'm currently unemployed, Monday was fine.  I almost forgot it was Monday.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing but whatever, it doesn't matter.

I had big plans to get up and look at jobs to see what I could apply for.  I looked briefly.  The weather outside was and still is so weird that I really couldn't focus on much for looking out the window, well that and checking a few social media sites.

As usual, it's 3:00 and I'm ready to focus.  This seems to be the norm but strangely enough, I don't care for working the late afternoon/evening shift.  I did that for years.  It wasn't so bad because I did it from home.

We are expecting another wintry winter LOL.  That's sounds strange but where I live, we don't really have snow or ice every winter, just cold weather.  Last winter, we had 2 snow storms, one of which crippled the major city and it was all over the news.  Of course, we were made fun of because of it but it wasn't funny when 5-year-olds were stuck at school and their parents couldn't get to them.  I can't even imagine having my girls stuck at school.  Well, actually my youngest will be stuck at school this year if there's a storm but she's in college and lives on campus so that's totally different.  I'm talking not being able to see your babies because you couldn't get to them.  That had to be heartbreaking.  Luckily, those schools were full of dedicated people who stayed and kept those babies safe.

Let's not mention the teenager who had her leg severed while helping to push her aunt's car off the road.  Again, no laughing matter.  Yeah, I really got angry when folks made jokes about the whole situation because those were the local stories they weren't sharing on the national news.

My oldest called to tell me that she woke up to a winter wonderland this morning where she lives. She has no babies other than her 2 puppies and her boyfriend, and she works from home.

Speaking of working from home, I was working from home again for a short while but that didn't last so I'm looking again.  I'm not sure if I will find something else from home though although it would be lovely.

I'm going to end this blog for now and get some work done.

Until next time,

~Pamela Denise~

It's Saturday 11.1.2014

Happy Saturday folks!  It's super cold outside. Pre-winter is definitely in full effect. I trust that everyone had a safe Halloween yesterday.  Mine was rather uneventful, and that's a good thing.

Busy day ahead of me today.  Normally, I visit my daughter in college on Friday but with it being Halloween, she had a ton of things to do and was attending a party that evening so I did some things around here that I needed to get done.  I will visit her today. Hopefully when I get back, we can get to Sprint to find these phones, or phablets as they call the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.  Originally I had no desire for such a large phone but the more I play with the display in the store, the more I want one.  There are so many apps that I want to download and that in itself has me super excited.

I tried organizing my desk yesterday, again but I have come to the realization that I will never have an organized desk, free of clutter until I go back to a desk with a hutch...but I'm not trying to bring a large desk with a hutch into a temporary living space, so I will wait. I did get some of the clutter removed and stacked the stuff on the side a little neater, but it's still not organized.

I managed to take some things to Goodwill from here as well as from storage.  There's still a ton more that can go so I will be going back to the storage and Goodwill in the coming weeks.  We don't need all of this stuff.

The sun is shining but it's only 40 degrees.  I'm not happy about.  I don't remember it being this cold in November. Plus, the wind is blowing so I'm sure it feels closer to 30 degrees.

I got up early to apply for some jobs before I left for my visit but I'm here, blogging.  Well, I did look at a few sites and didn't see anything so then I decided to do a quick blog.  Since it's only 9:30, I think I will look at a few more sites but I gotta tell ya, this cold weather makes me not want to be out there daily going to work.

Have a lovely Saturday!

~Pamela Denise~