I've got a total of about $560 to my name, bills coming due, rent due on the 1st and no guaranteed income in the foreseeable future, so it's going to get interesting very soon. In other words, I've got to start pouncing on some things in the near future. The first, which will be tomorrow, will be a visit to one of my least favorite places on Earth: The Plasma Joint. Don't get me wrong: there are worse things you can do in your life than donate plasma; it's just that the process itself isn't exactly a jaunt through Candy Land. [Is Candy Land even like a jaunt through Candy Land, though? Maybe my analogy is apt. Monopoly is way longer; that's more like jail or the prison system; maybe "monopoly" is an apt term there as well.] I'll cover The Plasma Joint tomorrow.
You know, there's always somebody around who feels better when they see someone struggling; people are delighted to see other people swimming with turds. I think it's probably that same internal processing chip that makes people love to say "I told you so." But I have to say that, since I brought up the term in an unrelated discussion yesterday, there's an element of risk you have to take in life. I'm not one to spend much time relying on other folks, sometimes to a fault; I have my own place, bills, views and try to function independently, in large part because that's what a person should do. Yes, that should be tempered by a willingness to have people help you when it's possible, but it's not like I have a giant safety net anyway, and I don't want to fall on it too many times lest it eventually give way.
It's 6 a.m. right now, so here's part of my plan for today:
1. Make and drink the last remnants of my Dunkin' Donuts coffee.
2. Do "1" pushup every hour...okay, this seems a mite odd, but I've decided that doing a pushup every hour is SOMETHING. Tomorrow it'll be two every hour, Wednesday it'll be three, etc., until I've reached a limiting number, at which point I'll adapt the plan. It'll be interesting to see where I peak, if nothing else.
3. Search and apply for work―I'm hunting for English composition jobs, instructional librarian jobs, composition-librarian hybrid jobs, reference librarian spots, and other unique writing-oriented academic spots...this isn't ALL I'm looking for; clearly I have to find immediate work, which is part of this game, but those are my future-oriented work goals.
4. Write. Creatively, that is. You can only hunt for work so many hours in a day, especially in the age where you don't actually pound the pavement because most places of potential employment will tell you to "apply online." Sooooooooo, I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to write. I have a number of short stories in progress and I'll focus on those. As well as this little blog.
5. Continue developing syllabi so that I can introduce them during interviews.
6. Start getting rid of some of the crap I own. I just have too much shit. Most of it is pretty pointless. In the event I have to jettison this joint in the near future I don't want to be burdened by the crap I own.
Funny thing is, in the big scheme of things, my bills are damn near non-existent.
Rent= $635
Insurance=$53
Power=$100
Phone=$60
Internet=$58
Groceries=$150 (give or take)
Gas=$50
That's basically $1106 per month, if you're counting along Sesame Street style. In the big scheme of things, that ain't much. Hopefully I can bridge that gap sooner rather than later...
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