A paycheck!

Haven't gotten one of those in a while! And bigger than the ones from the museum too.
Now we can buy groceries and other such luxuries. "I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor. But it's no great honor either!"

It makes me think of all the people who are still months or years away from the same thing. Please say a prayer today for the many, many unemployed. I find the argument that people would choose unemployment voluntarily for the questionable privilege of a miniscule TANF check about as credible as the argument that gay people choose to be gay for the "popularity".

Birthday present

Sooo...a present came for me in the mail recently. Well, maybe I should say a present for Nikita:

A kitty buggy! We were anxious to see how she'd respond to it, to which we got a cold stare from her new hiding place:

I don't know what she must have thought at first. But she came down eventually and sniffed at it. She was even willing to look inside and seemed receptive enough to try it out for a minute. Despite her initial protests she let me take a photo of her in it.

We did manage to test it out and took her for a ride around the apartment (no pictures for that sadly). There was much yowling and a few odd glances from maintenance as we passed, but other than that she seemed...almost amenable to the idea of maybe being taken out this way. Figured it might be good on long car trips where she needs to come along, too.

Anyway, somewhere along the ride she evacuated her bladder and I spent more time cleaning out the buggy then we did actually using it! I guess that'll show us!

I have a new job!

Selling periodic popcorn, not periodic cupcakes, at the local mall. Do I at least get extra credit for the fact that the store occupies a lot formerly owned by a cupcake store? Like seriously. When I worked at Purgatory Petsmart, the most common customer question was "Where are your restrooms?". On my new job, it's "What happened to the cupcake store?" If they are male, they then attempt to explain small business economics to me, whihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifch I guess is fine.! I think the new place has a pretty okay chance, though, if anything does. Everyone likes popcorn, yeah? People constantly mention as well, so I figure if they can make a cool fortune off gourmet popcorn, so can my employers. I hope so, anyway, since I only have a job if they do!

They're pretty nice, the owners. It's a family business, so the owner and a lot of the employees are related. They are all white guys with wildly unruly Scottish hair and a comfortable amount put away for the winter, so I could easily pass for one of them. I like my new job. I've been meeting lots of people, standing out on the sidewalk handing out free samples. Customers of course, but also the other shopkeepers and employees, and the support staff for the mall. It's kind of fun to feel more a part of my community. As I wrote in my journal today, I think everyone in town is going to know about my new job pretty soon, since it isn't a huge city and a new store at the mall is big news by local standards, shopping being a favorite pastime of most.

But seriously, I'm really glad to be pulling in something again. Even if it is minimum wage for minimum hours, the few months without a salary were wearing on me, more than I liked to admit. I have no love for money, but I don't like being poor either, and I really do not like being a mooch or a drain on my family's finances. So to not only be employed but to be employed at doing something I find actually tolerable? Somewhere I don't have to check my soul in at the door, and my dignity at the cloakroom? Somewhere where I don't have to lie and lie and LIE to customers just to keep my job, and hurt dogs in the process?

I'm really happy, and really relieved. The fact that I got hired to this job on labor day is worth it for the humor/irony value alone. Not gonna post the particulars on this blog, but if you know who I am anyway, drop by if you are ever at the mall. Zeo stopped by today and got the whole spiel; she got to try all the popcorn, and I got a good mood out of the deal. I'll admit though that after five hours of sample handing out today, I was a little hot and tired. Where's that rainstorm they keep promising us?