Another Day 44: Life Goes On

 

Holidays and weekends don't count, so today marks 29 days unemployed. Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job and unless the Accenture job comes through, I don't know when that's going to happen. For now, I consider this time off to be an extended vacation. This past Friday marked 6 weeks without a job. I haven't been unemployed since 1985, so this is a hard adjustment.

I was awake just before 7 and was up before 7:30. I'd have liked to sleep more but my brain (and bladder!) said nope. That's probably a good thing because I hope to have a job soon and I'll need to start getting up earlier.

Minnie cracks me up some days. Yesterday she had zero interest in sitting with me. Yet today she showed up mere minutes after I opened my laptop, meowing at me to clear the decks so she could sit in my lap. Suffice to say this happens a lot and I always marvel at the timing. I got up to get another cup of coffee and my breakfast and found orange mama cat at the door. She's been awol for 2 days because of the auction, so she was starving for some canned food. By the time I fed her and grabbed my coffee and breakfast, Minnie had disappeared. I didn't see her again until after 6, when my dinner was cooking ! By the time I ate she was gone again, so we had no lap time.

I'm really hoping to hear good news from Kurt soon ! I am SO ready to get back to work and I think I will love the Accenture job. I was already disappointed once thinking I didn't get the job, I think having that happen again will be pretty hard. I do still believe that what is meant to happen in my life will happen and there is little I can do to control the outcome, other than continuing to pursue other opportunities. I certainly can't sit here and wait for a job to find me, so I'm happy to put in all the work needed to make it happen.

Goal for today was soaking my feet and getting on the treadmill x2. I got my feet done .. but no treadmill.

I haven't been abiding by my resolve to stay away from news sites and doom scrolling my phone. I think I'm doing it less, but I'm still doing it. I catch myself sometimes and make myself put the phone down. I think getting a job will help me get away from it more. The Accenture job will be more demanding than my prior job because I'll need to learn their systems and procedures. I'm sure Kurt plans to assign me to reviewing AT&T bills, which will be relatively easy, but I know the volumes are huge - so I can't goof off ! If I get the job I'll check my phone at lunch and keep the ringer on in case I get a call.

I'm glad I finally installed the blinds in my office ! They look really nice and will give me the privacy that I was looking for. I have sheers on the windows but when it's dark you can see right in. The house next door has a second floor window that looks right down into my office, so it felt like a fishbowl of sorts. Now I can change clothes, get dressed or exercise with complete privacy. I'm also glad I put the air conditioner in so I'm ready for the next heat wave !

Today I'm embarking on another go at losing weight. I will still have pizza for dinner but I'm going to cut back on the cheese and pepperoni. I'm piling both on and that is a ton of extra calories. I started out using 10 slices of pepperoni and lately it's closer to 20 ! I've also pretty much doubled the amount of cheese I pile on. I've seen a couple of YouTuber's advertising Factor meals and briefly thought about trying them out, but they are quite expensive compared to Nutrisystem. I pay $304.14 for 96 food items and there is nowhere else you can get that deal. In reality I only pay $244.11 because I buy discounted gift cards from Costco. That brings my cost down to about $2.54 per item ! So in a day I would spend $10.16 for breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening snack. I add yogurt with my breakfast, salad with my lunch, an afternoon snack and veggies with my dinner. I would say I eat for less than $20 a day. All the junk I've been buying is expensive, so that has added to my grocery bill. Pizza supplies, ice cream, snack mixes, candy, whipped cream, soda ... it all adds up ! I'm not going to keep the pizza going until I get through the 3 bottles of sauce I have. I have 5 crusts left and once they are gone that'll be it. If I have any mozzarella left I can sprinkle some in a salad. I will probably have 2 unused bottles of pizza sauce, but it will keep since the expiration dates are sometime in 2025. I won't be buying any more ice cream, whipped cream, snack mixes or candy. I've proven to myself time and time again that I cannot control portion sizes. I'm going to go back to basics and snack on raw carrots ! That being said, I need to make a trip to Wegman's to buy some produce for salads. I'm so mad at myself. I roasted a whole bag of carrots over a week ago and didn't eat them, so they'll be going out with the trash tomorrow. I also have more than a dozen eggs to discard as well. I had bought them to make deviled eggs for Easter but then broke my hand and didn't make them. Now they're too old to even consider eating them. So this week is going to be a transition. I'll finish up with the pizza. Ice cream is gone so that is done. The irony here is I spent $10 to buy an ice cream scoop on Amazon and it's being delivered today. LOL !! Oh well. I still have a few candy bars and a bag of S'mores candy I bought at Costco, but they will stay out of sight and unopened for now. I have an unopened bag of Chex Mix and I'm in the process of eating another. I don't tend to eat a ton of that, so I'm okay with that hanging around for a bit.

Shortly after 9 am I got out all the stuff to soak my feet. To my disappointment, the scrubber I had bought to use on my feet is not loofah ! I bought what is essentially a back scrubbing cloth that you hold in both hands and use a sawing motion to scrub. I guess I'll be using that in the shower now ! It came with 2 other scrubbers, one of which is a loofah to hold in one hand. I'll try it out, but I always have trouble with my left foot, plus it's uncomfortable to bend for long when you're fat ! I guess the good thing is the callous on the bottom of my right foot is the big problem and I have less trouble contorting my body to address that. I checked Amazon and found the scrubber I was looking for, so I'll order that soon. I need an ink cartridge for my printer as well, so I need to order that soon too. Freaking thing is $60! I'll wait a little bit and see if there is anything else I "need", before placing an order. By 11:30 I was done with my feet. I was able to use the callous shaver to get the hard spot off the bottom of my right foot, so it's much more comfortable to walk barefoot ! I shaved the callous on the side of my right big toe a little too much and drew blood. I cleaned that up with some alcohol and put a bandage on it. My feet always feel so nice when I'm done .. I need to do this more often !

This morning I was thinking I'd like a curtain for the porch door, since I like to leave the front door open during the day all summer. I started doing that years ago so the cats and dogs could go out there and look outside. Minnie goes out there a lot and I always have to check before I close the door at night to make sure I don't trap her out there. Anyhow, I checked Walmart's website to see if they still have the curtains that I hung on the porch a couple years ago. Of course they don't, so I'll have to find something different. I might just get a white lace curtain. 

I did a little more sleuthing tonight by looking up the obit for Doug's wife. Racheal is apparently his daughter from a prior marriage and she IS moving from the giant brick house that used to be a 2 family. So they're going from 4 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms to 2-3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Ouch. I feel bad for the family. Tonight on Facebook I saw that one of my old bosses (Shari) is putting her house in Pompey up for sale. She and her husband have a new home in Florida and they're both retired now, so I guess Florida is going to be their year round home. I was surprised to see how small her house is. The way she talked it was some big grand old place. Instead it's a 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch. Best feature is the beautiful inground pool ! They're asking $360k and I'll bet they get a ton of offers over asking.

I didn't accomplish anything other than my feet today. It was just too darn hot and I didn't feel like moving. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, so I suspect I won't get on the treadmill. I finished a bottle of pizza sauce tonight and have 4 crusts left. I opened a new bottle but didn't need it, so I'm going to try and make that last through the 4 crusts. The cheese will definitely last and the pepperoni might too. I will let the other 2 bottles of pizza sauce sit for a bit while I try and get back on Nutrisystem. Amazon dropped off my new ice cream scoop that I now have no use for .. lol !

I spent most of the day on the couch watching YouTube and playing Cookie Jam. If I don't get the Accenture job I'll have to start spending my days searching hard for a new job.

Tomorrow evening and Wednesday we're supposed to get some rain from the hurricane that is hammering Texas. Thursday through Saturday are supposed to be a little cooler, so the goal will be to get on the treadmill Thursday. I won't be able to use the heat or my feet as an excuse !

From a food perspective, today was a good day. I had a cinnamon roll for breakfast, along with yogurt much later. I had a chicken bacon ranch quesadilla with salsa & light sour cream for lunch. This is technically a dinner item, but I have a ton of aging dinner items so I'm having some of them for lunch. I finished the remains of a package of Biscoff cookies with my yogurt. I also had some Chex Mix, mostly to help wash down my vitamins. Dinner was a pizza and while it was cooking I had 2 string cheese. Evening snack was a lemon zest cake with too much whipped cream. Once I get off the pizza I will incorporate veggies into my dinner. I may go to Wegman's tomorrow to get some produce so I can start having salad with my lunch. 

I mentioned my vitamins and I'm starting to get those worked in to my day. I didn't take them yesterday but I got them all in today. I'm spreading them out through the day and taking them with a meal or snack. I just have to get better at remembering to take them ! 

Just to show I know zero about the stock market ... analysts are falling all over themselves to compliment AT&T ... whose stock trades at less than $19. Accenture, on the other hand, trades at just under $300 ! Why is AT&T's stock price so low ? i googled it and I guess it's because their debt to equity ratio is bad .. meaning they owe a shit ton of money. That is nothing new - Stankey loves to spend money on stupid things, just as his predecessor did.