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If you were faced with unemployment and running out of money where would you draw the line on accepting or even applying for a job?
If you saw a posting like this:
Phone booker for escorts
You MUST be FEMALE for this job. part time available. AFTER training at my home office, you can do this from home.
You must have a young and sexy voice, NO distractions at home during booking hrs, high speed internet. Experience booking escorts is helpful.
Pls send a short bio and tele # ASAP.
I have a young sounding voice, and I can make it sexy....but no. Just the thought of talking to these skeevy men and having to do sexy talk to them makes me blush. I know there are people who could totally do this job, I am not one of them. There is also the possibility that Douchenozzle would call the line and....eeewww! Yeah, the Ick Factor on that job is way more than I can handle. I did however pass the info along to a couple friends I thought might be more comfortable with the opportunity than I am. Although in one case I was wrong, she's not comfortable with it either. I haven't heard back from the other friend yet. If you live in Chicago and think you could do this job and want to know more. Let me know I'll pass the contact info to you.
IN OTHER NEWS
I heard from several of the govt jobs I applied to. One told me my "score" on the application wasn't high enough. Another told me they already filled the position. Yet another told me my score was fine and I guess they'll add me to the pile to move to the next phase in hiring. Maybe I'll get a call, maybe not. We'll see... But ya know this agency is one that will never go out of business, so I'd feel secure working there as long as I do my work, ya know? So, fingers crossed that one pans out or any of the 50 other jobs I applied to this month.
I'm attempting to survive the Chicago summer without AC. I haven't put it in my window yet and I'm going to see how long I can survive without it. Even if I get a job, I want to see how long I can do it. Today is only like the third really HOT day we've had, I'm doing OK so far. We'll see how it goes as this heat keeps up and my arms keep getting stuck to the desk as I type, and well, heat and computers REALLY don't go together.
Well, that's all I got for now. It's late and I'm hungry.
Girls LOVE pink!
Obviously marketers know EVERYTHING about what kids and their parents like. Lets discuss the latest insanity from Hasbro. I learned about it from this post at Bitch Ph.D.
What makes them think that a pink ouija board is more interesting and suitable than the original brown-ish ouija board? Is it that only GIRLS want to know the future and talk to the "other side" not boys? Boys want blue things, sports equipment, guns, superheroes and firetrucks. Maybe they think only girls are gullible enough to believe that the ouija board is real and not your friend pushing the pointer around. Boys are obviously the smarter sex and would never fall for such foolishness.
The whole reason you wanted to play with one in the first place is because Dad felt they were evil and a link to the devil. A pink one "With 72 fun questions included" and the Toys R Us logo on the box isn't all that evil looking. Or is that the point? Take away the scary evil, make it "parent approved" and perhaps Mom and/or Dad will buy it for their daughters. There are a lot of people out there who feel a ouija board is a link to the afterlife and a way to open the door to the "other side". Could making it all pink and My Pretty Pony take the stigma away? My Dad was angry that my friend brought her ouija board to our house. My Mom just sighed and rolled her eyes. I wondered how anything that said Milton Bradley on it could be so terrible. Seriously, could the makers of Scrabble and Hungry Hungry Hippos create a portal to the underworld? If it is pink and you're told by a card to ask it if Billy will text you tomorrow does that make it less scary? Will it keep the girls from asking the name of the spirit they're talking too and then stop the door to the underworld from opening?
The whole point of having a ouija board is for the scary, mysteriousness it provides. You save it for your slumber party and pull it out after the horror movie but before you start light as a feather/stiff as a board. When the board is pink and flowery, it's not spooky!
And I know there are those out there who feel no matter what color it is, it's not a game and no one age 8+ should be playing with it (yeah the box says ages 8+). I don't think the board alone is dangerous. It's the people using it and their intent. Just like a hammer alone isn't dangerous, it's the person wielding the hammer and the intent that makes it a danger to others. Read the comments at Bitch Ph.D. many of them have used a ouija board with no ill effects, I've used a ouija board with no ill effects. If you pick up a ouija board intending to open a door, you will. Just like if you pick up a hammer intending to crush in someone's skull, you will. But if you're a group of 10 year old girls, wanting to have fun and freak each other out at a sleep over, that's all that will happen. Although freaking out would be easier with the original board rather than the pink one.
Where have you been?
I've been neglectful of my blog since Mabel's trip to the vet. There just hasn't been much of anything to say lately. It's a whole lot of "SSDD" (Same Shit Different Day). Last week was a big fat do nothing week. I holed up in my apartment for a couple of days not leaving or going anywhere. This time of year, when the weather is changing, is a little odd for me. It could be beautiful, warm and sunny outside but it is dark, gloomy and FREEZING in my apartment. I open the window and an icy cold breeze blows on me turning my fingers and toes to icicles. I know the temperature outside is claiming to be 70 degrees, but inside it's closer to 59. So when I do go out I'm not dressed properly. I end up wearing heavy sweatshirts or jackets and then I'm all hot and sweaty. The sun just doesn't hit my apartment properly to help warm it up in here. This is when baking would be a good idea. I need to pick up some baking supplies and maybe even a few frozen pizzas. Because in a month or so it'll be so hot and humid I'll be wishing I had this cool breeze blowing in to chill me to the bone.
So really, yeah, I don't have much else to say than I'm here, I'm cold and I may just go sit on the couch with every blanket I own covering me as I wait for the laundry to finish.
Mabel at the Vet and other things
Some know that upon my return from Cleveland Mabel had an emergency visit to the Vet. She had an abscess on her tail. The doctor drained it and she's doing OK. She goes back on Tuesday, they'll check her tail and make sure all is well.
But the vet was all like, "we'll have to clip her tail and then we can drain the abscess..." and ya know, clip to me means, cut off her tail. I was so worried that I was a bad Kitty Mom that I let something go wrong to where her tail needed to be amputated!! The nurse saw my shock and explained that clip=SHAVE. So Mabel has her tail, all is well.
They gave me this cone collar to put on her so she wouldn't chew or lick at her tail. When I got home and opened the carrier, I put it on her - upside down. She leaped out of the cage and tried to run down the hall to her food dish. The cone on wrong and the drugs in her system had her diving into the floor and the wall. I laughed so hard my sides ached. Once I composed myself I followed after her to get the collar off. We decided the collar was cruel and she hasn't worn it since.
And then on Thursday it was just a total crap day. All was well until I left my apartment.
The unemployment office for the state of Illinois sucks ass. The crap they send to you is so LACKING in information. I want to know who I need to write to in order to complain about this shit. They send you a letter saying your benefits are "exhausted" but they don't say a word about how an extension works or how to apply or what your next step might be. Is it so hard to put in a letter some basic information on how this works? And the bi-weekly letter about your next call to claim weeks.... how hard is it to put the phone number ON THAT LETTER?!?
I called the unemployment office because the website isn't much more informative. And naturally the dude who answers the phone is just as shitty as the website. But essentially I find out there is nothing you can do. You wait for the government to decide you deserve more money, they send you a letter and that's that. You don't fill out anything, you don't do anything... it just happens. Much the same way getting laid off just happens. Why can't they give us more information? Why can't they tell us this in the letter? It doesn't make sense to me. And I'm sure I am not the only one who is angry and annoyed by this lack of information.
Well, today I got the letter telling me I get more money, which is good. But here's hoping and praying and sacrificing goats or whatever to make sure I get a JOB so I don't have to worry about this crap anymore.
Don't trust your pharmacist
Does your pharmacy tell you what the pills they give you should look like? Is it on the bottle or in with the paperwork they give you when you pick up your meds? Is this something you even read before popping the pill in your mouth? Well, you should start reading it.
Usually I don't bother checking, I trust the pharmacy to give me the proper pills. Today however, when I got home with my pills I opened the bottle, and was surprised to find that my usual large oblong blue pill was suddenly a very small round yellow/gold pill. I looked at the bottle and the drug name was correct, my name was on the bottle. As I turned the label to read more I saw that the description of the pill said, "This is a BLUE, OBLONG-shaped TABLET" (their caps not mine). I was suddenly very happy I hadn't popped the mystery pill in my mouth without looking. I know sometimes pills change shape and color. A pharmacist had explained that to me once with a different medication I was on when something had changed. But this time the pharmacist said nothing, didn't ask me if I wanted a consultation, didn't ask if I had questions. Just asked me, "You don't have insurance? Are you paying cash?" Fortunately, the CVS Pharmacy is not that far away. I put my coat back on and returned with the bottle of mystery pills.
"Remember me? I was just here. The pills in this bottle are supposed to be blue ovals, these are gold and round," I said.
He merely gave me a confused look and walked over to another person behind the counter. He walked to a shelf and picked up a large bottle pulled some pills out. He put them back and grabbed another bottle. The other pharmacist shook them into some machine while talking on the phone. She then took the pills out of the bottle I returned and poured them into an unlabeled bottle. They both seemed confused as to what they had given me. He handed me the old bottle, with the new blue tablets in it and said only, "I'm sorry."
What if I was unable to see? I would have taken these little round pills without knowing that I didn't have the right medication. What if I was elderly and couldn't read this incredibly small type? How often does this type of thing happen? These mystery pills could have killed me. Don't they have some double check policy before they pass pills off to patients? This mistake frightens and angers me. So please, before you take your pills, read the information that comes with it. Make sure it looks like the prescribed pill it is supposed to look like. If it doesn't, look it up online and ask your doctor or pharmacist before putting it in your mouth. If it is a new medication, check and double check. I got lucky because I have been taking this for some time and I know what it is supposed to look like, but if it was new, I'd have just popped it in my mouth, no questions asked. I'm in the habit of assuming my pharmacist knows what he is doing.
Ginger Snaps
I have become completely addicted to ginger snap cookies. When the notion of baking my own rather than buying a bag crossed my mind I felt a need to make my own. After searching recipes online I determined I could totally make them, once I bought some molasses.
Tonight, since nothing good was on TV I made them! I followed this recipe and they turned out quite well. Although, she mentions: "Refrigerate until ready to bake" really she means, refrigerate before baking. If the dough is too soft and sticky you can't roll it into balls. So be sure to chill the dough so you can roll it into balls. I don't have any coarse ground sugar, I used regular sugar. And the first batch I dredged in cinnamon/sugar and that was very tasty, but you don't get the pretty granules like you would with coarse ground sugar. Now I get to have ginger snap cookies whenever I want without having to go buy a bag! HUZZAH!
I can't get no satisfaction
I'd like to take a moment to discuss customer service. For the past two weeks I was getting daily phone calls at 8am from US Cellular. However, there wasn't an actual person calling me. It was that annoying recording that says, "We have an important message about your US Cellular account" and then asking me to call them back. Two things on this, A) I don't have a US Cellular account and 2) if it is SO IMPORTANT, why isn't there a PERSON calling?
I was leaping to answer the phone the first couple of times thinking it might be someone calling about a job. Then I stopped answering hoping they'd figure out they're calling the wrong number. They were calling my land line, not my cell phone. Yes, I still have a land line. My cell phone doesn't work so well in my apartment. If I turn my head or breathe I'll lose the signal. The land line is also my path to the interwebs via DSL.
On Saturday, when they called me at 8am, I was pissed. I finally wrote down the number to call so I could make them stop. Getting to sleep at 4am, and then waking to the ringing phone 4 hours later, really sucks ass.
I called and of course it's a recording, "Please enter your US Cellular phone number." Well, I don't have one so I pressed zero hoping to just get in the queue for a person. "That is an invalid entry. Please enter your US Cellular phone number." I punched in my land line number hoping that'd work, they'd been calling me anyway. "One moment while we access your account," followed by some bubble noises. "Please enter your US Cellular phone number." I typed in my phone number AGAIN, getting even more frustrated at this lack of human interaction. Again they ask me to wait a moment as they "access" my account. Fortunately that was followed by, "Please hold as we connect you to a service representative."
I get the girl on the phone and explain how annoyed I am that they call me with a recording every day about an account I don't have. She asks me if I know anyone with an account. "Um...I live alone, no I don't know anyone with an account?" She apologizes and promises to have my number removed. I hang up glad that that is done with.
Monday morning 8am my phone rings. It is US Cellular telling me they have important information about my account. I figure, since I called on Saturday it'll take time for their system to update. I do nothing. Tuesday morning 8am they call again. Now I'm pissed. I go through their stupid automated system again. I get a girl (possibly the same girl) on the phone and I'm like, "Look, I called you people on Saturday, this is harassment. Get my number out of your system." AGAIN she asks me if I know anyone with a US Cellular account. WTF?! Why would you call me instead of THEM?! That's the DUMBEST QUESTION EVER! Sure my friend Tony has an account but gave you MY number? WTF?!? IDIOTS! She apologizes again, swears she will contact accounting and have this fixed.
So far they haven't called me. If I did have a US Cellular account I'd be canceling it ASAP because their practice is harassing. Calling EVERY DAY at 8am?! Even on a weekend? If you're in the market for a new cell phone company, you might want to keep this in mind. US Cellular is a big fat NO on my list of cell phone companies now.
Shouldn't places with automated systems build in some kind of "you have the wrong number" type of option when being called? Yeah sure the people dodging your call could easily press that button to make you go away, but you should still have their mailing address to send them letters. Harassing phone calls to the wrong person is setting you up for a lawsuit. Why should I have to drop everything to call you to tell you that you're calling the wrong place? I'm so tired of companies not having people there to answer the phone.
I got a phone call this morning on my cell phone from a company claiming to be an employment service for a place I applied to. Their recording repeated over and over that a verification specialist would be connected shortly to go over my application before they pass me along to their client. Well, since they called my cell phone, obviously I breathed wrong and I was disconnected. I did a Google search on the phone number and discovered via 800 Notes.com that this company is a scammer. They set up fake job postings online, make you fill out an insane form to set you up for harassment from online Universities via spam and phone calls. And there is no job at all.
I'm sick to death of fake jobs and fake job offers and phone calls that are just harassment. It's hard enough to find a job, but now I have to determine if the job posting is spam or real? I can't just answer my phone and have a person on the other line to talk to me? Is it time for me to move to a cave or a cabin in the wilderness and just avoid civilization completely?
Tonight's Dinner
A recipe I found at Pink of Perfection Tater Tot Turkey Casserole. While at the store I couldn't remember what vegetable the recipe called for, so I stood there wondering what goes well with turkey and cream of mushroom soup? Why, green beans of course! The green beans made the casserole a bit more than 4 servings (well I think it's more than 4, and I hadn't eaten all day.) It's totally comfort food, and really very good. I haven't had tater tots in such a long time. This was really yummy. I also added some cheese just before the tater tots. mmmmm....
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