yay! & ooooo!
tuesday, october 2, 2012


tomorrow is saxy's last day at the production job. he's been pretty happy since turning in his notice and has been gradually getting happier as the days have passed. tonight he told me that the crew will probably have to go in on thursday, but there's no way he will be joining them. not like she can fire him. he's not even sure if she ever told the owner of the place that he's going.

anyway, he plans to chill on thursday, do some tv watching, and just pretty much take it easy. friday he picks up his check and takes care of the car: getting it re-smogged and registered if it passes. we're not going to have much money for anything because of having to deal with the car and overspending at the grocery store last week. saxy and i are supposed to go out to dinner on sunday at el taco, where he gets 25% off and the other chefs should cover most of the rest of the tab, but i'm a bit...iffy on it now because of how tight the funds will be this next week. i've been working on shuffling things, but it's all still a lot tighter than i'd like (although not nearly as tight as it seemed like it was every damn week at toxic house, just pretty damn close).

anyway, saxy then spends the weekend working at el taco and i believe he works for bold on saturday.

then monday he starts his new job at lure. :)

yes, he got the job! he came home friday from stodging pretty happy with his performance. as he put it, the chef didn't throw any of his food back at him. lol his chefs at bold asked how he did, and when he said he thought it went pretty well, they were all "dammit!" lol they really wanted him to be able to work production for them, but they also want him to grow as a chef and are aware that he needs both line experience in general and to work with fish in specific. he's going back to $10/hour (versus the $11 he was getting at the production company) and taxes will be taken out of these checks, so there is some concern there, but on the up side, he'll be able to work with bold during the week again, and we're starting their busiest season. lure is where he needs to be right now though, and i'm proud of him for following through. once he stodged, i knew he'd get the job (if he hadn't, my bet was that it would have been experience that would have edged him out, but his passion and his desire to learn should have pretty much made up for that).

but yay! he got the job! i am so, so, soooo happy for him! this is where he needs to be, and he can work for bold again, which he has REALLY missed since the production job put him on evenings.

the only concern right now is the money. as noted above, the car has proven to be a bit of a problem. we've spent over $200 between smogging and repair options (starting with the cheapest and working our way up), and we're still not 100% sure it's fixed and will pass. it's looking good at this point (the check engine light, which has been on pretty much since we bought the thing) is finally off. it needs to stay off, but has flickered at least once. friday, saxy will have driven the full 100 miles we need for it to be off, and then the smog check will hopefully pass it. but as a result of the money spent on the car, other bills have not been paid and now MUST be paid, and the amount of those bills are higher than what his paychecks will be on friday. i've already begun shuffling things and making calls before the fact (i was so happy when i found out that the cable bill wasn't yet officially past due, which gives me some time to get things together to push and pay later). the cell bill was heart stoppingly huge, but a call there found the problem and hopefully that will be solved in a day or two. i still have to pay the past due on that. and i'm pushing or splitting just about everything else that i can.

problem is there's not enough money to go around this week; next week is his last production company check, and it usually isn't big to begin with; the following week, his first lure check will kick in, but it will be short since it will cover only one week; and the week after that is our first week without a production company check. so, we've got a month of short checks, bills already in the arrears, and no way to set up the secondary account i need to help cover the weeks where we have no checks coming in (my plan is to open a second checking account in my name and to put $350 in there to help cover the weeks when we don't have a check coming in). i've already figured we're going back to $50 grocery weeks for the duration, which means a lot of rice and beans those weeks, though i'm worried about covering taz's lunches then since he doesn't qualify for free/reduced lunch at school.

sooo, yea, ooooo, it's going to be a tough month, give or take. i'm already noting in my planner the things that need to be covered and when (for example, we have to put about $125 into rent towards the end of the month, but this month, that money has to go in a week earlier since there's no money coming in the last week of the month). it's not going to be an easy transition from a check a week to checks every other week, and there's no real way to make it easier. we'll make it through—we've already made it through worse—but it'll be tough and require a lot of the finagling skills i learned in toxic house. i have to figure out how to keep anything from being disconnected (because once it is, wee not only have to pay the past due, but also anything that's current, and that would be so much tougher to pull together), especially since most of it really isn't optional. even the cable bill isn't optional since that's also our internet and i need the internet to do my editing job as well as to be available for any possible positive responses to my submissions out (i should be hearing from the agent that requested the full of charms this month, assassin's has been subbed to a publisher, and i have a number of shorts still out there).

we can make it through this. it's kinda scary to be back to scrambling just to survive, but...YAY! he got the job!

and seriously? that's the most important thing of all. i really feel saxy is on his way. now we hunker down as he puts his time in for the next few years. he's in a good company. he's going to do well, and they definitely seem to be prepared to put the time and effort in to get him ready for the next stage of his career when it comes.

and that's a whole different kind of ooooo!