poor maggie’s almanac

as previously mentioned, i am poor.  i love love love my poorly paying job, and work full time.  i think technically, i would still be below the poverty line, though.  i am barely able to pay all of my bills, rent, have gas in my car, and eat.  i haven’t been grocery shopping since the beginning of december or so.

cole taught me that he doesn’t go shopping until absolutely everything he has is gone.  still a can of creamed corn in the cupboard?  then why the hell would you shop?  oh, you still have a random packet of maple and brown sugar oatmeal?  hello dinner!

i don’t eat at home often anyway.  i usually wake up, have breakfast, and then go to work where i get dinner for free because i’m a manager.  then on my days off, i’m kind of screwed.  i love to cook, and i would love to be able to eat fresh food all the time.  fresh veggies and fruits and bread and eggs and all that, but i’m not at home often enough for it to be worth it for me to buy fresh products.

right now, i have half a box of yogurt crunch life, some peanuts, a little bit of milk, some orange juice, some oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, girl scout cookies, and then condiments up the yin yang.  bbq sauce, hot sauce, butter, cream cheese, grated parmesean cheese, two different types of salad dressing, and so on.  once, wayne and i went grocery shopping and spent nearly $100 on condiments alone.  true story.

sunday, i spent a good part of the day clipping bits of the buffalo news jobfinder up.  i need a job with hours that are something like 8-2 or so.  my hotel job starts at 3.  i am not at all opposed to food service, and would ideally like to find something with benefits.  i would like to work about 20-30 hours per week.  the hotel has health plans, but i can’t afford them.  i have been without insurance for probably about three years, maybe four.  i’m sure i could use new glasses by now.

anyway, today i stopped by one of the places i’d seen advertised and filled out an application.  adam’s rib, a restaurant in snyder.  truth be told, i had never been in there before.  i thought it would be a cute little place.  and it is, kind of…  when i walked in, there were 4 septuagenarians at the bar and the bartender looked like she was about 55 or so.  aww, cute old folks.  the decor looked like it probably hadn’t been updated in at least three decades, possibly more.  the position was a cook’s assistant/ dishwasher and the ad said that it would be perfect for a mom with kids in school.  this makes me think that the hours are primarily morning based.  however, this job would not fulfill my benefits wish.

a lot of the jobs i clipped for were office assistants, mail room assistants, telemarketers, call centers, blah, blah, blah.  as a secondary job, though, maybe it would be all good.  i also clipped out for people inc.  i am thinking this might be a great job for me.  i also believe that they have benefits.  we’ll see.

i plan on filling out several applications so that i can have my choice of many options.  and i’m not going to stress out over this.  a coworker at a former job once told me that there is never any need to stress out over a second job.  second jobs should be stress free, and in my mind, so should second job searching.  ah, relaxed, and looking for a few hours here and there.  ahhh…

one of the jobs i am thinking about applying for is a cafeteria monitor for a charter school in the city.  ha, what a dorky job.  i think i would actually really like it.  do i discipline?  i have no idea.  going to a private school sheltered me from a lot of situations in school that some consider universal.

hmm… i wonder where this will all lead me.  seriously, though, i love the title for this entry.  so so true.