Merry Christmas (Belated, sorry)

No reason for not blogging, besides being too lazy to do so.

So, I survived Christmas, barely. Alien, her boyfriend, Butterball, Single Son and I were the first to arrive - half an hour early. The Italian Stallion (Cousin Dear's husband) greeted us with a "Thank You" ... not hello. LOL. I guess they'd been arguing because Cousin Dear still had the kitchen floor to wash and to get dressed for the festivities and he kept telling her to just go get dressed, someone MAY show up early. The thank you was because HE won that argument. And he kept reminding her all night that he was right (he's that type, lol).

In all thirty three showed up at Cousin Dear's house. Crowded and noisy, it made the house way too hot for my comfort (and my dad's too). Although I have to admit, the "M" kids were rather well behaved for a change. Made it a bit more tolerable.

Butterball was way too overwhelmed by it all. He's never seen so many people under one roof before. He wasn't happy with the heat either, but taking his shirt off helped him considerably (Dad quipped that he wished he could have stripped down, too, LOL). For me, it was as easy as stepping outside in the cold air to cool off enough (this is the one time that being a smoker banished to the out of doors is a plus ... LOL).

Since there were ten kiddies present this year, Cousin Dear decided that the kiddies would have to be fed first to make room for the adults. It was a good idea in theory, but failed miserably. The kids took over the kitchen table, and seeing that the kids were eating half the adults (the "M"s mostly, figures, eh?) decided it was time to dig in, too. Only problem is, they didn't vacate the dining room table after they finished for the next wave of diners. Ah, well, they did get the hint when four of us showed up with full plates ... lol.

But this was definitely the last time we need to worry about overcrowding. I didn't have much of a chance to talk to Cousin Dear, and Brother Deere didn't say a word to me all evening, but according to the Italian Stallion their feeling is that if one of the "M"s doesn't volunteer for the next holiday (and many many more after that), these two branches of our Family Tree are out of the "soup kitchen" business (as the Stallion put it) once and for all. Besides, he made a good point, even at holidays "they" stick together, they never mingled with Mom's branch or Aunt Silly's branch of the family ... why bother if they can't at least once a year visit with the rest of the family.

So, other than that ... it was a fairly pleasant evening. Ate way too much ... drank more than a few cups of spiked punch ... hehehe ... opened gifts from my folks ...

Click on the picture of Butterball to see the rest of my photos in the photo album ...

I had to laugh ... Mom got Single Son a pop corn popper (and a bag of kernels). He couldn't wait to get home and pop some popcorn. Only problem was, it's been so long since he's had a popcorn popper that he forgot how much to put in the thing ... he put in a half of a cup of kernels - needless to say he's got a few days worth of popcorn out of that first batch! He was in a mad scramble to find enough containers to hold it all!!

Hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas ...

Christmas 2010

Thursday ...

and I can't think of a cutesy blog title. Ah well, there's more on my mind than blog titles.

Christmas. 'Tis the Season ... dysfunctionality at it's finest.

And for once it's not me or my offspring that's causing such a stir ... LOL.

Mom's mad at the "M" cousins, Silly's upset with Cousin Dear and the "M" cousins .. yup, 'tis the season.

Of course, I didn't help by calling Mom to read to her a status update Cousin Dear put on my facebook wall. It read something like "So...I forgot to pass this along...was talking to J, D, and K (aka the "M" cousins)...each family member who has a young child...should bring a present for "their own" child to open Christmas Day at my house....I'm sure Aunt Silly, your mom, and maybe M will do something if they so choose. Please pass this on to Alien and DIL (although I don't know if DIL is coming here)..... So...no buying for anyone but one's own child/children...." Okay, so that was exactly how it read (copy and paste, gotta love it) ... and yes, names were changed to protect the guilty.

So, why are Mom and Silly so pissed off? Because it had been suggested early that the kids do a gift exchange, bring one gift for each child you have (one kid = one gift, two kids = two gifts, etc) ... and the kiddies would swap gifts with their cousins. But of course, no one wanted to do that. So ... the "M" cousins think it's better to bring a gift for your own kid so they can open it there. Hello? How stupid!! The gift starts out at your house, gets opened (maybe parts get lost) and then you have to take it BACK home again? And it's pissed them off because the "M" family once again calls the shots, because they don't want to buy gifts for the other little kids, yet the four adults of the "M" family have never hosted a family holiday meal, they don't bring a dish, don't clean up and don't contribute to the costly holiday dinner hosted elsewhere.

On the other hand, Mom's happy that she doesn't have to buy any more gifts .. in fact she picked one from a dozen or so gifts she'd bought for all the kiddies and will give that to Grandson. Other than that, she'll be taking all the other gifts back to the store as soon as possible.

Mom and Silly are so pissed off that they claim this is the last of the family meals. No more Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners. Well, as long as the "M"s are concerned.

Damned soap opera, I tell you ...

As long as we're on the Christmas Soap Opera box ... soap box, get it ... There is NO tree at my house. I "won" ... or I should say that DIL refused to clean up her mess, got mad at me in the process, and gave up bitching about wanting the tree put up. Funny thing is, she still has her messes to clean up, but now she won't have the reward of seeing the pretty tree up this year.

Funnier yet, is that once they move out, I will be putting up the Christmas tree for all to enjoy during the holiday season.

DIL had been telling Single Son how she's fed up with me not cleaning up the kitchen. He laughed ... told her "but she does clean up, just not after others". Yup, we're back to that ... her not cleaning up after she uses the kitchen (or bathroom, or living room, or ... any room for that matter). I've given her warning that on the Monday after Christmas I will be taking my house back, and that if she has anything important that she wants that's not put away in a safe place she may be at risk of losing it. I've even provided a folder for her for Grandson's school stuff and a place to store it - let's see if she uses it. If not, I don't care if it's important or sentimental or not, it will be thrown away!! I'm tired and I want my home back!!

I did mention something to Married Son about it, and he said, "is that a good idea, Mom, you know that'll tick her off". I told him I know it will but too bad. His response? "Good, maybe it'll make her mad enough to move out". Yup, he's fed up with her crap, too. He's talking about the big D once again ... I wonder if he'll actually go through with it in 2011. Then again, if he does that will mean he won't be moving out of this house any time soon - he'll be yet another divorced kid who moves back in with Mommy. Oh wait, he can't move back in, he's ALREADY here! Damn.

On the bright side, I'm only four years away from being able to move into senior housing.

Dear Santa. It's me again. I know it's last minute, and probably too late for this Christmas but I want to let you know that what I really really really want for Christmas is an empty nest. Maybe this is enough warning so that by next Christmas I can have my wish granted? If you can't grant me an empty nest, can you at least give me a somewhat emptier nest? I think you know which "Birdie" needs to go and which can stay indefinitely. Thank you Santa. P.S. I read where there are certain people who think you're too fat and send a bad example to the children of the world. You're the most generous person I know (next to my folks) and don't deserve the bad wrap because they're narrow minded fat-phobics. Make sure those fools get rotten carrots in their stocking ... they don't even deserve coal!!

Birthday Catsup ...

I mean Catch up ... our modem died late on the 18th, I'm suspecting the Gremlin had something to do with it ... no chance to blog until this evening. Please don't mind the offline blog that I wrote and pasted here. It's late and I'm sleepy, too sleepy to try to write a proper blog. LOL.

December 18, 2010

LOL. I don't know if I'll have time tomorrow to blog, it's the big StarFleet Christmas Party. Seems it's tradition to have it on my birthday anymore. But then, I'm used to my birthday being upstaged by Christmas, lol. Company parties, school parties, church youth group parties, you name it. I'm not bitter, lol, in fact I always thought I was something special by being born so close to Christmas!

You know, when I was growing up, I never realized that Hallmark (or the others) made anything but Christmas paper. My birthday gifts were wrapped in Christmas paper. Brother Deere, born January 5, also had his birthday gifts wrapped in Christmas paper. It wasn't until I was eight, when Little Bro was born on Valentine's Day, that I found out that Hallmark made more than Christmas paper. They also made Valentine's paper! Who knew? Dad was born on the Fourth of July, Mom's birthday occasionally falls on Easter - yeah we're a family of holiday or near holiday babies, LOL ... yet they never had gifts wrapped in birthday paper either ... Mom always had so much extra inventory of Christmas paper that that's all we ever saw gifts wrapped in (besides Valentine's paper)!

Today there's presents to wrap, cookies to bake ... okay, who am I kidding? I'm not baking cookies, I'm cheating by stopping by the bakery on the way to the party tomorrow. Two dozen chocolate chip cookies should cover it. Plus the stuff Single Son said he'd bring ... pop, cups, cheese and crackers and ... and ... oh I hope he remembers what else he said he'd bring.

As long as I'm wrapping gifts for the Trekkie Party, I may as well wrap family gifts, too. It's either that or I'll put it off until literally the last minute.

I'm so relieved that the shopping is done. I picked a great day, too, to go shopping! The one store I went to ended up not only having everything on my list, but everything was marked 50 to 80 percent off - an in-store unadvertised sale! Yes, 80 percent off. Eureka!!

Seeing as part of the shopping today was to buy my own birthday and Christmas gifts (from Mom) I really hit the jackpot!! Blue jeans for ten bucks, and a beautiful sterling silver amethyst and marcasite ring (valued at $90) for $18 and change!! Combine that with the Flylady order, and Mom spent 25% less on my gifts this year. And no, I didn't run around the store trying to spend the rest of the money. Let her enjoy some savings, LOL.

Speaking of running around the store, I'm beat!! Three hours in one store, unheard of for me! But I did search high and low, far and wide (and circled the place a few dozen times) in search of the perfect gift at humongous savings.

Sore as I am now thanks to *someone* wearing the wrong shoes for marathon shopping, and a few too many wayward carts rammed into the back of my heels by people not paying attention to anything but shelves and I can tell you I'm ready for a soak in the bathtub.

And soak I plan on doing, as soon as Alien gets here to pick up some mail and a ring I told her she could have. We both love amethyst (it was my brother's birthstone). I didn't tell her, but the mail is a check from Aunt Silly ... a hundred dollars to help Alien with Christmas for the Butterball. Now how sweet was that? But that's Aunt Silly ... generous and loving.

Well, I was going to post this ... We've lost internet about half way through my writing this. Seems our router just died. I'll post when I can (hopefully it'll come back to life, even if for only a few hours).

Hmmmm, nope, not the router it turns out, but the modem that went poof.

Nope, no such luck. Single Son said there was a small “explosion” followed by a stench. Great. Monday I get to call AT&T and order a new modem. I wonder how long that’ll take?

Until then, I blog offline, I’ll play catch-up with ya’ll when I can.

December 19, 2010

Just got back from the Star Trek Christmas party. Had a great time! We ate way too much delish food, opened presents, had birthday cake and played the game “Apples to Apples” while the *guys* held their end of the year Star Fleet teleconference call.

Our hostess, “L” had mentioned she’d sent me an email early this morning to ask me to bring a deck of cards, which of course I wasn't able to read, when I said that our modem had died she got all wide-eyed “we have three extra modems here, you’re more than welcome to take one home”. Yay!! As I type Single Son is working on swapping out the old, dead modem for the new one. And I mean new. They never used the one they gave us. It’ll be nice to be back online tonight. Hopefully tonight anyway.

You really don’t know how much time you spend online until you can’t get online. Haha.

It looks like I will be going to Port Huron for New Year’s after all. Single Son pretty much has to go for the swearing in of our new Star Fleet Commander, but he won’t be staying too long after midnight. So, knowing that he’s not staying overnight, or that I won’t have to drive the distance at night, I decided to go. A break from my normal tradition of meditation and reflection as the new year comes.  

Thursday

Geesh, here I sit at the computer, staring at the screen ... don't have a single thought popping into my mind at the moment. How sad is that?

Then again, it beats those days where so much has happened I don't know where to start, lol.

I've been helping Alien set up some "Flylady" stuff lately ... chore charts and schedules, routines, cleaning hints and tips. Anything to help her along with her days. One baby is hard enough (if you don't have routines in place) and she'll have a second child soon enough (due mid-January) that she's really going to have her hands full if she can't set schedules and routines.

I have to say I've very proud of her, too. She's trying. Hard. She's even started taking classes offered by both the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Child Protective Services (CPS) in parenting, and home economics. She had to laugh, today the CPS was out to her house for the home economics session, they set up their system a lot like Flylady does. She mentioned that I was helping her with Flylady and the social worker laughed "I love Flylady. Our system is based on hers" ... I think she earned "brownie points" with her social worker!! LOL!

Oh, speaking of Flylady ... LOL ... my Dryer Cleaning kit came in today! Four days since I ordered it! That's impressive, especially this time of year!

Tomorrow I give my dryer a good ... dare I say ... blow job. And for some sad reason, I'm looking forward to it. Pathetic.

I still haven't been out to finish Mom's holiday shopping list. I know what I want to get everyone, I just haven't had a car available to me. Well, that's not quite true, I have the car, it's sitting in my driveway. It won't start. Seems someone (ah hum) let the gas tank get too low and with that bad snow storm last week, the little gas that was in it froze in the gas line. I know better. I really do!! But I did it anyway. I still haven't been able to get someone to bring me a can of gas ... so I bug them (Married Son, and DIL) to bring me one or two items that I need while they're out - including gasoline. Do they bring me things? No!! "Oh, sorry Mom, I forgot" ... Married Son had asked me to wash something for him ... you know me well enough to know what I did!! Or didn't do. "Oh, Sorry Son, I forgot". And I'll keep forgetting until someone remembers to bring me some freaking gas!

But one way or the other, it has to be taken care of before Sunday! That's the annual Star Trek Christmas Party. And Single Son and I are going. Which means I need my car.

Off now ... I'm going through some serious Hyacinth Bucket withdrawal (Keeping Up Appearances) ... time to pull out the dvds and get my fix!!

Mailmen ...

oy, you'd think a box in a mailbox with the little red flag up would be a clue that you're to take the box out and deliver it elsewhere? Not a chance. Not our mail carrier. Nope, he removes it, puts my mail in it and puts the box back in the mailbox. You know the one, I blogged about it yesterday - the one from QVC that got mis-delivered.

At least he put my box in the right mailbox! Ya, I finally got my new cell phone today. It only took a month and a half from application to delivery.

So, I got a Kyocera Jax. I'm not a fan of Kyocera, but I sure won't look a gift cell in the mouthpiece, ya know? It's a simple phone, no bells and whistles like my smartphone has  - but it's all good. It's temporary anyway until I'm working again and can get my smartphone turned back on.

I was surprised to see that for a simple bare bones basic plan, it does have voice mail, voice dialing, caller id and even a speaker phone. No camera, no internet access and no texting (unless I buy airtime for texting and their version of the web), but I can deal with that! Really!!

Yes, I know it's sideways. I put it that way ... lol.

*****

Another snow day today. DIL and Grandson took off for places unknown (at least to me, but then I'm never in the loop). That's fine, I'm enjoying the quiet!!

The Proof Is In The …

Dryer?

And we're not talking dryer lint this time.

We're talking boots. Yes, boots. Heavy duty (leather) size 13 work boots to be exact. For my friends who are not familiar with American shoe and boot sizes, that's a damn big boot!

It proves that I really am living with morons. It sounds like the house if falling in, thud, thud, thud, as they tumble.

And why, you ask, are those boots in my dryer?

Seems FedEx drivers have an odd way of drying their work boots after a long day of jumping in and out of their trucks making deliveries to houses that haven't yet shoveled their driveways or walkways from yesterday’s snow storms.

And then he wonders why I call him (them) the Wrecking Crew.

I just had a thought … brb … K ... Back. Those boots are rubber soled. That means they may melt in MY dryer! Had to go tell Married Son (a.k.a FedEx) about my thought … and now the thud, thud, thud has stopped. Yay!!

Hopefully he took them out in time so that there are no “skid marks” in my dryer!

*****

I didn’t go anywhere because of the icy roads. Heck, they cancelled school in over 200 districts today (including ours). No sense going out if the roads are that bad the call off so many districts. And from the news that's on right now, it's looking like there's a chance school may be cancelled tomorrow, too.

*****

I’m still waiting for my Assurance Wireless (a.k.a. the “government cell phone plan”) to come in. It should be here before Thursday. It’ll be so nice to have a cell phone again. I think I mentioned that a few times already.

I thought it had come in today, there was a smallish box visible in my mailbox (you can see what's in my door-less mailbox from the front window) but it turned out the box was delivered to the wrong address (happens often out here). Some neighbor I’m not familiar with, from QVC … so I left it in the mailbox for the letter carrier to pick up tomorrow and hopefully get it to the right destination this time.

So, why is my mailbox door-less? Little vandals in the area for the past five years have been playing smash the mailbox every time someone puts up a new mailbox. We don’t know who is doing it, but have a few suspects. It gets expensive if you’re replacing mailboxes every few weeks (learned that one the hard way), so now we just leave it alone. They don’t bother with the contents of the mailboxes, I guess even mailbox vandals have some respect for the power of the USPS.

Have I mentioned that I really hate living here anymore? Between falling trees, mailbox vandals, and the fact this is a dying neighborhood (notice I didn’t mention idiot neighbors, LOL), I’ve wanted to move for a while now. And it finally looks like that’ll happen within the next few years. Mom’s still talking about selling this house within two to five years, and I’ve narrowed down where I want to move to about three different areas. It’ll take me two years to figure out which one I really want to move into! LOL.

Of course, there's the apartments in Port Huron, my favorite place, but with lake effect snows and real cold temps in the winter this one will take a lot of thinking! The other two are about a dozen miles north of the town my folks live in. Rural settings pretty much., but not too far from small town civilization.

Thankfully I have time to not only figure out where I want to move (and have a job so I can save the funds to move, lol), but sort through the 16 years of memories (and crap) that living in this house have produced.

Baby It's Cold Outside ...

So much for my promises to blog more, eh? Can't blog when there's nothing happening. Well, some talented people can ... they have the ability to take something "routine" and through their creativity they shed new light on their topic. I, sadly, have misplaced that ability.

It's true, if you don't use it, you lose it.

So, what's happening in the mundane world of Moi?

*****

That winter storm is finally on it's way. I fell asleep a few hours ago to the sound of rain, now there's snow on the ground. I'm pretty sure that there's ice under that snow. And I'm not going to find out!! I'm stayin' inside today! Especially with the forecast of about ten inches of snow in our area by tomorrow morning.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful ...

I have the morning news on in the background. They're covering the mad rush people are making for supplies - at this hour no less. Hello? We live in Michigan people. Shouldn't you have realized there'd be snow at some point, and to have these supplies on hand already? I mean ... common sense says snow scrapers, snow shovels and de-icer are pretty much a given 'round these parts. I know where my snow shovel and snow-melting de-icer is .. and it ain't on the shelves of the store. And I won't even get into the lady they just interviewed who dragged her kids out of bed before dawn to buy them snowsuits!

Pretty sad that I, the Queen of Procrastination never leave certain things for the last minute. Like food, or warm clothing, or snow removal supplies. Oy.

*****

I've had my Christmas shopping done for a week now. Wrapped, tagged, and waiting.However, now I'm NOT done with shopping. Mom called last night and asked if I would do her Christmas shopping. Grrrrrr. Sure, I said. Luckily I had a few ideas for each kid (and grand) left, thanks in part to my really tight gift budget this year. But now it's unavoidable I hit the Maul again.

Ah well, the best part of this is that I get to shop for myself, too!! I know part what I want to buy myself, it was just a matter of being able to order it.

And what's got me so excited, you ask?

A dryer cleaner kit from Flylady of course. After that little mishap where DIL thought the dryer was on fire - remember that? The poor moth got bbq-ed in the lamp, it was NOT a dryer fire. But with the way *someone* doesn't clean the lint traps after every use so this is the perfect gift for myself - peace of mind that there's no lint to worry about, and it's affordable at $15.95.

Heaven helps if one of them touches it!

Then again, like they'd do a chore without threats or personal gain? This of course, does not apply to Single Son - just the Wrecking Crew. Single Son is good about his chore list (and helping me when I ask or he sees the need for something to be done).

I'll clean Mom's dryer, I'm sure it needs it, too. And a friend of mine said once I own one she'd pay me to use it on her dryer, too.

LOL ... what a job possibility ... "Dryer Lint Removal - $20". My slogan could be "Dryer Blow Jobs" ... or "Let ME Suck Your Dryer Clean".

*****

Mom told me to spend about a hundred on my combined gifts (being it's my birthday this weekend, LOL) ... I have no idea what else I want or need. Oh, Oh, Oh!! Maybe a new comforter? I'm getting a new bed within the next three weeks ... a nice new comforter would be great. Maybe I can find a good sale on one of those bed-in-a-bag thingies.

Yup, that's what I'm getting ... a bed-in-a-bag set.

Thanks for the help, I really wasn't sure what I wanted.

*****

LOL, speaking of chores ... DIL wants the tree up this year. I didn't put it up last year. Why bother when no one was going to be here? Anyway ... she's been vocal about wanting MY tree up. I told her she'd have to go into the crawl space to get it and the ornaments, she'd have to clean the living room of their crap that's been dropped in the corner, that my 90 year old dollhouse has to be moved to the top of the entertainment center from the table it stands on now (she thinks she's going to move it to the lower level - NOT) ... and their crap on the entertainment center needs to be put in storage.

Needless to say, the tree and ornaments are still in storage, the dollhouse sits on the table the Christmas tree goes on, and the entertainment center still has her crap on it.

She also wants to string lights all over the front of the house. Not a chance of that happening!! The house is covered in vinyl siding (including the soffit), there's no way she's putting holes in MY three year old siding!! She can string 'em on the inside of the front windows, providing she uses NO nails!!

Call me Scrooge. OR Maxine. OR the Grinch.

*****

I'll be sooooo glad when the holidays are over!

Thanksgiving 2010

Snowy Monday ...

I'm sooooo glad I live on the east side of the state ... that weather is pretty much missing us. South, north or west, but not here. The west side of the state is predicted to get between a foot and twenty inches of snow today. We've only seen a few inches of snow so far.

Yuck.

I'm finding that the older I get, I'm not liking the snow as much. Or maybe it's just this stupid diabetic neuropathy? The colder I get, the more pain I feel. And snow is cold!! Even with my fur lined snow boots and arctic winter gloves.

But it better snow for my birthday and for Christmas. After that, I have no use for it.

So, why exactly an I up and blogging at this hour? Hellifiknow!! I didn't sleep well ... four or so hours of tossing and turning. Gave up at about six this morning and came online. Applied for four more jobs, after searching through hundreds of listings on Fox2's Job Shop. Two Retail, one office and one hotel service. Figure it's time to expand my search.

Oh ... Em, you suggested volunteering ... Single Son and I were talking last night about our charity event for our Star Trek geek club. We're going with Habitat for Humanity in 2011. Since I'm limited in my physical abilities I was worried that I wouldn't be able to help. He assured me that they also need office volunteers. And with all the volunteers both in the office and on site, talk about a great networking opportunity!

Good news!! I'm about to get a cell phone again. Since I'm on food assistance I qualified for that Assurance Wireless service (free phone and 250 minutes a month) that some of you see advertised on the boob tube. They accepted my application just two days ago (a month in the acceptance process). Now to get it in the mail. It'll make it easier for me to apply for jobs ... I can leave the house and not worry that I'll miss a call for an interview - like I did when the thrift shop called. They had to leave a message. How inconvenient when they have to wait for me to call them back ... and possibly give MY interview to someone else who answered their phone immediately!

I am tired ... I want to go back to sleep. But I won't. My food assistance card was "recharged" at midnight so that means I have the funds and can go grocery shopping! After that, maybe I'll take a nap. Or search for more jobs.

Oh!! I finally got pictures off Single Son's camera from Thanksgiving. Yay!! Now I can upload 'em all and share 'em with you. And to think I got them before Christmas!! In fact, I'm gonna upload those before I venture out to the grocery store.

Now where did I put my shopping list? And the snow scraper ...

On a Happy Note ... Happy Birthday Butterball!!

Today was Butterball's first birthday party, even though his birthday was yesterday. It was the first time since Thanksgiving that I've been out of the house. I'm so glad I went!! Here's a few pics of the Birthday Boy ...

 

Just need to vent ...

I know I said I'd try to blog more, but obviously this week I sure didn't keep that promise. Fifty lashes with a wet noodle ...

Honestly I haven't been in the best mood. Depressed, but that seems to happen this time of year. Add the frustrations of still not finding a job and I'm not exactly the best company these days.

Doesn't help that on Thanksgiving my mom had to tell me about an article she'd read in the paper, that those over the age of fifty are having real problems in finding jobs - more-so than the under thirty crowd especially. No kidding? Really? I wouldn't have known had she not said something (insert sarcasm here).

Since Mom's telling me about it, I've seen numerous reports on the news about the same thing. Nice to know (I guess) that I'm not the only one having the difficulties I do.

I've applied to literally hundreds of jobs, both online and in person. I keep records of where and when (and the person I've talked to if in person), outcome (interview or no word). There's over three hundred job application entries in my spread sheet!! Only five resulted in interviews, and obviously none have hired me. I send thank you notes to the interviewers for the interviews. I re-apply every cycle possible (some say 90 days, some say six months), there's not much more I can do.

I study every article that comes out on how to sell myself, what to say (and not say), how to make my resume pop, follow ups, thank you notes, you name it.

And I go un-hired. Yup ... the age. You'd think with my qualifications, my record, my service oriented (and people oriented) skill sets that I'd be one highly sought after asset for their companies. And I am. It's gotta be the age thing.

Thanks for letting me vent ... I've needed to release this tension for days now.

I'll plug along, I'm sure someone, someday, somewhere, will recognize what I can offer their company and be happy to have me aboard!