Okay, so…yeah. It’s been over a week since I paid any attention to my website. Sorry for being so lazy…there’s been a fair amount of crud going on, and, to be honest, I just wasn’t in the mood to bitch and moan about it until some more of it was resolved. It’s not exactly all resolved now, but now I’ve gotten to a point where it was bugging me more that my page was sitting untended for this long. So, I put two posts up before this one…and now it’s time for me to babble.
Yay? ;)
This, then, is the lowdown. I’d already mentioned that at the beginning of the month I’d lost my position at Andersen, and then about a week later I got a new position at Microsoft. All seemed well and good — unfortunately, as there always seem to be, there have been complications.
First major thing — it took three weeks after starting at the new job before I got a paycheck. Not a good thing. Second major thing — my payscale pretty much sucks — $9.74/hr. Put the two together, and I end up in some rather interesting financial binds. Rent is coming up, bills are late…ack. Pfft. Grrr. Things are starting to get back on track — I got that 3-week (though only 40 hours) paycheck, and now things should start coming in on time, plus I’ve gotten my first paycheck from helping out around the apartment building, and I got my security deposit refund from the old apartment, so I’m getting things back on track, it’s just made for a lot of stress.
I’m still pretty worried about the pay, though. This just isn’t enough for me to make it without a lot of difficulties and eventual restructuring if things don’t get better quickly. The work around the building is helping — I get $10/hr for that — but I can only put in a maximum of 20 hours a week for that. Still, it’s better than nothing.
The whole thing’s been worrying me, though. A year ago when I was still in Anchorage and working for GCI I was making $14.65/hr, plus $6.85/hr a few hours a week at Suncoast, and paying a third of all the rent and bills for a huge apartment in Turnagain. Now, sure, I escaped from Anchorage to live in Seattle — but now I’m making just a little more than half of what I was, and paying more than half of what I was. By going from Andersen to Microsoft, my income has dropped by about $300/month, while my expenses jumped by about $60-$80/month in bus fare to get back and forth to and from Redmond. Ouch. The entire thing’s got me a little paranoid that I might run out of money — and I’d hate to make it this close to a full year down here and then get so broke I have to head back to Anchorage.
That would suck. A lot. :( Hopefully it won’t get to that point, though.
There are some bright points. The extra money from helping out here at the apartment building is going to come in very handy. Also, the people at Todays know that $9.74/hr is well below what I’m worth, so they got the manager at my current posting to agree to a 30 day evaluation to see if we can bump my pay rate up. I’m not sure how easy that will be when it took 3 weeks to get my first paycheck worked out, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. However, it will have to be a pretty decent jump to make keeping the posting worthwhile…and though I like the place I’m at, am having fun with the work, and enjoy the people there, if it’s not paying my bills, I’m going to have to ask for something different.
Ah, well. Things are definitely tight, but I’m not broke yet. I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end. Just keeping my fingers crossed until then.
In other news, life goes on fairly much as normal. Candice’s mom was down here for the weekend, so they were out doing mom/daughter things for a much of the weekend while I was working around the building. We did get the three of us together for lunch on Saturday and some wandering around the Pike Place Market, and for church on Sunday at a small Lutheran church that Candice has started going to (with me on occasion) close to downtown. The weekend was gorgeous, too — spring is certainly giving way to summer, and at the moment, we’ve got clear skies and no forecast of rain anytime soon. Sunshine everywhere, 70-some degree temperatures — definitely something I can deal with! :)
Basically, life goes on, pros and cons, ups and downs. I’m sure it’ll all work out eventually. It’s just not always fun when it’s in the process.