Random story amusements

Parts of this story were just sort of striking me as funny this evening. 

 

2 Chronicles 18

 ⁶ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not also a prophet of the Lord here? We should ask him the same question.”

 ⁷ The king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man who could consult the Lord for us, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything but trouble for me! His name is Micaiah son of Imlah.”

So if you have to choose between good news, or accurate but bad news…  lol

¹² Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.”

 ¹³ But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what my God says.”

 ¹⁴ When Micaiah arrived before the king, Ahab asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I hold back?”

   Micaiah replied sarcastically, “Yes, go up and be victorious, for you will have victory over them!”

 ¹⁵ But the king replied sharply, “How many times must I demand that you speak only the truth to me when you speak for the Lord?”

lol see? you want good news, and arent gonna listen anyway, he gives ya what you want to hear, and ya dont like that either! gotta love a sarcastic prophet! (well, at least when you arent the one he’s dealing with..)

 ²² “So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of your prophets. For the Lord has pronounced your doom.”

 ²³ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah walked up to Micaiah and slapped him across the face. “Since when did the Spirit of the Lord leave me to speak to you?” he demanded.

how many off track leaders so sure they are right really wish they could pull off vs 23 smoothly.. lol

  ²⁹ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself so no one will recognize me, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle   …

 ³³ An Aramean soldier, however, randomly shot an arrow at the Israelite troops and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. “Turn the horses and get me out of here!” Ahab groaned to the driver of the chariot. “I’m badly wounded!”

uh huh. that “random” will get ya every time.

Murphy’s week

Murphy’s law has been in top form this week.

• 1 ER trip
• 1 insurance mess-up
•  1 lost 15 year old dog with bad vision
• a debit card that gets rejected everywhere that runs it without asking my pin for no apparent reason in spite of having the funds in it
• 2 companies upset the autobilling failed due to above
• 4 phone calls so far trying to figure out why, none of which has had the foggiest clue
• 1 cell phone issue
• 1 temporarily lost cell
• 1 laptop getting knocked off desk
• 1 guy informing me roof will be needing replaced from the recent hailstorm
• 1 child on random rampage of direct defiance
• 1 car tire going flat slowly each time refilled
• few rounds of family drama
• 3 dishes/meals that haven’t turned out as expected for various reasons
• more i’m probably forgetting

and one round of trying to support my suspicious feeling with somee sort of proof regarding a 14 year old who somehow feels my 7 year old looks like a good person to be friends with. What would a 14 year old have in common with a 7 year old? Seriously.. its enough of an age difference I’d have probably been willing to hire to babysit for short appointments..

It doesn’t help that she lives only with dad… dad’s friend brings her clothes and things… and the first time i gave kiddo permission to go sit on her porch with her, kiddo decides to go inside, had given me the wrong house info, and didn’t turn up again till 930. 

Yes, i know. that’s an entirely weak and irrational argument. but its the best my suspicious first opinion is coming up with.

 

How long till the weekend again?

Walmart pricing venting (completely unrelated)

OK. Walmart is getting on my nerves a bit.

 

I’m not a huge fan of walmart, but I end up there because they are the only ones who will build in the middle part of the city. Everyone else builds on the outskirts, or the suburbs.

Nearest walmart? 5 minutes. Nearest target? 20 minutes for an old small one, 25 for supertarget. Even the nearest kmart is about 20 minutes.

 

So I mentioned the super cheap but super limited time bedding the other day. This week I’m dealing with the opposite side.

 

Polo shirts for school uniforms last year:$5. This year:$8.

Uniform shorts and skorts last year:$6. This year:$10 and $13

Navy colored slacks last year:$8. This year:$12

 

Even more annoying: basic underwear, same brand… old packages, 9 for 4.50. New packages, 12 for 8.50. Nearly twice the price for 1/3 extra. I dug and found the last two old packages in right size.. will put up with beat up packaging for that difference.

 

Can we say ouch? Especially when my child wore 7/8 shirts last year this time and is needing 14/16 this year. Pants have gone from 6 to 10.

So even with some midyear purchases last year and frequent laundry, I’m still having to purchase quite a bit again. An expected expense… but still. Dramatic price jumps on things I have to buy do not make me happy.

Yes, even when there are dramatic drops on things I like buy aren’t critical purchases.

They have been doing it with things like deodorant too… which has nearly doubled. (Not to mention, the buy 2 and save package is more expensive than buying the same 2 separately). 

 

However… walmart is not smart in this. 

Yes, they are known for being cheap… so some people won’t notice. 

The rest of us are getting deodorant at even the grocery store for cheaper. 

 

And so.. this evening I placed an order from old navy (store was out of right colors in her size, but web had free shipping). Because right now their shirts are 50 cents less, their shorts are the same price, and pants are only 50 cents more (and have stretch that walmarts don’t).

When I’m paying half the price, I don’t mind if the quality gives me half the use on kids clothes, because most of the time they are lost to outsizing or stains eventually anyway rather than being worn out.

But if I’m paying the same prices either way? I’m sure gonna go with the better product for my cost.

 

And I liked them better than sears… which also had similar prices right now.

Its a really weird economy when walmart and sears have close to the same prices on school uniforms.

My walmart meltdown

Kiddo spent the night with mom the other night. (part of a passive aggressive thing on mom’s part, but whatever…)

 

So I had a chance to make a run to the store for a few things that I needed that I much preferred not having kiddo along.

And because I was going to the kitchen section, which is right behind the school supply section, I ended up in it. As mentioned in a few past posts, not the best place to be.

 

And now they have added bedding. Brightly colored and very cheap bedding. Like 14 bucks for sheet sets or soft blankets in full/queen, 19 for comforters… 7.50 twin sheets. And some of the sheet sets were t-shirt material type… my favorite for sheets but that I haven’t had since I was in college. And the blankets were really soft microfleece, not the rougher texture type that most cheap blankets are that drive me nuts.

Yes, they were in all three colors. And colors to match kiddo’s comforter and curtains, that match but don’t match any of her sheets due to a room theme change.

And considering my current comforter has spots where the fabric is snagged, and several spots where it’s been resewn.. and my two primary sets of sheets are both faded… and that I think the cheapest I’ve ever gotten a comforter I really liked before was about 40… had I been working, I’d have had little qualms about loading about 100 bucks worth of bedding into the cart and cheering for the items off the “need but nowhere near urgently” list at a good price… and having found ones I really liked without having to do a big search for them.

 

And directly across from the backpacks. Normally not a big pull, but of my multiple laptop cases, my absolute favorite is a small black leather backpack that could pass for a purse. But where it’s leather, I don’t use it when chance of rain etc.

But they had preschooler sized backpacks that were waterproof and almost exactly the same size… big pocket on front for cords… and in plain solid colors.

 

And full length mirrors in hot pink or purple frames for 6… kiddo had broken the one in my room last year..

And the one that finally pushed the tears was the purple skillet. Remember that grocery store set with pink, turquoise, and black? This one was the next sized larger and purple… perfectly matched to the others I’d wanted.

 

And so I ended up flipping out a bit. Which is odd for me, as I cry much more often when I’m mad than I do when sad.

Managed my way through.. grabbed a purple mixing cup, can opener, and spatula set for 1.50 each…. forgot half the things on my list..

Made it back to the car to cry for a bit.

 

When I’d calmed down a bit, the thing that struck me was that my thoughts weren’t really going in the pity party direction. Where I would have expected.

They were going in the failure direction.

The more I thought about it, the more I think part of what’s throwing me a loop is that usually, if I want something I can afford, I know I can set priorities, and if its a true priority, I can juggle things to make it work. Even last time I was unemployed, I managed to keep from it resulting in canceling a planned and expensive trip.

 

But this time… it feels like I’ve reached the point where there isn’t much left to juggle. Part of this is probably added to by knowing kiddo is going to need school fees paid and school supplies and at least a few new uniforms bought in the next month. While I know I can do it, it’s still a big chunk I usually don’t have in the monthly budget.

And especially with the shorter check earlier this month from where it ended the regular unemployment period.

And I know if it ever really comes down to it, I do have the moving fund that I can use. But that thought is far from one likily to make me feel better… as I know while it will have some wiggle room with city1, I know going just on moving fund will be kinda tight for first few months in city2.

 

But I guess what it boiled down to was back to the feeling of helplessness.

I feel like I’ve tried every trick up my sleeve, and long since discovered that none of them are getting me anywhere this round.

I’m feeling like I’d have been in the exact same position even had I given up and dropped out of high school rather than having a college degree.

And feeling like my best efforts to provide for myself and kiddo aren’t good enough right now.

 

And I know the answer is faith. Trust that it’s under control… that it’s not even my thing under my power to be trying to control in the first place…

But while knowing it logically… I guess I’m getting more impatient emotionally. And I’m trying to turn it over and have faith…. but its harder as time goes on.

 

So calmed down a bit, pouted in god’s direction a bit about the job thing. Went way off goal eating and scarfed down 3 jr bacon cheeseburgers on impulse from the wendy’s I passed on the way to the other store I needed to stop at. (yes, i know… worst reason to be eating them… )

 

And by the time I was done with that store, I was thinking a bit more logically again.

So back in the car, I re-evaluated a bit.
Pointed out to myself again that I really don’t want those skillets, nor do I need 4 skillets total anyway. That the throw pillows and lamps and other cool stuff would not go at all in the living room (which has colors of forest green, black, and pale tan)… which is the logical place they would be. That I really didn’t need yet another laptop case or small backpack, that my messenger style bag I use for travel isn’t that much bigger to use when wet. And that there really wasn’t a reason for more than one comforter, or sheet set when I have other faded ones as backups, or blankets in summer.

And so, partially just because I did actually need some of the stuff I forgot, I decided to go back. And decided that one color of comforter and one sheet set was reasonable… 35 was budget-able.. and trusting god to make sure everything that is a real need is covered, even if I get into pouty fits.

 

Next morning, signs came that time of the month is going weird on timing again. One of the handful of times I feel really relieved to realize I’m in PMS… so at least I can write off both the crying over small things in walmart and the cheeseburger binge as hormonally influenced.

and i still feel like a total dork for the whole incident.

 

But maybe the next day was more interesting…. as mom, whose hours have been cut so she doesn’t have a ton of income right now either, went to walmart. I’d mentioned to her that I’d seen they had the fleece type blankets in full/queen sized when she mentioned to me about not being able to find one of boo’s smaller fleece ones at her house when she spent the night…. but had said nothing more.

Boo came into the house that next day… carrying loot from grandma. A new set of sheets for her bed, and microfleece blanket for each of us (the one part of the single set that I hadn’t purchased… and in the color matching my new comforter.)

 

so it’s rather nice to have a god that responds to pouting dorks with signs of providing, when he would have so been justified with a lightning bolt or some other “snap out of your spoiled american-has-it-so-easy whining”.

Not the only…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20090713/cm_huffpost/230311

The Most Powerful Generation in America

By Russell Simmons and Maya Enista
The vast majority of Americans, including many policymakers at the highest levels of government, are still unaware of one of the most pressing economic issues facing our country. Many may think that everything newsworthy has been covered amidst the media firestorm surrounding foreclosures, banks, bailouts, and the stimulus packages that have consumed news cycle after news cycle in the last several months. Unfortunately, both in the media and among policy-makers, there is one group that has been unceremoniously overlooked.

The Millennial Generation, those born between 1976 and 1996, the heirs to our economic legacy and ultimately the bearers of our economic destiny, are being disproportionately affected by the crisis, but continue to go unnoticed. This is even though they face unemployment at a rate more than 8% higher than the national average, suffer under a crushing average of $27,000 in student loan, $2000 in credit card debt, and a healthcare crisis that leaves 30% of them without any insurance. In addition, as young people enter the workforce, they are being pitted against individuals with much more experience than they have for the same entry level jobs due to recent layoffs, making finding a job exponentially more difficult.

This perfect economic storm will have untold negative impacts if nothing is done by Congress to address these issues now by truly investing in the Millennial Generation.

The good news is that even as young people are being overlooked by the majority of policymakers, they are stepping up to the plate to take control of their own economic destinies. Millennials are on track to be the most civically and politically engaged generation ever.

Just recently Mobilize.org, the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), the Roosevelt Institution, and a number of other youth organizations formed the “80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs” coalition, representing the collective voices of millions of Millennials. Its purpose: to give young people the tools they need to engage substantively with policymakers and propose solutions to these problems.

To this end, on Tuesday, 100 Millennials from across the country will convene in Washington, DC to partake in the “80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs” summit, where young people will develop collective solutions and federal legislation aimed at putting young people to work and launching our economy in a new direction. The ideas springing forth from this summit will be both revolutionary and full of promise. However, most impressive is the fact that that they will all be developed and proposed by engaged young people driven to be involved in making the policies that will define their economic futures.

The Millennial legislative agenda resulting from the summit will address several areas where Congress can act now to invest in young people. First, investing in “Mission Critical” jobs and training programs that will utilize new technologies ranging from the emerging green sector to increased online infrastructure and new frontiers in the healthcare industry. Second, creating volunteer-to-career pathways that will provide grants to young people working in unpaid local, state, and federal internships, so that Millennials can gain the experience they need to gain employment while staying afloat financially. And finally, funding programs to provide increased continuing education opportunities for new workers, and legislation that would provide an increased time frame for student loan repayments.

Hopefully, Congress takes heed of the rising chorus of Millennials calling for action in these increasingly important areas. It is time for our policymakers to invest in the generation that will define the future of our country, and in the process, help set America on the path to economic recovery.

What I feel like saying…

Dear random sir, madam, or automated scanning machine:

I’m writing in response to your job ad spammed across about 5 different online job sites, oh and the City2 newspaper classified ads. Just like everyone else in the 3 inch stack of papers you’ve seen so far this morning.

I understand you are seeking a warm body to plop into a chair, plop a headset on, and hit the right buttons on the screen to make your customers get off the phone and leave you alone with the least amount of expense possible.

As it happens, I have experience doing just that… at high rates of speed to get rid of even more of them, and sometimes even getting icing on the cake by not making them even more furious at your company in the process, within your policy manual that makes little sense to their situation of course.

And my midwestern bland accent will have them all the more loyal to your company, sometimes even openly telling me “Thank God I didn’t get the call center in India this time. I am sooo glad you speak English.”

You apparently have some vacant chairs needing butts in them to replace the ones whose attached heads finally got sick enough of the process. My butt currently has no chair that pays to be sat in. Send me the link for your obnoxious online testing program, or tell me to come in at a given time to take said program after filling out a paper form of this exact same application to make sure I really feel like wasting my time with you.

Sincerely,

Applicant 50 million, 47 hundred and two.

Exception 2: But it’s so pretty…

The second reason is a color thing. 

My favorite color combo is hot pink, bright turquoise, and bright purple. Frequently used with black.

My room is done in this. However, mostly, I have to shop in the section labeled “teen” to get them.

But this time of year, with the dorm stuff coming out… it’s everywhere!

 

The sudden availability of a hot pink trashcan, and a bright purple hamper… suddenly call!

Kiddo and I now have coordinating bath totes, mine the bright purple and hers the hot pink.

And the laundry baskets I got last year for the ones that sit in our rooms are back! And I want to buy more! But I know that we have the ones from last year identical to these ones… plus two small white baskets things hang out in… plus two larger dark blue baskets that don’t even get used for laundry anymore (one is in the back of the car holding kiddo’s car toys from the trip to city2 back in march, and the other is holding something or another out in the garage)

So I know we don’t need them. But the fact that they are there, and they usually aren’t, is giving me a battle I’m really not used to waging with myself.

 

The nail in the coffin right now is the rubbermaid-type crates. In all three colors.

Now I’ve moved a lot. I’ve owned at least 12 crates at every given time since I was in high school. They work well, they are durable, they stack well when filled, they store easily…

Everything in the shed that fits in a crate is in one. Kiddo’s toys are in the basement sorted by type into about 10 crates. The garage probably has 6 more from the recent sorting and packing of rarely needed items… and there’s a pile of about 6 more beyond that are stacked and empty.

We have plenty of crates. And if I needed more, I could move old kiddo clothes into bags and use the crates those are sitting in.

 

But they are all either grey or this yellow-y tan. Which is fine… because they aren’t in sight usually. Nobody sees crates.  

But… but… but…. but. sigh.

 

I caved once already. 

I took the time to force myself to justify them… and I was able to come up with three visible places to use crates each for me and kiddo, and got a set each.

So kiddo is now using one to replace her red drink barrel style toybox, one to put all of her books and desk stuff in under the deck so the cats stop knocking things over, and one for her outdoor toys. 

And mine, one is being used for tapes, vhs, and the cases for the cd’s and dvds that are in the book style holder… one is being used for computer and desk stuff… and one is being used for a collection of sorts.

 

This only calmed things down for about a week.

And now the blue stack is starting to look low when I pass them at walmart. Which is not helping me.

 

Nor is the fact that the hot pink cooler on wheels at target I resisted eariler is now on sale. (Even though mom’s cooler is bigger, and after the fridge incident she told me to keep it here cuz they don’t use it, but we do off and on for camping and picnics.)

 

And now today, the grocery store has started. Right when you come in the door there are skillets… a set of three…. in hot pink, bright turquoise, and black. And I do need new skillets. But, I know I don’t want more of the cheap pans that are going to start chipping paint in a few years like my last ones. And I know these probably are. And it’s been three moves since my kitchen was done completely in a dark blue, so nothing in my kitchen matches anything else anymore, but these would certainly clash with literally everything else.

 

I’m finding more sympathy for the friends I have to haul by force out of every store in the mall.

Exception 1: Sudden stockpile syndrome

Two reasons this time of year sucks…

One is a random stockpiling gene that seems to be triggered by school supplies. I’m prone to happening into walmart and noticing that crayons are 15 cents a box for 24 crayola crayons, so I buy about 30 of them to have always around to pull out. If I tried I could probably wander through my house and find at least 15 spiral notebooks around, each with at least half the pages left.

I suppose part of this is a logical thing. Because I know the crayons will be 2.50 each the rest of the year. However, since we’d probably only buy 2 boxes during that year at that price… I’m not coming out much ahead by having boxes of them sitting anywhere the kid might be likely to color.

I’m not usually a stockpiler… even with sales I usually only get what we can reasonable use.. but every so often… some random thing hits… and I have tons of cereal boxes sitting around. (BTW, I actually just opened that last box of that cereal last week. Yes, the cereal from the week after Halloween. At least its the last box here, not sure if mom still has some left at her house)

And for some reason it triggers heavy with school supplies.

Shopping

I am not an impulse shopper.

Most of this has to do with the fact that I’m both picky, and not very girly girl-ish. I’m the type that finds one brand and cut of jeans that I like (frequently one of the cheapest ones) then has the exact same pair of jeans in 4 tones, in two or three different lengths with some of the tones, and with multiples of some (in identical tones and lengths) for the sake of laundry.

And thing year I happened to catch myself much more interested in the specials that came out for father’s day than the ones for mothers day. Jewelry and perfume? Meh. But look! A set of jumper cables that hook up to the lighters instead of having to open the hood! And that bike rack for the car looks cool.

 

So things don’t normally call to me like they do for a lot of my friends.

 I’m normally the type who can wander in and out of 5 stores, and come out with only purchasing one package of pony tail holders.

 

Except this time of year.

And this time of year is driving me nuts!

(continued…)

Less than progress.

90% of the jobs I apply to aren’t really exciting. Not particularly a bad thing, just kinda interchangeable. After you’ve seen a few hundred office jobs, they all start looking very similar.

But that other 10% will be what drives me batty. Those are the ones I get my hopes up… that get the extra time put into tweaking my resumes and crafting my cover letter very aimed at that specific job. The ones I google to find out more… the ones I let myself get caring about and caught up in hearing a response from. Usually the ones that bring together totally different areas of my experience, but not always.

Recently got sent a rejection email from one of those ones less than 4 hours after I’d applied. One of the ones I’d spent nearly that much time getting thing phrased just right and researched enough.

I suppose at least they didn’t give me time to wonder and build hopes up even more, but still. It stung a bit more than I care to admit to get dumped that fast on something that seemed a fair shot.

Another one bumped me out of their pile in about one day… but I didn’t have so much interest in that one.

The rejections from the 90% only get me down as a trend… but that other 10…. really start to get to me.