Everything Happens for a Reason

Just watched THIS, and now, even though I am VERY BUMMED that the web series I got to Script Supervise in the summer of 2012, which has waited until NOW to shoot Season 2, but is currently doing just that, in East Los Angeles, which means I am NOT SS-ing, I do feel a little better about my absolute faith that "everything happens for a reason."

There's also THIS, which I saw earlier today on Facebook (and is, frankly, EVERYWHERE, on the internets, so I apologize to the creator of this photo, since I don't know how to credit you properly).  It made me laugh when I saw it, and then I saw that ELH was shooting without me (which made me sad), and then I watched the Scott Hamilton video, which restored my faith.

I know I haven't posted in about a week or so, but I haven't had much to say.  And now I do, and the words don't seem to want to come together coherently.  Sorry about that.  Let's see if I can catch you up:

In our first week on ebay, we sold A BUNCH of stuff and I stayed busy with answering questions and taking pictures and creating listings and buying shipping materials and learning how ebay works and SHIPPING all those wonderful things.  I'd been inspired by Stephen's success over at Amazon, so I set up the ebay "store," at which point, the Amazon store got kinda ignored.  We both have to learn to maintain, not compete, not try to "help" unless specifically asked, etc.  We're getting a system worked out.  It's only been just over a week for me, and less than a month for Stephen, so it's all good.

Then there's my sister's birthday (which is actually today) celebration coming up, for which we will drive down to Florida.  I've been on the phone with Daddy a good bit more than usual, trying to keep his stress level even while we plan.  BTW, Daddy, I need you to pick up (at the store) or borrow from Louise one medium-ish onion and five or six cloves (not HEADS) of fresh garlic.  I'll bring the other seasonings, and I have the wine and coffee already.

And Stephen's discovered that there's a job opening at the San Fernando branch of his employer that he's going to put in for.  Good stress?  Bad stress?  JUST stress?  YES.  If he's eligible and they hire him, that would mean that our move is simplified at the same time that it gets more complicated.  He'd have to fly out, couch-surf, work, and apartment hunt during his off hours.  Then he'd have to fly back here in time for his Mom's 70th Birthday celebration and help me drive the kitties and our stuff back "home."  His pay is already direct-deposited, so that wouldn't change.  And he'd very likely get more hours, which is part of our current financial stress (they've cut his hours, so how badly does that change our "save $ to move" progress?).  In the meantime, I'd still be here, trying to sell stuff in our online stores; taking things to the flea market to sell in person; trying to craigslist the "big" items; getting a trailer hitch installed on my car and arranging the rental of a trailer for the actual physical move.  We'd probably need to learn to Skype.

But there's another update for you of something that's been decided this week.  We WERE looking at trading in my perfectly-reliable Honda Civic for a minivan to take us across the country, meaning whatever didn't fit wouldn't go.  Fresh start and all that.  Our original timing was blown by some bad choices the stupid version of me had made along the way, which led us to "things happening for a reason."  We had done insufficient research into minivans and/or the impact on our credit of a new loan.  My car hit the 50K mile mark, and we're taking it to Florida this weekend.  So I got it serviced, and found out that it WILL accept a trailer hitch for a one-way kind of tow (don't put that kind of stress on a Civic frequently), and the install of a hitch and rental of a trailer is ACTUALLY the cheapest way for us to get back home anyway.  Yay.

If the job transfer looks like a no-go, I'm going to start applying for table-waiting jobs here very locally.  No one expects serving food to be a career choice, so any gig I get will be the wrong coast's version of an industry gig for me (TEMPORARY)... and it'll put cash in my pocket, and extend my unemployment benefit (because there's not a CHANCE I will earn that same amount weekly by waiting tables here in Podunk) until about the time we move.  Win-win-win-win-win.

Are you caught up?  Did you miss me, and now you're glad to know I didn't just fall off the face of the planet?  Aw, thanks.  That's so sweet.  See?  Win-win-win-win-win!  EVERYTHING happens for a reason!