Lizet's Place

So...let me guess...it's time for an update from me.

Thanksgiving was decent. Went to the Sotelo's like 2 years ago/ This time there was 8 of us. Last time there was closer to 14 or 15. Christmas was also okay. Christmas Eve, we went back to the Sotelo's and Christmas Day we went to John and Colleen. Lora spent a ton of money on me. I would feel bad about it, but she told me, when we were out Christmas shopping, that she promised my mom to help me as much as possible since my mom was moving across the country. Oh that's great to know considering about a month after my mom moved, she wouldn't return any of my calls or text messages and that was why I had to move in with my sister! Now she's all about buying my clothes I need to update my wardrobe and making sure Kim and I aren't without food because my EBT was canceled at the end of the year (but that's another story I'll get into in a bit). But whatever. Like I said, I would feel bad about her spending a lot of money on me, but I don't.

I'm 99% set up as Kim's caregiver with IHSS. Thursday I go for an orientation and to set up my w-2 info. I was hoping that Kim would qualify for at least 50 hours a month, but they only have her 48 hrs and 2 mins. I'm kind of salty at how low the hours are, but at least I don't have to pay rent to anyone so I can keep up with my personal bills and start paying my mom back for money she's given me over the last 2 or 3 years. Anyway...the pay is minimum wage and I'll get paid every 2 weeks plus the backpay from when I started caring for Kim on October 16.

My EBT was canceled at the end of the year because I was honest and said that I'm in school and working, but not getting paid by the county because they're taking their sweet time. So what does that mean for me? I'm stuck with no way to get food because Kim lives on a fixed income - she barely has enough for rent and utilities and $45 left over. Groceries run about $50 every 2 weeks. So the EBT people said if I'm in school, I need to be working 20 hours and getting minimum wage. I appealed that. They cut me off without a way to get food, and yes, I'm surrounded by kind people who have taken me grocery shopping, but the county dropped the ball on this. Like...oh, you're in school so you must have a way to pay for that, so that means you have money for food. IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT! Now I'm waiting for when I'll get to have my actual appeal date and then more waiting for them to determine if when they'll give me money for groceries. I just want something to cover me until I start getting paid from IHSS.

Finished the semester on December 15. Two B's and a D. Unfortunately I have to make up the class I got a D in because it's my lower level math and I need that to go on to the next level...and eventually transfer for my Bachelor's degree. Spring semester at LBCC starts on Feb 5 and I'll be taking 4 classes - 2 online and 2 in person on Mondays and Wednesdays.

I'm back into choir at church. I'm teaching Sunday school for the 8-10-year-olds twice a year (2-three month sections) and teach children's church once a month. I'm all for being more involved...to a certain extent.

Now it's time for lunch. I'm trying to get Kim on a steady eating habit but she sometimes takes this literally...like she ate breakfast at 10:20 am, so she can't eat lunch before 2:20 pm because that's 4 hours. It's frustrating, but she's eating regularly, and that's better than before.

Apparently the last time I did an entry (of substance) was July/August 2016!?

Well, not to go into great detail, after that was my birthday. I turned another year older.

Then I spent Thanksgiving with some friends. I used to be super close to them, but then after being ex-communicated or whatever from them, it still feels weird around them.

Then I spent Christmas with some other friends. That was whatever.

2017!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Church on New Year's Day.

Then I was in a car accident on January 5th. I was okay, but my car was heavily damaged. (behind the cut for a picture and what happened).



My car is the top picture and the car that hit me is the bottom picture.

Now that I've calmed a bit, I was in a car accident. I'M OKAY! No pain anywhere and no soreness. this happened about 4 hours ago.

No one was injured but my rear passenger door can't open.

Police reports were made and I exchanged insurance info with the other party and contacted my insurance company.

I'm STILL in the process of getting my car repaired! It took from Jan 5 to Jan 27 to get the okay to take it in for repairs! A few days after that I was told it was going to take 3 week for the repairs but I would get weekly updates about the progress.

But...I might still end up loosing the car. See, the way I got the car was through uber/exchange leasing. Weekly car payments taken from uber earnings...however, I was only with uber for like 18 days, but if I continue to make weekly payments I could keep the car. Why might I lose the car? Because I couldn't keep up with the full weekly payments. They were about $100/week and I was doing about $60/week...so everything was getting behind. If the lease goes 21 or 28 days without full weekly payments, they can start the repossession process. Of course, during all this time I was calling the lease company near daily and would be on hold something like 20 minutes before giving up with the call. I would also email them and it would take 2-3 days for them to reply back to me...but it was always a stupid automated response and even longer to get a response to that was from a real person.

I borrowed money from my mom, but I'm back in the same position of needing to pay for this week so it doesn't get 21-28 days behind. I'm trying to sell off furniture in storage but people keep flaking on me.

So frustrating.

Today I went back to my first temp agency. They didn't have anything right then in the area I wanted, but they had a 3 day gig. Next week I'll be proctoring an exam. Future lawyers taking the Bar Exam. I wish I was something more, but at $13.50/hour and 10-12 hours a day, this is very much welcome.

That's about everything with me. I know I left stuff out, but I'm on a time crunch – my niece is waiting for me to take her to pick up food. Hopefully next time I update it won't be another 6 months. lol

But I need to start at the beginning...

On November 7, I posted that I wouldn't be able to post again/be online until Friday, however that wasn't the case.

Wednesday my parents went to get the Uhaul truck and were gone for nearly 6 hours! Why? Not more than 15 minutes after they got the truck, they got into an accident! The brakes went out and when they moved to the left to avoid hitting a car, they still hit the car and big time crunched that car's trunk in! Since this happened after the Uhaul facility closed, they had to call the 1-800 number to get them to contact someone who could bring a replacement truck. Police report was taken, no one was injured, however, they got hone far too late to even begin to move stuff into the truck.

Thursday, we started bright and early at 7 am and loaded the truck. HOLY CRAP! It took us, and by us, I mean, me and my dad, 3 hours to move the bulk of the bookshelves and 2 beds. Then it took another 3 hours for us to unload everything into storage! By the way, it started to rain while we were unloading the truck! I wasn't a happy person at all! That night, when we got back home, had the intention of packing up more of the truck, but that didn't exactly happen. I ended up falling asleep (on my floor with hardly any blankets because they were packed away!) at midnight and my parents were still packing up!

Friday, when technically we should have been done Friday, we still had a corner china cabinet, dining room table (my mom wants to keep), 2 dressers and a bunch of other crap to move, oh and they were still packing! I loaded up the car and told my dad I was going to pick up my friend/cousin Cynthia because she offered to help us move the remaining stuff. I pick up Cynthia and in 3 hours we get more stuff loaded into the truck and car and make another storage run. We should have been able to make 2 runs and get the entire apartment packed and loaded to the truck and to storage before they had to be at the airport, but I think my parents were running on fumes. My dad was not doing anything he needed to do. Finally I told him that we were going to load the last 2 heavy furniture units on the truck, he was going to call Irma (the manager) and see if there was a way I could turn the keys in on Monday) and they he had to wash up and put on fresh clothes so they could leave. My dad called the Uhaul people and worked it out with them for me to return the truck since it was nearing 12 pm and they needed to be at the airport before 130 pm. The Uhaul was left at storage, Cynthia went with us to the airport and my parents made it through everything with minutes to spare! When they got to the gate, they had begun boarding! Cynthia went back to storage with me, and in 30 minutes we had that sucker empty and were taking it back to the Uhaul facility. Here's were more drama happens! We used a quarter tank of gas and my dad was supposed to give me money to fill it back up. He forgot, and that's understandable, and I didn't know how much it was going to take to fill the tank back up. I put in $10 but aparently that did nothing because it was still at 3/4 tank. They charged me, well my mom's card $55 for that! On top of having the truck out 2 days instead of 1. The guy who my parents were dealing with came in and was like "you weren't supposed to charge them for gas because that was the deal I had with them after I took the replacement truck to them on the 7th." Well the card had already been charged and I don't have it since it's my mom's and they're on the other side of the country on vacation. So the manager (who initially charged for the gas!) is going to give us $50-$55 off our next rental.

If we didn't have Cynthia's help, I don't know what would have happened. Irma was nice enough to allow me to keep the keys until Monday ad Cynthia and Chad will be helping me pack the remaining stuff to put into storage. My dad said I could throw a lot of the damaged stuff from the garage away.

I have my fingers crossed that today and tomorrow we can get the stuff packed away and into storage. Irma said she needed the keys at 9 am on Monday, but my dad said I work on Monday so I have to get the keys to her as soon as possible. The apartment will be worked on first thing Monday morning.

My parents are safely on their cruise ship with my Aunt and Uncle. My parents will be out of contact until November 18 when they get to my brother's place.

I'm at work now trying to get some stuff I neglected earlier this week and last week, then I have to wash clothes, pack them in storage and go back to the apartment and finish packing up. I hope I get all this done by Monday!

Apparently our 2 air conditioning units weren't working properly and today someone was here fixing them.

we wen the whole summer with ac units that were on the verge of dying and no one bothered to do anything about it!

I just went to the main hall, and it's blessedly COLD! Now if only something can be done about the AC unit in my office, and we'll be golden!

So the mother the girl I used to baby sit (I call the girl my adopted sister) works for Kaiser Hospital and she told me that I should go to the Kaiser that's the city over from where I live and take the typing test there for when they have receptionist openings and to chose part-time, on-call and per diem, never full time bc those jobs are hard to get. Luckily, that hospital is on a bus route, so tomorrow I'll be stopping there on my way home to do the typing test.

She also told me a Kaiser will be opening in Anaheim off the 91 Freeway and they're going to need people. Okay, cool. I don't know how I'd get there since it's like pulling teeth for my dad to let me use the car to go grocery shopping, I doubt he'd let me use it to go to Anaheim...and I haven't driven the freeways yet.

But one thing at a time. I need to do the typing test to put myself in Kaiser's system.

updating my resume and stuffs for a few job listings I found.

when they ask for references, is it actual reference letters or a list of people & names they can call?

the paralegal listings scare the crap out of me! I know that I need the experience in that field, but outside of the controlled environment of the online class, this is rather scary!