Well, I do love what I have learned on the job. But that’s not why I am willing to pay $300 per month for my job…No, I’m paying $300 a month for my job because it’s cheaper than trying to take classes at a local college, or even online. And it’s better than classes because I have a big portfolio + all the training classes would give me + job exerience=will be easier to find a new job later than it would be if I were only studying right now versus working.

Oh, also, there is the added bonus of many cute guys at my job. But that has nothing to do with the reasons I’m willing to pay $300 a month to work there–no sir, sorry, that is where I DRAW THE LINE–I will NOT pay money to go to a job just to see the cute guys there! Man, I drive a hard bargain. What can I say? Except that it’s probably time to figure out how much longer we can afford for me to have this job.

Also, I have to comment on my manager. Man I  really hope he isn’t reading this–I know, I’ll be tricky–I have 3 managers (in a heirarchy) and could be talking about any one of them–I’ll be vague so that if one of those managers IS reading this, he will still have NO IDEA whether this is about him or the other guys. (It is theoretically possible that one of them could have read this blog. think I sent a link as a writing sample–they wanted to see evidence of blogging. In retrospect, WHY would I send this? You can’t send stuff like this when applying for a JOB. I find it very worrisome that I did that. Scratch the part where I said “I think I sent this”–I know I did–I was just pretending like I wasn’t sure because it was SO DUMB to do that and I was momentarily embarrassed…) Well, anyway, my boss is a A really good-looking GUY who’s disguised as a nerd. In other words, he has the hot “geek” thing going on. I think you know what I mean. That’s it–I can say no more except that he also looks very fit and hides it under loose clothing. Thank you. I feel so much better now. Also, there is no chemistry between us whatsoever–and I am glad.

Oops–I just realized that this post is absolutely ridiculous. I just said that I pay money to go to my job, I like that there are a lot of cute guys there, and my boss is a hot nerd.

I’m sorry–I know that it’s very unlikely any readers of this blog are in junior high, yet I keep writing about topics that are suited for junior high schoolers. Okay. I’m going to get it together and post a GOOD POST. One suited for adults. Don’t worry, it won’t be graphic. Just more mature than this one.

But I must admit, it’s going to be odd to work around people again. I will be working as a web copywriter at a place that does lots of Internet stuff…so, the office is full of  young men. Some of them, I noticed, are quite good-looking. That’s okay though, because a) I plan on being anti-social and staying in my cubicle at all times and b) should any of them try to flirt with me, I will either not realize it, or if that person is attractive, stay far, far away from him from that moment on. I’m an Aries. I steer clear of hot stuff at all times, especially hot guys (except, of course, my husband).

I hope everyone is enjoying this discussion because it just frightened me. I am about to get a new job in a new field, and rather than talking about what I’m supposed to talk about in this post, I end up talking about hot guys? Am I in high school? Or am I happily married with three children? This blog scares me sometimes.

OKAY, but what I was TRYING to write about is the ACTOR’s STRIKE. It appears that they will strike. Who wants to start a movie if you can’t finish it due to an actor’s strike? Lots of money would be wasted…For this reason, many studios stopped making movies months ago. So an actor’s strike could definitely affect my husband’s job.  But since he does work toward the end of movies, the delay for him would not happen immediately, rather many months after the strikes start (if they start).

With this and our recent 3 months of no paychecks (2 months of unemployment + 1 month waiting for checks even after starting work), I thought, “Hey, maybe I should get a job.”  My salary has been a dependable back-up for us for several years…until last spring when publishers stopped publishing books. (Not literally, but even the big guys like Random House and Pearson had huge lay-offs, so obviously they are printing fewer books, which means fewer projects for me and others.)

SO I applied for this job that looked really awesome (and turned out to be as awesome as it looked), and I got it! Hadn’t interviewed in 7 years. Boy, if you want to feel old, do something you haven’t done in over 5 years. Anyway, I got the job right in time. Now if the actor’s go on strike, we’re all covered. And if the economy continues to tailspin, I’ve done my best to insulate us. By the way, images I keep seeing of my husband staying at home with our children terrify me–I’m seeing candy and cake for meals and my 2nd grader making it to school each day after lunch…But hopefully we’ll BOTH keep our jobs, and mine will be back-up.

My ultimate goal is to prove how reliable I am and see if there might be telecommuting possibilities down the road. Though it also might be nice to ONLY work till 5pm and not 9-11pm each night like I’ve had to for the past 5 years. But I’ll keep you posted:)

But even on his hottest days, he’s still HIM. Part of being him means that he hasn’t done laundry in the entire month he’s been gone. Why? Well, he can’t figure out how to use the laundry card (which cost us $20) in the apartment they stuck him in. Hey–I’ve heard using some laundry cards is as complicated as driving a 747. HA HA. No I haven’t. (Oops, that was quite an unfunny joke–very similar to the kind my husband tells…)

ANYWAY,  not being able to figure out how to use the laundry card is not the end of this story, nor the dumbest part of it.

Like a college student, my husband packed up his dirty laundry and intended to bring it home for me to clean. (This is probably the real reason he visited us, and not because he “missed” us as he claimed.) As I mentioned, he’s been there for a month–so we’re not talking a little laundry. We’re talking, a whole huge bag full.

Did you notice how I said “intended to bring it home”? Yes. So, he says he put the clothes in a white bag right before he drove down. And he filled the car up with gas for the trip. And he bought some snacks for the drive down. And he took out his trash, which was also in a white bag. Isn’t that a funny coincidence?

Well, it certainly is. Because what he did was throw away two white bags–one of them contained trash. The other contained his laundry.

I don’t know about YOU, but after three months of unemployment (for BOTH of us), I can really think of NO better way to spend about $300 than on clothing that my husband threw in the garbage by accident. But that’s all fine. Don’t worry bout me. I love spending hundreds of dollars for no reason. I do. Especially after three months of unemployment. Really, I like all of that a lot.

This photo is our 3rd baby. Newborns are so irresistable! We saved hundreds of dollars when we banked his cord blood. If this is something you want to do, save $250 with coupon code M4125 through Cord Blood Registry (CBR).

We really wanted to store his stem cells. We didn’t with our first son in 2001, and then kept reading news stories about stem cells being used to cure juvenile diabetes, leukemia, cerebral palsy, and other conditions in children and their siblings…I regretted not doing it. But it’s expensive…SO this time, I scoured the net for ways to bring the price down. Hope this information can help someone:

1. Use the above coupon code for $250 off: M4125
   You can use this discount code when you enroll by phone or online at Cord Blood Registry (CBR). (Here is the actual coupon.)
2. To further lower the cost, CBR offers payment plans. We did a 6 month plan with no interest.  (They have several payment plans that bring the cost down as low as $48 per month).
3. Save $125 more with a year of storage FREE. To do this, refer a friend to CBR. (She can also use the $250 cord blood coupon above.)

PS. Feel free to e-mail me with questions! It was very easy, and I would be happy to share–sometimes nicer to talk to a mother who did it rather than a rep at a company.

There’s a post on this blog somewhere when I made fun of my husband’s financial know-how. Well, I’m going to have to take that all back now because of something very sketchy I did.

If you have said or done something dumb lately, or need a boost in confidence for whatever reason, I’M WRITING THIS POST FOR YOU. When you start feeling down, you’ll be able to think to yourself, “Hey, I may have screwed up. But at least I’m not as dumb as Holly Kay.”

I live in Southern California where rent prices are atrocious. Our rent is almost $1600 (and our apt is definitely one of the cheaper ones in our area, I know sad…I wish we could live in the dangerous part of town where rents are less than $1,000 but I can’t as I have to think of our children…) ANYWAY…

I was just balancing our checkbook. Low and behold, look at my carbon copy rent check. I should have written the $1600 check to our landlord. Well, I didn’t. Guess who I wrote the $1600 check out to. Multiple-choice:

1) I wrote my rent check for $1600 to myself.
2) I wrote my rent check for $1600 to my landlord’s dog.
3) I wrote my rent check for $1600 to a pizza place, Round Table Pizza (like Pizza Hut but tastier).

Unfortunately, if you chose #3, you were right. Yes. I wrote a check for $1600 to a pizza joint. (NO, I didn’t even do this while ordering pizza. I simply wrote the check out to the pizza joint for $1600 and gave it to my landlord.)

Off to clear up this chaos. Hm, and I was kinda hopin’ to work today. Oh well. Don’t care. Don’t care about check to pizza place. Don’t care about work. Only care about my children and husband today. (Clearly, the insomnia has taken a toll on my pea brain. Will continue to try new sleeping routines and hope they help.)