I took out The Author out for lunch today, for her birthday. Geez, we both had just soup and salad plus tea/coffee, and it came to $41. Oh well. A splurge for me….

I’ve been applying for a lot of jobs lately, most of ‘em contract jobs. Many of them have writing assignments they want you to do, and you could spend a few hours on it, possibly for nothing. But that’s the way the ball rolls these days. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve done that.

An agency called me tonight about another job, a temp, one doing internal communications copywriting for a consumer packaged goods company right down the road from me. I’d jump at it since it’s so nearby, and if it was for at least a few months at decent pay, I’d probably have to quit my proofreading/blogging job. Things could then become dicey again once the temp job was over with suddenly no income at all, but I’m inclined to take on that challenge. $12/hr just isn’t working, and the company will be furloughing me anyway, all summer.

I’ve lined up an interview with the agency on Monday, forgetting that I have a doc appointment that morning. I should be able to do both, but I will be really running around that day unless I can push it back by an hour.

The day before is my mother’s birthday, so that means I need to plan a lunch for 3 of us before then.

I have a ceramic tile floor in the bathroom where the grout is very dirty/stained/old looking. I found a product at Home Depot made for whitening the grout. It looks very much like a magic marker and you more or less just paint the grout lines between tiles. My tiles are only about an inch square, so this has turned out to be quite a job! Once I did a few grout lines, it made such a stark difference: bright white vs. brownish, so I have to continue til I finish them, but I’m not sure I like the way it looks. The stuff you paint on, well sometimes you have to go over the same area several times cus the stuff doesn’t flow out evenly. I just hope it doesn’t look strange when it’s done. It’s hard for me to judge becus I keep comparing it to what it used to look like. Anyway, I’m only about half done and I worked twice on it for several hours.

I also used the tile adhesive to affix 2 loose tiles on the floor; after another day, I can grout around the tiles; that to me will require a bit more skill to get the grout in some very fine cracks. Hopefully with the putty knife I can just press it down in there.

I went for a walk around the block but REALLY had to push myself to get out there. I walked a few days ago also.

I feel like I got a decent amount of stuff done overall these last 4 days: scheduled a dentist apt with a new place that charges “just” $95 for new patients. Dentists are the last healthcare provider I want to jump around with, but this is a cost-saving measure for me. I just can’t afford to pay my favorite, longtime dentist $152 for a teeth cleaning, sans x-rays. This will be my THIRD new dentist in the past 2 years.

I did a small bit of decluttering of files and paperwork. I have 4 2-drawer file cabinets and I think that’s too much. 2 of them I have to keep (they’re in the attic) as they contain 30 years of writing samples that I use on interviews. The other 2 cabinets keep the usual other kinds of paperwork and I’d like to edit one 2-drawer cabinet into a single drawer in my computer work station, but not sure that’s gonna happen.

I bought a “happy light” with some Amazon gift cards a few weeks ago and have been disappointed not to notice any improvement in my mood/energy after using it up to an hour each morning. I always thought I had seasonal affective disorder.

We’re expecting some messy weather tonight into tomorrow (sleet/snow/freezing rain) so I may not go into work early as I like to do on Wednesdays. I forgot to ask her if she wants me there early anyway; maybe I’ll email her after I see how bad it is.