We're going to make it.

[december_solstice]

One of us if finally gonna have somewhat steady/reliable income coming in. Things have been tough. Things have been rough. But, I know we're going to make it.

Right now, I just want to focus on the positive. My husband got a job.
Small victories. We finally made copies of the keys for our new locks.

What am I thankful for today?
I have food in the fridge. I can cook healthy meals tomorrow and for the rest of the week. I have detergent to wash a few of Thomas's shirts in the tub tomorrow. I am able bodied to do the chores that must be done.

Next week I vowed that I'd finally get my ID.

I hate the fact that I put a lot of these things off. In a way, it's kind of pathetic that I justify saving the $20-25 dollars it takes to commute there and purchase an ID, because there are better more useful ways to apply that 25 dollars.

It's why I never go anywhere (on the train), to be frank. It's expensive to leave the neighborhood. Living is expensive. Surviving is too.

Comments

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

It's definitely hard to adjust to after a break in, but at the same time, bugler's aren't often known for being violent. And, I think, for me at least, that's what we're fixated on. The safety factor, not necessarily valuables being stolen. I could be wrong. I don't have much of anything valuable worth stealing. I imagine a bugler would walk in, realize we're poor, and walk his/her ass right back out. What I AM afraid of is someone fucking stabbing me in the neck LOLOL The irony is I was quite a little thief growing up (Lol). Karma much?

I wonder if hoarding has a real connection to the fear of break ins. An old friend had an ex husband who was a serious hoarder. Like, piles of stuff, and no room to walk. Their house was very dirty :/ Not messy, but DIRTY.

Originally I thought those who live in poverty are most likely to hoard. Similarly to how homeless people hoard stuff -- even trash. But then, you see regular folks, like on the show Hoarders, who hoard crap.

My husband and I have a lot of "crap". Drawers just full of random shit -- not organized or anything. Then again, we also live in a tiny apartment with no storage LOL So screwdrivers go with the pregnancy tests.

Interesting on the nationality and photo thing. That would make sense because that's a thing here -- applications ask for nationality or ethnic background. Employers ask for photos too. I've had applications ask for ethnic background -- thrown in with gender, military affiliation, ect. Did I mention that I apply with my maiden name because I have very little luck getting interviews with my husband's last name. It is a very common Latin American last name. My first name is also VERY latina. Lol. My parents swear I am not Latin American, but almost every person I meet assumes I'm Mexican LOL Which is nice, for here at least, since I live in a Dominican/Rican neighborhood. I don't receive that internalized white hate LMFAO

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

I think you either have to be predisposed to it (my wife's mom NEVER cleaned and liked to hoard, even when she was younger, it just wasn't this bad) or something really serious has to happen, as in extreme depression that goes unchecked for way too long. In this house it's definitely the "stuff" that's more important than the person's safety - they feel as if they ARE their things, even their broken, dirty, moldy, abandoned things they have laying around.... We've tried to tell them "if you like your stuff so much, why don't you take care of them?" and "what do you think's going to happen when you die? none of it will go with you and we aren't going to keep it either" but they don't care...

Yeah, these guys COULD have a lot of money if only they spent it more wisely... they even leave tools out to rust in the rain and all that. They can never buy just one of something, it's always "I went to buy a knife for my experimental project I'm probably only going to do once, and bought three of the same knives without even knowing if they're good". Our house is a combination of being dusty/dirty (I've found boots with dried mud on them shoved into a hiding space for example) and being badly-made (so it gets damp, then we get mold). It would be a lot more dirty if we didn't live here, as we're the only ones who ever vacuum and so on. Even so we can't clean most things, so like there's rotting stuff underneath the sink and we're not allowed to clean there. It's just luck that these guys don't like, eat while walking all around the house.

In Iceland we shared a bedroom and the rest of the apartments were just shared living-spaces so we couldn't exactly store stuff outside of our room. Here we actually have less space than in the places there (which we paid, oh, 600 USD a month for or so), because the bedroom we share is not only smaller to begin with but half of it is filled with her parents' stuff. And they keep trying to put MORE stuff in our room. They already have two toolsheds full of things, and a greenhouse full of tools and stuff (= not plants), and a storage room inside the house, and multiple storage spaces, and their own bedroom is full of crap so they've taken over the room of one sister who's moved out (but still left half her stuff here)...

Here, if you want to get ahead you need to know Swedish, English, and Arabic/Kurdish/etc right now (in my town anyway, in other places it's not like this). It's pretty frustrating. A job that otherwise doesn't need you to have any experience, a job that's literally just you stocking shelves in a warehouse, needs you to speak Arabic... Up north you have to know Finnish/Swedish/English. Sigh. I'm already an immigrant struggling with Swedish, I can't just magically pick up Finnish or Kurdish in a month!

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

(that is to say, people claim that english will get you jobs - instead it's like english is such a basic requirement in the nordic countries that it doesn't count for anything, no one is going to give me a job just because i can speak it, unlike in china or whatever)