Real Men Drink Juice Packs

The manz @ Springfest

Yesterday was Springfest, and it was lovely- all sun, no rain, no zombies.  We began setting up at 7am- thankyou to the students that showed up that early in order to help- worked all day, broke down at 3, auction at 4 home by 11.   Morninglory did quite well, we sold a bed, a painting, and lots of small stuff- and the manz discovered a new passion for juice packs (left over from all county chorus, and warm, but free- and free makes everything better!).  Letty painted faces and made about $50 bucks towards her AP test.  The Trask kids sold a little bit of stuff- about 20 bucks worth- but every bit counts and more importantly they can see how incredibly hard artists have to work in order to prepare for a show that may or may not make any money....I remember living that way, way-back-when, and it sucks.  Almost made me hate art making...now somehow we still don't have any money, but I do have the nice steady paycheck that covers the basics, and the manz covers the rest.  Unfortunately, pay does not keep up with economy, and our pay has stayed the same or been reduced, while gas, milk and coffee are at $4.00 each.  I remember back when I first started teaching I could make 20 bucks in food last a week- counting pets, household and grendel-school-lunches, but now that just buys the basics for the week: 1 gallon milk, 3 gallons gas (which is a weeks worth of driving).  And that is for my car (not the milk- that is for coffee and the manz cookies)  Esmeralda gobbles gas- 20 took her to school, springfest, home.  That's it- she is big and lovely and sturdy but *not* economical.  

Money.  It's boring to talk about, stressful to think about and the bane of my existence.  We do not live beyond our means at all, yet we are constantly broke, which is discouraging- mainly because there are few people that work as hard as we do.  As I said, we make enough to cover the basics, but like so many there is always a choice: fix the car or go to the dentist (car.  car = work = money.  no one pays us for not having crap-all teeth).  buy groceries or go to the beach (groceries.  I love the beach and am wishing for it, but gas to beach = weeks worth of expenses).   blah, blah, blah- it's boring.  And stressful.  Because I was working to much I filled out my ECU financial aid papers for the wrong year (next summer, not this summer) and did not have enough financial aid to cover my classes- plus with the teaching position there being struck (at least for summer, hopefully I will have it in the fall) I could not afford to pay tuition for summer out-of-pocket....  and then I got good news/bad news:  good news is that the virtual high school hired me to teach photography this summer, bad news is that our pay there was cut by 1/3.  Beggars can't be choosers- so I'll take it- but the kicker is that we don't get payed until after the courses are over in August, and then by student completion count. What that translates to is that I work all summer but only get paid when it is over, and  only if Buffy doesn't space out and not finish the class....

Bright side.  Looking on the bright side for all of this though, is that I will have more breathing room than taking on all these classes at once, and that is already making me feel less stressed.  I've neglected the house, my self, poor max (who has horrible allergies to something and looks like a naked mole rat) and everything else- so maybe this way I'll have time to recenter and focus on these things which are important.  Probably will not do much traveling after all this summer- no money and at the moment, no energy- but will try to find a way to get to Mother's- that is of top importance. It would be nice to have other adventures, see Melissa's new house, go to the games, but for now- I'm going to keep expectations low and life simple.  Let's get through this week (prom) and see how we do~  if nothing else, we still have some left over juice packs to sustain us.