Rough Times Ahead

I'm 23-years-old. I shouldn't be giving my 51-year-old father resume tips and job hunting advice. It's supposed to be the other way around.

Yet here we are. After working with The Star Ledger for, oh I don't know, his entire adult life -- they're screwing him over once again. This time, it's the last straw. I don't want to go into too much detail, as it's his business, not mine. But he's depressed, angry, frustrated, and afraid. When his personal life is so drastically effected (an ongoing thing with this job), it becomes my business.

My dad faces a relatively hopeless job market with experience from only one employer. It's good experience, it's managerial experience. But who wants to hire someone they have to pay a decent wage, when they can just hire somebody straight out of college, with fewer responsibilities, and willing to work for scraps? Hence the ongoing collapse of our economy.

I'll do everything I can to help. I may even move back home and start paying my parents rent, if things get really tough for them. I rather have my rent money go to my parents, so they can keep our house, instead of living in our new apartment. It sucks, but I know that's what I'd do.

Ultimately, my parents will end up selling the house -- but I'm pretty sure that was their retirement plan. They don't want to pull Brianna out of school and away from her friends -- not when she's so close to graduating.

I hope my dad is pleasantly surprised. I hope he finds a job with human hours (not 3 AM to 11 AM), better pay, weekends off, better management, and more respect for their employees. He fucking deserves it.

Okay, Fine, I'm Back on Blogger

Just a quick update -- you may have noticed I transferred a bunch of my Tumblr entries back onto this Blogger account. I haven't decided where I'll be settling, permanently -- heck, I might post new entries on both. I'm leaning towards Blogger, though, simply because it's more customizable and I follow more blogs on here.

So if you follow me on here, stay tuned for more updates.

A Girl Can Dream

(Photo taken at Ort Farm in Long Valley, NJ)

It’s kind of crazy for a little suburban girl to want to uproot to the middle-of-nowhere, start a small farm and train a sled dog team. But I guess I’ve never been all that sane.

Yesterday I biked around Sandy Hooky with my dad, Dan and Dexter. The weather was just cool enough for Dexter to run the whole five or six miles without any problem. It felt great to be back on my bike after a month without it (although my knees thought otherwise at 4 am this morning).

On the way down to the shore, my Dad and I talked about selling the house and moving to the country. We’d get a little house on a big piece of land, and raise alpaca. My mom would grow her fruits and vegetables on a larger scale, and my sister would make farm-fresh baked goods (pies, muffins, etc.). We’d sell our goods at farmers’ markets, or maybe in our own little country store.

I’d still do graphic design, but I’d also tend to a small chicken coup and train sled dogs. In the fall, we’d have a pumpkin patch for people to visit, and the sled dogs would cart around guests’ pumpkins. In the winter, we could pull people around on sleds. A taste of Alaska, right in New Jersey.

Of course, this is all just a fantasy. Fun to think about, but something my parents won’t really do. But that doesn’t mean I won’t. I’m looking at farms for sale right now. Much too early to seriously consider, but fun to dream. A few more years of working and building my freelance portfolio, and paying a mortgage won’t be out of the question — especially if it’s on a little farm in bumble-fudge.

In the mean time, I guess I’ll keep working with Dexter. Hopefully in the spring I’ll get another sled-worthy dog, and by the following winter I’ll have them training together. I also hope to have a successful garden next spring/summer. My own miniature, back-yard farm.

A girl can dream — even if it’s not about handsome men, expensive shoes, or designer purses.

Cats

My cats having been posing like models on my dresser, and I’ve been snapping photos. What else is new.

Furniture, Moving, Animals

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a few days now, but haven’t had time. After two weeks of sanding and refinishing furniture, packing up everything I own, and moving to a new town — things are finally starting to slow down.

First, I’ll start with the furniture refinishing. I followed the advice of The Frugal Girl (How to Paint Wooden Furniture) and decided to paint my desk and dresser, rather than buying new ones. They were always very beat up looking — well, for as long as I remember. They were previously owned by my uncle when he was growing up (he’s in his 60’s now), and he built model airplanes on them. So there was plenty of cuts, dings, scratches, and glue marks. Despite how ugly they were, I always loved them. They’re very modern looking, and really simple.

I decided to give them one last chance by repainting them. If my endeavor came out poorly, I could always just get new furniture anyway. Worth a shot, right? Here’s how the desk looked beforehand:

So Rob and I sanded, sanded, sanded, and sanded some more…

Until finally, things started looking like they were ready to prime.

So we primed and primed until my wrists were sore.

Painting took two coats over the span of two days, and involved me getting covered in paint. So there’s no photos of that step. However, you do get a somewhat crummy picture of the final product, located in my new room!

Now, onward to the rest of the house photos. These are from my first day officially living at the house — so I was doing a lot of cleaning. A lot of things have since been moved around, and I’m currently waiting on some art pieces to arrive. There’s a lot more stuff I plan on buying (throw pillows, curtains, clocks, plants, more art) but I must wait for my funds to replenish. I’ve done a LOT of heavy spending just to get everything in place, so over the next few months will come the fun, interior-design-y part.

This is our uber-floral kitchen. Part of me hates it, because it’s overwhelming. But part of me loves the kitschy-ness of it. We may opt to take the wallpaper down and just paint the whole thing white, but that won’t be for awhile. For now, it’ll be known as my Kitsch-en. (PUNS!)

Please ignore the garbage bag on the floor — we’ve since got an under-the-sink can, but need to install the slide-out tray part. The counter has room for my blender, microwave, coffee maker, toaster, bread/cheese displayer, crock pot and bread maker. Had to ditch the microwave oven (cry).

Here we have the living room — looking messy. I was in the middle of steam-cleaning our new (pre-owned) couches. Apparently I’m immune to doggy smell and didn’t realize they stunk.

Lots of odds and ends have since found homes and are no longer being displayeded on our bookshelf. The TV is now on the TV stand, but will soon be replaced with a new HDTV.

I’ll have more photos of the rest of the house, plus decor progress to share soon. I also need to get some gardening supplies and rip apart the backyard, but that’s a whole ‘nother monster.

Last but not least, I’ve got my animals here. Perry is happily housed in the living room, where he’ll once again be a sociable bun with company. Chase, the ferret, has been situated carefully in her new high-rise style apartment. I let her free to roam throughout the day, and Dexter has been very gentle with her. I realized after she got loose in my previous house and Dexter found her for us, that he wasn’t going to hurt her — he had every opportunity to, but he didn’t. So now they’re allowed supervised play together.

The cats alternate between closets and beds, staying hidden most of the time. They’re still unsure about everything.

Princess has gotten over her fear of Dexter, but still hates him. Matilda is afraid of Princess, but food overcomes all her anxieties. All in all, I think my pack is settling in quite well.