Old Blog - Money

Mushy:

He's home! He's home! I'm just grateful he woke me up this morning before he left for the day (around 5AM), because I didn't see him until now (about 10PM.) I love him. I love him. I love him!

Not-So-Mushy:

"Money is the root of all evil." A little over a year ago, I attended a poverty simulation put on by my aunt's branch of the local community action agency. It was horrible. Don't get me wrong - they had put a lot of hard work and effort into organizing it and everything went just as planned. My mother and I were "lovers" (weird, I know) with a young baby. In order to "go" anywhere, we had to pay with these travel tickets which you could only get from a very, very shady place. You also had to go there to cash out your paychecks, but they didn't always give you the correct amount of money and were unwilling to deal with you once they hadn't given you all of your money. One of us always had to have the baby, or we had to leave her in "childcare" and each day was only so long. We had no "time" to do anything and even left our baby in childcare one "day." Oops. You know what's terrible though? It's a teensie bit realistic. Of course no one would actually leave their baby in daycare on purpose, but parts of it can (and do) really happen. When you're at or below the poverty level, time is precious.  That's something that really stood out from the poverty simulation. When you're struggling to "make ends meet," unless you find a job paying better than minimum wage, much of your time will be spent working long hours. For my husband that means working many hours at a job where he is 1) unhappy 2) not living up to his enormous potential 3) being misused 4) too tall/a bad physical fit for doing what he is tasked to do. He's gone for a majority of the day and sore when he finally gets home. The only time he actually enjoys working is when he's officiating either football or basketball, and of course that takes up most of his other free time. I completely support him in doing something he enjoys - it's just hard. He wouldn't work so much if we didn't need the money... and here's where another old adage comes into use: "Time is money." The longer he works, the more money he earns. The less he works, a.k.a. the more time spent at home, the harder it is to make ends meet. I wish it wasn't like that. I understand the need to work. In a perfect society, everyone would contribute their skills to the needs of the community. Of course, everyone would also end up with everything they needed in that kind of situation (maybe not all wants, but certainly their needs) too. But that's not my reality right now. Job applications and a sore husband are.

Ultimately, I'm grateful that Charles has a job and a hobby which he enjoys and which really helps us out. I'm grateful for being able to have the necessities and even for the challenges which face us every day and help us grow. I'm especially grateful for Charles, who is everything I've ever wanted and more. His gentleness and sweetness make me happy and whole on a daily basis. I couldn't ask for more.

More:

So, while I clean (which I did for a large portion of the day) I really like to listen to music or watch TV shows on Hulu on my laptop. I found a new show today which I'm really into. It's called Once Upon A Time. Okay, okay, don't turn away yet. It's actually pretty good. It's not all lollipops and sunshine. There's an evil queen, a heroine and a pretty good plot line. I just hope they actually finish this show. It seems like the TV people enjoy canceling all of the shows I actually get into. *ahemTheEvent;OffTheMap;PushingUpDaisies;mustIgoon?*