I have been working since I was sixteen years old, and quite a bit of that time I have had more than one job at a time. That's what you do when one job isn't enough to meet your needs...and New Mexico was no exception.
I knew the job at the pharmacy would not be enough; I've already mentioned that the pay was pretty low and the cost of living high, so after about a week, I started looking for an additional job and found one at a housekeeping agency as a cleaner...something I'd never done (at least not for pay) before. (My daughter was still working at the fast food restaurant, but had been promoted to manager. This allowed her to switch to days and put Joey into day care so that he had other kids to play with.)
The housekeeping job was definitely hard work...but, that's never bothered me. I always take pride in any job I do, so I managed to become quite good at this cleaning thing.
Meanwhile, as I told you in my previous post, I had told my boss at the pharmacy that I would give him one month to see the quality of my work and to give me a raise, and if I didn't get it, I would have to leave. Well, at the end of the month I got my paycheck and (surprise, surprise) the raise was not on it, so I went to his office to discuss it with him. His response was that the "home office was not giving any raises to anyone" and he was really sorry, blah blah blah, and he hoped I'd stay. I said good-bye.
On my way home from the pharmacy, I stopped in at the housekeeping agency and told my boss there that I would be available for more hours.
I continued with the housekeeping agency for another two months as a cleaner...then, one day, the owner, knowing that I had had previous experience as an executive secretary in Akron for an insurance company, approached me and asked if I'd be interested in working in the office instead of out in the field. More money, and certainly a lot easier job, so I jumped at the chance.
This was the turning point; another absolute life-changing event, and where "The Secret" once again came into play. The first and most important life-changing event was when we moved to New Mexico...that started the whole chain of events that put me on the correct path to success.
Running the office, seeing how the business worked, one day I just had an epiphany and I knew I could do this myself! I mean, it was a light bulb moment! I just knew, without a doubt, that I could and should start my own housekeeping business, and that it would be a total success!
So I began to plan. The first thing I did was to buy a Rolodex and put it on my desk at work. I told myself, as I looked at it every day, that one day soon that Rolodex would contain the names of my own clients.
One of the points of "The Secret" is "The Law of Attraction". This means that you put in front of you what you want to draw towards you: pictures of a car or house you want, the job you want, the vacation....whatever. Put your wishes on a cork board and hang it on a wall where you see the things you have pinned on it every day, and KNOW that you will get those things! Don't just hope....KNOW it!
That Rolodex was my focus, and I didn't realize that I was putting The Secret into motion..that book didn't exist back then, and I had never heard of the concept. But, of course, things don't just fall out of the sky into your lap..you have to take steps to make your dreams come true...and my first step was to choose a name for my new business: Cinderella. It was perfect, because when you hear that name, what does it make you think of immediately? Cleaning, right? Then I had to design a flier, type it up (no computers at that time in my life) and then take $50.00 and go to the nearest print shop and have 500 fliers printed up....and then deliver them, door to door until they were all gone. I truly enjoyed this! It was such fun to see the neighborhoods and the courtyards where people had little hideaways full of pots of flowers, small ponds with Koi fish in them, and benches and tables where they could sit and enjoy their little private havens. I love the architecture in New Mexico.
It took a little over a week to deliver all the fliers, (which I did after work, and on the weekend) and every day at my desk I would look at that Rolodex and envision my future clients' names in it.
Finally, calls started coming in....and they kept on coming in...until I had enough clients where I couldn't handle them alone. So I hired a girl to work for me....and I gave my notice at the housekeeping agency.
I was on my way!
Time to say good-bye again. It is 2:25 a.m. on August 16, 2008. Way past my bedtime!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
OUR HOUSE BECOMES A HOME
I left you in the last post at the end of our first day in our new home in New Mexico. Bear had disappeared, and we were going to set out on our job hunts the next morning. There was no time to waste if we were going to succeed in this new adventure!
The Secret was continuously at work. (Remember The Secret? That's what this series is all about.) I knew we would be fine; I visualized a positive outcome in the job hunt, and knew we'd get jobs immediately. And we did.
Nothing fancy at first; we weren't proud. We were willing to take whatever was available the quickest....when you take as big a step as we did, you don't sit around waiting for "the perfect job"....empty days do not pay the rent! My daughter got a job at a fast food place, and, since I had years of experience as a pharmacy technician and in doctors' offices, I answered an ad for a tech at a large pharmacy chain. The pay was abysmal compared to what I made here in Ohio...NM had a high cost of living with a low wage rate.....but, like I said...empty days do not pay the rent, so I took the job....with one stipulation: I told the manager that, with my experience, I was worth more, but I understood that they didn't know me and I needed to prove myself. I said I would give them one month, and then, if they were happy with my performance, I would expect a substantial raise. If I didn't get the raise, I would have to quit. They agreed, and I would start the next day.
I went home and began to put the house more in order, unpacking the rest of the stuff and taking care of Joey while Maureen, my daughter, went to her job that evening. She was going to work nights and I would work days so that one of us would always be available to take care of Joey.
While I was putting some things away in the front room, I thought I heard something....like a small, plaintive wail. I opened the front door, and there stood Bear, sporting a much smaller middle, his long hair in need of some brushing, but otherwise none the worse for wear....and obviously hungry. It had been two days. First things first: he darted past me and ran into the kitchen, looking for food, which I immediately provided for him, along with a nice bowl of clean, cool water. After he had a full belly again, he allowed me to pet him.....but not before he made it clear that if we EVER put him through such a long trip again, he was done with us for good! Bear had a way of "talking" to us with a series of little sounds and we learned which ones meant what pretty quickly. He was definitely ticked off, but willing to forgive...after all, we did have food and a warm place to stay...and a cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do. (Picture him sitting up on his haunches, paws out in front of him and turned upward, weighing his options. "Let's see: staying in the wild and foraging for food, being cold and hungry....or......forgiving the stupid humans and being spoiled, pampered, fed and sleeping on a nice, warm comfortable bed.....yeah. No contest.")
The next day, I went to work at my new job.
Time to leave you again....but, please come back. There is still much to share with you.
It is 4:08 p.m., August 9, 2008.
The Secret was continuously at work. (Remember The Secret? That's what this series is all about.) I knew we would be fine; I visualized a positive outcome in the job hunt, and knew we'd get jobs immediately. And we did.
Nothing fancy at first; we weren't proud. We were willing to take whatever was available the quickest....when you take as big a step as we did, you don't sit around waiting for "the perfect job"....empty days do not pay the rent! My daughter got a job at a fast food place, and, since I had years of experience as a pharmacy technician and in doctors' offices, I answered an ad for a tech at a large pharmacy chain. The pay was abysmal compared to what I made here in Ohio...NM had a high cost of living with a low wage rate.....but, like I said...empty days do not pay the rent, so I took the job....with one stipulation: I told the manager that, with my experience, I was worth more, but I understood that they didn't know me and I needed to prove myself. I said I would give them one month, and then, if they were happy with my performance, I would expect a substantial raise. If I didn't get the raise, I would have to quit. They agreed, and I would start the next day.
I went home and began to put the house more in order, unpacking the rest of the stuff and taking care of Joey while Maureen, my daughter, went to her job that evening. She was going to work nights and I would work days so that one of us would always be available to take care of Joey.
While I was putting some things away in the front room, I thought I heard something....like a small, plaintive wail. I opened the front door, and there stood Bear, sporting a much smaller middle, his long hair in need of some brushing, but otherwise none the worse for wear....and obviously hungry. It had been two days. First things first: he darted past me and ran into the kitchen, looking for food, which I immediately provided for him, along with a nice bowl of clean, cool water. After he had a full belly again, he allowed me to pet him.....but not before he made it clear that if we EVER put him through such a long trip again, he was done with us for good! Bear had a way of "talking" to us with a series of little sounds and we learned which ones meant what pretty quickly. He was definitely ticked off, but willing to forgive...after all, we did have food and a warm place to stay...and a cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do. (Picture him sitting up on his haunches, paws out in front of him and turned upward, weighing his options. "Let's see: staying in the wild and foraging for food, being cold and hungry....or......forgiving the stupid humans and being spoiled, pampered, fed and sleeping on a nice, warm comfortable bed.....yeah. No contest.")
The next day, I went to work at my new job.
Time to leave you again....but, please come back. There is still much to share with you.
It is 4:08 p.m., August 9, 2008.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
HOME....AT LAST...IN NEW MEXICO.
When I left you, we had arrived at our new home and Bear had vanished in a gray flash.
There was nothing we could do at the moment about Bear; we just had to hope he would decide to get over his snit and come home.
Exhausted by this time, we wearily went in to explore our new home. It hadn't been lived in for about three months, but it was clean and welcoming...and we were very pleased with it. The only thing we objected to were the two uninvited guests that greeted us right inside, to the right of the front door: two very large black widow spiders. They had to go, first thing...sorry, ladies! Once they were dispatched, we continued to explore.
One story, and deceptively small-looking from the outside, it surprised us once we entered. It contained three large bedrooms...and the garage had been turned into a fourth. It was the biggest bedroom, and I took that one...1 1/2 baths, a huge kitchen and dining room, huge living room, and a wonderful sun room/den that quickly became our favorite room. It had 8 large windows and a wood burning stove that, in that room, was the only source of heat. It had obviously been added on after the house was built, but not included in the central air system. The air conditioning was a swamp-cooler located on the roof....typical for that area, and very efficient because of the dry climate. For those of you who are not familiar with that type of cooler: it's an evaporative system with a large fan blower contained in a large, square apparatus which has straw filters on the sides and a small copper tube that comes from a water source at the ground level. The water continuously comes up the tube, fills the bottom of the cooler and wets the straw filters, and then the cooled air blows into the house with quite a bit of force when you turn it on high. (There were medium and low speeds, too, but we liked it high on hot days.)
There was no basement in the house...also typical of most of the houses of this type in the Southwestern part of the U.S.
There was a good-sized laundry room as well. In the sun room, there was a back door that led out to the backyard and patio, which were wonderfully private. There was also a side yard that contained a small storage shed.
The front, side and back yards all needed a lot of attention...it was obvious that the previous tenants had been yardwork-challenged...but the front yard contained a wonderful nectarine tree, and a lovely cactus garden along side the driveway, the side had two beautiful flowering plum trees, and, in the backyard, was the most gorgeously prolific sweet Bing cherry tree, right outside the back door! (Both the nectarine and cherry trees provided us with such delicious fruit for all the years we lived there, though it was a battle with the birds for the cherries!)
As I said, the garage had been turned into a bedroom so there was only a carport with room for one car. One thing we loved was the fact that the house was in a cul-de-sac right off a not-too-busy side street. This was good since we had a three year old.
After exploring all the rooms, we began unloading the van, car and U-Haul trailer. By that evening, we were pretty much settled in, and, after some fast food for dinner, fell into bed exhausted....(well, my daughter and grandson fell into their beds...I had an air mattress...which was surprisingly comfortable. It was about 6 months before I could afford a bed.)
The next day, we began the job searches.
Time to say good-bye again. I leave you at 3:05 p.m. on Wednesday, August 6, 2008. Blog hits are now at 363.
There was nothing we could do at the moment about Bear; we just had to hope he would decide to get over his snit and come home.
Exhausted by this time, we wearily went in to explore our new home. It hadn't been lived in for about three months, but it was clean and welcoming...and we were very pleased with it. The only thing we objected to were the two uninvited guests that greeted us right inside, to the right of the front door: two very large black widow spiders. They had to go, first thing...sorry, ladies! Once they were dispatched, we continued to explore.
One story, and deceptively small-looking from the outside, it surprised us once we entered. It contained three large bedrooms...and the garage had been turned into a fourth. It was the biggest bedroom, and I took that one...1 1/2 baths, a huge kitchen and dining room, huge living room, and a wonderful sun room/den that quickly became our favorite room. It had 8 large windows and a wood burning stove that, in that room, was the only source of heat. It had obviously been added on after the house was built, but not included in the central air system. The air conditioning was a swamp-cooler located on the roof....typical for that area, and very efficient because of the dry climate. For those of you who are not familiar with that type of cooler: it's an evaporative system with a large fan blower contained in a large, square apparatus which has straw filters on the sides and a small copper tube that comes from a water source at the ground level. The water continuously comes up the tube, fills the bottom of the cooler and wets the straw filters, and then the cooled air blows into the house with quite a bit of force when you turn it on high. (There were medium and low speeds, too, but we liked it high on hot days.)
There was no basement in the house...also typical of most of the houses of this type in the Southwestern part of the U.S.
There was a good-sized laundry room as well. In the sun room, there was a back door that led out to the backyard and patio, which were wonderfully private. There was also a side yard that contained a small storage shed.
The front, side and back yards all needed a lot of attention...it was obvious that the previous tenants had been yardwork-challenged...but the front yard contained a wonderful nectarine tree, and a lovely cactus garden along side the driveway, the side had two beautiful flowering plum trees, and, in the backyard, was the most gorgeously prolific sweet Bing cherry tree, right outside the back door! (Both the nectarine and cherry trees provided us with such delicious fruit for all the years we lived there, though it was a battle with the birds for the cherries!)
As I said, the garage had been turned into a bedroom so there was only a carport with room for one car. One thing we loved was the fact that the house was in a cul-de-sac right off a not-too-busy side street. This was good since we had a three year old.
After exploring all the rooms, we began unloading the van, car and U-Haul trailer. By that evening, we were pretty much settled in, and, after some fast food for dinner, fell into bed exhausted....(well, my daughter and grandson fell into their beds...I had an air mattress...which was surprisingly comfortable. It was about 6 months before I could afford a bed.)
The next day, we began the job searches.
Time to say good-bye again. I leave you at 3:05 p.m. on Wednesday, August 6, 2008. Blog hits are now at 363.
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