How I Spent The Forty-Seventh Week Of The Rest Of My Life

While it's challenging enough to find a job it seems, I'm taking on an additional one this month.  Since I bought big box on Thanksgiving, I'm taking it upon myself to only shop locally during the week in December.  During the weekend it seems I have to do stuff like rent trucks to pick up televisions from Woodbridge and the like.  I'm going to try to stick to my pledge during December all seven days, but I'm considering it like Lent, sort of.

After all, the entire point is to invest more of my money locally (and Rockville has no shortage of small businesses).and help other people in Rockville keep their jobs.  And, of course, it helped to get my face out there to Rockville and Bethesda's small businesses who might one day be looking for social media people.

The job search, however, is going pretty well.  I had a second, group interview with a place in Silver Spring and it seemed like a pretty open interview where I was asked a lot of questions outside of the job description on social media.  I think I answered them pretty well to prove my chops.  At least I hope that I did since they seem like a nice office with a sense of humor.  They're having their national meetings next week so I won't know and will keep applying for a bunch more job next week.

Hopefully none of them will be "lead generation" like the other interview I had last week in Vienna.  The only reason it wasn't door-to-door sales was because it wasn't actually selling any products - just apppointments for estimates.  My bother calls it a scam.  I just call it a really crappy job.  I'm not above it, per se, but I'm also not very good at it.

Though it seems that I'm good at organizing my bedroom.  That's done.  It's so much more peaceful to be in a well organized room.  I just hope I don't spend many more days in it.

Here's how I "spent" last week:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 ($30.90)

• 11:06 a.m. Starbucks - $3.00.  Since they were out of bagel, I knew that I could only stay long enough to watch a webinar before needing to get lunch.  Ordinarily this location is too noisy, but with my headphones, it was okay.
• 1:23 p.m. Penang Star - $5.83.  After eating at the more expensive Chinese place near my apartment, I'm glad I found this place.  Though it's actually Malaysian.
• 6:19 p.m. CVS - $22.07.  While I was hoping to not have to go out in the insane November rain in D.C., I was out of both laundry soap and laundry.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 ($15.00)

• 10:44 a.m. AMC Mazza Galerie 7 - $6.00.  I wasn't going to wait until after Thanksgiving to see the new Muppets movie.  I saw the second showing of it in Washington D.C.  After the midnight showings.
• 1:39 p.m. Tynan Coffee & Tea - $9.00.  While I was trying (and failing) to get the internet to work, my brother told me that we might be driving home for Thanksgiving.  So I went home instead of going to the gym after eating lunch.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24 (Free)

• 10:29 a.m. Liberty Gas Station - Free.  My dad paid for all of the gas on the way to Michigan so this was gratis.
• 1:08 p.m. North Somerset Service Plaza - Free.  This is where my brother took over driving.  My dad also paid us back for food.
• 4:08 p.m. Great Lakes Service Center - Westbound - Free.  For the last part of the drive, we switched here in Ohio.  It was a pretty amazing rest stop.
• 8:14 p.m. Champps Americana - Free.  My mother was working all weekend so my dad took us out to dinner.  This was about the only place open on Thanksgiving night.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25 ($10.60)

• 2:26 p.m. Taco Bell - Free.  This might be the only place that my brother, my dad, and I agree on.  It was also close to shopping.
• 3:08 p.m. Target - $10.60.  I couldn't let a Black Friday go by without buying something at Target.  They didn't have the pillow I was looking for, but they had pajamas again.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26 (Free)

• 7:52 a.m. Kohl's - Free.  My sister stayed in California this Thanksgiving so my brother and I went clothes shopping with my mother.  I found some nice pants and a sweater.
• 8:23 a.m. Macy's - Free.  At Macy's, there wasn't really anything that I liked.  I had tried to go there the day before, but all of the stuff that I wanted was sold out.
• 8:48 a.m. jcpenney - Free.  While I also wanted to go here the day before, they were also out of everything that I wanted.
• 9:18 a.m. Kerby's Koney Island - Free.  Even though I had a bad experience at the last Coney Island that I went to, I went to this one.  It was a pretty good family meal.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27 ($23.48)

• 9:27 a.m. Early Bird Of Northville - Free.  We had our family Thanksgiving on Saturday night so we decided to go to brunch before my mother went to work for the fourth day in a row.  It was a weird Thanksgiving.
• 10:42 a.m. Meijer Gas - Free.  My father sent us on our way with one more free tank of gas.
• 11:21 a.m. IKEA - $23.48.  The best Black Friday deal that I saw was actually at IKEA for a bookshelf on Sunday night.  I ended up buying one.  And so did my brother.  It will let me return my more expensive earlier IKEA purchase.
• 2:18 p.m. Towpath Service Plaza - Free.  The drive home took way longer than the drive there.  I should have known this was going to be the case when we hit traffic before we were even far into Ohio.
• 4:35 p.m. Oakmont Plum Service Plaza - Free.  Since we ate breakfast kind of early, we grabbed an early pre-dinner.  Amazingly, I still had enough oomph to keep driving.
• 9:21 p.m. Taco Bell - Free.  I wouldn't have considered it a drive from Detroit to Washington D.C. (well, almost on both accounts) without a stop in Breezewood.  And a stop at Taco Bell.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28 ($31.41)

• 12:17 p.m. Noodles & Company - $5.41.  Even though I had some really good butter noodles at Thanksgiving, my desire to have more was not quenched.
• 12:38 p.m. Starbucks - $4.00.  When the weather turned back to good, I just couldn't help but get an iced tea one more time this season.  Even if it was raining.
• 1:49 p.m. Capital One Bank - Free.  My brother owed me money for the security deposit.  Putting it into my account meant it was no longer anemic.
• 8:42 p.m. Buffalo Wild Wings - $22.00.  I decided to go watch the Monday Night Football game with the Giants at a bar.  I ended up making some new friends in the process.  Though they were Redskins fans.

So that's $111.39. It's amazing that I probably spent less going to Michigan than I would have spent had I just lounged the holiday away at home.  And I got to see my family for the first time since April.  The week we're currently in was far more expensive than that one, but at least I have a television and a futon out of it.  And I'm about to go to sleep on it for a big week of applying for jobs.  My total money spent since I've been unemployed is $9945.24.