As we head into September, I thought I would share what has happen since I stop posting here regularly.
I was getting really frustrated with with I can't do anything about my life attitude around here. It continues with visiting stupid sites like Slut Hate... Also assumptions of White Supremacy based on the fact a few men like White women, which I am a member of that club.
I'll address these things some other time, both are stupid on the surface, underneath and all around it.
So grab your favorite beverage and on with the story -
Sept of 2009 my car was repo'ed but not under the usual circumstances that his occurs. It's a tired story I get tired of explaining, the point is it's on my credit report as a charged off amount of just over $2,000.
That was the start of the fall from grace. In Jan of 2010, I had been fired by Pep Boys who I had worked for since late 2005. It was just as well, I wasn't going anywhere and I didn't want to take on more responsibility for slightly more money.
Luckily I was still living at home otherwise I would have a serious problem on my hands. Now some would say, you allowed yourself to get fired because your single, suffering from peter pan syndrome and have no responsibilities. Funny, this is almost exactly what my friend Steve said before his long time GF left him. He was jones'in so bad for a relationship in a moment of weakness, he fell for a divorce single mother of three girls... To further understand the context of what he was saying; he was forced to do something when his mother and her husband (step father) told him that they were moving into the her mother's house after she had passed away, which was paid for already. Yet another example of Baby Boomers throwing Gen X and Gen Y under the bus.. Anyway he lived with a short time with his father, but never really got along with his father, so he and his GF decided to move to Garden Groove for those of you familiar with Southern California, to be closer to her family.
So he had been living on his own for the last decade or so, while I lived at home and only briefly lived outside of my parents house with my ex-GF a total of about two years.
I've had other friends lob this criticism at me which is why they have slowly moved away from maintaining contact. I am not going to continue to communicate with people that don't make an effort to return messages, email or phone calls.
I should mention that none of these people are particularly successful. None of them own any real assets IE housing. My buddy Steve just shacked up with his new wife in the house she got in her divorce, don't we talk about sh*t like this all the time?
Anyway, with no car and no job in the City of Los Angeles = Death?
After my savings had run dry (completely) and I closed a credit card I got just a few months earlier that I still owed money on, I decided to look at my options. To keep my parents off me, I decided to enroll in the local occupation center (job training) for A+ training. My friend suggested I should apply for disability. I was eventually refused/denied but during one of the phone calls from a social worker, she asked how I was making any money. I said, I was selling stuff (which I was) she countered with didn't you know about General Relief? I said no, she explained to me it was offer from the same office I got EBT from. But what I didn't know at the time was that the branch office I was using didn't offer GR, but the office 12 miles away did. I wouldn't have ever known without this person telling me.
Initial I only got $110 a month but got a lump sum of $330 at first since they back dated my claim. Around this time my mother offered to add me to the Family plan that her and my sister were on. I got a decent feature phone (Java Browser + A-GPS) and started to attend classes (Jan of 2011).
While in class one day, one of my classmates came in with a bandage around his arm. I asked him what happen and he said nothing that he was donating Plasma. I was like, doesn't that hurt? He said no and that they offer you $30 for your first donation and then you call to confirm nothing was wrong with your donation and that you would be scheduled for a second visit and given $50 for donating again. Apparently they have a problem with retention....
I asked him where did it and told me there are two places in the valley but one is much better/cleaner than the other and that's the one he used. I decided why not, if it didn't hurt. Initially I thought I would just do it, so I can have some money to attend Long Beach GP. I succeeded by donating twice, getting $80 and went to the race.
I continued to go after that however. I figured, add this to my merger GR amount and I could start to make some things happen. Since my basics were taken care of (food, shelter) but I was cash poor. If I donated twice a week I got $70. Eventually I a tetanus shot (I needed one anyway) and got additional $5 a week and $10 when on my sixth donation.
So 4 weeks in a month, I would make $385, in Feb I would make about $310.
I was donating all the way up a few months ago, because I couldn't alternate arms like some people do, I developed quite a bit of scar tissue that started to clog the needle when it was inserted. I am suspended from donating indefinitely, it's possible I could return, I may...
By the end of 2011, I had two sources of income. My GR had been increased as I attended mandatory job training and hit $221 + another $75 for transportation during my "job search". I was getting $380 or so a month from donating Plasma. As long as I ate a low fat diet and drank about a gallon of water a day, I had no side effects from donating six, seven, eight times a month.
Totals -
$200 in EBT
$221 in cash assistance
$385 donating plasma
All non-taxable income or credit.
