Happy Birthday

We are going through flea markets in North Carolina for MonsterMustDie's 62nd birthday today.  The heat and sun are already taking their toll on me.

update:

After listening to his incessant complaining about how I ruined his day of picking ( and yes, I did slow him down. He probably came home earlier because of me) I must remember to never go on trips with him again. I really thought it would be bad for me to have him spend his entire birthday alone but just the opposite was true. Next year, he will be blissfully on his own for the entire weekend. 

Evening at the Mill Village Collective

Tonight is nearly the end of the High Point Market and we were lucky enough to enjoy a dinner with all participants here with food served by Cisco Brothers. 

working for a living

Good news is that I have a small freelance job that will be the first graphic design gig I've had in 2017. Hopefully, it will lead to more work with the same client and their associates. I would love to find meaningful work again.

Bad news is I was, essentially fired from my remaining retail job yesterday due to my inability to sale the prerequisite amount of store credit cards to the public. I am simply not a sales person. Although credit card account sales is not specifically in my job description as a cashier and sales floor associate, every retail company does require a minimum amount of store-specific credit cards to be sold by all associates. At the risk of looking like a complete asshole to customers, I tried to promote the card yesterday, after my one-month termination notice, to every customer with zero results no matter how assertive I tried to be with it. I am not made for sales or retail. Never have been. I like working with the public and meeting people during the day but I'm useless in retail. And there is no value in retail wages or the low part-time hours.

Other people I know my age who have been displaced by the changing job market have gone into real estate sales as a new career. My retail experience tells me I can never do that.

Meanwhile, MonsterMustDie is being more assertive that I need to find a way to make money to contribute equally to the house. He insists I can make money still doing basic graphic design as an independent freelancer and he thinks I'll make money in photography if I start a commercial photo website. I don't know all the ins and outs of setting up a commercial website - I just make eye candy. And what kind of photos would I sell now? All of my old music business connections are gone. I haven't been out to a single show or club since we moved here to North Carolina. It is a desert here for me.

This makes me want to return to my little condo in Atlanta more every day, where I would have low cost of living in a tiny space and less dependence on my car and, maybe, some of my old work connections.

Really, I just want to work and make a reasonable amount of money for household expenses.
That, and make some friends here.

The homeless problem

I figured it out.
Conceptual (fantasy) children are much more attractive than actual children. Everyone has a fantasy child - the idea of a new perfect baby that grows up to be a hugely successful adult with the best of all qualities. Babies with that are blank slates far cuter than older children and adolescents.
Homeless adults and the elderly are not cute or attractive. Quite the opposite.
This is why so many people are anti-choice or but no one wants to help actual people. Animal shelters get a lot more money than homeless shelters. People will adopt puppies before they adopt children in foster care. Puppies are cute and, since they don't speak, you never know what's going on in their heads. I would say pets are a source of unconditional love but a lot of that depends on how they're treated and if there is kibble in the bowl.