Been A While

Hey Everyone,

So it’s been a really long time since I’ve posted. To be honest I kind of fell out of everything for a while. I got lost in the world of work and YouTube. That’s basically all I’ve been doing.

I’m still trying to get used to a new schedule at work, which involves me sleeping during the day and working at night. I’m really enjoying the schedule, but I’m still adjusting. I think I would have been fully adjusted already if it wasn’t for the fact that my schedule keeps getting flip flopped. For example, last week, I worked 2 days of middle of the night shifts, and 3 days of day shifts. It throws a wrench into my sleep pattern when stuff like that happens.

I hope everyone/anyone reading had a good Thanksgiving (if you celebrate that). I had the day off from work but didn’t really do anything. I got sick the day before (just a basic cold) so I did some laundry on Thanksgiving and then basically just relaxed the rest of the day. I had to be at work on Black Friday at midnight.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever talked about where I work, but I work at a grocery store and I work in the tagging department when I work middle of the night shifts. So I go in and work with at least one other person to update and change all of the expired price tags in the store. Sometimes there are just a couple hundred, sometimes there are a couple thousand, sometimes there are more. It depends on the day and what’s going on. Friday we changed quite a few tags.

Normally our ad changes on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. But because of the holiday on Thursday the company decided to move our ad change to Thursday night/Friday morning. It was also the end of one of our store promotions. So not only did we have to change all of the regular sale tags we had to get rid of all of the store promotion tags/signs that were expired. Plus it’s holiday season so there are a bunch of new items that are being brought in that we either have to create tags or signs for, and/or add them to our system to we get updated tags for them.

It was a busy night. But we all got out of there on time. And I got to go shopping for Black Friday. Not that I did a bunch of shopping. There were only 3 things that I was looking for when I went out. At least 3 specific things. 1. I’m too broke to actually spend money on too many things. 2. I don’t really need a lot of things. 3. When checking out the sales online and things I didn’t even really see anything that I wanted. So when my roomie and I went shopping we basically just went to Target. We were mostly looking for some Christmas decorations.

The three things I was looking for were: Season 6 of Two Broke Girls, Season 10 of Big Bang Theory, and a pillow (or two) for sleeping. I was also looking for some Christmas decorations for my bedroom, but since I didn’t know specifically what I wanted that was just going to be kind of a random whatever I find type of situation. They didn’t have either of the DVDs I wanted at Target so I just grabbed a $3 pillow for sleeping, some dry shampoo, and a conditioner. I found one Christmas decoration that I wanted, but my roomie talked me out of it. And I was going to grab a couple of candles, but they were actually pretty expensive even though they were buy one get one free. So I ended up just getting the other things. Oh, I also got hair dye so I can dye my hair again, but I haven’t gotten around to using it yet. And it’s just brown.

After that we did a quick stop at Cost Plus World Market to see what kinds of things they had in store. Didn’t see any amazing deals but my roomie got a couple Christmas ornaments for the tree and I grabbed a couple of snack-y things. I was starving. After that we went to the Dollar Store to see if we could find some cheap Christmas decorations. By the time we got to Target their Dollar Spot section was totally wiped out in terms of Christmas stuff and we were really hoping to find some window clings to decorate with. We found some really nice snowflakes at Dollar Store so we got 5 sheets of those. One for my room and 4 for the living room. They look really nice. They’re exactly what we wanted, just basic white snowflake window clings in different sizes and patterns.

We also decided to go to Home Depot later in the evening to pick up our Christmas tree. Since my car is large enough to put a decent sized tree in my roomie decided we had to get a real tree. So we did. While we were at Home Depot I found a tiny, real, “Christmas” tree. It’s technically a Norfolk (I think) pine, from Hawaii. So it’s like a tiny pine/palm tree thing. It’s really cute and Home Depot had added a couple of red Christmas ornament balls and a snowflake decoration. It looks super cute and it’s sitting on top of my mini fridge in my room. I also picked up a pack of “snow” material at Dollar Tree, with glitter, and that’s all laid out on top of the fridge under the tree. It looks so cute! I’m hoping to grab a few more Christmas decorations at Target over the next week or two. My roomie and I were talking about going back to check out the Dollar Spot after they’ve had a chance to restock it. We want a few more things for the living room and I want a couple little things to go with the tree in my room. But we shall see what happens.

So, that’s how I spent my holiday. I’ve been off the last two days, but I have to be back at work at 2 a.m. Monday morning. I’ve been sleeping off and on all day because I’m still sick and even though I don’t feel awful I do feel kind of meh. I definitely feel off, a little more tired, stuffy and have a bit of a throat tickle.

In terms of my going vegan, although I won’t say that I’ve fallen off the wagon and completely given up. I’ve found that because of the things I like to eat and the way I tend to eat being vegan at this point in my life just isn’t cost effective. Where I live the vegan options are fairly expensive. And although I can just eat basic fruits and vegetables and things those foods don’t satisfy me on their own. And buying a lot of the other products to supplement that are expensive and I just can’t afford it. I’m working with a $20 a week food budget and even if I were to only buy fruits and vegetables I’d have to buy almost all frozen vegetables in order to afford enough food (for me). Yes, I eat a lot. No, I’m not ashamed of it.

I still try to eat less animal products than I did before, but I have gone back to eating meat and things. Please don’t judge me. At this point in my life I’m trying to do what’s best for me.

I’ve really cracked down on my budgeting. I’ve got to get my finances under control. I’ve got to get my life under control.

I did do a couple of things to make myself feel better though. I put a fake tattoo on my left forearm that I’m really liking. It’s a dream catcher, fairly good sized, just black lining. I really really like it. I also painted my nails, which I haven’t done in FOREVER. They’re now white with one nail painted a multicolored glitter. It feels kind of holiday-y. I just think they look pretty and they feel better. My nails area naturally so thin and adding a few layers of polish makes them feel a lot stronger. So yay for that.

Also, in terms of my YouTube obsession. It has definitely gotten worse. I’ve become obsessed with a show called Cheat Day, which is put on by a channel called Clevver TV. It’s so much fun to watch! They eat weird foods or food combinations and it’s just fun. It’s basically a series of taste test videos. They post a new one every week and it’s different people which is cool. They’ll have guests on the show and then regulars. There’s always at least two people tasting and they combinations of people varies which is nice. Keeps it from being kind of boring and predictable. So I’ve really been enjoying that.

I’ve also found a new appreciation for some of the ASMR videos. So far there’s only one channel/YouTuber that I enjoy and that’s Gibi. Her channel name is Gibi ASMR and I really like her. She does a lot of different things, but her voice is very soothing and relaxing as is a lot of the things she does in her videos. I’ve been playing her stuff a lot when I’m sleeping.

Other than those two new things it’s been all the same people for me. But I’ve been watching YouTube videos at least once a day, every day, for like the last month or longer. Remi Ashten, Mia Stammer, LaurDIY, Kalyn Nicholson, Bunny (Grav3yardgirl), Alisha Marie, Cheap Lazy Vegan, Ashley Nichole, Brittney Lee Saunders, Karissa Pukas (although she hasn’t been around much 😦 ), Shannon Harris (Shaaanxo), Caitlin Shoemaker (who is a vegan YouTuber), and I’ve also been watching The World of Vegan. Lots of YouTubers and lots of videos that I enjoy.

Anyway, I guess that’s it for me today. I’m going to try to get back into the habit of writing every once in a while and catching people up on what’s going on in my life. I’m not sure if anyone actually cares about what’s going on in my life, but I find that it does make me feel a little bit better to have it out there.