I am no longer with Cash Converters.

Well I saw it coming about six months ago but it happened today. I was laid off. Our store alone is not able to support the volume of inventory needed for a successful Amazon store, and rather than garnering the cooperation of the surrounding local stores, the area manager and North America Manager decided to shut down my Amazon store. At least that's the reason I was given. I was also told that it was not a performance based lay off, that I was not Fired, but that there were no available positions in the company at this time.

The letter I was given was dated for three days ago. I was two hours into my shift when corporate asked if they could talk to me, and when I asked if they wanted me to complete the day's orders before I left I was told no, to please collect my things if I had any in the office, and go.

I have alot of feelings about this but I expect this is probably better for me in the long and short run. I've had job related anxiety for awhile now, and while I certainly don't enjoy job hunting, at least I don't feel like there is a sword dangling above my head any longer.

2013 was a really bad year for me in many ways but my work performance didn't suffer until Christmas when I hit rock bottom psychologically, or maybe I should clarify, when I became lucid and realized I was still at rock bottom. I'm in a better place emotionally, and psychologically now, than I was then, or this time last year, and I expect that whatever I end up doing next, I will be better prepared for.

Tomorrow I will file for unemployment to help me through until I do find the next job, and I will also look into what I need to do to maybe start classes at TCC (Tidewater Community College) in the fall, or probably in the spring since I'm sure I've missed the fall FAFSA deadline. Osaka has offered assistance in trudging through all of the information available.

I also have a few places in mind to put in applications once I get my resume back in order, and line up some more recent references.

At any rate if it does take a little while this will give my broken ankle a chance to heal better than my crutching about, to and from work as I have been.

Overall while I am nervous and anxious about what the future holds, I am also feeling some confidence that even though the world is spinning pretty fast just now, I will land on my feet on solid ground.

Honestly even if I end up just being a full time student there are worse ways to go about it. I will look for work and be happy if I can find it quickly, but I will also be a bit relieved if I am not having to try to go back to school after 15 years, and also juggling/learning a new job.

I am thankful that I am not in the middle of any layaways, and that Osaka is still working, and I hope this employment gap is as short as the last one was (about 2 weeks).

In non-job related stuff, when I got home from work, Osaka went with me to our storage unit so I could pull out my Legos from my childhood, as well as some doll related accessories. The Legos were filthy from years of play and inadequate storage, so we threw them in the tub with some dish soap, and I swirled it around and around till the water got gross, and carefully pulled each piece out, discarding broken bits, and non Lego stuff as I went. I expect they need another bath or two before I will want to mix them will all my newer shinier Legos but this is a start, and this was the day to do it.

I also received my birthday gift(s) from Mom and Faythe yesterday in the mail and took some photos of Doran with October. Doran took a tumble after I got the sweater on him, and all his head magnets popped out, but I glued them back in, a little too hastily (one is now backwards and I couldn't get it back out), and Doran is none the worse for wear.

Everything is Awesome! Everything is great when you're part of a team!

If you haven't seen the Lego movie yet, you totally should. It's amazing. And in the Everything is Awesome range today, Osaka managed to get Zephi faceupped for me while I was at work, and he turned out beautifully.

In other Everything is Awesome stuff, my other birthday gift arrived today via FedEx, hence the Lego theme.

Zephi was very happy to show off his pretty face and sit by my new Lego set.



And then I proceeded to reorganize ALL of my Legos to try and make room and better fit what I have on the shelving I have available.

Here we have some creator sets, the castle set with the dragon, part of the Hobbit set where Bilbo first gets The Ring, and a little tiny Elf tree, also a Hobbit set.

You can also see from left to right Jessie, Émile, Elli, Ro, and to the far right Simon Oliver, Starshine, and Avery.



And in this you can see the Hobbit Lake Town set with the Dragon perched on my bedroom TV (of which view is obstructed by Lego).



Then I decided to photograph EVERYONE since I have them all in one room now. We did a deep cleaning of the apartment and all of my dolls are currently there, as well as their furniture and bins etc.

Here we have Robbie and Rowen, and Avery's head in the background.


This is a huge group shot from left to right with Noland, Orion, Amelia, Reji, TJ, Toby, Christopher Owen, Shen, Doran, Ichigo, Bear, Apollo and Earnán.


This is the bookshelf they are sitting on, with the rest of my legos, a mix of LOTR, and Hobbit sets, and Innis and Sarabelle on the next shelf down.


On the bottom shelf October has a tiny little area for himself.


And last in a pink chair off to the side, we have our newest member of The Cupcake Club, Zephi.

And I will finish with one last shot of Zephi with the new lego set because I like how this photo turned out.


I think that somes up my interests, BJDs, Legos, Videogames, Movies, and Books. Everything is Awesome!

And because I can't say it enough, I am so happy with the faceup work that Osaka does for me. She always does a beautiful job, and the faces are so expressive and perfect for what I like in my dolls. :)

So I guess I'm 31 now.

So I think my 31st birthday is probably the quietest birthday I have ever had. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I was pretty sick when I turned 30 and can't remember most of that year. I had a rowdy 29th with friends and coworkers. I think I'm very happy with a quiet birthday at home with my very best friend. I could have done without the broken ankle but honestly I'm not fussed, it was such a nice QUIET, pleasant day.

My big birthday gift to myself was Zephi, and Christy's gift to me will be a beautiful faceup for him when the weather is agreeable. She tried to paint him for me this weekend but the humidity was too high, so she'll try again when the weather is more receptive. I will probably come home some time in the next week or two and he'll be painted and smiling up at me from where I usually sit. :)

I also got the other big gift I wanted, direct from the Lego site, and will post photos of my Lego collection (a hodgepodge of Hobbit/LOTR/Creator sets) when I have it in hand and put together. We tried finding it in a local store but it was marked up from what it was direct from Lego, and I also ordered a couple of base plates and got free shipping and a limited edition minifigure for free.

Anyway I have to hobble out the door, back to work vacation is over. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

So I have a broken ankle.

So, last Tuesday I fell and broke my ankle. I was crossing the street, just got off the bus, almost to work, and then suddenly my left ankle rolled out from under me and I was stunned and on the ground in the middle of the road. Luckily there were people who saw me fall, and waited around, stopped the car that wanted to keep doing, and made sure I was okay. Well not okay, but not hit by a car.

I know that I have weak ankles so I keep an elastic compression ankle brace in my backpack so I always have one with me. I put it on and limped the rest of the way to work, which was not too far, as I was at the intersection of the shopping center. I realized pretty quickly that it was probably broken, and when I reached the store, and the manager let me in, I told her right away "I need to go to the doctor, I fell and I think I broke my ankle."

She gave me a concerned but skeptical look and had me remove my shoe and brace. She had me put an ice pack on it, and after a bit she concluded it was probably a severe sprain. One of my coworkers was kind enough to take my to my doctor who works through an urgent care center.

Dr C did three xrays from the back, a 45 degree angle, and the side and concluded that it was a very bad sprain with a hairline fracture. He asked me how it happened and when I explained the angle that my foot rolled he was sure that it was fractured from hitting the pavement, when the tendons and ligaments gave way.

After a week I'm wondering if there is not much more soft tissue damage than initially thought. I have 800mg motrin and about a days worth of vicodin left. I'm still in a bunch of pain even with the pain relief but this morning I was in more pain than I have been since I first fell. I was having serious difficulty getting moving when my alarm went off, and I've had a fever on and off since about 2 days after the injury.

I woke up white as a sheet, in agonizing pain and feeling like I was going to be sick all over the place. I was still struggling to find the strength to climb out of my loft bed when Osaka poked her head in and turned on the light to check on me. I told her that I felt terrible and I wasn't sure if I could get out of bed let alone get dressed and go to work. She looked at me hard and agreed, telling me that I looked terrible and should call out and rest, try to settle my stomach, get my temperature down, and rest. I started to argue, but I just didn't have the strength and honestly most of the time she's right about this sort of thing. I wake up feeling crappy lots of mornings, but generally push through it, go to work and up up doing okay. This was not one of those days.

I texted my store manager, and the opening manager, letting them know that I had a fever, and would not be able to come in, as I could not keep down my pain meds, and could not function without them. Then I took some pepto, ate some bread, took my pills and curled up on the sofa with a bucket and waited.. and fell asleep apparently. I woke up about 1pm ravenous, still in agonizing pain, and still pretty damned nauseous. I took another pepto pill, and more pain killers, and Wotan (Osaka's brother who came into town this last Wednesday) took me to get some lunch, and brought me back home.

I've spent about a week feeling listless, sore, and weak. When I'm sitting and resting I feel mostly fine, but the minute I get up and start to try and move, the world spins and my ankle shoots pain up my leg, and I try not to get sick all over the place.

I know the bone is broken and that there is alot of soft tissue damage but this is just ridiculous. I can't handle this and I'm almost out of hydrocodone. I have enough for tomorrow, and plenty of motrin for after that but I'm barely functioning with both and I am really concerned about how I'm going to get through the next several weeks of healing. It took nearly a year for this ankle to heal last time it got jacked up.

I'm so tired and frustrated.