Routine change

As I’ve mentioned before…I have a certain routine I follow everyday. I don’t like to change it up for the most part. I get up at a certain time,  visit with my mom for 4 hours, go home, eat lunch,  take my dogs out at certain times,  make dinner and do my dishes between 4 and 5 and go up to my room to read at 7 until 10 when I go to sleep. In the time between eating lunch and making dinner I sometimes make a dessert and do my laundry or cleaning. After dinner until 7 I sometimes run my son to work and to get his dinner. If something comes up like a picnic or get together with family I squeeze it in but mostly stick to my routine. It’s hard to change it for me. I don’t know my. I guess I’m just a creature of habit. 

Well a big change is coming that’s going to change my dinner routine, my reading routine, and taking my son to work as well as change the times I take my dogs out. 

I was offered a part time job! I can’t do much because of my disability. The pain makes it hard to do anything, especially this last year. The pain has gotten alot worse! However this job I can do. My friend Lilly is a caregiver to a quadriplegic man in the next city over. She has been taking care of him for many years and has lately been working morning till late night everyday. She needs a break away so she talked it over with him and they want me to take care of him from 4-9pm as many days as I can. I agreed to 4 days,  Mon, Wed, Fri and Sat. All I have to do is get him his drinks, entertain him, feed him if he decides to eat dinner, routine straightening up, occasional laundry and emptying/ loading the dishwasher and lastly (which is the part I hate) I have to give him his cigarettes. I have to put it in his lips, light it and every so often take it and flick the ash. Anyone that knows me knows that I hate cigarette smoke and have never even held a cigarette because I find them disgusting. I am not going to like that part of the job at all. The pay isn’t that great but I’m not doing a whole lot so I don’t mind. It’s money I don’t have. Things are tight in my budget since my son turned 18 and I no longer get social security for him nor child support. I have no spending money whatsoever. I have all my bills paid and my groceries taken care of as well as gas money for my car. I can’t really even put anything more into my savings account and it’s almost drained now since I had to get into it to get my car and take car of some car problems. Taking this job I can put a nice chunk of money into savings every month and still have money in my pocket for anything I want or to go out to dinner or something. It’s just going to be a big change that I’m going to have to adjust to. And I’m sure I will. The only 2 things that almost kept me from accepting the job was 1. I feel bad not being there to take my son to work and to get his dinner. Since he doesn’t have his license or a car he needs me. My mom said though that he’s 18 and I have to stop catering to him all the time. He needs to find himself another ride. And I know that. He found other ways to work when I was without a car after my accident so I guess he’ll have to do it again. I just feel bad is all. And 2. My dogs aren’t going to know what to do without me home with them. My pitbull Tito is a mama’s boy! He hates when I leave him when I go anywhere. He loves to cuddle up on the recliner with me. I am extremely attatched to my boy. It’s gonna be hard learning him for 5 hours those days. I know… I’m a big baby!

I told my daughter this morning about me taking the job and her response was…”I’m sorry, you WHAT?” Then when I told her what I’d be doing she said,  “I don’t mean to sound rude but WHY?”. I had to laugh. She didn’t think I’d ever go back to working at all, mainly because she knows how bad a shape I’m in these days. I asked her to help get her brother to work those days if she could. My mom said I needed to stop enabling him or he’ll never grow up. She knows because she did the same thing with my youngest brother and he didn’t get up on his own feet until he was almost 37yrs old. 

Anyway I start shadowing Lilly today and probably Fri then I will start working by myself next Monday.  Tomorrow I plan on making baklava for the first time. I hope I don’t screw it up. I LOVE baklava! It and Tiramisu are my favorite desserts besides ice cream. I also have to get my son to mow my lawn tomorrow. He said he’s tired of having to find time to mow my lawn and he hates doing it so he told me to try and find someone else. I have no other family that really has time to do it so it looks like I’m probably going to have to place an ad and pay someone to come mow my lawn once a week. I wish I could just do it myself it’d save me this headache.

I don’t know what I’m doing for dinner tonight now that my plans went and changed on me. I’ll either leave early from shadowing Lilly and come home and make chili dogs and mac n cheese or I’ll get something to eat out while I’m there. This job is going to really interfere in my cooking everyday. 

Anyway that’s all my friends. Take care and enjoy your day!

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June 17, 2021

I’m happy for you. You are doing what is best for your finances and it sounds like you will be able to physically do the job, which is the most important thing. Your friend really needs a break and you will earn some money to boot. I think you’ll adjust, as will your son and Tito!