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Thanksgiving Week

I am kidless this week, they have gone with their Mom out of town.  This is how it always it is for me, I lost the holiday in my divorce negotiations, so I am always without children on turkey day.  It bums me out, but it has become more normal over the years…  Which is sad in and of itself.  We always have a nice, small family gathering at my sisters, so it’s not like I am alone…  Well, not anymore alone than normal.

One of the side effects of my under-employment has been way more isolation.  I used to meet up with friends for dinner or drinks, hit an afternoon matinee or just go out and do things, but I have neither the energy or funds to do such things, so when the kids aren’t here I pretty much just stay home or o for a walk.  When you wake up at 2am every morning and barely have enough money to buy gas to make it to work it’s hard to fit in much of a social life.  I really live more like an animal, I exist only to find and provide basic needs most the time, and pretend to live a normal life when the kids are here on weekends.  I was hoping that after 5 years of divorce and career collapse things would start to get better…  But they have continued to get worse. I guess I have to just keep hanging on.

Although not as huge a bummer as my life, I was disappointed to hear about Hostess going out of business…  Those snack cakes were really a big part of my childhood.  I had some fun with it at work, here is some of the audio from my radio show on Friday:

The Death of Hostess – KMIX 106.3 11/16/12

And while I’m posting audio from my radio show, here’s Lucy calling in this morning from North Carolina:

My East Coast Reporter Calls In on KMIX 106.3 11/19/12

The podcast continues on, although it’s going to get a little crazy for the next few weeks!  Stench has taken a seasonal job and is going to be on a tight schedule, so we’ll have to get creative to get it recorded every day.

If you are looking to avoid all the shopping craziness this upcoming weekend let recommend a few sites:

Fab has all kind of unique and cool gifts and they have just improved their shipping speed so you don’t have to wait weeks to get your orders!

Threadless is having a Black Friday Sale starting 11/22.  They are home to hip/funny T-Shirts, Bags and Prints.

1XRun has very cool limited edition art prints that you will find nowhere else.  A great source of truly unique gifts!

Amazon I know this is not a new one to you, but a recent internet study compared all the major retailers prices on the top 125 toys for the holiday season and Amazon beat everyone else including Target and Walmart!  And with free shipping on orders over $25 it has never been easier to get your holiday shopping done!

And if you do brave the malls, Good Luck and Be Careful!!!!

Rock On, Jack

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2012 at 1:51 pm and is filed under DadJack Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • sgirl

    Oh Jack, I am really rooting for you. My heart goes out to you. I have been in your position as a single mother. It did get better. I have written this to you before. I struggled for about 7-8 years before things got better. It was really hard. The stories I could tell you would blow your mind. Like the time I had to rent a refrigerator because my ex husband disappeared with everything I ever owned. I didn’t have one penny to buy a refrigerator so I had to rent one. Eventually, I could not keep up with the payments so they came to repossess it. I wouldn’t let them in so they called the police. The police came and I still didn’t let them in because I just couldn’t let them take the refrigerator with all our food. My 2 year old (at the time) would have starved. I could not have afforded to buy new food let alone a refrigerator. I sat against my door in my livingroom listening to the police telling the refrigerator repo guy that there was nothing they could do and they would have to sue me. I was relieved. They never sued. It is a crappy refrigerator that was used when I got it. Another time I got a ticket that I could not afford to pay. I signed up to do community service and the day I was supposed to go my son broke his arm and ended up having to have 2 surgeries. I had to go to court and explain that to the Judge. He was a prick and threw me in jail for 4 days! It was a nightmare!! I still ended up having to pay the fine. The surgeon for my son’s arm ended up suing me for $6,500.00 that I couldn’t pay fast enough and I almost was evicted because they garnished my wages and I couldn’t pay my rent. All the while I was employed full time at a job I had been at for several years. I can go on and on. I hung in there and I kept working hard and eventually got back on my feet. I know sometimes things seem really desperate but it does get better and you will see that eventually. I hope it gets better very soon.

  • samwytch

    Jack, i do the same thing as you. I am also very broke so i take walks and exercise in my apartment while listening to your podcast- interjecting throughout when you guys get stumped on a celebrity’s name or whatever it is that you are talking about at the moment. Thanks for the shopping tips although I am cancelling my Christmas this year due to lack of funds.

    Hope you have a nice turkey day with your sister, Ethan and your mom.

    Samwytch

  • Pattie

    I don’t know how to post it without sounding like a stalker chick, LOL!!!…but if you want to see a movie or go grab something to eat, I feel indebted to you and Stench for all your entertainment over the years and would love to return the favor…

  • Connie in Colorado

    Jack – sgirl below is so right on! Please don’t ever give up, it really does get better. I know we all sound like a broken record, we all wish we could make it better for you. I hope that knowing you have all of your long time faithful friends & listeners with you every day helps alleviate some of the pain. Have a Blessed Thanksgiving.