Housewarming Gift from the Universe

My neighbor's kitty, Pixie, came in my open back door to visit this morning. Neighbor says the cat was a stray, likely a Russian Blue. I like Pixie, but I put her outside again after a brief while.

I'm so happy here at Apartment 320, and it makes me even happier that people have been celebrating my new home with visits, messages of good wishes, and gifts––the tool kit from coworkers, a pot of impatiens, outdoor chairs (sister's old ones, still good), a gift card for Penzey's spices (I'd left most kitchen things behind, wanting a fresh start), etc.

The only person who's been unhappy is HouseMate, even though she'd told me when I returned from house-sitting that she preferred living alone.
She emailed last week that she wanted us to talk about unresolved issues. 
(Shades of her Dementor ex-husband? Not my problem.)

I told her that any roommate issues between us were solved by us not living together anymore and that while I'm grateful for her generous hospitality (I am, in fact), I don't want to get together with her at this time.
She means well, and I think that will be the end of it.

Moving on!

I. Life on the Cheap: Foraging

Since my rent is almost as much as I earn at the thrift store, I've been thinking about how to live on my salary.
Cooking at home is key, and now I have my own kitchen and can keep it clean, I want to cook again. I need to lay in supplies.

I was biking home down the alleys yesterday, and--bingo! Someone had set out a big cardboard box labelled Free Food--as people do when they're moving. (Where I live is between a very rich and a very poor neighborhood. This was heading toward the rich area.)

This was nicer-than-usual discarded food, though.
Most of it was from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods; everything was clean and new, with distant "best by" dates; mostly never-opened packages: if any were open, the contents inside were individually sealed; and--a funny inclusion--there was a green and white striped little rolling pin, the only non-food item.

Marz came over, and I shared some with her. She had not given up her apartment, luckily, but she had eaten up most of her food before she left for shipping school.

She's going to look into other options to work on ships, but after last week's ordeal, she just wants to take this week off and read.
She's in a good mood though, like people sometimes are when they return from Somewhere Else:
"There's a world out there!"

II. Hot 

Good idea to lay low this week--it's hot, in the 90sºF.
Unusually, it's not as hot as parts of Europe. Summers here are always hot and sticky, so most people have a/c.

Between the window a/c in the bedroom and a ceiling fan in the living room, this apartment stays comfortable. 

I still have lots of unpacking and setting up to do, so I'm taking today off. It's sort of a drag to have to close the house up to stay cool, but at least it does stay cool. 

My work area is hot! The donations door is a huge garage door, and it often remains open (because bad planning), so hot (or cold) air swamps our workspace.
People have suggested solutions, but management... [I have complained enough in this post, so I am not finishing that sentence].

Complaints aside, I am very happy at work.
Our pay is fair enough since management voluntarily matched the city's new minimum living-wage requirement for big companies before they had to: we're a temporarily exempt little company.

We've all signed up for the State's frontline workers pay too, for people who had to work in person during the first year of Covid, so we'll be getting a little bonus soon. Up to around $750, they estimate.
More groceries!

And you can see from what I posted earlier today, donations continue to be totally fun and interesting. (Relics of saints!?! What job offers that? Maybe that's why I've been having good luck--their magic rubbed off on me!)

Sales are up all over the store, including in my areas of books and toys---and, more and more, I dig up and price vintage odds and ends too.
This week, Housewares had put this vintage gasoline can with the cool moveable spout into metal recycling. People collect these.

I did not leave the gas can there by the boxed sets of LOTR and the first 5 Harry Potters (+ the last two unboxed)--I just set it there to photograph.)

That's something I share with Ass't Man (AM)--an eye for cool old things, an "Our Workplace Is a Fun Scavenger Hunt" attitude
That makes me happy at work too--being on good terms with AM. I'm residually mad at him for being such a jerk at first--we could have been having fun all along!