Spiders!!

I'm Terrified of spiders unfortunately Riley is also not a fan of spiders. This leaves me with somewhat of a problem. What do I do in the event of a spider sighting?

(Luckily most of the 'spiders' we have in our flat are more of a cross between a daddy long legs and a spider. So I don't view them as real spiders, they are still spiders so they still scare me - just less so. This is the reason behind the fact that we sort of had a pet spider in the bathroom that we named apple... she lived in the corner of the bathroom for about 5 months, mainly because we were both too scared of her to evict her. She was eventually evicted by Riley's nephew when we decorated in January. It's strange we were kind of sad to see her go.)

It's quarter to 5 in the morning, I'm in the bathroom as a 'Real' spider darts in under the door. I half scream and jump in the bath - never thought I would ever hide from a spider in a bath. It darts back under the door (I think it might be a human phobic spider). The problem is now I don't know where it is now: is it waiting outside the door? Is it still under the door? Has it gone into my room which is next to the bathroom and I left the door open. I can safely tell you that it took me a long time get the courage to leave the bath. (Also bare feet feel VERY vulnerable in this kind of situation.) This incident was 2 weeks ago... I still didn't see it again, and yes I still worry about where it went, and still keep watch for it.

My question is what do adults do when they are scared of spiders. I used to pay my brother to move them, then in Uni there was always someone around who wasn't bothered about spiders. But what do I do now? What do adult arachnophobics do?

I can't afford my job. WTF?

I have found myself in a very odd situation, as it stands at the moment I cannot afford my job.  Despite being told by both the Jobcentre and Housing benefit that my part-time job would not effect either claim, it did.

Not only that but work messing up has complicated things:
1. Due to being ridiculously unorganised at Easter I ended up working well over my contracted 10 hours
2. They forgot to pay me for the first day I worked - so they paid the missing hours 2 weeks later
3. When paying me the hours I was owed they didn't mark it as back pay on my payslip

So my Housing benefit had to be reassessed this meant I needed to send them my payslips, and they work out how much I earn a week by working out the average. Unfortunately the above reasons the average was pushed up way above what I actually earn a week.

This results in a drastic decrease in the amount of housing benefit that I get meaning the money I have left to live on is less than half of what the government says you need.

So as the title of this post says - I can't afford my job and all attempts to find another part time job to go along with this one are failing.

A different perspective

My flatmate Riley has started a blog, also about starting adult life and stuff. Fortunately she is a more frequent blogger than I am, and she is pretty funny. The blog is called Growing Up Broke and well worth a read you can find it here.

So far she has posts covering:
- Moving in
- Neighbours
- What your parents didn't tell you
- Deadlines
- And why adults don't have sleepovers

Totally unrelated - Blogger's spell check doesn't recognise the words blog or blogger.

Adult Life?

My flatmate is still a student and as I had nothing better to do with my day, I went with her. It offers a change of scenery, a chance to look at all of the stuff that I can’t buy and perhaps more importantly – it means I’m not just lying in bed all day wishing I had better things to do.

It was a very surreal experience, walking around town with the knowledge that everyone I knew had left, yet I still expected to see them.
Well most of the people I knew have gone, there are 3 or 4 still around. One of which we were meeting up with. While the 3 of us were together, Riley got a phone call informing her that she had got the job she’d applied for; this prompted my friend to make the following remark:

“One of us finally has a real adult life”

Now I know she meant nothing by it, but it suggests that in her eyes I am not living a ‘real’ adult life… does having a job define adulthood? If so many 14yr olds are adults. I may not feel like I am an adult, but that does not mean that my life is not adult. I have my own flat, pay bills and at the age of 21 I’m legally an adult in every way, and in every country. I’m just missing the job.

So what defines ‘adult life’?

On a different note…That night we decided to have sausages, mash potatoes and gravy. It was only after the sausages and potatoes were cook did we realise that we do not if fact own a potato masher…