Work

So eventhough I've only been working about 20 hours a week, I can't shake this tired feeling. I feel like I'm living at work. I come home, shower, sleep and go back. I don't think it's the amount of hours (at least I hope it's not, because I'd really like a 40 hr/week job), but rather when the hours are. I wake up when Welder Guy leaves for work (about 545am). He just wakes me up to kiss me goodbye, but I have a heck of a time getting back to sleep. So, I get up and work on a load of laundry or the kitchen and then I sit on the couch and catch up with the DVR. I'm up doing things all thruout the day, and then at around 2, I get up and get ready for work. I work from 3-8 (sometimes more, sometimes less), and I get home at 830. Norman and I eat dinner and go to bed. Rinse, repeat. I do this five days a week, and then I work one weekend day about two weeks a month. I would love to have a job where I can work from 8-5, come home, have dinner at a reasonable time, go to bed, spend every weekend with my husband, etc. I don't make very good money at this job. I would if I could get 30-40 hours a week. I only work 15-20. I make $9.72 an hour. Let's make the math easier and say I make $10.00 an hour and 20 hours a week. That's $200 a week, minus taxes, which makes it just over $300 a paycheck (every two weeks). I made $8000 last year. Not even enough to cover our mortgage payment if I didn't spend one penny on anything else. That kills me! My cousin, who has a "learning disability" (I'll explain the quotes in a minute), makes like $1500 a month on Social Security. She doesn't work... at all. She's not even looking for a job.

Now to explain the quotes. It's not that I don't think she's being honest about having a learning disability. I know that she has issues that make it harder for her to learn. She doesn't read well or write well, but she also does not have down syndrome or something more serious. If she wanted to, she could take a job at a grocery store, or answering phones, or something. But why? Why should she take a job where she's not going to make more money than she does on social security? It just frustrates me. /Rant.