By the pricking of my thumbs

So yesterday I travelled to DC to help DM prepare for Christmas at Neiman Marcus. We were joined by his friend Tom and his neighbor Sally, and we reported for duty about 5 pm.

Our task was to prepare four eight-foot-tall artificial Christmas trees for trimming. Each one had to be unloaded from the truck that delivered them from the storage warehouse and unwrapped. Then we had to meticulously fluff each one, separating each wire branch that had been matted or deformed during storage and transport.

Each one had Christmas lights wrapped around it, but many of the lights no longer worked, so we had to remove the strands that no longer worked and replace them with new strands, wrapping a wire branch around each light to hold them in place and carefully pushing the electrical cable joining them into the foliage so it couldn't be seen.

We wore latex gloves to protect our fingers, but mine still felt sore by the end of the job. I had pricked my fingers several times, although I never drew blood.

I got to know Tom and Sally quite a bit as we worked. Tom also has HIV, and Sally has three gay siblings. I shared a lot about my life as well. The four of us worked for ten hours, until about 3 am.

There were other teams working in the store as well, about 11 or 12 of us in total. We had a break for dinner about 11 pm and all of us assembled together to rest and eat pizza.

I was surprised to find out that we'd be paid for our efforts, then I felt a little stupid that it hadn't occurred to me earlier. Of course a major department store would compensate us! I suppose I thought that DM was simply asking his friends for a favor to help him out, which I was glad to do. I'll be given $15 for each hour, so that works out to about $150, which will be welcome.

The entire group probably did about three weeks of tedious, back-breaking work in one evening, which was a great help to the staff that have to complete the job.

Frugal

I found out that I had a negative balance in my bank account on Election Day, November 2. At the time, I had $67 in my wallet, which had to last me until Kenny's check cleared or I got another paycheck.

On November 4, my boss gave me another $20, which was all he could withdrawn from the business account via an ATM because our business account balance is less than $40.

Now here it is, Sunday, and I check my wallet to see how much money I have left. I count $62. Wow!

I managed to feed myself for almost a week on $25. I prepared meals for myself from foodstuffs in my pantry. I ate free food at the Election Night party that Russell treated me to. My boss bought lunch on Nov 4, letting me leave the tip. I got free snacks and pizza while I worked at Nieman Marcus last night.

I haven't been starving myself by any stretch of the imagination. I make full meals, and I even shared lunch with Russell on Election Day and dinner with him on Friday. It's just that cheap to prepare your own meals rather than eating out and it is possible to have a good lunch in DC for less than $5.

I remember a week when I prepared dinner for Russell and I on $35. Full meals every night and a few lunches for me to carry to work during the day. I feel really proud when I remember that week.