Super General Advice (the thread for advice without making a thread)

i'm in the same boat for a lot of this, and since i didn't have the option of not working from about age 16-30, i just got fired a lot. a LOT a lot. and it sucked. BUT. i did find a few gems.

the best job i ever had for fitting my strengths rather than my weaknesses was stock prep for a chain of gift shops. they'd get in boxes of fiddly little doodads, and they needed someone to count them, check the paperwork to make sure they got everything they ordered, take all the stickers and tags off, clean off any dust or packing peanuts or wood shavings and make them all pretty, put on the store's price tags (which involved writing very tiny in fine point sharpie on wee little stickers, because part of the store's Personal Touch was having hand written price tags), and divide them up to go to the chain's three locations.

it was WONDERFUL.

i'd show up whenever i liked, because they didn't have a strict starting time, they just paid for hours worked and trusted us to want to work. it was like... 25 women and 3 queer men. everyone understood that i didn't like to talk much, but i liked to listen to other people talking, and they didn't give me a hard time for being quiet. they called me The Machine because i'd hyperfocus on my task and just plow through like 5 crates of itty bitty glass christmas tree ornaments without making a single mistake. nobody else liked those tasks, and i loved them, so they'd open a box and there'd be this groaning, all "oh god, what are THESE, they're so BITTY, look at how small the made in china stickers are, and we have to get those all off? give this to The Machine!" and i was like GIMME because i loved those details. and it gave me leverage for never wanting to deal with scented candles. i said the candles gave me a headache and they never gave me candles, which they didn't mind because candles are not bitty and fussy.

i honestly have nostalgia for that job. the 'warehouse' was an old victorian house, with accountant offices in the upstairs bedrooms, and our processing center spread out in the former kitchen and living room and dining room. my best friend worked upstairs, where he did reorders and processed sales data, and we ate our lunches together. we'd take smoke breaks on the loading dock and just watch st paul go by, noisy and colorful.

i don't remember exactly why i had to quit. it was a number of things, my health problems and allergies and so on, but i don't remember what was the last straw. i was really sad to have to quit, though. i genuinely really liked it there.

tl;dr: look for stockroom processing type jobs, some of them are genuinely lovely.

 

i love my "black pants" which are just soft pants that look dressy enough for work when paired with my tunics and other work shirts.

you can get black pants at walmart or target for like 20 bucks. i recently bought a pair that have POCKETS which changed my whole world. (the worst thing about black pants is that they don't have pockets)

i'm in a Mood so the rest is rambling, but it might actually be useful?

Spoiler: ramble-y advice

i usually grab target's work out ones? they have short versions too which i grab. when i was getting the Pockets pair, i was in walmart and I was trying to find something else, so i was going around touching every pair of black pants i saw and then this one had pockets and it was close to the fabric i wanted (still not quite though) so i bought them

but yes they are soft, the waist is elastic, usually without drawstrings, and then they just flow down. not tight

ummm.... okay here are the target ones i usually get
https://www.target.com/p/women-s-ev...4/-/A-15011692?preselect=14942153#lnk=sametab

i actually get the flare version, or the curvy version, but you said straight leg, so that's it.
hmm, actually i might've decided i didn't like those ones because of that weird wide band at the top. couldn't tell without having it in my hands.

from walmart:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Women-s-...ant-Available-in-Regular-and-Petite/930693094
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sport-Women-s-Performance-Pants/52491376

tbh they all look the same online so i'm not sure which are the ones i get. but i recommend going to the store so you can touch them all and see which fabric is best.

In general, i just look for "performance" or "activeware" and make sure i'm not getting leggings or capris

 

northfield's more like an hour away. you could stay in bloomington near the megamall and take the light rail into town if you really don't want to stay in town, but it really depends on your budget and how long you're staying and so on. and where the concert is.

there's a bunch of budget hotels near the university campuses in both mpls and st paul, and good bus service from there to both downtowns, so i'd say that's probably your best cheapish option if your visit doesn't coincide with some campus event that has a zillion students' families coming into town.

 

oh yeah, first ave is really easy to get to by bus or light rail, you'll have no trouble. campus hotels or an airbnb downtown should be pretty doable.

edit: sounds like you're road tripping, so it occurs to me i should probably mention that parking downtown is a real bitch and a half, that's why i'm mentioning mass transit. that said, i used to drive in from the boonies to see concerts and park in various pay lots and it was certainly more convenient than taking a bus from somewhere free to park, even if it was expensive.