February 5, 2009
No? How about a gentleman? Still awkward? Yeah, I don’t like getting caught in that “Well, how old do you think I am?” trap. For the record: I cannot accurately visually judge age, race, weight, or even, embarrassingly once, gender. [That last was NOT entirely my fault; the guy’s friends admitted that it’d happened to him before.]
But, you may ask about my credit age! Er, you could if I hadn’t already proudly posted it up top, there. Clever Dude posted about his credit age recently and I popped in to try it out.
It’s an online quiz that asks several questions about your credit and spending history, try it out and let me know how old you are!
January 28, 2009
Things I wish I’d done in the last five years:
1. Started a CD ladder. Even if it were just a little thing with a few hundred per step, I wish I’d realized that I wouldn’t need everything in the e-fund immediately.
2. Contributed more to the Roth: it’s the only investment I have that’s doing well in this market.
3. Applied for a job in San Diego in the comic book industry two years ago. I was afraid to take the leap and it would been really cool to have a foot in that door.
Conversely, I’m glad that I did not:
1. Go straight into grad school out of college. Not only would I be in debt, I wouldn’t have known what my professional strengths and likes/dislikes were.
2. Continue to bail out my brother. Telling my brother that his free ride was OVER might have been painful for me to say, unbelievable for him to hear, and shocking for fellow bloggers to read, but it was past time that he started to grow up. Of course, my decision alone didn’t matter until he’d hit rock bottom, but it was the right thing to do at the right time.
3. Let go of my responsibilities before I was ready, as some friends encouraged me to do. They just worried about me, but my OCD attachment to PF over the years has been a blessing in this blog, the friends I’ve made through the community and the knowledge I’m able to use and share.
While washing my hands this morning, I had two long term goals occur to me:
1. In the job after next, I would like to be earning a six figure income.
2. And I want to save half of that income. My portfolio/net worth would be SO awesome!! Muahahha…..
Anybody else reflecting on their dids and didn’ts lately? Care to share?
January 24, 2009
This was originally posted on January 18th, but I’ve updated for self-taggers.
Alright, I’ve got to stop rumor-mongering because making blog-buddy Bart of A Certain Je Nes Sai Quoi nervous means I get tagged. Because it’s my lazy Sunday and I’m really tired, I’m keeping them at Bart’s 4 instead of the original 8. I know you’re fine with that.
4 Things I’m Passionate About:
- Reading
- Learning
- Food
- Relationships
4 Words or Phrases I Use Often:
- Dude…
- Seriously?
- “He like blondes. Chubby ones.”
- Owww…I’m so out of shape!!
4 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
- Explore the world.
- Make sure my family’s been taken care of.
- Run a good animal rescue.
- Learn to speak Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, German and Portuguese fluently. (Or at least three of the above)
4 Things I Have Learned From the Past
- I’ve been known to speak in haste. It’s funnier when other people do it.
- It’s better to ask questions and learn than stay silent and hope for the best.
- I’m really a bad cook. Much better at baking and eating.
- Helping other people is always easier than doing the same task for myself.
4 Places I Want to See or Visit
- New Zealand & Australia (combo trip)
- Austria
- Italy
- Himalayas
4 Favorite Restaurants
- Thai Kitchen
- Mi Piace
- There’s a Shanghai dumpling place in SF … that I don’t know the name of.
- Gyro cart in NY š
4 Things that Happened Yesterday
- We tried Fish & Farm in the Tenderloin. Delish.
- Random napping.
- Woke up really early.
- Decided to try a Neutrogena skin product instead of Clean & Clear.
4 People I Tag
January 21, 2009
Psst, is anyone else up? No?
*sigh* I thought not.
It’s been awfully quiet around here because, uh, I’ve been doing all my blogging in my sleep. Between huge commitments at work – trying to complete two weeks’ worth of projects in 4 days, ‘hunting, revising paperwork, prepping wardrobe attire, catching up on the occasional news update (Hello, Mr. President!) and all, it’s no wonder I haven’t been coherent. It’s hard to see through your eyelids…
Little update:
Truck
Looks like we have a buyer! We’re holding a $300 deposit pending the receipt of the title. I was first told it’s a standard 10 biz-day processing before the title is sent, but I’ve been looking for ways around that. Initially, the only thing they suggested was to provide a FedEx account number so that at the end of the 10 days, Toyota could just overnight my title, but that only saves me a day or two, and costs money. Meh, not a fan. After making another call to the same call center, I got a nice lady who suggested that I fax her a copy of my bank statement showing the payoff amount debited from my account. With that information, she could begin the paperwork for the title immediately. She gave me a fax number and I’ve pulled that paperwork together.
Being the suspicious sort, though, I made one more call to see if there was anything else she needed to complete the paperwork. Also to verify that this one lady wasn’t trying to pull any funny business with getting my bank statement. š No, guess it’s standard -expediting- procedure.
So: Faxed. Done! That buyer better not back out! *glare*
The Hunt
Rescheduled the appointment again: first, had to change the flight itself for an earlier arrival. Then had to change the arrival time again. Bah. Is this disorganization on their part? Or just scheduling issues? Whatever the case, I’m on a mission to knock their socks off tomorrow, wish me luck! *singing* “On the road again ….”
Finances
Picked up another little overtime check, and finally received my holiday check as well. That’s e-fund and moving money.
Ok, I’m starting to get a little dotty. Better sign off and get on going!
January 14, 2009
Perhaps even more important than my $17 cash, not having to go to the DMV to replace the missing registration card and sticker for the truck is a huge coup!
Ms. Organization over here managed to lose the registration card to the vehicle we’d all love to see the back of somewhere in Cleaning Central. Ironic.
Thankfully, halfway through filling out the replacement form, I decided that it was worth yet another pass through the stuff on my desk, and actually found the dang thing stuck to the back of an envelope.
Finally, something I can cross off my list of things to do. Score!
January 4, 2009
Welcome to the new year!
Whoo, I haven’t touched the computer in a few days and it feels like an eternity. *petting laptop* Pretty computer, I missed you!
It’s been totally action packed around here, in a quiet, sluggish, sort of way. The pregnant friends from out of town were IN town since the Eve of New Year, as were a few other friends from the East Coast. This meant outings to the local diner, for an old times’ sake dinner of french fries, chili cheese pastrami fries, onion rings, zucchini fries, fried mushrooms, and root beer. Also, a few burgers and burritos were had around the table seating over a dozen chattering 20-somethings.
Ahhh yes, healthy healthy indeed. Even the pregnant lady passed up on salads. š
Other highlights? I watched the first episode of Firefly and loved it. Wish I’d borrowed the DVD to watch more of them tonight as I’m feeling under the weather again.
Spent a ton of time with pregnant friend and family.
Watched The Fellowship of the Ring with my cousin, laughed over our long-ago crushes on Orlando Bloom in that movie.
Ran errands with a friend who sympathetically listened to my stress and woes. Had the same friend help me decide what shoes to buy and shirt to wear with my suit, I want to make the right impression and she’s MUCH better at the coordinating colors thing. Her hubby makes me laugh, he was practically dancing with excitement when she admitted he was right and she was wrong about a color combination.
Caught up with friends I haven’t seen since high school; one of them has many NYC connections through her church with regards to housing and makes it seem like it’s still a possibility. Maybe. We’ll see.
Received my copy of The Good Girl’s Guide to Negotiating. It’s pink, but I haven’t decided if that means it’s fluffy yet. Another “we’ll see.”
I hope my glasses with new lenses come in soon. The optician snipped the ends of the arms so they actually fit around my ears like they should, switched the plastic nose pads for silicon ones (free!) and we’re trying single vision lenses instead of the progressives I got some years ago that give me headaches. I hate to say it but visiting the eye doctor is always more traumatic than anything else, including the dentist!
We’re back into the (work) fray tomorrow so I’ll be seeing a whole lot more computer screen, though not for fun things like blogging, twittering, reading blogs, or researching personal stuff.
I know most people were right back to work between Christmas and New Year so I’m grateful for my extra time off; for once, I’ve really squeezed my money’s worth out of the paid holidays instead of trying to find an excuse to put in more hours. If anything, I feel like it’s been a mini-decompression from the ultra-wound up mode I’m normally in all year. Now I could use a vacation from the vacation! š
December 24, 2008
Even if I’m awake at 6, 8 or 10, my brain doesn’t seem to really be IN until around 11. No wonder I’m routine-centric, I’d waste half the day waking up before getting ’round to anything useful, otherwise.
It’s the 11th day of Christmas!
I only have 11 of the 12 steps in my post about pending resignation and layoffs written.
And that’s all the elevenses I’ve got. It’s Christmas Eve and, ensconced in a quilt from my best friend’s mum, heater at my feet, I’m trying to transfer all my files from a Mac to the new PC with Vista in the most tedious manner possible. Not that the goal was to find the most tedious manner possible, it’s just that all the methods of saving data (to external hard drive, to memory stick) tha are most efficient are not compatible between the Mac and my Vaio. Sooo I’m burning CDs. Uh-huh. I’m burning CDs on the Mac, unloading the files to the Vaio, clearing the disk, repeat.
I’d complain but I don’t want to. It’s forcing me to learn my way around Vista, the new programs, and shortcut keys, and awful as it sounds, that’s how I learn best. Involuntarily and out of necessity. And, I’m discovering what’s on all my unlabeled CDs. Only in one case was that sorta exciting — found some old music from my college years! š
Possibly the best part about this is that it’ll allow me to discard more clutter, set up the new computer, clean up the work compy of anything personal, and motivates me to copy over my language CDs to the computer and discard those boxes and CDs too! Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese, here I come!
I must admit, though, while I’m not an Apple Addict, the Mac is So Much Simpler when it comes to this basic organization of files. It really is. But that’s why I bought the PC (other than the much more affordable price tag), I’d hate to become so attached to one platform that I forgot how to use the other.
