About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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March 6, 2009
So@24’s post from a while back about family cracked me up.
I don’t know if your family is the same way, but mine takes all kinds of liberties when it comes to the subject of family and marriage. By that I mean, every possible bit of advice and nosiness that can be mustered is brought into play like a cannonade of good intentions. The latest?
Eldest Auntie: R, how old are you this year?
R: …. 26…..
EA: What? 27? 28?
R: [just opening my mouth to respond]
EA: Yes yes, ok, that’s old enough, you can get married now. Don’t wait until you’re 30, you’re old enough now! Don’t wait until you’re 30, y’hear?
R: ……. But ……. I ……. *sigh* [shake head in defeat] Yes, auntie.
Because really, what can you honestly say? And besides that, what’s the point? My family, like Dalmatians, can just go selectively deaf. There’s no point in responding.
March 5, 2009
Planning
~
What’s your Plan B? asks Free Money Finance. I continue to job hunt, though I’m taking breaks in between resumes now. Going gangbusters is good for staying in motion, but it’s also quite exhausting on top of stressful work and family environments.
~ Play my “How long can you go?” version of limbo: continue to save every penny (Just found this motivational article by PT Money about Saving Like a Madman. I don’t need the extra incentive, but it’s funny.)
~ Use my free plane ticket to treat myself to a short break for the sake of sanity. Anyone want me to come visit? š I think it has to be within the 48 contiguous.
March 4, 2009
Clearing up the insurance details:
Auto insurance refunds:
$115, check received
$153, check requested
Policy Premium increase:
$142, lovely
Still to be determined:
Car payout, less the $500 deductible, less any assessed decrease in value, less the remaining loan amount.
The check should be arriving sometime this week, and we can begin car hunting in earnest. Sharing is caring, but sharing a car all the time makes for crazy.
These are the flowers my friend should be receiving this afternoon, and I thought I’d share a little of their gorgeous cheer.
March 3, 2009
In the last hour, I’ve:
~ organized my schedule for the week, and pulled together some information for my conference call
~ called aunt/uncle to update and clarify baby shower plans
~ called friend to wish her Happy Birthday, clarified baby shower plans
~ emailed friend to ask her about hunting down her brother, also baby shower related
~ emailed co-conspirator about baby advice book for, yep, baby shower
~ spoke to expectant grandparents about baby shower and baby book
~ locked myself out of my timekeeping system
~ called for help with timekeeping system, no luck
~ called WAMU Investments for my final balance: 778.49 Eeesh.
~ ordered flowers for grieving friend. She just lost her father last week, and her husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer in the same week. There has to be something more I can do for her.
There are still a million things to be done:
~ shopping for the baby shower
~ setting up the templates for the baby advice/photobook
~ collecting everyone’s parenting advice (if anyone has anything to share with a very nervous, expectant mother, I would love to include it!)
~ shopping for the mommy-to-be so she has something that’s for just her, and not All About Baby (I’m thinking of a Sephora gift card, but that’s about all I can come up with unless I can locate a spa near here. Thoughts, anyone?)
~ my educational project needs to be researched and worked on
~ have a meeting with my new tutor one evening this week
~ a class to attend tomorrow, so almost all my work for tomorrow has to be completed today
While still employed
~ Complete as many Professional Development classes as possible. I might, if I stay employed through April and get off the wait list for one set of classes, manage to get enough classes in before the layoff to complete my Certificate in Management. *cross your fingers for me!*
~ If there’s space, or I get de-waitlisted, I’d like to take Excel and Illustrator classes. We’ll see about approval.
~ A friend’s fiance is a freelance web designer who is willing to teach me web design and programming skills. Whoo! I’m calling it an “apprenticeship” for now, I’ll do work for him, he’ll teach me how, and maybe when I get good, he’ll hire me on! We’ll see. For now, I want to learn some basics since I’m pretty clueless. It’ll come in handy here and professionally.
~ In other good news, when they changed our retirement plan last July, we were automatically vested. So whenever the axe falls, I get to roll whatever little money accrued from my first two years into my existing retirement plan. Since I didn’t contribute anything, it should be qualified for a relatively hassle free rollover. It’s good for a few hundred, I figure. I just hope that it can also be sent into my 403(b) as well. (Hope hope hope).
~ Do the math. Well-Heeled reminded me that if I do that math, unemployment will cover a good amount of my household expenses, even with 3.5 people. So I can breathe a little easier knowing that my e-fund will last longer than previously anticipated. (Now I have to do the math to see how much longer that means.)
~ Need to settle the final details and applications for: renter’s insurance, long term care insurance, life insurance, safety deposit box, my will. Whatever I can get employer rates on (LTC, for one) and is portable is a priority.
March 2, 2009
At the worst of times, I prefer to be proactive more than reactive. Yes, it’s a control thing. It’s also an attitude and optimism thing. Or maybe just an attitude & control thing. Whatever, instead of just fruitlessly moping and hoping, I’m running a little mini-series of things under my control.
This week, I’ll be publishing daily lists as a reminder that there’s always something productive to do rather than sinking into depression. I refuse to let worry and fear dictate my agenda, career and life. The weighty concerns of the economy, at macro and micro scales, are not being dismissed, just given their due measure of consideration and no more than that.
Some of these I’ve actually managed to complete already, so I already have a sense of accomplishment! Nothing like loading the die in your favor. š
Organizing Money and Life:
~
Reviewing my system for money management
~ Converting my one solitary paper bond
~ Roll over an old Rollover IRA from WAMU to Vanguard, eliminating a $25 annual fee
~ Opting out of creepy search/indexing sites. Thanks to Little Miss Moneybags for the heads-up about some of these sites. I hate the fact that there are kids ten+ years younger than me, with my not terribly common name, posting on Facebook and MySpace so that if you Googled my name, you’d get the impression that I’m a 19 year old lacking in all common grammar and syntax capabilities. The idea that my name, age, address, phone number, and family members‘ names can be searched and paid for? Oh no. No way, buddy.
On a similar note, Frugal Zeitgeist’s Faceoff covers many reasons why I neither Facebook nor MySpace. I do use LinkedIn because it’s primarily professional, but am cautious about what I post there as well. Friends think I’m paranoid when I won’t let them tag my photos, or share my personal info online, but there’s a good reason for it. You’ve all heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, right? Well, it’s the same concept: so many of us have widespread networks that it’s inconceivable that all my personal-life photos would remain personal, and out of my professional world.
Perhaps I work with a larger population of creepy people than most, but I’ve had coworkers who would window stalk me whenever I stepped out for lunch, and eavesdrop on every conversation. One dude would literally run from one office to the next at the sound of laughter, determined to find the source of conversation and join in even when it was private. If people are comfortable doing that in person, how much more convenient would cyber-stalking be? The notion that someone can easily access information about me, whether I know them or not, for personal amusement or gain, is far outside my realm of comfort. I also know someone who sits around and Googles names to see what information they can find. I’d rather keep available information to an absolute minimum.
With the job search, I’ve considered a professional Twitter, but I doubt it. The benefits have to far outweigh the cost and risk of having more personal information floating out there on the web.
