Baby and I are really bad with money. I know how hard it is for me to save up money for the casino, but my boyfriend is much worse. He has so many personal loans from when he was a teenager that his credit is really shot. He even went to one of those debt consolidation places, but they told him that he wasn’t that bad, but for 22 it is pretty bad. I guess it could be much worse though, he could have had a secured loan and have the threat of losing his car. I guess once we afford that house I was talking about yesterday, maybe we’d need a secured loan for all the things we want, you know if we don’t hit it big in Atlantic City or even the lotto!
Author Archive
Bills, Bills, Bills!
Thursday, April 12th, 2007Bootiful?
Thursday, April 12th, 2007I finally fell asleep around 4:30 this morning. I don’t like staying up that late considering I’m usually out around midnight these days. I just couldn’t, for the life of me, wind down enough to get my head to hit the pillow and stay there. A little after 1am this morning a storm rolled through here. I didn’t hear anything as far as thunder is concerned but the rain was heavy enough to relax me. After about an hour of sitting outside and soaking it all in, I curled up in bed and went to sleep.
I woke up to a congratulatory squeak praising one of the other dogs in the house and Baby stomping around getting his clothes together for his laundry. I didn’t really think much about it though, I looked out the window and the sun was shining so I really didn’t care too much. It’s fairly warm out today, it’s only around 60?Ǭ?F(15?Ǭ?C) but that’s not a big deal, this is the ideal weather for me. Because of this, we’re going to the beach.
I haven’t been feeling very well for the last couple of days. Women issues have had me on a bit of bed rest because of excessive pain. Midol and any other pain reliever I can find just aren’t doing the work. I’m feeling a tad bit better today so hopefully things will really be good after I get back from the beach.
In any event, I’m gonna sign off so Baby can put my graphics card into the desktop. Gives me time to take a shower anyway.
House of my dreams…
Thursday, April 12th, 2007Baby and I want to buy a house one day, the only problem is that they are too expensive. Unless we come into some big money, we will most likely look for a fairly cheap mortgage. With the size of the house we want and with every possible luxury we would like in the house, that would probably be a problem. We wouldn’t want to re-mortgage the first mortgage just to pay it off, so it would be better if we could just get the one then it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. When we do decide to seriously look into this, we’d have to make sure to get a low enough interest rate so we wouldn’t get killed trying to pay it back.
There’s so much to think about in our five-year plan…isn’t there?
Oy…
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007I’m finally moved in. It was pretty difficult packing everything up but I was able to get everything done in the 2 ?Ǭ? days that I had, with loads of help from the boyfriend. There’s still one box to be unpacked but there’s nothing that I can really do about that until after the office has been rearranged. I basically took everything with me, I did leave a few things in New York but for the most part I have everything I need. I’m sure when I go up to NY in June I’ll be able to get the rest of my things.
I have my desktop setup, I finally activated Windows. It’s strange being on a standard screen considering I’ve been used to my wide screen laptop for the last year. I’m still getting used to having a regular keyboard too…no more quiet key for me :sigh: I’m sure I’ll be driving myself crazy soon considering how sensitive my hearing is at this altitude.?Ǭ† It’s also strange seeing all of the pixels that I haven’t seen in a while. I’m sure I’m going to have to change out the graphics card though. Right now it’s set on the default motherboard graphics. I have my old graphics card from my last desktop, I know it still works, so I’ll move that in here the next chance I get. For now, I’m not overly concerned about it considering I still intend to do all of the major work on my laptop anyway.
I’m way behind on emails so I guess I’ll get my butt in gear on those. I have some work to do as well, hopefully that’ll go smoothly and I’ll be able to get to bed soon, I’m beat.
FREE online dating??
Friday, April 6th, 2007A few nights ago, Baby and I were walking the dog and got into a conversation about all of the Internet Dating websites who have commercials. One of them says if you can’t find anyone in six months, you get the next six months free. Based on what I know of the site it’s a $40 a month service so after six months you’ve spent over $240 with this company. Why not just demand a refund? Their ‘six month guarantee’ is completely worthless if you haven’t found someone while you were PAYING for their services.
We started wondering if there were any free dating sites out there, of course the first that came to mind was a very popular social network site but we knew that wasn’t the same. He even thought about programming one himself just so that people can, for free, actually find someone the way many people have in the past. You don’t have to spend any money to pick someone up in a supermarket or a bar, why should you have to pay just to use a website when there are hundreds of thousands of sites out there that are for free usage no matter what the context.
While doing my usual surf around the internet I came across a site called – justsayhi.com. This is a new online dating site that really is 100% free. No credit card is ever required and the features of the site are just as good as any paid dating site out there.
While I’ve already found the man who makes me happy, I do believe that anyone looking for companionship that costs them absolutely nothing, should consider creating an account with justsayhi.com. They believed a REAL good free dating site needed to exist, that’s exactly why they built it.
Sleepy and way behind!
Thursday, April 5th, 2007I’m feeling pretty unproductive today but that’s my own fault entirely. When I woke up this afternoon, all I really wanted to do is go back to bed. So…I did. I know there was a lot of work to get done but I put it on hold for the sake of catching up on much needed rest. That didn’t work out as planned though. I woke up around 6PM, starving – so I wound up having Baby bring me to the store to pick something up. Then I called home and let Dad know that I was going to be coming up on Saturday and leaving on Monday afternoon. He seemed OK with it but I’m almost positive that it’s a front.
Money is still coming in good, so I’m not too concerned about being able to handle things while I’m down here. I’ll be taking quite a few trips to Staples until the office is taken care of. I also know I’ll be doing quite a bit of shopping on BestBuy.com because I’d like to do a bit of updating as far as electronics go in the bedroom. Baby and I are interested in a larger TV as well as a Wii because he’s really interested in getting one.
I need furniture though, I was going to go through the company his mom works with. I’m sure she could get us some kind of an employee discount but I also know that the business has things on back-order from six months ago because they can’t afford to pay the vendors. Yea, her boss knows nothing about running a business. So the other alternatives would probably be either Overstock.com for the big things and maybe either Kmart or Target for everything else. I’m sure I’ll be able to find something, somewhere. As usual I’ll be using my trusty coupon site to be looking for the absolute best deals I can find.
I guess I should get my butt in gear and finish up some work, that’s the only way I’m going to be able to afford everything I need.
Shopping and Packing and Nerves…oh my!
Thursday, April 5th, 2007We left here around 5:30 to head down to Georgetown and visit the oh-so-wonderful DMV. It actually went pretty quick, I think we were only there for about 20 minutes or so. That’s probably the shortest possible wait FOR a DMV. Every time I’ve gone to one in New York it’s taken at least 2 hours before you could even get to a teller, let alone leave.
After the trip we wound up at Wal-Mart getting some much-needed shopping done. I picked up some sandals because I’m getting sick of emptying sand out of my shoes when I go to the beach at night. I also loaded up on some more space bags. I should hopefully be set to go when I get up to New York as far as packing is concerned. Once I have my desktop I’m going to have to wipe out my hard drive on the laptop. I don’t really like the idea of having to do it but after a year of usage, plus almost killing it with disk-space usage before I got the external hard drive, there’s really no choice in the matter. I know for sure that I’m going to have to back up all of my fonts before I even consider wiping it out, thanks to font websites I’ve built up a database of over 3,000 fonts to keep my Photoshop looking spiffy. It would seriously suck to lose them all in the transfer.
Besides backing up fonts, I know that all programs (with no backup) and client files have to be moved to the external as well. A BIG move is Thunderbird because I honestly can’t afford to lose all my email. I’ve been working way too hard over the last few months in order to lose them. I just hope everything goes as planned.
I’m a tad-bit concerned about the reinstall though. The desktop was purchased without an operating system and since I paid for Windows with my laptop, I used the serial number from the laptop. Based on how I know Microsoft operates, I’m sure the serial number is now in their database as ‘used’ and I’ll have to make a phone call just to get it unlocked. I did pay for Windows either way, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. It’s not like I’m handing the disk out to friends, you know?
Bella is currently digging into my leg for attention so I guess I better take care of that before I get back to work. I’m about 4 hours behind at the moment and need to make that up before I go to sleep. I’m really getting sick of running on 4 hours of sleep (at most) these days. I wish I could just crash for 8 hours like normal people and enjoy the time in my dream world. Maybe after things settle down once I get the rest of my things down here, I’ll be able to relax a little bit more.
Something to look forward to…right?
Just a busy day!
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007I was finally able to fall asleep around 6:30 this morning. I literally stared at the ceiling for an hour after I crawled into bed. I was then woken up about 11:30 this morning by a very loud crack of thunder, a scared dog and a boyfriend wanting to let me know that there’s a storm outside (if I hadn’t already heard it).
Within two seconds of him opening the door I felt another dog hop up on the bed, Princess was scared and hiding in the office under my desk. Now she’s sleeping next to me and doesn’t seem to want to leave the room for anything. The storm’s been done for the last few hours, it’s about 3 so you can imagine how much fun it’s been.
I watched TV for a little while, it’s nice to just be able to relax in bed for a little bit before you start work. While flipping through channels I came across that movie “Good Burger” with Keenan & Kel, I haven’t seen it in years so I figured I’d just leave it on and go from there. It’s the typical Nickelodeon kind of movie but it was also kind of amusing considering I’d just woken up. Usually when dealing that kind of stupidity just as I get out of bed really bothers me but I assume today was an exception.
I got quite a bit of work done, I sent out a few emails and now I’m sitting here watching MPT because they have a block of shows dubbed “Afternoon Tea” it’s all English comedy that keeps me pretty entertained. I’m seriously a sucker for “Are you being served?” it’s probably one of my favorite shows at the moment. I know it’s been almost 30 years since the show went off the air but it’s worth it.
I’m home alone at the moment. Baby went out to run some errands, I need to take a shower because we’re going out around six to get some other things done. We need to drive down to Georgetown to go to the DMV and on the way home we’re going to head to the Super Wal-Mart and do some shopping. They have cheaper meat there considering Wal-Mart is part of Sam’s Club. Since we’ve been doing so much barbecuing lately there’s really no choice in the matter but to load up on things.
It’s now 3 days before we load into the car and head up to New York, I’m kind of nervous because I haven’t been home in a long time and the only reason for my going up there is to basically pack up the rest of my things and say goodbye to everything I’ve ever known. It’s not like I’m never going back to NY, that’s not the issue. I’ll be back up in June for Dad’s birthday, November & December for holidays and maybe just random trips up to visit. I told Dad that if he was going to Atlantic City or something to let me know. I’m only about a half hour away from it so it’s not like it would be hard to get there for a visit.
I have a lot of shit to do up in NY though, it’s literally going to take me the whole weekend. I have to go through twenty-two years worth of things and compact it down to just a few boxes and space bags. I don’t want to leave things up there that I use regularly so those will be easy to pick out. I know I have to do a lot of junk-clean outs though. I admit to being a pack rat when it comes to sentimental value but I know that I can handle working that out. But once everything is loaded into the van I have to stop at WAMU and close my bank account because there isn’t one down here, then I have to head to the post office and forward all of my mail. Once I get back down here I’ll probably go to either PNC or even Wilmington Trust and open a bank account. Both banks are not even two minutes away from where I am so I’m not too concerned about location, that’s really the only reason I went with WAMU in the first place – it was a hop, skip and a jump away from my house.
I need to finish making my ‘packing’ list and then get myself in the shower, guess it’s time to head off now.
Exposure
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007Throughout High School I was lucky enough to have a very musical group of friends. I went to a lot of local concerts, most of which were located at the “Rock Lobster”. Plenty of bands throwing around t-shirts, CD’s, DVD’s, buttons, bumper stickers, and everything else they could possibly put their name on for exposure. They all wanted to be discovered but only a few have really gotten anywhere. A dear friend of mine is currently touring the US with his band, it’s safe to say that out of everyone I saw at the Rock Lobster, they’re the only ones who actually got anywhere. Little did everyone else know, it’s pretty easy for them to be found. I came across a link today that was pretty interesting: Musicians Wanted at Music.com – Get Discovered.
The best way to go to main-stream is really to start small and get yourself a following and then progress with time. The problem is, that following is mainly local crowds, you really do need a form of ‘wider exposure’. I think that the internet has played a huge role in a lot of bands making it big. If it weren’t for sites like Myspace Music, and even Music.com, no one would get to be introduced to excellent music, world wide. I think that it’s a great idea to get yourself plugged onto sites with high exposure, it can only help you out in the long run. It doesn’t matter what kind of exposure you’re getting – good or bad – it’s still going to be worth it in the end, as long as you take the steps needed to get your name out there.
Ughness
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007I just finished up all of my commenting for the night and I have to say, if I come across one more site that insists using the smallest font in the world is the way to go – I’m going to scream. I hate having to increase the font size when I go to a site, thankfully no matter WHAT your style sheet reads, Mozilla will automatically increase it for me. MSIE doesn’t have that option and I’m happy to announce that half the sites I visited didn’t work in Mozilla anyway so thank god for horribly bad coding, now I don’t have to comment on it.
I never, EVER created templates around a 9px Georgia font, I don’t understand HOW you people can seriously believe that’s the best font to use. The absolute smallest anyone should go is 11px and even that can be hard on old eyes. A lot of the comment sites out there have users in all age ranges, and that’s perfectly fine, but if you’re going to be submitting your site to a directory for not only hits but BLOG COMMENTS at least freaking make it READABLE or guaranteed no one’s coming back to it. If anyone does it’s probably your BFF that’s sitting right next to you in all of your classes. What could he/she possibly have to comment about when she can just tell you something to your face? Come on people; get a clue!
[/end rant]
I know I said about two hours ago that I was heading to bed but after sitting here for as long as I have, I’m kind of having trouble falling asleep. The boyfriend is snoring his head off, rolling all over the place too. He almost flung me, my laptop AND Bella off the bed in one quick jolt. I don’t know what he dreams about but damn…violent much?
I guess it’s time to bring Bella to pee and then get myself ready for bed. I’m too agitated to really do anything else right now. I guess that sugar crash has completely subsided and now I’m just moody…woe to the bipolar me!
Too much TV…
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007So as you know I’m kind of a big fan of shows like Dr. 90210 and other plastic surgery based shows. It has nothing to do with the end effect, really…I just kind of like to see how far people will go just because they have enough money to fix something they’re to lazy to do on their own.
I’m watching a show right now where a woman with the absolute oddest nose I’ve ever seen is about go under the knife to get her long awaited rhinoplasty in Washington DC. The bump on her nose looks kind of like a traffic cone is sticking out of her face. She’s been teased about it since she was 9 years old and once she started working, she realized that her nose was getting in the way of her dreams. She strives to be a physical therapist but she feels as though she won’t be taken seriously because her nose ends “two feet away from her face” (in her words, not mine). For many years her mother thought that it would go away over time and considered it to be a “typical Jewish nose”, until she hit 13 years old it wasn’t really a problem. For the past 5 years she’s done everything she could to try and hide the bump. Long bangs, hats, etc. Nothing ever worked so now she’s going under the knife and finally doing something about it.
In situations like these, I can understand why she’s doing it. The issues I have with plastic surgery are things like “Lunch-time Lypo” where you can just get a few pockets of fat removed without being knocked out. They numb the area with a ‘local’ and then go from there. Why can’t they just do some sit-ups on their lunch breaks? What happened to people WORKING towards what they deserve instead of just throwing the gold card around on useless life-threatening surgeries.
I don’t like the idea of implants because, and plenty of women can vouch for this, there’s no reason to be so top heavy when all it brings is back problems. I’m only a large C/Small D and my back is extremely messed up because of the weight in my chest. Yea, my being a large girl to begin with plays a roll but it’s my shoulders that hurt more than my lower back. It’s the weight on the TOP causing that issue. There are girls who weigh 110lbs with DD implants who look absolutely ridiculous but men will continue to drool over them. I don’t know how confident one can be when they’re hunched over because their body can’t take the weight of something they chose to have implanted in there.
Bottom line, I guess I only agree with the surgery if there’s absolutely NO other alternative. For example; Say someone who weighs about 500lbs gets Gastric Bypass surgery. Since the weight has been on your body for so long, the skin is naturally stretched. The weight dropping off so quickly really gives you no time for the skin to reform itself. Because of this your body is covered in excess skin that can not be toned. In situations like these, getting the surgery to remove the skin seems completely natural. If, while you’re under the knife, you choose to have your nose chizled out and an implant or two thrown into yourself – then obviously that’s just a waste. Why re-stretch the skin that you just went in to get rid of — you know?
Tryptophan
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007I know it was a little late but after a very long day of very hard work I decided to treat myself to a small turkey sandwich. Not until my last bite did I realize that it was going to mess me up for the rest of the night. Thanks to a lovely little chemical in turkey named tryptophan, I’m now extremely exhausted with about 2 hours worth of work remaining before I can call it a night.
I know people who aren’t effected by it at all, I consider them to be weird considering it’s effects more than 90% of the people who eat turkey. Quoting the boyfriend: “Thanksgiving is the #1 nap day of the year!” and if you’ve ever been around my family on a holiday then you know that’s the exact truth. Everyone in my family, even those who have married into it, are asleep before their stomaches even get the chance to settle the food once they walk away from the table. All of my uncles seem to fall asleep and they’re pretty YOUNG guys so you’d think they would have a bit more stamina to fight it. The women are always fine though, no one understands it. We can easily get everything done without any real effect to us at all, the men are usually snoring until someone says “Dessert”.
Tonight, however, it seems to be kicking my butt. I don’t quite understand why but I think it may have to do with my ‘crashing’ from all of the Crystal Light I drank today. Just because it’s “Sugar Free” doesn’t mean there isn’t a sugar substitute in there throwing a bunch of energy at you.
It’s expected to reach the mid 60’s tomorrow so I was hoping to go to the beach and do some walking, the best kind of work-out on your legs is walking along the sand. I’m lucky that there’s about a 2 mile strip of stand stretching across a few towns down on the shore so it makes it pretty interesting. Unfortunately there are quite a few thunderstorms heading this way so I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. The waves tomorrow night should be awesome considering the storm is moving off-shore but Baby and I have tried that already and it didn’t quite turn out to be a good idea. He owes me a cup of coffee anyway so maybe I can still talk him into it…:hmm:
I guess I should get back to work.
Your service sucks!
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007Baby and I decided to go to dinner last night. I was in the mood to go to Applebee’s because of my addiction to their Three Cheese Chicken Penne, he’s also a sucker for their Buffalo Wings but he had another place in mind. The service there isn’t that great either.
He’s been pretty stressed out with things going on around the house, work and just other factors of life, in general. So to keep him happy we went to Ruby Tuesday. He was in the mood for their Colossal Cheeseburger and I guess putting that much food in your stomach is an instant stress reliever because you’re too busy being full to really think about what’s going on.
Normally when we go to Ruby’s we wind up with the WORST waitress in the world, the same goes for Applebee’s but since we like the food we don’t really care too much about it – we just wind up not tipping her the typical 15%. Knowing that there’s no real ‘skill’ to being the perfect server you’d think that it would be easier to get the hang of your job. You have to be polite, no matter who you’re dealing with, you need to balance a tray, make sure that everyone is taken care of and not leave the restaurant for 20 minutes to have a smoke break when someone asks for the check.
Knowing that there’s a clown college, you have to wonder if there’s a course out there to help you become a better server. Little did I know that there actually IS something to help. There’s a waiter training DVD, I know — I was shocked myself! Now that I’ve FOUND this DVD I want to send an email to every manager of every eatery around the world.
You spend your time with John, the bad server and Jane, the perfect server. It teaches servers about body language, table side manors, alcohol service, food safety and even accidents. They’re taught out to handle situations with poise and class, no matter how bad the situation. Once the student has finished the course they are issued a certificate showing they completed the course. This program isn’t meant to replace current training programs. It’s meant to help the service staff to be the best they can possibly be.
I know that about 80% of the service staff out there are young adults looking to get into show business, or kids looking for extra money. I don’t know one person that would consider being a service staff member for the rest of their life. This DVD doesn’t base anything on age or gender. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, it doesn’t matter where you work or even the ‘quality’ of the place you work at…it’s just meant to make you the best you can possibly be at your job.
After going through the site I found a few other DVD’s that are pretty interesting. There’s one called Rules of the Road DVD: Complete Interactive Driver’s Ed Program. It provides a clear illustration of the principles and concepts most important for any student. It’s loaded with interactive features and it’s hosted by teens so that the new driving students have someone to relate to. It’s about 105 minutes long and in both English and Spanish. It’s a critically acclaimed, award winning program with interactive quizzes, multi-angle 3D explanations, Road Sign Tests, 7 interactive lessons and even basic maintenance instructions – not a bad thing for upcoming drivers to check out.
Shopping = UGH!
Monday, April 2nd, 2007It’s a little after six and normally at this time we’re firing up the grill to throw on some burgers. Based on time constraints, however, we’re not going to be doing that tonight. We have to go to Happy Harry’s, Wal-Mart and then eventually wind up down at the beach for high tide. So I think tonight I may wind up having to break my diet for the sake of convenience. I could have easily popped some oatmeal bars but I’m running low, so of course this is another reason to take a trip to Wal-Mart.
I have to pick up some food for Bella, maybe a pair of sandals and I’ll have to load up on some Space Saver vacuum bag thingers. (Hopefully they have them) I only have one ‘extra large’ one, one large and then two roll-ups and I know I have a lot of shit to bring down here with me so it’ll be easier to just buy some more bags and load them up, this should be interesting…very interesting.
Since the boyfriend is throwing a hissy-fit about something, I’m gonna hop in the shower and get ready to go.
Get the help you need…
Monday, April 2nd, 2007No matter who you are, where you live or how much money you have there’s always going to be someone with a drug problem. It can be prescription, illegal or any mix of the two that will consume your life to the point of it being unmanageable. You will take no responsibility for any of your actions, have frequent mood swings, and preform illegal acts just so you can get your fix. People die everyday because of their drug addictions. It’s easy to say that they were beyond help but 60% of the time, that’s not the case.
There are people out there who will help you with your drug addiction, many people don’t even realize that this help is free to anyone who needs it. You can either waste all of your money on an addiction that will eventually kill you or you can do something about it with no money at all that will help you put your life back on track. One place that I would highly recommend to help you is 1800nodrugs.com. They are a non-profit organization that takes phone calls (toll free) from people seeking drug rehab. They believe the best prevention and catalyst to recover from addiction is education. They understand addiction and can help you get the tools and information you need to help you or loved ones recover from addiction.
Addiction to drugs or alcohol can be a life consuming cycle into despair and death. Recovery from addiction is a difficult process that often forces the addict to confront their demons, self-identify destructive behavior, and a relearning of healthy behavior that will enable them to live life addiction free.
Lucky Streak
Monday, April 2nd, 2007I don’t know how I’ve managed to do it, or even why I’m deserving of it but – I’ve had the absolute BEST lucky streak in the world for the past few days. It’s a lot of little things here and there, and then a HUGE thing that has me jumping for joy.
Baby and I are going really well with no fights, my father has completely been able to handle the news of my moving here permanently, I’m going up on Saturday to get the rest of my things. Clients are coming in REALLY strongly right now and I’ve got a huge lump of money coming towards me over the course of the next few months based on repeat clients a lone but this has nothing to do with the BIG NEWS…no no no.
I’ve landed a client that in my business world is considered a “high roller”. The account will total approximately $30,000 over the course of the next six months and I can honestly say I’m close to peeing in my pants because of all of the excitement. This is just one client, I know there are people out there who make far more than that for a year of work but I’m doing it in less than six months with ONE person working PART TIME. If I can keep pulling in clients like this I can go out and get a gorgeous exotic cars for sale and be flashy about it. I wouldn’t do that though, contrary to popular belief I try to draw the least amount of attention to myself as possible. This doesn’t mean I would turn down a Bentley Continental GTC. God that’s a gorgeous car.
In any event, time to get back to work. I’m sure I’ll blog again…it’s a gorgeous day outside and there are lots of dumb people around to entertain me…and then you when I post again…heh
