Tabs

Friday, November 28, 2008

Au Revoir Part Time Job

I gave my notice last night at the toy store. I told them I would stay until the end of the month. They are willing to work with me in the New Year to reduce my hours. But at this point I think I am ready to leave the toy store. Only 6 more shifts.

I also did some calculations today and will be able to clear about $1300 off of my credit card in December. And I worked out what I want to pay off in 2009 by breaking it down into quarters.

In Q1 and Q2 I want to pay off all of my dental charges that are sitting on my credit card. This is about $3392.00 (implants are expensive, but I am happy with my smile)

In Q3 I want to pay off the charge for my new glasses and contacts that I bought last January. $935 (I spoiled myself this year, but had my last pair of glasses for over 6 years...cost per use made this price worth it)

And in Q4 I am going to start throwing money at all of the university charges accumulating on there.

I also decided my credit card can only be used to pay for school in 2009. No more putting concert tickets, groceries, home parties, bus passes etc. etc. on there.

I am happy that I have a plan for the credit card in place. I am thinking about doing this quarter thing with my other goals too. Look at me being all business like :)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Food origins

I am going to quit the toy store. I am falling behind in school and I feel like I waste my time at the toy store. There isn’t a lot of work and they have two girls on a shift. I could be doing more productive things with my time. I am going to wait till the end of December. I would give my notice tonight, but the last girl that did that they let go right on the spot. Which I would be okay with, but I would like that extra money in December.
I think if I start off the New Year with just one job again and focus on school, I may realize this hope of finishing school faster.

Last night I realized that I am paid January 1! This means that I will have more money in December to put towards my saving/ debt goals as I don’t have to stretch the money for January’s rent! Woo Hoo! I felt much better last night after this awareness. Because I am not buying anyone anything for Christmas, I will start the New Year on solid ground. I will still have debt of course, but I am working on a plan of attack for next year to really lessen it.

And here are some positives about breaking up: last night to keep from thinking I deep cleaned my house, finished laundry (including putting it away!), and was able to put in solid time on my courses. I have also been walking Molly everyday to get out of the house (and Oryx comes along too, following behind…so cute!) which she loves. Some days are really easy, other days/some moments are tough. I feel better about my decision – if A is the one it will work out. If not, we can’t waste each other’s time.

And yesterday I made a steak in my slow cooker. I wasn’t sure if it would work. I made a marinade and then let the slow cooker do its magic all day. It was fabulous. So juicy! And still a little pink which I like. I am becoming more and more experimental with my slow cooker.

And that’s a little insight into my life for today….

Monday, November 24, 2008

Ball's-Eye View

I was tagged twice for the same meme by Making up for Past Mistakes and Northern Living Allowance. They both want to know interesting things about me and I guess my blog doesn’t divulge enough quirkiness! Just kidding. It actually took me most of the morning to come up with six things that people might find interesting about myself and I hope I don’t fail!

1) I was born March 10, 1982. This is the 69th day of the year and I am a Pisces. On March 10th, 1982 there was a little phenomenon happening that day in the universe called sygyzy. All nine planets (back when there were nine planets…poor Pluto, I still believe in you) aligned on the same side of the sun. I like to think it was so no planet overshadowed my birth. I am vain like that.

2) When I was 18 years old I accepted a date from this guy. It seriously trumps all bad first dates from Hell. He picked me up and we went for pizza. He then asked if I wanted to meet up with some of his friends to shoot some pool. I thought that would be fine until it turned out his “friends” were his ex-girlfriend and the guy she cheated on my date with!!! AWKWARD!! I wish I believed I was worth more than I did that night and I would have left right away. Instead, I began drinking to lessen the tension. I was the only one drinking. After we played pool for a couple of hours, we decided to call it a night. My date drove us all home. First he dropped off his ex and her date at her place and then me. For some reason he ran a red light and our car was t-boned. My side was the side that was hit and I was thrown out of the vehicle. Someone out there was looking out for me because although I flew out of a car, scraped my body along the road, woke up in the hospital, and suffer from back pain now, I only have two scars on my body that are small and fairly unnoticeable. I was also able to walk right away and did not have a single broken bone. I didn’t accept a second date from that guy.

3)When I was 19, I went to a psychic. So far the only thing she said to come true was that she saw me with a little dog. My father adopted Molly from the SPCA for me a year or so later. She is a shih tzu and weighs in at 8 lbs. And like me, although she is little, she is tough (oh, who am I kidding…we both get by on cuteness). Molly is my shadow and I can’t imagine life without her. When I started working full-time I was worried about her being alone all of the time. One day at work I heard all of these magpies (a pretty bird that gets through life by being a jerk) squawking and cawing and being loud jerks. They were dive bombing into the yard beside the warehouse I worked in. I went to investigate and there was a small cat (maybe 6 months old?). I threw rocks at the magpies and lured the kitty to me. I then brought her to my friends place because they were looking for a cat. What we didn’t know was that this cat was prego and a few months later we had 5 little kitties that needed a home. I picked Oryx to take home because he greeted me at the door. Molly now had a little friend to play with. Oryx is now 3 years old and weighs in at over 20 lbs. My two furry babies still play fight and cuddle and I am so glad to have both of them in my life.

4) So if you read my blog, this is not new news. I hate all things fowl: chicken, turkey, duck, goose, magpies! I have never eaten a magpie nor would I ever as they are scavenger birds, but I still hate them. I do like eggs a lot though…is it wrong that I enjoy eating bird fetuses?

5. I am signing up for the ride to conquer cancer. This is a 200km bike ride from Calgary to the Rocky Mountains. It takes place next June and is a 2 day ride. I am starting to train now. My bike rides usually consist of coasting down the hill to wal-mart than asking my dad to pick me up. BUT I know in my heart I can do this and can’t wait for the feelings of accomplishment that will come with it.

6. My paternal grandparents met in a German work camp in World War II. So as strange as this may sound, if it weren’t for Hitler’s morbid vision I wouldn’t be here today. My grandmother is of Russian descent and lived in Latvia and my grandfather is from Holland. Fate once again worked its magic allowing the two of them to meet, marry and fall in love. They had to get married because if not, my grandmother would have been sent back to Latvia. The story goes that my grandpa took her to city hall and he said ya, so my grandma said da and then realized they were married. I love that story. She giggles when she tells it and he says that it’s been a wonderful 60 plus years. I want to find someone to spend 60+ years with.

So, hopefully that was interesting enough for everyone. I tag you to do it if you want because I think everyone I know has been tagged.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Junk Stew

It’s quarter to four on a Friday and I think that the clock is playing tricks. I am here till 5, but ready to go now. I have a jam packed weekend planned. A weekend of very little thinking -- hopefully. Tonight is all about crazy antics with my favorite girl in the whole world. Chuckles and I have planned to spend the evening rocking out on a speaker while sipping rye-and-cokes. She is then going to sleep over. Tomorrow, Peaches and I are going to a pub to watch the hockey game. Don’t tell him that I have no clue what hockey drama is going on and I am actually okay with being ignorant about the sport. In fact, don’t tell anyone in this crazy little city I live in. Sunday is Grey Cup Sunday…also something I could care less about except that it offers a reason to indulge in homemade nachos at my friend’s place while watching her ginormous tv.
It is probably going to be a pricey weekend. And my frugal side of me is saying I should cancel all plans, stay in and watch movies. But my sad heart-broken side is demanding that I get out there and laugh and try to forget that I may have told my future to go away and never come back. I know that it was a future that wasn’t even offering me what I wanted (although he now is if I can give him one more chance…can I? Still not sure how long I can play the make-up, break-up game), but it’s still scary that everything I had mapped out now needs to be re-routed.
I bought myself a plane ticket to Saskatoon yesterday. I am going to spend New Years with Jsquared. I wish it was time to go now. I wish I could get out of town for awhile and just think and not worry about putting on a strong face for work. I wish that A hadn’t told me he didn’t know if I was the one. I wish for world peace. I wish I could buy a house now. I wish I could quit working and finish school full-time. I wish it was 5:00.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Movie Bites

I have been spending a lot of time watching movies to keep my mind off of stuff. A is really determined that I should give him another chance. I am still not sure that's the best solution. I would like to give a shout out to the public library for hooking me up with a lot of Marilyn Monroe movies this week. And a shout out to a new friend for hooking me up with first seasons of shows I wanted to see.
I would also like to thank the cable company for not cutting my cable correctly and leaving me with MTV. I am catching up on The Hills which I don't even particularly like, but keeps my mind off my own drama.
I have increased my Down Payment account to $300 and my emergency Fund is almost at $300 as well. I get paid tonight and then again on Friday from both jobs. Being as I am not Christmas shopping anymore but instead baking for everyone, I am positive that I can get both of these accounts to $500 by December 31. It is not the $1000 goal I had set out, but there was a case of falling off of the wagon there after my trip to Latvia.

I wish I was in Latvia. I need out of this city really bad. I just want to get away from it all and stop thinking about A and what may have been the worst decision I ever made.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Blue Ball Machine

Nothing really to post...I still don't know what to do about A and I am taking my time to really think through everything. I worked at the toy store last night and now I am excited that in 4 more paycheques it will be January and no more Christmas. People spend crazy amounts of money on their kids...on stuff that said kid will grow out of anywhere from a couple months to a couple years. And who is to say that the toy will even be played with that entire time which really does not make said toy cost effective.
For my own Christmas spending this year, I am making everyone baked goods. I don't feel like searching for stuff when I know that people will enjoy cookies or bread.

PS. I miss A, but I can't play this game anymore. What if I agree to go back and then a year down the road we are in the same place. We have been driving on a flat tire for a while now and not getting anywhere. I think I need to get out and walk and see what's on the road ahead.

PPS. Yay for Friday.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

What the Fluff

A sent me a text that stated he couldn't imagine life without me. I am at a crossroads. His text was beautifully written (well as beautiful as text speak will allow) and all the things I wanted to hear. Is it wrong that I feel he needs to prove they are not just words? I told him that i am not going anywhere at this point, but I am also not running back. I told him he needs to do all of that stuff for him, not me. And if he doesn't want to do it for any other reason then we are still at the same place really....

I don't know what to do. And strangely I am feeling really strong about the whole thing (well just not a blubbering mess...I don't feel like I am falling apart). And for anyone going through a break-up? Read "It's called a break-up because it's broken" and watch lots of movies and eat curry and play drinking bingo with all of your friends at the bar. Because strangely, I did these things yesterday and I feel okay...I also added two bottles of wine to this mix which may have helped.

Thank you for all of the comments. I haven't really told any of my other friends or family yet because I don't want the questions. And according to facebook, we are still in a relationship. I don't need that guy I knew in the third grade to send me condolences. It seems fake. And again, don't want the questions. How can I explain that a week ago I thought A and I were going to be forever and now it is no longer. I will wait till I know for sure I think.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

A told me last week that he didn't know if he wanted the same things I did. How can I stay with someone who doesn't even know if he wants the same future I do? And when I asked him if he wanted to be with me, he told me he didn't know. The worst part is that A told me this last year and we broke up. And then he changed his mind and we made up, but now he is saying it again. I can't keep playing this game. And I thought things were so good. I can't be some body's maybe. And it hurts and this rye isn't making it better. I have to be strong because I made a tough choice that in the end will be better. But it hurts right now. I saw marriage and a house and babies. He can't even imagine that stuff with me. I can't wait for him forever. We have been together 2 and a half years. If he doesn't know now, how long would we have to wait?
I already regret my decision. But it's been an hour. I need to sleep on it and wait and see. It's his turn to make decisions. I can't be with someone that I convinced to be with me.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Worlds of Illusion

I stole this from Fabulously Broke. I am an English Major and wanted to see how well I would do. Bold means I have read it, Italics means that I have it on a list to read for a class I am in now or I own it and I am planning on reading it.

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald


2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger


3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker


6. Ulysses by James Joyce

7. Beloved by Toni Morrison

8. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding


9. 1984 by George Orwell


10. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov

12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck


13. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White


14. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

16. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


17. Animal Farm by George Orwell


18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

19. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

22. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne


23. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell


27. Native Son by Richard Wright

28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

29. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

35. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin

37. The World According to Garp by John Irving

38. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

39. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

40. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien


41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

43. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

44. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

46. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum


48. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence

49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

51. My Antonia by Willa Cather

52. Howards End by E.M. Forster

53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

54. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

56. Jazz by Toni Morrison

57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron

58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

59. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

61. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

62. Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf

64. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

65. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

68. Light in August by William Faulkner

69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

70. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

72. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

74. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

75. Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

78. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein

79. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

82. White Noise by Don DeLillo

83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

85. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

87. The Bostonians by Henry James

88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

90. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

91. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand


93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

94. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling

96. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike

98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster

99. Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie


WOW!!! Not nearly as good as I thought it would be...I have a lot of reading ahead of me to do.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Swiss Chalet

I hate chicken...if you remember my Thanksgiving post, I believe I alluded to disliking all bird. Anyway, today my friend invited me for lunch and suggested Swiss Chalet. Sweet, a place which has mostly chicken on the menu!!! (SARCASM) And some sauce that I could almost describe as the only thing worse than chicken! But I figured I could find something else on the menu to appease her.
Swiss Chalet has this amazing lunch special where for like $8, you get all you can eat bread sticks, salad and soup. I have to say I was able to eat a filling lunch of bread and salad on a budget. If I liked chicken, I would have had more soup too (chicken noodle or chicken minestrone are your choices). Swiss Chalet may get into my black book of budget friendly lunch choices.

PS. I still hate chicken!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Next year is really soon...

I have made no goals this month. I have fallen off the financial wagon and this month I am just going to work on getting back into saving and debt-repaying momentum. Thinking about Christmas is kind of freaking me out. And then I was thinking that with Christmas comes NYE and that is usually followed by a new calendar year (usually heehee).
I am starting to work on a 2009 budget which will include my goals that I want to achieve in 2009 and a month by month plan of how to achieve this. I am hoping to have this up and posted with in the next few days. Some things happened in my life in the last few days that has made me realize that I need to find the key to unlock my chains and set me free.
Sorry for no inspirational November goals post. Money seems to be slipping through my hands like water these days! Tomorrow is payday and I am hoping to start getting back on track.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Please don't be mad...

...the fur coat was bought second hand, but it really added to my look. It's my mom's -- she bought it second hand years ago and I am sure the fox would have died of natural causes by now. And Canada is a country that was (sadly) developed based on fur trading. This is what I looked like for Halloween: