how do you live so happily while i am sad and broken down?

Out with the Old...
2010 in Review:

• January: Had a carpal tunnel flare, had to go back to physical therapy, bought a Wii.


• February: Played in my first K-Swiss singles league, K & I took a trip to Charleston.


• March: Went to a Shawn Mullins concert, my Mom had a stroke


• April: Went to Coachella, K & I broke up, I got an iPod Touch.


• May: My team won our ALTA division & went to the playoffs, Mom got out of rehab, I had a tree removed, went to Missouri for my niece's high school graduation.


• June: Took my first business trip of the year, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, my brother had a bike accident and punctured his lung.


• July: Went home to Missouri for the fourth, ran over a kitten in my driveway :(, had my first polo experience.


• August: Took a work trip to Vegas, my parents visited for a weekend, took a work trip to Calgary.


• September: DragonCon, Adam Lambert concert


• October: Trip to Hawaii and Alaska, went to zombie apocalypse for Halloween.


• November: Made the playoffs in K-Swiss, went to Iowa for my cousin's wedding, my parents & sister came to Atlanta for Thanksgiving.


• December: Had jury duty, was eliminated from K-Swiss finals in Round 16, went home for the holidays with the cat in tow.

Summary: So glad this year is over. Ugh.

Last year's resolution: House Plants
"Sounds like a silly resolution, I know, but there are no plants in my house right now. I am bad at remembering to water them, but my goal is to have something growing in every room so that I see them all the time. Also, I need to get a watering can. It's also part of the “save money” goal as well, since I love flowers and buy them often; I'm hoping to replace that with a flowering plant. I will have to learn what flowers seasonally so I can rotate them out, and I have to do all this with the flowers that are not toxic to cats, so it will require some research. There are a LOT of plants that are toxic, according to the ASPCA."

Result: I have four plants currently mostly alive. The herbs were a no go, and I managed to kill a cactus by underwatering it. Surprisingly, the African violet seems to be thriving. I'm going to say B- on this one.


2010 Goals

1. Hang living room curtains that I bought in August.

Result: Done!

2. Continue working on budgeting and saving my money, learning to control how I use my credit cards, etc.

Result: My top 10 expenses were: Mortgage, Home Maintenance, Travel, Dining Out, Automotive Expenses, Utilities, Telphone, Groceries, Electronics, & Gifts. Eh. I did okay this year, but not awesome. I am still working on it though!

3. Finish the college sweatshirt blanket.

Result: Nope. Haven't even touched it.

4. Finish my France sabbatical photo album.

Result: Done!

5. Continue augmenting my fitness routine with walking and working out on the Wii I plan to buy soon. I would like to lose 10 pounds and/or fit back into my clothes better (some of my jeans are now too tight to wear.)

Result: I started out well, but then it all fell apart. This one is solidly in the no go category.

6. Post one non-meme, non-tweet related post to LJ each week, and go back through and tag things better.

Result: I'm going to call this one a win! I don't know that I posted every week, but I have 79 entries tagged "It's not a tweet" and I did go back through my whole journal and retag things.

7. Try out one new recipe a month.

Result: Eh. I did try out some new recipes early on in the year, but I would say that after June I didn't cook much.

8. Mail cards to my family on their birthdays and anniversaries. I used to be really good at this but have been slacking for the last few years.

Result: Completed! It was expensive though. Cards are not cheap!

...In with the New!

2011 Resolution: Procrastinate Less!
I realize this sounds kind of vague, but here is a case in point of what I am talking about: this year I let my packing room get really messy and let the desk in my office pile up with papers that needed to be filed and other stuff. I stressed about both of these areas to the point where I had to keep the doors to both rooms shut at all times. It took me 30 minutes to clean up the packing room, and one workday to clean off my desk. Six months of feeling bad about it could have been so easily avoided! So my plan is this: put stuff away. Unload the dishwasher. Put the laundry away. Just less putting tasks off.

2011 Goals

1. Walk a mile every day. Not to say that I won't walk more than that on occasion, but I am both holding myself to getting on the treadmill every day and at the same time giving myself an out for the days I don't feel like really working out.


2. Paint my office.


3. Finish 2010 scrapbook. So much for 'as you go' scrapbooking! I made it through May.


4. Finish 2005 (I think - now I'm suddenly not sure where I left off) scrapbook.


5. Hang shelves in the bathroom closet.

And I'm using this post to count as TWO of the 30 day meme:
Day 28: This year, in great detail
Day 29: Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Only 1 day left to go in this meme! I will finish it! (see how the less-procrastinating thing works!*g*)

Does anyone use Wachovia? Is their free checking really free? Anyone have any IRAs with them?

I'm still trying to get away from Bank of America, yes. It may take years.

2009 in Review:

• January: BFF's parents announced they were divorcing. Won first game at league tennis. Obama inaugurated!


• February: My mom spent three weeks with me so I could help her go through family pictures. My kitchen cabinets started falling off the walls & and to be taken down & reattached.


• March: Reappearance of last year's death flu. First of many, many trips to Vancouver for the year.


• April: Visited Craigg & Vic in Denver and was introduced to the joys of Rockband. Bought my first “real” tennis racquet (ie one that cost more than $30.) Won first match at league tennis.


• May: Painted the guest bedrooms. Adopted a cat. Back to Vancouver.


• June: Apparently I did nothing exciting in June.


• July: Went home for the 4th. My great-nephew was born! I went back to Vancouver. Started a cross-stitch family tree for my mom's Christmas gift. Started dating K. :D Went to Adam Lambert concert (ok, American Idol show, but we're ignoring that) and Green Day concert.


• August: Painted guest bathroom. Went to Counting Crows concert. Back to Vancouver.


• September: Dragon*Con! My plumbing problems started. Then we had historic floods in Atlanta, and my sump pump wasn't working, so my whole bottom level flooded a bit.


• October: Got the drainage pipes replaced from the house to the street. More Vancouver trips.


• November: Instituted the Tennis & Tacos Friday nights. Got death flu AGAIN (not to be confused with swine flu) right before my parents and sister came down for Thanksgiving. Watched my cousin finish the Atlanta marathon.


• December: Squirrels in the attic OH NO. :( Went home for Christmas. Bought a Wii.

A quiet year, really. Lots of problems around the house, although really nothing overly serious. Everything's been kind of low-key, but not necessarily in a bad way.


Last year's resolution: Learn to live within my means financially.
After buying the house, it's been really hard to keep the credit card debt down - I doubled my living expenses by living alone, and I had to furnish the house and put a new roof on, and then this year there was the shed and the lawn equipment. But there's always going to be something, and I need to learn to be more frugal.

1. Pay off credit card debt.
2. Increase savings to $5K in case of emergencies.
3. Eat out less.
4. Explore getting a roommate more aggressively. This one sort of pains me, because the only logical room to rent out is the room I now use as my office, which means I would have to shift some stuff around to move my office upstairs. But I am going to start feeling around work and friends to see if there are any connections to someone trustworthy.

Result: Pretty much a failure. I did pay off my credit card debt in early March but it didn't stick; I've run up another ~3K in debt since then. Part of the problem is that I make more money for the first half of the year than I do for the second, due to a bonus. That will change this year, as they are adding that to my regular salary, so I'm hoping to be able to regulate that a bit bettter. I also nearly made it to the $5K savings goal, but then had plumbing problems that had to be dealt with. I have been tracking my spending pretty closely, and while I'm not entirely changing the way I spend, I am at least more cognizant of where my money goes. I'm going to keep at it this year and try to learn more about budgeting.

Also, I have come to terms with the fact that I do not want a roommate, or at least not one who isn't already a friend. So if the situation ever comes up, great, if not, I'm just going to have to be better with my money.

My top 10 expenses were:

• Mortgage: unavoidable, but it did go down this year! I'm still paying the same amount though, so I'm paying more on the principal loan. It works out to about one extra payment for the year.


• Home Improvement: By the time I finish dealing with the squirrels, it will be close to $5K this year. About $1K of that was planned expense, the rest was a surprise. Oh, well, it's an investment! (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)


• Restaurants/Dining: Gotta work on this one, I know! I am going to try. I love eating out though! And it is a method of getting together with friends as well.


• Home Maintenance: This is both décor and upkeep. Some of this is unavoidable, like pest control and the like. I need to take a look at the breakdown and see what I could trim down.


• Utilities: I have switched my gas company this month, so hopefully that will lower the bill for the coming year. Also I am starting to track, and I have cut my electricity usage by about a third over this time last year. I have become my dad: “Shut that light OFF! You don't need the light on if you aren't in the room, you won't wear out the switch.”


• Pets/Pet Care: She's lucky she's a cute cat. I have spent a lot on her, but that is tapering off now. I also bought a lot in bulk, like her flea treatments and replacement litter bags, because it was cheaper or saved shipping. So some of that cost will be defrayed this year, hopefully.


• Telephone Services was listed next, but that's not accurate as most of that is actually reimbursed by my company. I do need to look at lowering my cell phone plan; I don't think I can, but it's worth checking.


• Groceries: I need to get this one higher on the list, swap places with the Restaurant expenses.


• Personal Care: This is hair, make up, etc. A girl's got to be pretty :) I continue to toy with switching hairdressers, particularly as she continues to raise her prices, but I love the way she cuts my hair! I have already cut out one hair cut per year this year.


• Clothing/Shoes: I was shocked that this one was on here, because I don't feel like I bought a lot of clothes this year. But then I remembered – tennis & Gina's wedding were big clothing expenditures. And I bought hiking shoes too.


• Entertainment: This is everything from concerts to comic books. I need to look at the breakdown on this one too, but again, I do not want to cut out the things that get me out of the house. I have hermit tendencies.

Last year's goals:
1. Resume my walking routine. I let this go when I started playing tennis, but I need to do both. Ideally I'd like to walk 2 miles a day.
Result: Ok, I had completely failed at this until the beginning of December, so hopefully I can keep going with that.

2. Finish my sweatshirt blanket, and in the process, re-learn how to use a sewing machine.
3. Finish my France sabbatical and childhood photo albums.
Result: Nope. I started a cross-stitch family tree for my mom's Christmas gift, which took all my crafting time from July on. It's finished now, so hopefully I can get back on track with my own projects. I'm itching to work on a photo album.

4. Paint the guestroom and hang my grandmother's quilt up.
Result: 50%. I painted the guestroom, but decided to hold off on hanging up the quilt until I buy a bed frame, as I want the hardware to match the bed frame.

2010 Resolution: House Plants
Sounds like a silly resolution, I know, but there are no plants in my house right now. I am bad at remembering to water them, but my goal is to have something growing in every room so that I see them all the time. Also, I need to get a watering can. It's also part of the “save money” goal as well, since I love flowers and buy them often; I'm hoping to replace that with a flowering plant. I will have to learn what flowers seasonally so I can rotate them out, and I have to do all this with the flowers that are not toxic to cats, so it will require some research. There are a LOT of plants that are toxic, according to the ASPCA.


2010 Goals

1. Hang living room curtains that I bought in August.


2. Continue working on budgeting and saving my money, learning to control how I use my credit cards, etc.


3. Finish the college sweatshirt blanket.


4. Finish my France sabbatical photo album.


5. Continue augmenting my fitness routine with walking and working out on the Wii I plan to buy soon. I would like to lose 10 pounds and/or fit back into my clothes better (some of my jeans are now too tight to wear.)


6. Post one non-meme, non-tweet related post to LJ each week, and go back through and tag things better.


7. Try out one new recipe a month.


8. Mail cards to my family on their birthdays and anniversaries. I used to be really good at this but have been slacking for the last few years.

I have two Amex accounts, one for personal and one for business, and I just realized I sent my payment to the wrong one. Ugh. It's the second time I've done this, so I know I just have to call them and tell them I'm a moron but ugh, ugh, ugh.

So we're supposed to give the Treasury $700 billion and not ask them what they did with it? Yeah, no. What I find amusing about all of this is that the Republican party still has the nerve to try and paint Democrats as 'tax and spend' - pot, kettle, black much?

Anyway, so our economy is failing and I'm too chicken to go online and see what this is doing to my 401k. Also, I've forgotten my password, but mostly too chicken. At one point I had $70k in there, and the last statement I got, which I think was Q1, I remember that the amount of money I'd lost this year equaled the amount I invested last year. Good times. *chants 'long term investment, I'm only 33' over and over*

In good news, at least I have my health! I went today and got my hearing tested because it's been a year since my operation. My good ear is slightly above normal, and my operated-on ear is mostly in the normal range, with some below normal in lower frequencies. \o/ Yay for not being deaf in one ear, which I basically was last year.

I plan on celebrating this by practicing my drums tonight. I have really been slacking with the drums. I think about them every single day, but that is not the same as playing on them. Oddly, I think I'm developing a fear of failure about it - like I'm afraid to find out how bad I really am. Which is stupid, because it's not like I intend to do anything with it. I'm not exactly looking to join a band or anything.

I've also been trying to meet a goal of writing 500 words a day. I've hit it most days, and my bandom Harlequin is at 8000 words now. Sadly, I'd say this is the half-way point. Or maybe the third-way point, because I keep thinking 'oh, and I need to address this, and this. Oh, and this.' I'm going to have to make up my mind about what really goes in. Also, I've finished writing all the parts I had plotted out, so I guess the next step would be figuring out where it goes from there. I was hoping it would have just come to me by now. That did not work out.

I deleted my Chemistry profile. You can't do anything on the site without paying, not even get communication from paying members. It's $50 for a month, or if you're willing to commit to a six-month membership, a little under $30. I'm so not in a place to be spending that on a dating service right now. I'm still trying to learn to live within my means and that is not the way to go about it.

So yesterday I thought, "Hey, I'll do that meme where you take 6-8 pictures throughout the day and then you label them with a title and a time and that's it. That'll be fun."

So I took these:( So I took these: )

And then I realized that my day is really quite dull and I stopped.

Yeah, so I've been paying renter's insurance on my old apartment all year and never even noticed. I fail at finance.

Definition of sheer panic:
Realizing you sent your July mortgage payment to Wells Fargo Financial instead of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

All is sorted now, mortgage payment sent off to the right place, and refund headed it's way to me from the other place, which is a credit card company that I bought something from in 2002. Sheesh. But everyone was very helpful about the whole thing, and I have now set up reoccuring payments to the right place on my online banking. And cleared out all the payees that I don't use anymore, except the Wells Fargo one - want to make sure I get that check back before I delete the info, then it's going too. Yikes, yikes, yikes.

How do the weekends go by so fast, seriously?

I got home on Friday, walked in my door by 5 pm, which is lovely. The last two weeks and this week coming up, I've been traveling in the Southeast and it's amazing the difference it makes to get home by 5pm instead of 10pm. So I ran down to the gym and worked out, then got ready to go out - I was quite impressed, I stepped into the shower at 5:58pm and walked out the door at 6:20, speedyspeedy. I was only a few minutes late to walk into the concert at Eddie's Attic, which for those of you not from Atlanta is a venue for singer-songwriters. It was a '4-in-a-round' night, and I'd come specifically to see Tin Cup Prophette. If you haven't listened to her, you should check out her stuff. There's some songs to download on her website, or you can check out her myspace site.

namaste_atlanta joined me mid-way through the show, and then we went out for dinner and had a lovely time.

Saturday, I woke up late, and had to run to get to the Aquarium on time for my reservation. I got there only a couple of minutes late (a theme for my weekend) and they didn't hassle me at all. I finally got my annual pass card made, so there's one worry off the list. After that, I ran errands and went shopping - I now have a really cute tennis outfit and thus no reason to NOT play tennis once the weather warms up, which here means by the end of the month, typically.

I really wasn't feeling well, so I went home, and as the evening wore on it became more apparent that I've twisted my back somehow. So I took it easy, puttered around the house, watching movies and medicating the back/head/neck ache with the good drugs I bought the last time I was in London. Ah, lovely codeine. I think I filed my taxes, but a) I've never e-filed before so I didn't really know what I was doing, and b) I was doped up so I didn't know what I was doing. Should be interesting!

I felt better today, got more stuff done around the house, finished off my photo album from the vacation eeeevil_genius and I took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2003. I'm waiting for my flight to Norfolk, and my back is starting to twinge. *glares at spine*

Things I must accomplish this week:

Taking French placement test.
Dealing with IRAs
Going through two weeks of mail because I'm dorky and didn't do it this weekend.

Actually, I think that's it. Of course, I've been supposed to do all these things for a few weeks now, so we'll see.

My car is officially paid off. Two months early, go me!