Happy Veteran’s Day!
Wow, I was on such a roll with the daily postings and I broke it. Oh well, I guess that just proves that I do have a life…sometimes anyway. I was actually out last night. I got off of work early which gave me just enough time to actually shower, straighten my hair, put on make up and dress up a bit. I haven’t done that for my little get togethers, nobody from work had ever even seen me in lite make up so it was interesting. My friends that I usually hang out with were surprised and asked why I didn’t do it more often (I had to respond with because they never give me enough time, just calls saying hey, we are leaving for dinner, you coming? lol). They have now decided that we will be going to dinner Friday night, or sometime on the weekend, to welcome one of the new guys at his shop and they want me dressed up again. We will see if that actually works out.
Happy Veteran’s Day! The day of free food, good sales and something that a lot of people don’t remember. How many of you out there actually know the reason for Veteran’s Day (without googling)? Obviously to honor veterans but what was the original intent? The day has branched out from its original Armistice Day, originally to commemorate the armistice between the Allies and Germany in WWI for the cessation of hostilities on the western front. That is the basics, feel free to investigate further, or go get good shopping deals, whichever 
I am somewhat happy today, not entirely sure why, maybe because payday is tomorrow and I actually get my full paycheck? That could be it. Maybe because I got out last night? Maybe because I actually feel all pretty with my hair straightened out? Maybe because I finally have an appointment to get my teeth ripped out and I want to be happy in the mean time before the week(S?) of pain and recovery? I don’t really know. Whatever the case I am momentarily happy so I think I will take advantage of it. Even though my friend is hungover and can’t go out I think I will go get some free food and window shop since payday isn’t until tomorrow and I am broke until then.
Finally…an Appointment.
I love down days, I actually slept late. Apparently it just takes a couple of days for my body to realize that sleeping late could be nice. The only thing I had to do today was make it to a dental appointment so that I could make my other appointment. I got to watch a video about what the potential risks to having my wisdom teeth pulled but also the risks of leaving them in. Honestly I didn’t really need any of it, I was all set to have them pulled and it was going to happen with out knowing what would happen if I left them in. I now have an appointment (finally), a lot quicker than I originally thought it would be, to get them pulled. Unfortunately they are being pulled a few days before Thanksgiving but luckily I had no plans for Thanksgiving anyway. I had to bug my supervisor to be my “escort”, technically they said I should have someone there for 24 hours after the surgery but they said its not a necessity. I just need a ride there and back to my place. I will have the rest of the week and the weekend to recover so it should be nice, hopefully there aren’t any complications. Supposedly my teeth should be easy enough to pull but that doesn’t always mean anything.
After I made my appointment I sent my hubby a text saying it would be nice if he were here to take care of me after surgery. He called fairly quickly after that freaking out that I was going into surgery and didn’t tell him. He he, serves him right, A)I told him I was getting them pulled and B) as much as he has messed with me I have the right to mess with him every once in a while. It was funny and he was planning to call anyway, we had an appointment. We actually had a good phone call too, no fighting and some laughing, it’s been a while.
A Record
I hate watching movies that make no sense. I end up feeling like I wasted my time watching it and my energy trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I usually watch until the end hoping it will all clear up and become awesome but more often then not they don’t do that. I just finished watching Eye of the Beholder and unfortunately, though they had good actors, the movie was a disappointment. Maybe I was just missing something but I didn’t like it. It’s a pity but hopefully the next random thing I watch will be better and luckily I didn’t pay very much for it, I think it was one of those $.50 movies I got when my video store was closing down.
I have started cleaning. I have a lot more to do but I took a lunch break that turned into a lunch and movie break that then became the lunch internet and movie break. It’s all good, I will get back to cleaning once this post is done. I made spaghetti and it is awesome. I am really happy that I seem to be able to cook pretty well. At least I can cook well enough to keep myself happy. My big problem just seems to be finding the recipes I really want to try. I don’t want anything too complicated or with an insane amount of ingredients that I will have to buy. As I cook more I will accumulate more of the extra cooking supplies but for right now I just have basics so I am looking for recipes that pretty much use the basics. My slow cooker is my friend, I love some of the stuff that I make from it and it is so easy. I am thinking I may try to do pulled pork next week, I have molasses and it is mainly good for cookies and apparently barbeque type stuff so barbeque stuff it is. Too bad I don’t have an actual grill yet but that will happen eventually.
I went out again last night. That’s a new record, two nights in a row! lol, I am so sad. I actually managed to get a couple of shots in though. The first was a shot of Tequila, I guess it was a mid level tequila. It was interesting, never had it before, it wasn’t the best I have had but it probably wasn’t the worst either. I also had a chocolate cake. Not entirely sure what’s in it but it takes mostly like chocolate cake. I am not a huge chocolate fan so I kind of knew this wouldn’t be at the top of my list but still, it wasn’t bad and we couldn’t think of what other shots we wanted. If I decide I have a night of drinking I usually just take the shots my friends give me, they know what I seem to like and I trust them not to mess me up. It has worked for me so far except now I don’t actually know the names of good shots, guess I have to work on that.
Debt
Today debt is a very common and dreaded word. So many people are struggling and trying to figure out how to avoid it and recover. I fell into debt a while ago, way back when I decided to move to Texas with hubby (then boyfriend). I don’t regret moving, I absolutely loved the place and had an incredible time. I though I had things set when I moved out there and I was being at least somewhat smart. Cost of living was cheap and I moved out there with a job already. Unfortunately almost as soon as I got out there the store I transfered to wasn’t making as much money as they should have been and hours got cut, I ended up with about one 4 hour shift a week. No matter how low the cost of living was 4 hours a week, even if my pay was more than the shift leads at the shop, was not going to cut it. I went and looked for other jobs but it was right after Katrina and there was just nothing for my lack of skills. I ended up paying bills on credit card and trying to juggle the very small amount of money we had. In the end we made it back to California after I sold my car giving us just enough money for the Uhaul trip. We ended up living at my mom’s house trying to recover and that is where we spent a long time. We still had crazy money problems at my mom’s house, we still had to struggle with money and I spent a lot of time trying to balance it all and get bills paid so my credit wouldn’t get worse than it already was. It was tough but I was really proud of what I did, I could have done better I am sure but we survived. He may hate that I freaked out over $10 here or there but what he didn’t understand was how much the $10 actually meant, as bad as we were he never figured out how absolutely necessary every single penny was and honestly I still let him spend more than I should have so he could try to have fun and we could enjoy some time together, apparently it wasn’t good enough.
Anyway, I have gone off track of the intended purpose of this post which is for me to share my incredible excitement. I was crunching numbers because that is what I do when I get bored (no I will never become an accountant, my mom tried to push that, I took a class, I hate accounting and all of the BS that goes with it, I just like playing with basic numbers and straight money). So, after crunching the numbers and playing with my money on paper I discovered that if I continue paying things just as they are I will be out of debt with in 3 years (barring any emergencies or craziness). I also discovered that if I really strapped myself down tight and pushed hard I could be out within 1 to maybe 2 years. I know it sounds like a lot of time but when it has been as long as I have been struggling with it and fighting it I now have a light at the end of the tunnel and I am ecstatic. Also, I must say this is the debt from my formerly maxed out credit card (I now have it not totally maxed out but still very close unfortunately) and my car payments, I paid off my collections bill a long time ago so my debt isn’t as deep as some, not anymore. I just love being able to look and see how far I have come in such a relatively short time. I made it with almost no money and now I have money, I am getting things paid and after these next few years are over I will have a ton of money that will be able to be just for fun every month! I will finally be able to put something into savings accounts which hasn’t really happened before, I can put back into my mutual funds that I was selling off (though I am not sure how great that would be at the moment) and I can actually think about putting extra in for retirement. I can think about traveling and doing things, I can think about having fun and not having to worry. I can think about being able to afford manicure’s and pedicures and massages and snowboarding clothes and trips to the mountains, and the weekend kayaking trips and camping and getting all of the gear to do those things. I will be able to afford winter clothing and having my heat up every day if I want without worrying how high it will jack up my bill. This used to be stuff that was just a vaguely distant thing in my head, something that would be nice but wouldn’t really happen until maybe SSgt, if that? I didn’t realize that those things could potentially be within reach. I am super excited! The best of all, I may actually eventually be able to buy a house, or more what I want, an apartment building. I thought that would never happen, I couldn’t imagine ever getting to the point of having saved enough for a down payment but maybe that isn’t so impossible as I thought.
The smartest thing I ever did was join the military. It may not be for everyone but it was exactly what I needed.
Just Some Thoughts
I think my cat is chasing his tail in the bath tub…weirdo.
I love getting out of work early on a 3 day weekend, it’s awesome! Not to mention we also have Wednesday off next week (random to have a day of in the middle of the week but i’ll take it) so the week will be a short one. We are going out for a farewell dinner party thing too so it will be a good week.
So yesterday’s post was intended to be a more refined post but unfortunately I hit a wall of tired but it was something that I really wanted said and knew I probably wouldn’t get back to it if it wasn’t at least generally written already. Tonight is not the night to edit it and honestly I am not sure if there will be a point it gets edited but at least it is there.
I just got back from hanging out with people and have hit my wall of tired again and am probably going to crash soon. At least I am up later than 7 or 8, I feel like such an old person, I really need to find more stuff to do. I need a new partner in crime, someone who will get into mischief with me. December is creeping ever closer and I guess I figure out from there if I need an entirely new partner in crime or if I just have to fix the old one, as he always says, we will see.
A Sad Day
So I am sure by now a great deal of people have heard about the shooting at Fort Hood. It is a very sad thing and my thoughts go out to the people affected by it. I was reading through the articles and got into some of the comments and I was amazed at some people. I understand that people have their opinions and they are entitled to them but sometimes they are ignorant and taken to extremes. I think many people who disagree with the war have taken to thinking very badly of the soldiers themselves, yes the soldiers are fighting but they aren’t the ones making the big decisions. They are the ones who signed up for many reasons. Some believe the war is right and some are very patriotic and doing there duty to their country. Others, however, had very different reasons for joining. Some of that group may be trying to support their family, or maybe had no where to go, or wanted to go to college and the military offered them that. Some people join out of desperation, when everything else crumbles they can turn to the military and have a steady paycheck, food, a place to live and be taken care of. That can be an incredible thing when you are coming from a horrible situation or are desperate with or without a family. Soldiers, Airmen, Seamen and Marines are just people who made a choice whether it was patriotism or something else and they are still humans. No one can know everyone else’s circumstances so how can they judge? When I hear about how people holding protests at funerals for fallen soldiers (I am using soldiers as the general for all branches here since it is the more well known) I cringe. How can people do that to each other? The family of that person may not have agreed with the soldier’s decision to join in the first place, now they have to bury their loved one and deal with people saying how horrible that person was because they chose the military for whatever reason? When I hear so much negativity put out about the people in the military I can’t understand it, you can have your opinions, disagree with the war, but if you don’t respect the military as an organization, respect the individuals themselves as people.
Pain…
I feel…horrible. We did PT today, first day back and the first day in a week or two and we did tough PT. Tons of push ups, tons of sit ups and the long run. I am excited that I can run a mile straight but today I pushed myself hard. Now my knees are hurting…bad. I think the last time they hurt like this was back in tech school when I was first put on my waiver and recovering. I’m sure it’s not that bad and hopefully will fade withing a day or two but for now I am in pain. My back is also hurting, I think that is again from the extra hard running and my big…personality…causes some problems. Not to mention I am exhausted and have had a migraine all day. I don’t know why, I have eaten, I slept and I am not super stressed, it’s just one of those days.
I actually had stuff to do today! I taught both classes and surprisingly I seem to be over me fear of teaching. I think part of it from before was being judged because I had some of my coworkers sitting in specifically to judge me. Now it’s my class, they have to sit there and I have done it before without problems. Not to mention that they aren’t really paying attention anyway, they all just want to get out of there, they don’t care what I am saying. I guess overall I am just used to it now I just have to improve, figure out jokes to make and ways to make it fun. I also had some stuff that I had to get back into order after being gone and that is continuing tomorrow so I have stuff to do then. It’s nice to actually be useful have stuff to do.
Hehe, my cat just spent the last 5 or 10 minutes chasing his tail and is now curled up and passed out on the floor. I had the best sunset I have seen in a long time tonight and I am just relaxing on my couch watching Ron White, I may be in pain but I love my life.
A Little Help Please?
Alright people, I know I don’t have many readers here but I just need the right one. I want to try snow boarding, what do I need? I am a So Cal girl who never really made it up to the mountains and when I did I was very little and mom dressed me. It was easy, my job was simply making it down the hill. Now I have to buy the right clothes, figure out where to go, and lets not forget, pay for it all. I have been reading around online and I am discovering I am supposed to wear three layers of clothes? And I am looking at some things and pants that will cost $150…I don’t even know if this will be something I keep doing so is there a cheap option? Do I have to do all the layers? I want to be warm…and dry, I know I will be spending a lot of time on my butt, so do I have to have all the stuff? What do I do?! Has anyone snowboarded around Washington, any places you recommend? Places to stay too…once again, cheaper would be nice but as far as places to stay clean and safe are always top priorities. So, anyone, feel free to offer some assistance, I’m new.
I picked up my cats today, the entire boarding place has fallen in love with them. They dressed them up for Halloween and apparently the cats handled it pretty calmly. They said they were worried at first that they wouldn’t tolerate the other cats very well but apparently they were best buddies. All in all I am glad that it worked out so very well, I was a bit worried and now I know they will be ok when I leave them for the holidays. Now they have both re-explored my apartment, eaten my bribe of wet food for dinner (they probably didn’t hate me but I had to be sure) and are fat and sitting in my window. All is quiet on the kitty front.
Today was also the first day I turned on the heater. I am not used to cold weather, as I said above I am a So Cal girl, currently my former home is having 90 degree weather. It may not be super cold here to other people, I see people going around in short sleeved shirts and whatnot, but to me, it is freezing! I need to figure out what kind of normal cold weather clothing I am supposed to be and not just snow boarding stuff. I also need to figure out where to buy it for not so crazy expensive. Fifty bucks for a shirt is just something I won’t do unless it is an amazing shirt, I will freeze…well, layer on sweaters and curl in blankets anyway. And that is another problem, in Southern California I didn’t really need the sweaters to be super fluffy and warm so I have worn them all thin. It was ok before but now they aren’t as helpful as they could be. I started searching for clothes with basics, I looked for a pair of gloves…twenty two bucks. Really? For gloves? Things are totally different when it is your money and you have a very limited supply of it. I guess I will start slowly getting stuff to prepare for next year…
So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately but I don’t think its anything I want typed out quite yet. There is, as always lots of random thoughts running through my head and some interesting changes going on in my personality. My dreams have shifted and become quite random lately and about so many different things. Some were very personal and some were just WTF kind of dreams. I had one, most recently, that I had an added soundtrack. I google the only phrase I could remember of the song that it was and apparently it didn’t exist. I remember the song was good, good lyrics, good beat but I have never heard it before. I am writing music in my sleep! This could be good if I could actually write music or you know, even remember the full songs when I wake up but unfortunately as soon as I wake up it starts to fade. Honestly, this is the third or fourth time it has happened, it’s just the first time I have googled and confirmed it wasn’t anything I had heard before. Maybe I will start writing it all down now and in another twenty years have an entire album for someone to sing. That’s my new retirement plan! (please don’t think that was serious).
I’m Back!
I am home! I am so happy to finally be home. The whole inspection wasn’t anything like what I was expecting and honestly I hope we pass but a lot of stuff went wrong. I’m crossing my fingers we don’t have to go and do it all again but I will find out on Thursday. I got kind of screwed as far as coming home went, I didn’t get to process until about 8pm (Michigan time) and my plane didn’t leave until 1030 ish and I didn’t actually get home and to bed until 0130ish (thats after daylight savings kicked in so 0230 ish Washington time). I completely missed Halloween but I suppose it’s ok because I didn’t really have any plans anyway. I really had no reason to be there that long and the way they set up the plans for people to leave seemed stupid to me. They sent home the people who knew what they were doing first for the most part and left behind people like me who were useless and couldn’t do much. I also have decided that I had no reason to be there. I really didn’t do anything. I learned a lot from the inspectors so it is good I went but as far as helping out I don’t think I really helped much at all. Oh well, not a lot I can do, it’s over, I pick up my cats tomorrow then on to the next stuff.
I think that is going to be it for tonight’s entry. I am still super tired and just not in the mood for much writing but hopefully tomorrow I will write more and have a bit more to say.
