Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Post Number 91, Ta Da!

I am sneezing. I am sneezing because of the sun. The sun is shining in my eyes, through the big glass windows of the shuttle. The shuttle that I ride for free. Ok, I'll stop complaining about sneezing. Sometimes I forget to put things in perspective.

But still, sneezing is kind of annoying.

Oh well. I haven't written a real post on here in a while--it's been a lot of lists and re-posts and such, and I feel like I haven't really been contributing any interesting life tidbits lately. Which I guess doesn't matter because there's really no format to this blog. Well, the format is "whatever I feel like posting whenever I feel like posting it." Ah, freedom.

Anyway, I just thought I'd include a few life updates today. I'm in the mood.

First on the Agenda: Finances. I haven't been doing as well as I'd like in the money department. My income has significantly increased since my internship (duh), but so have my expenses. I can afford all my bills, and even to pay my parents a bit of what I owe them every month (and I should be done paying them by late January), but I just hate the feeling of wanting more. I want to be putting money into savings, which right now I'm just not doing at all. I say it's because the money I'm paying my parents will eventually turn into money I put into savings, but right now I'm just frustrated that I can't do both. But paying my parents back is more important, so I just have to be patient. Nobody wants to be in debt--even if it is to an interest-free, late-payment-forgiving, nice and understanding source like your parents.

Anyway, I've been thinking about sticking to a budget for a while. I have definitely succumbed a little to the "ooh I have new money!" thing, buying a new shirt here...spending $100 on food for a housewarming party there...etc. Not that I'm going nuts, and I can still pay my bills, but I have certainly not been as frugal in the last few months as I'd like to be. Maybe it just took 2-3 months of being excited about my newfound steady income and now the excitement has worn off? Maybe it's finally hit me that pay increase + bill increase does not = tons of disposable income? Do you have any experience with this, readers?

Item Two: Knitting. I have joined a weekly knitting group at work. We meet for an hour at lunch on Fridays. I'm excited to have a regular (whenever I can make it, anyway) knitting time...and some of the ladies in the group are very experienced! Hopefully I'll finally finish the scarf that I'm making with the yarn Reed gave me for graduation...in 2006. It's going to be a lovely scarf, soft and warm and wide, even if I did mess up the seed stitch every once in a while. Gives it character, no?

Also, a few of the girls at work and I have been talking about starting a biweekly craft night, where everyone brings a craft she (or he, I suppose) is working on, be it knitting or crocheting or scrapbooking or beading or basket weaving or celebrity gossiping...and we will sit and eat and craft and watch cheesy-but-classic movies (Dirty Dancing, Return to Oz, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, etc). Sounds like fun to me!

Perhaps I'll post a picture from my housewarming party later--I, of course, did the cheesy thing where I take a picture of my tablescape. It was not so much a tablescape as it was a lovely display of food with one vase of flowers, but it was (I thought) deliciously impressive. So I took a picture. If I get it uploaded, I'll post it later.

Item Three: Fun. This weekend was really great. Friday night housewarming = really nice. Saturday Cal beating Oregon and moving up to be the #3 school in the country = awesome. Splurging on dinner items (fresh salmon, yukon gold potatoes, lemon, strawberries, gourmet cheese) and having a mini-wine sampling (had small amounts of a few bottles left over from Friday) and cooking a delicious meal at home with The Boy = truly wonderful. It was so nice to hang out and spend the day shopping at Market Hall (pricey, but fun to splurge), wandering around the "Out and About in Rockridge" festival, tasting fruits and cheeses. Then to come home and prepare a delicious meal together...just one of the best ideas we've ever had.

Happy Tuesday! May Tuesday be better than Monday!

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