I just found out that one of my classmates from graduate school has ALS. This is a person that I've thought of occasionally over the last few years, and I recently sent him a friend request on Facebook, not knowing that he was sick. Needless to say, I'm a little upset by the news. He is a person who has been energetic, creative, and surprising the entire time I've known him, and while I can't claim to be good friends with him, I've always thought very highly of him.
I would say that it's a lesson to me to try to be happier and to enjoy life and cherish each experience that I have, but I don't want to reduce him to an object lesson. He's a real person, and I fervently hope that everything will turn out ok.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Thoughts prior to embarking on a new year
My birthday is quickly approaching, and I've decided that I'm going to treat this as sort of a new year's celebration, considering that it's a new year for me. The last year was absolutely awful, and I'm determined that the next year will be better.
I'm preparing for the new year with a few gifts to myself and a few resolutions to get me through to the calendar new year.
First and foremost, I gave myself a haircut and a trip to the dentist. That might seem rather mundane, but it sure feels good to be doing mundane things again. It's been a very long time since I had a haircut, and a much, much longer time since a trip to the dentist.
Some of my new year resolutions include cleaning out and organizing my house, and then keeping it that way, along with saving money, losing weight, and getting in shape. Which have been pretty typical goals for me for a while now. I'm hoping that I'll get my act together to actually accomplish them.
I'm preparing for the new year with a few gifts to myself and a few resolutions to get me through to the calendar new year.
First and foremost, I gave myself a haircut and a trip to the dentist. That might seem rather mundane, but it sure feels good to be doing mundane things again. It's been a very long time since I had a haircut, and a much, much longer time since a trip to the dentist.
Some of my new year resolutions include cleaning out and organizing my house, and then keeping it that way, along with saving money, losing weight, and getting in shape. Which have been pretty typical goals for me for a while now. I'm hoping that I'll get my act together to actually accomplish them.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Where did my memory go?
In my quest to shape up my finances, I've been doing a little virtual rearranging. I have labeled my emergency savings account as a true emergency savings account, although I have unfortunately had to dip into a bit lately. But I went to REI yesterday and emerged without buying anything that wasn't on my list, so that was a good start at controlling spending. I also opened an extra checking account for things that aren't regular expenses, such as vacations, car repair, car insurance, etc. I calculated how much I spend on unexpected expenses each year, then divided it by 12 and set up an automatic transfer to put that much money in that account each month. Hopefully this will help me, although until I pay off my credit card (which should happen in another month or two), it's going to be tight.
I now have two dilemmas. I had another savings account, my old, traditional savings account, and I can't for the life of me remember why I kept it open. Maybe I was thinking that I would use it for regular savings, but I'm not planning to have any regular savings until I pay off my student loans.
Which brings me to my next dilemma - my student loans. I HATE being in debt. I've figured that if I take any extra money I have each month, and put it towards my loans, I can cut the repayment period to 16 or 17 years. If I stop contributing to my 401(k) and put all of that towards my loans, I could have them paid off in 9.5 years. But is it worth the peace of mind of having my loans paid off earlier?
I now have two dilemmas. I had another savings account, my old, traditional savings account, and I can't for the life of me remember why I kept it open. Maybe I was thinking that I would use it for regular savings, but I'm not planning to have any regular savings until I pay off my student loans.
Which brings me to my next dilemma - my student loans. I HATE being in debt. I've figured that if I take any extra money I have each month, and put it towards my loans, I can cut the repayment period to 16 or 17 years. If I stop contributing to my 401(k) and put all of that towards my loans, I could have them paid off in 9.5 years. But is it worth the peace of mind of having my loans paid off earlier?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
It might be time for a gratefulness post...
5 things I'm grateful for
1. Not being homeless, jobless, or health insurance-less. While I'm pretty much living paycheck to paycheck at the moment (and I wish someone had warned me BEFORE I went to school about how little I would make when I finished), I have some emergency money, I have a place to live, I have a good job, and for the moment I have health insurance that prevents me from being homeless.
2. My gym. I love my gym. There are awesome people there, and a lot of them go out of their way to be friendly. When I go to my gym, I feel like i'm surrounded by a community of people who care.
3. My garden. Although it's not producing as well as I would like, there is now a 3-year waiting list to get a plot, so I'm quite happy that I got one when I did.
4. My car. It runs. Enough said.
5. All of the fabulous adventures I'm plotting. I wish I had enough time and money for all of them, but for right now, I'll stick with what I can manage.
1. Not being homeless, jobless, or health insurance-less. While I'm pretty much living paycheck to paycheck at the moment (and I wish someone had warned me BEFORE I went to school about how little I would make when I finished), I have some emergency money, I have a place to live, I have a good job, and for the moment I have health insurance that prevents me from being homeless.
2. My gym. I love my gym. There are awesome people there, and a lot of them go out of their way to be friendly. When I go to my gym, I feel like i'm surrounded by a community of people who care.
3. My garden. Although it's not producing as well as I would like, there is now a 3-year waiting list to get a plot, so I'm quite happy that I got one when I did.
4. My car. It runs. Enough said.
5. All of the fabulous adventures I'm plotting. I wish I had enough time and money for all of them, but for right now, I'll stick with what I can manage.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Priorities
Bear with me, this story has a point...
I went to a wedding this weekend at one of my favorite places in the region, Lake Tahoe. The location was beautiful, the drive there was beautiful, and the wedding was a lot of fun. This morning, we had a barbecue on the Truckee river. It was supposed to start at noon, and I got there a half hour early. Supposedly a lot of people were heading over early, but when I arrived, no one was there. I walked around a bit, because it was a beautiful spot, but I found myself getting cranky because I had tons of things that I really needed to get done today, and here I was having to wait for everyone, and what in the world was I supposed to do before all the slackers showed up?
And then, I had a small epiphany. One of the things I always envision myself doing, when I try to imagine how I would like my life to be, is to sit outside in a beautiful spot, preferably in the mountains, and read. And here I was, in a beautiful place, in the mountains, with my book! Obviously, I read for a while until people showed up, but it definitely made me think about priorities, and how I need to try to remember what's really important. Getting home and doing the laundry or mopping he floor really shouldn't always be at the top of my list.
I went to a wedding this weekend at one of my favorite places in the region, Lake Tahoe. The location was beautiful, the drive there was beautiful, and the wedding was a lot of fun. This morning, we had a barbecue on the Truckee river. It was supposed to start at noon, and I got there a half hour early. Supposedly a lot of people were heading over early, but when I arrived, no one was there. I walked around a bit, because it was a beautiful spot, but I found myself getting cranky because I had tons of things that I really needed to get done today, and here I was having to wait for everyone, and what in the world was I supposed to do before all the slackers showed up?
And then, I had a small epiphany. One of the things I always envision myself doing, when I try to imagine how I would like my life to be, is to sit outside in a beautiful spot, preferably in the mountains, and read. And here I was, in a beautiful place, in the mountains, with my book! Obviously, I read for a while until people showed up, but it definitely made me think about priorities, and how I need to try to remember what's really important. Getting home and doing the laundry or mopping he floor really shouldn't always be at the top of my list.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
A Budgeting Dilemma
I recently borrowed a book on getting out of debt from the library, and I'm trying to incorporate some of the philosophies into my own life. I have to admit, my debt burden has been weighing on me heavily lately. Things have happened in my life in the last year that would have been much easier to handle if I wasn't so debt-ridden, and it's time for me to take control of the situation and try to start living my life instead of just attempting to survive from one week to the next. However, that does present a few dilemmas for me.
For one thing, the program about which I'm reading suggests donating 10% of your monthly income to charity. I can understand and appreciate this, and I intend to donate some money, but 10% of my monthly income is a lot for me, when over 50% of my income is already going for rent and student loan payments, not to mention my EXTRA student loan payments, food, and utilities, which also take a large chunk of my income. So for the moment, I'm going to donate 2.5% of my income as small monthly payments to four of my favorite groups: Partners in Health, The Central Asia Institute, NPR, and Heifer International. If it does one thing for me, at least it will remind me that no matter how bad things may seem, a lot of people in the world have it a lot worse.
The next issue is where to cut costs. The book suggests all kinds of things that don't really help me - don't go for coffee every day, try keeping a one-car household, cancel your cable TV, etc. For the most part, I don't have a lot of these expenses that are often considered necessities of modern life. One of my splurges has been food - I believe strongly in buying organic, local, and sustainable, and that's not cheap. I'm working on figuring out how to balance saving money and not compromising my belief system, all while eating healthfully. Suggestions would be welcome.
As far as my garden goes, things haven't been great. The heirloom tomatoes look terrible, the pattypan squash is almost dead, and I'm not sure what is up with the cucumbers. At least the corn, green beans, and peppers are doing well.
And that's all for now. I'm off to work a bit in the garden before it gets insanely hot, then coming home for more chores... Hopefully it will be a productive day!
For one thing, the program about which I'm reading suggests donating 10% of your monthly income to charity. I can understand and appreciate this, and I intend to donate some money, but 10% of my monthly income is a lot for me, when over 50% of my income is already going for rent and student loan payments, not to mention my EXTRA student loan payments, food, and utilities, which also take a large chunk of my income. So for the moment, I'm going to donate 2.5% of my income as small monthly payments to four of my favorite groups: Partners in Health, The Central Asia Institute, NPR, and Heifer International. If it does one thing for me, at least it will remind me that no matter how bad things may seem, a lot of people in the world have it a lot worse.
The next issue is where to cut costs. The book suggests all kinds of things that don't really help me - don't go for coffee every day, try keeping a one-car household, cancel your cable TV, etc. For the most part, I don't have a lot of these expenses that are often considered necessities of modern life. One of my splurges has been food - I believe strongly in buying organic, local, and sustainable, and that's not cheap. I'm working on figuring out how to balance saving money and not compromising my belief system, all while eating healthfully. Suggestions would be welcome.
As far as my garden goes, things haven't been great. The heirloom tomatoes look terrible, the pattypan squash is almost dead, and I'm not sure what is up with the cucumbers. At least the corn, green beans, and peppers are doing well.
And that's all for now. I'm off to work a bit in the garden before it gets insanely hot, then coming home for more chores... Hopefully it will be a productive day!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
On dieting
Lately I have been trying very hard to lose weight, and instead, I'm losing the battle of the bulge. I've gained a few pounds instead of losing them, and my clothes are getting tighter. I've been exercising a decent amount, mostly training for a bicycle race that's coming up, but I'm also eating with abandon. I'm not sure how to go about breaking the cycle, but I have a few ideas...
For one thing, I eat too much dairy. Dairy makes my stomach upset, and has a lot of calories for how filling it is. I've been eating toasted whole wheat bread with butter for breakfast, and the butter has a whopping 1oo calories per tablespoon. I think that from now on, I will have some hummus on my bread instead, which clocks in at a mere 26 calories per tablespoon, and is more filling to boot. I'm going to make some fresh hummus tonight and give it a whirl tomorrow. Another thing that I've been doing is using balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar as flavoring. They're both quite low calorie, only 10 calories per tablespoon, and add a lot of flavor.
I also need to try to eat more veggies and more fiber. For this week, I'll be having some leftover pasta salad (unfortunately with cheese), some asparagus and mushrooms in oyster sauce with brown rice (and I know the asparagus is out of season, and I feel completely guilty about it), some grilled veggies one night (with a tomato and cucumber salad), and perhaps towards the end of the week, some black bean soup, risotto, or pasta primavera, depending on what my garden provides me with.
Speaking of my garden, things are progressing well. The corn is huge and is producing ears. The pole beans are going crazy, and also producing. The tomatoes aren't doing quite as well, for some reason, although the peppers are doing great, and the tomatillo is growing like a weed. The plants that i'm having the most trouble with, though, are the squash. For some reason, squash doesn't like to grow in my garden, and i have no idea why. I'm going to have to do some research and figure it out.
Until then, happy eating!
For one thing, I eat too much dairy. Dairy makes my stomach upset, and has a lot of calories for how filling it is. I've been eating toasted whole wheat bread with butter for breakfast, and the butter has a whopping 1oo calories per tablespoon. I think that from now on, I will have some hummus on my bread instead, which clocks in at a mere 26 calories per tablespoon, and is more filling to boot. I'm going to make some fresh hummus tonight and give it a whirl tomorrow. Another thing that I've been doing is using balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar as flavoring. They're both quite low calorie, only 10 calories per tablespoon, and add a lot of flavor.
I also need to try to eat more veggies and more fiber. For this week, I'll be having some leftover pasta salad (unfortunately with cheese), some asparagus and mushrooms in oyster sauce with brown rice (and I know the asparagus is out of season, and I feel completely guilty about it), some grilled veggies one night (with a tomato and cucumber salad), and perhaps towards the end of the week, some black bean soup, risotto, or pasta primavera, depending on what my garden provides me with.
Speaking of my garden, things are progressing well. The corn is huge and is producing ears. The pole beans are going crazy, and also producing. The tomatoes aren't doing quite as well, for some reason, although the peppers are doing great, and the tomatillo is growing like a weed. The plants that i'm having the most trouble with, though, are the squash. For some reason, squash doesn't like to grow in my garden, and i have no idea why. I'm going to have to do some research and figure it out.
Until then, happy eating!
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