Dollars and sense

Ever since Ryan's mom (Happy Birthday!!) introduced me to the world of coupons, I've been dying to get that really good deal. I've been working on holding on to coupons and checking out sales yielding small successes here and there. CVS seems to be the place to really get some good deals, but their products are not exactly items that we frequently need. I've had my eye on the Dove Skin Vitalizer thing, but it just didn't seem right to spend $13 to try a product for fun.

CVS is having an unadvertised sale according to Southern Savers and there's now a $3.50 coupon. Here's how the pros do it (bear in mind I am no pro, just having fun saving the dolla dolla bills):

Total before sales and coupons: $13.90
Total out of pocket: $0.54
Total savings: 96%

Now that's a deal that makes sense.


In other news, I have officially been "promoted" at Target. Now don't get too excited. It's a lateral move, but still a step in the right direction. I will be in charge of the cosmetics section of the store. The new position has been referred to as Cosmetics Team Captain - me being the only person on the cosmetics team. I'll take it! The key fact to note is that this change in position basically guarantees I am no longer a seasonal employee. Thank God!

2nd grade

Today, instead of the normal daily grind (secretary extraordinaire), I spent the day in Mrs. Oak's second grade classroom. I was the most enthusiastic and eager to learn temporary teacher's assistant there ever was! I patiently helped kids make puppets, repeated myself 30 times telling kids to sit down or help their neighbors, I led the line of 20 children to lunch and was at the end of the line running the kids in after reccess. I ate lunch in the teacher's lounge (ooooohhhh) and I helped monitor the children at a school assembly (aaaahhh).

My friend Rachel introduced me to her mom a couple of years ago and then suggested that I sit in on her classroom one day to see if I'd like being a teacher. Mrs. Oaks is very sweet and motivating. She helped answer my questions and calm most of my fears and/or nervousness I had about leading a classroom. Her curriculum, though mandated by Duval County, is presented creatively. The children admire and respect her.

There are parts of me that are still unsure about entering into an educational career and part of me that is ready to jump right in. Let's face it, I've been kicking the idea around since about a month after I graduated, but for some reason never made the decision to go for it. After wasting 2 years being a banker and a secretary, I think I may have finally found what I am truly interested in.

In other news, after hearing the devastating diagnosis from All Pro Imports that my car is worthless and will! die! very! soon! I took my car in for a second opinion at Jerry Bush Auto. I spent a fraction of the $10,000 worth of work that All Pro quoted and got everything necessary fixed with much friendlier service. The car makes NO SOUNDS!!! I'm in heaven! I can hear the radio without any extra rattles and creaks in the background. I can drive with the windows down and not be embarrassed to go over bumps! I'm somewhat broke with the still expensive cost of the repairs, but I don't have to buy a new car.
The stress of the last few days has melted considerably and I am once again hopeful and positive about the future.

get this girl some alcohol!

It has seriously been one hell of a week for me at work and at home. Monday was chaotic just because it was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, the department had a candidate visiting and I was in charge of his itinerary. I can never, ever keep up with where a candidate is at, not even in a perfect world! I spent those days in meetings and chasing after the candidate. Then Thursday I toiled painfully through a rather daunting task. It took me nearly the entire day to get through it and at 3:00 I completely pissed off the Chairman. Lovely. That day ended in some tears and frustration. I held it together the best I could and kept my head down until I waas free at 4:00.

It is now Friday. Thank you Jesus for getting me here today. I can't even begin to explain how mentally exhausted I am feeling this morning. A typical Friday consists of the bare minimum of work and a mindset of "let me just get through the day". This Friday, I am elbow deep in work that was neglected for the busyness of the past 4 days.

As far as I know, Ryan and I don't have any solid plans for the weekend and that is okay by me. If I spent the entire weekend on the couch playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl, taking naps and reading, I'd be happy as a pig in mud.

tuesday feels like monday feels like rain

Me: Does anyone else feel like today has felt like a second Monday?
April: Yes! I can hardly stand one Monday, much less two!

About 2 Mondays a month, we have seriously hectic days, where it feels like someone turned the office upside down and shook it really hard before turning it rightside up again. Yesterday was one of those Mondays and today followed in its wake with just as much chaos. We had a faculty candidate coming to interview today. Like always, I arranged all of his travel, hotel and itinerary and crossed my fingers, praying that things would go as smoothly as possible. His flight got cancelled once, then delayed. His appointments all had to be rearranged. The entire office felt topsy-turvy, while I balanced his itinerary with the help of Nora and the rest of my job.

By the time I got home this afternoon, at nearly 6:00pm, I felt ragged. I'm afraid of what tomorrow holds, but I guess a fast-paced busy couple of days is better than endlessly, hopelessly slow days.

In other news, today is April 1. Ryan has officially turned in his application as of 3 days ago. I have this feeling like every day until we hear something, anything is going to be agonizingly painful. I've been thinking only positive thoughts about what could happen in the next month or so. It has been refreshing to think of something that I actually want to do whole-heartedly, rather than falling onto new places or hopes for lack of anything better to look forward to. Either way, July 28 is the last day in this apartment and we're off on a new adventure, maybe in Gainesvlle, maybe in Seattle or maybe in Orlando.

whining.

I have definitely been keeping to my “more social” goal. I’ve been to several game nights, a workout class, a Kevorkian lecture and movie nights. Maybe these things aren’t the coolest events or the hippest socials, but definitely more getting outing of the apartment. The downside is that the more I go out, the more difficult it is for me to come to my job. It isn’t that I’m too tired or anything, it’s just the more fun I have the more time I want to spend having fun instead of being miserable at work. It’s the same story all of the time: I am not happy with my job because I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I wish that I could just sing a different song. Maybe I’m just not growing up and am fighting the 9 to 5. Maybe I’m just not cut out for the office life. I want to be proud of what I do, not mumble, secretary when people ask what I do. I toy with the idea of teaching or nursing, but never actually go for it. What am I so afraid of?

I know that my attitude has taken a serious hit at work. I’m no longer bubbly and smiley. I no longer have patience to help those I once befriended. I am negative and grumpy and I am certainly not proud of it. Somehow I have to turn it off at home, remember that it isn’t anyone’s fault but my own that my attitude is in the dumps. I want to stay at my current job until August, simply for the longevity and continuity at one job. My resume needs the help. I don’t want to stay because I hate the work.

happy new year!

This year I will be turning 24. Yikes! The new year gives us the opportunity to start fresh, evaluate where I’ve been and where I want to go. I want to make things move in my life, so I’m compiling a list of things to work toward. 2008 Here I come!

In no particular order:
1. Catch up in scrapbooking: I’ve only scrapped up to 2005 and I already have pictures from 2008! Though it has been a fun adventure to peruse through pictures from my life 2-3 years ago.
2. Make the Australia scrapbook: Admittedly, this should be under bullet 1, but this beast is a project all its own. I haven’t even begun to sift through the hundreds of pictures from my trip to Australia.
3. Drink more water.
4. Create a health and fitness plan that gradually builds: This way my goals can change daily/weekly to accommodate my schedule. So yesterday, the goal was to just use the treadmill for a full 30 minutes. It didn’t matter how many calories I burned or how far I went, just that I was moving for 30 minutes and the time was blocked off in my head. I’m hoping to use this once a week to keep my mind set on working out regularly for a set amount of time.
5. Move to a new city: I am so done with Gainesville. Crazy drivers. Freshmen season. Bad shopping. Crazy college kids. Unappealing social activities (i.e. getting drunk) Six years is enough.
6. Make new friends: On the nights when Ryan is working or the times that we would like to just have a bunch of people come hang out, there is just no one to call. I’d like to build up a new friendship base complete with girlfriends (don’t be gross), board gamers, wine and cheese lovers, and workout buddies. Where do you find these people?
7. Build up my savings account: I did some research and found that my credit union savings account is making 7x the interest of my main savings account. I have 10x the money in my main savings account! I’ll be switching accounts to get the better interest rate, but this goal involves more than just that small change. I will be working on not eating out as often, controlling the impulse buys and conserving the energy/water we consume at home. I will also be looking for a home with lower rent starting August 1.
8. Figure out my career choices: I have no illusions in my head of finding the perfect career in the next year, but I would like to narrow my choices and head in the right direction toward my choice.
9. Religion: I would like to become more spiritually active. Currently, prayers come as an after-thought or during stressful/worrisome situations. I’d like to get back to the roots of my faith.

This year seemed to go by in such a blur. In 2007 I: filed my taxes, spent as much quality time with the love of my life as possible, was in my brother’s wedding, changed jobs, RV’ed with my family, went on a cruise, lost a little bit of weight, stayed in the same apt for a second year, donated blood, saved a little more money, went to my first black-tie event and started taking piano lessons. When making my goals, I forgot to think about all the things I have accomplished this year. I’ve done more than I thought. Here’s to a great oh-eight.

3-day boost

(his post may be all over the place because I had a three day weekend and that is all there is to it.)

Thank you Veterans Day for giving me yet another 3 day weekend (2 weekends in a row! whoo!). I think I prefer having a Monday off instead of a Friday on an extended weekend. For some reason facing a short week on a Tuesday feels better than trudging my way to Thursday.
Ryan and I spent what parts of the weekend we could watching Grey's Anatomy. We finished Season 2 and Season 3 should be in the mail today. I really like that show. It's pretty much the opposite of ER. ER has patient stories with little side stories on the main characters/docs. GA has character stories with little side stories on the patients. That being said, I enjoy them both.

I had to feed my sister's poor cat this weekend. Howie always goes straight for my ankles, then sprawls out in front of me as soon as my feet stop moving. His purring is highly audible b/c he's so happy for the attention and physical touch. I can't blame him, I am a fiend for physical touch. I love when Ryan rubs my back or plays with my hair. My sister has been away from her apartment since last Wednesday. The poor, lonely cat has resorted to crapping on the floor, probably for 2 reasons. One: he has no more space in his litter box to do his business there (I'll feed him, but the litter box is just too much to ask). And two: he is crying out for attention in any way he can! I was never a fan of my sister getting a cat (let alone 2!). She claimed she was lonely in her apartment. She was barely mature/responsible enough to move out of my parents house when she left for college. She can hardly take care of herself much less take care of a cat. But you can never her tell her she is doing something wrong. She digs in her heels and insists that you are unfairly and cruelly criticizing her. I hate feeding her cat because I feel like I pet sit for too many people (okay all of 2) all too often. If you have a pet, freakin take care of it. Geez. At least once a month, I am running across town to feed someone else's pets! I complain about it, but I do it because pets need love, too. That's the other reason I hate feeding her cat; Howie needs more love and more attention than she's giving. That's all I'm sayin'. He has the essentials: food and water. But he is a very social cat and he needs more than just the bare necessities. I am sure she gives him all the love he can ask for when she's around, but she goes out of town every other weekend.

More fun stuff. Sunday I went to Busch Gardens with my friend Scott, his fiance and her sister. It was an interesting day. I had fun on the coasters and I had fun catching up with Scott. I felt like I was talking a ton. But when I wasn't chatting up Scott, there was dead silence. His fiance seems really nice and her sister, too. I am happy for Scott. He is such a good person and he deserves all the happiness he can find. I was quite proud of myself for agreeing to go. I am not very good with social situations, especially when I don't know everyone there. Normally, I would have just avoided the phone calls altogether, but for some reason I was brave enough to venture out. I even went at a time that I could have been spending with Ryan.

On Saturday I went to Starbucks to lounge and read. I love going to get a cup of hot coffee and reading for a couple of hours. It's nice to people watch. I love to read and I love to drink coffee. It's always a nice little afternoon relaxation for me.

All in all I had a good weekend. There's a commercial playing now that gave me pause this weekend. I'm usually multi-tasking during commercials, so I haven't seen the commercial, but just hearing it has enough impact. The voice over guy basically says, "Instant gratification. We lean on it heavily these days. Don't like your car, get a new one. Don't like your house, get a new one. Don't like your job, quit and get a new one. Don't like your spouse, divorce and get a new one. Whatever happened to commitment? At (such and such place) we know commitment..." Or something like that. What ever did happen to commitment. I often wonder why I can't be happy in any of the jobs I've had/currently have. I want to commit to a place, but find myself unhappy after about 4-5 months. My resume shows jobs at least 4 jobs that I held for less than 1.5 years. Some of that is just the nature of a college experience, but some of it is just me being restless. The commercial gave me a renewed sense of semi-loyalty to my current job. I'll make it at least to the year mark. And if we move to Orlando, I will have worked here for about 1.5 years. To be honest, I barely make it here every day; I'm not exactly looking forward to making it to July.

This post is long. I leave you with this: Julie sent me an email today. Someone had apparently found an old catalog from JCPenney. It was from 1977 and was full of hilarious pictures, showing the style of that era.

And finally: Julie's thought for the day: The bigger the hair, the closer to God.

office drama

From the fake smiles, empty compliments and the inevitable trail of gossip, the office is just not the warmest environment these days. I am sick and tired of shallow relationships. There are 4 personality types to contend with at my job.

The first is the chick (this is definitely a female drama issue) who wants everyone to like her. She offers a pretense of friendship. The second is the gossip monger who welcomes any slander, office talk or juicy news. The third is the up front, in your face, no bull lady. She will tell you like it is consistently and she isn’t afraid to clash opinions with anyone. The last is the quiet chick that easily fades into the background. She is friends with everyone simply b/c she doesn’t want to cause ripples with everyone.
None of these, in and of themselves are all that bad. It’s the extremes of the personalities that cause problems, it is the extremes of these types that exist in my office. It is exhausting to run into these personalities every which way you turn. I do not try to say that I am above these types. I show traits in all of these categories, and I am not proud of that. I would love to put my head down and get through the day without a scratch. The problem lies in the fact that to be above the gossip, above the shallow relationship and clear of negative karma, it would require a complete distancing from all the women altogether. The work day would be more than rough to sit at my desk alone and have no one to chat with when boredom prevails. It is not easy working in an office full of women.

There are some very nice people in the department, though not enough to make it a happy environment. C’est la vie.

new digs

I have never been a particular fan of that phrase "new digs", but it seems to float into the office a lot. When I first moved into the fish bowl, many of the frequent hallway traffic population felt it necessary to come in and ask how I liked the "new digs" and also tell me all about how it looked before I sat there. The first 10 times it was tolerable, but anything after that was downright insufferable.
I have since graduated from the fish bowl (yea!), right into the shark’s den it seems (boo). Truly, for anyone who’s been as obsessed with Discovery Channel’s Shark Week as I am, sharks don’t have dens, but who cares anyway? But I digress. I have made the official move, waiting on the promotion and not really holding my breath for the raise. I have been rather productive on this end of the office, mostly because there are more people to waltz by and think, “Wait a minute. Since when did crossword puzzles become urology-related?” So, with the new job comes new responsibility. I must be cautious about how much downtime I take from the daily grind. The upside is, now that I am forced away from my desk for lunch I have been taking lunch outside.
I have thus far managed to keep up with Dr. Important’s requests and stayed under the radar.
In other news, family vacation (groan) begins this Friday. Ryan has been making several threats to hide me in the closet until the vacation passes. I’m considering allowing him to do so. My little sister has been staying with me for the last few days, and I am nearly ready to throw her out bodily. Maybe it is just because I love my personal space and feel much better when I know I can live as comfortably as I like in my personal space. When the space bubble is invaded, my stress level shoots up. I am honestly not looking forward to piling into an RV with my family for 13 days, bumping along the road all the way to exciting South Dakota. We will be staying at an RV camp (good Lord, shoot me now) for approx. 5 nights before coming home again. I cannot think of one single exciting thing about South Dakota and I doubt the RV camp will be anywhere near any decent shopping, provided SD actually has decent shopping. I’ve seen Rushmore. I’ve watched their projection light show thing. I’ve walked through their museum and taken pictures beside their giant heads. Haven’t I paid my due respect? We have been taking these road trips since I was 10 years old, which means for over half my life, I have spent 2 weeks in a car with my family and I still speak to all of them. Hell, I even took a 14 hour plane ride to the other side of the world with just my temperamental father and rapidly aging grandmother. My dad is already planning the next 2 years worth of trips. My brother and his wife wriggled their way out of this years trip claiming something about getting married and not having vacation time for it. Well mark my words, next year, if I’m not married, I will have a comparable excuse. Maybe I’ll be living in another state by then and just won’t be able to go. Here’s hoping.

blast to the past

A long, long time ago, I was a freshman in college. I was so excited to load up my explorer and move into the dorms with 2 random roommates. My whole life fit into a few boxes and and would be cramped up in the room that was in Reid Hall (the only dorm I saw on campus back during Preview that I said looked sad and dingy). I learned to love living in that tiny space.
I enjoyed the little accomplishments that came with living "on my own" for the first time. For example, I remember the first time I realized I had run out of clean clothes. I sat down on the dorm floor and tried desperately to remember my mom's laundry words of wisdom. My much more experienced roommate, Maggie, looked at me laughingly and asked, "Had I really never done my own laundry?!" And seriously, apart from moving clothes from washer to dryer, the laundry world was an unknown land of mystery to me. "Is an orange gator shirt a dark or a light?" "Do I have to do something special to keep my bras in good shape?" "How do you wash a striped shirt?".
I remember how excited I was when I could claim that I had used an entire tube of toothpaste from start to finish, all by myself ! I loved doing my own laundry, pretending I could cook in the dorm kitchen, using my own toothpaste and running off at all hours of the night to get ice cream at the union.
My roommate taught me much more than which clothes were dark and which were light. She taught me the beauty of wearing a thong, sat with me during my first beers (on her birthday) and showed me how to put make-up on. Before college, the only alcohol I'd ever had was the wine at church.
I remember dreaming of law school and how I would dress fashionably beautiful and impress the jury and judges and win lots of cases. I figured out which classes I had to go to and which I could skip and still pass. I did crosswords with Rachel during Calc 2 lecture and paid highly focused attention during TA class.
Somewehere between the 5 apartments and 12 roommates I had during my college years, law school lept out of the picture, the ideas teaching, nursing and motherhood crept in and out and then I graduated. I lost the explorer (to a relatively harmless incident with lots of speed and a gaurd rail on I-175) and switched to a more sensible car that would take me into the years after college and could suit the needs of the possiblity of children. There was a period between my junior and senior year when I realized that I was doing it all way! too! fast! I met a boy and we fell in love. I took off for Australia for a couple of months to slow the pace of college and the impending graduation that carried with it an enormous amount of pressure.

I am now sitting in my 5th apartment in the same city. I am elbow deep in disapppointment with the career path I am stumbling on now. Working the front desk at the hotel was easy enough, the Alligator was fun but stressful, I loved working at the chocolate store, and then I was ready to move on. I always assumed I would just have a fabulous job that would pay me lots of money and I would be extremely happy. Turns out, I am happy but simultaneously dissatisfied. I still enjoy doing laundry, and now I share my tubes of toothpaste with my ultra sweet boyfriend. I still wear thongs and have developed a strong obsession with shoes and purses. I drink very occassionaly. I wish I had more friends or was at least better at keeping up with the small handful of friends I do have.
I was looking at some pictures from someone's facebook (a site that is addicting and somehow marks either the level or lack of achievement I've cultivated vs what other people my age are doing) and I came across a picture of a friend who went to grad school and moved to Texas to be with the man she loved right after. She went to school for elementary education and got a job right smack in the thick of exactly what she wanted to do. She was sitting in between a huge group of fourth graders with a huge smile on her face, saying how much she loved her kids. I thought to myself, "I could do that". Laney just got a fairly decent paying job as a high school english teacher, Marcy works at high school in gainesville teaching. Other English majors did it, why can't I? Frankly, I'm afraid of failure. I'm afraid I will discover I don't like it, the way I discovered I didn't like banking and the way I'm finding I don't much care for being a secretary.
Do I really want to invest more time and more money into an education only to find that I'm not really sure I want to take my life in that direction shortly after entering that career field? There isn't really a fabulous wardrobe associated with being an elementary school teacher, pumps are almost flat out of the question. The idea of dealing with parents freaks me out. Yet, I always, always find myself toying with the idea of teaching.
Reading the Wonderful Lie has really got me thinking about what I really want to do and wondering how long it will take to get to the point of knowing. The only thing that so far seems to be working out is the fact that I am still in love.

it's a circus

Today has been one of those crazy kind of days at work. It doesn't matter where you work or what you do, there will always be a day (or several) when everything seems hectic and people seem to be on edge and stepping on other toes in their haste to calm their own day down. Today is that day for me.
It seems that everyone would like to ask me to do something for them that needs to be done yesterday. Well, since it is only my 4th week here on Thursday, I am still learning things. For example, I do not know the names of all the really important people, who have the right to interupt mr. doctor's appts to chat on the phone. Each day I learn something new that I apparently should have known before.
Another pet peeve of mine that has recently developed is when people ask me to type up an excel document for them and then when I send it back, she requests that I add a freaking column title. Seriously, if i created the whole damn document for you, I would think that it is a simple task to create a stinking title or add a flippin' column. I could understand if it was a difficult thing like formatting the page to fit the dimensions or creating a succinct document that is similarl in appearance to another document i've created for her, but add a line? This is where I draw the line.
I am constantly learning things in this position, (up to and including not letting people take advantage of me) but secretary extrordinaire is not my lifetime calling. While I enjoy the mindless work, sometimes I feel like people see me and my mindless job as a sign that I am a mindless person. This is not the case my friends. I am an intelligent person with hopes and dreams and feelings. I am hoping to utilize the free school option at first opportunity and take my skills elsewhere eventually. I am also hoping that Ryan finds a job and decides that we should move and I won't have to job search if things get bad here. There are a lot of things I am hoping for though, so mostly I just wait and take opportunities where they are available.

In other news, Ryan's mom is teaching me to sew! The first thing I ever made was a pillow case. She basically did everything except the straight seams, which I totally conquered. I am currently working on new curtains for my bedroom. The fabric is a toille with little farm-like "girl" scenes (as Ryan calls them). My curtains have been dubbed girl curtains, however!, the print is in blue and the valance is navy blue. Therefore, they are girlish, yet boyish, too. I really would like to get my skill up in the sewing dept. It's very fun and it makes me feel crafty and home-maker-ish. i love it.

Birthdays

This past Wednesday, I turned the seasoned age of 23. However, I do not particularly like odd numbers, therefore this entire year will be officially known as the 1st anniversary of my 22nd birthday. Or I am 22 for short while (1 yr) longer. The celebration of said birthday began on Friday, Feb 9 and ended yesterday (Feb. 18).
I believe I must have gained about 5lbs during the course of the celebration, but sometimes your just gotta live a little, you know? This week I will be re-doubling my efforts toward fitting into my bridesmaid dress on March 23. I've got about a month to re-lose 2lbs and lose an additional 5. Realistically speaking, I can do it. Unrealistically speaking, I would like to lose 15lbs by the wedding, but I've been living a lot instead of a little.

Today was supposed to be my first day at the Dermitology office. Instead I am working at UF as a lowly Secretary. However, this lowly Secretary position is paying me more than the crappy bank and giving me better benefits. I just have to adjust my attitude and set my pride down a bit and realize the benefits rather than acknowledging the desire to massage my ego. Eventually, I will get to a point of satisfaction in my job, position and salary, I just have to start at the bottom of the ladder to get there. I'm one rung higher in pay, the rest will come in time. I like the job so far, in that I am constantly busy, but still have some time to do things like post a blog. I don't like it so far, in that the day starts at 6:15 for me and I am sitting 85% of the day. I will have to find a way to incorporate more movement, i.e. more bathroom trips, water re-fills, and standing in general.

I got the job!

I put in my letter of resignation to my boss last Friday. I told her that I felt it was time to move on toward my career goals (what career goals?) and that I had accepted another position with the University. Well, it turns out I didn't get my first choice job with the University, but I did get my second choice position. After a long interview process, they finally extended the job offer to me yesterday. I didn't negotiate my salary as well as I wish I had. But I called back today and accepted the position and asked if I could have .50 more per hour. She said it was do-able, but she had to clear it with someone else first. Either way, it is going to be a much better position for me than the hellhole.

I think I am interested in a career in Healthcare Administration. Not necessarily at a big hospital or anything, but possibly a clinic or smaller healthcare facility. I'm still working on figuring out exactly what I want to do with my life. I know that I want a family and children and my own house and a comfortable living. I'm not greedy or money starved, I just want enough to retire comfortably and afford the things that make my life simple but happy. I am more than happy to keep a consistent job throughout marriage and raising children, but I know I want to be there for the finer moments in child rearing. As far as what kinds of jobs I want, I have no idea. I just through my applications out there and hope for the best. Now back to work.

Tax season

I officially did my very own taxes last night. I used Turbo Tax and it was finished in 30 min. Every year, I hit some sort of landmark where I feel more like a "real" adult, living on my own and supporting myself. Turning 18 didn't do it for, but little things like finishing an entire tube of toothpaste by msyelf. Doing my own laundry in the dorms for the first time. Doing my own taxes. These are things that make me feel less like a child and more like someone who is capable of surviving without the constant supervision of her parents.
I have decided to use a portion of my taxes to pay down my credit card, another portion will go directly into my savings account and the final portion will be taken to Orlando when I go on a shopping spree to celebrate being a working girl woman. I haven't quite decided on how responsible I want to be, but there is definitely some shopping in my near future.

Can I have a new job please?

Reasons why I hate my job:
1. Promotions that make clients jump through flaming hoops to "get the deal"
2. Finap Frenzy Days
3. Clients who think I, personally, have wronged them for their own screw up or for policies which I actually have no say in creating

Our current promotion claims that our clients will get something Free! Free! Free!, when in reality they have to maintain certain fine print details in order to achieve the not-so-free-anymore product. What that means for me is that if I am still working at the hellhole, in a few weeks when people go to redeem their prize, the fine print will eliminate half the contestants! And that half of the contestants will certainly not sit on their butts and twiddle their thumbs, that half is most certainly going to come in and yell at me as representative of the hellhole and blame me for the wrong that I have done against them. Definitely quitting soon. Definitely.

In other, happier news, Ryan and I had dinner with his sister's family and his parents last night. Little Jack and the Finnster are so precious. Finn has taken quite a fancy for Ryan. He climbs into Ryan's lap, leans up against his stomach and insists that Ryan look at/read a book to him. Meanwhile, Jack runs around on an adrenaline rush because the Cheese! Nana! and his Uncle Ryan! are there to play with him. I can't get over the cuteness of those children.

After dinner, we went over to Erich's house to play Settlers of Catan. Usually, it's just a bunch of guys sitting around the table making manly jokes. Last night, however, was an unspoken bring your girlfriend to hang out with the guys night. Fish brought his girl, I came with Ryan, Cory brought his Erika and Erich's girlfriend Stacey came in later. Settlers of Catan is a "game of economics and strategy". For our group, it means we have to form alliances to simultaneously get what we need individually only to break those alliances to help someone beat our enemies. I threatened Ryan with sleeping on the couch, Justin was offering sexual favors to anyone who would trade him an Ore, Erich & Eddie were whispering sweet nothings ("I'll give you 2 wood so you can build those roads if you give me a grain for my settlement") and Cory & Erika had their heads together plotting to win. Fun was had by all involved.