Kiki's Financial Blabbing

surprisngly the concert went really, really well!! None of my family could be there because of lots of little issues but I think that helped me relax and do better.

I did fine until the very end when I spaced on the words and just said the same words for the end of the previous verse. No one noticed.

Lots of applause, cheering and great comments. My instructor came up after the concert and gave me a big hug. She was so happy as was I.

One little girl came up after and asked for my autograp. It was a nice feeling and I was shocked she asked.

It made me realize that I do miss performing and I just need to get over my stage fright. This kind of theater was perfect. Small, intimate, cozy. It held probably 100 people and was not full at all. The lights were so bright from the stage you could see nothing of the audience. Just shapes and general figures but you could not tell who they were except for the first row.

All in all I am very pleased with it for the first performance in ten years. What I feeling! I forgot how much I missed it.

I upped my retirement withholding another $50 a month. $25 more to the 401k and $25 more to the 457 plan. It feels nice to be putting away more money and it really does not take a lot out of my paychecks. I think this will drop my total monthly income to a number I can live with, still get out of debt and still save some. Once I am ready to make a decision about buying a house I will take away some of the retirement savings for more house savings. There is also the $50 a month I put away to the ameritrade account and the $300 the state takes out for the state retirement too so I am looking at $900 or so a month away right now plus this extra $50.

Someone at work approached me about another job she knew about. It is similar to what I am doing now but would be with a university and hospitals. I jokingly told her, sure for about 25k more a year and she didn’t bat an eye. She said, I think you could ask for even more than that. I was floored. Seems my reputation for getting work completed has gone beyond the office and department I work in. I will get a resume to her right away so they can look it over and tell me yes or no with the skill sets I have.
It is yet another road to try and cross. At least I used to work at this university and am only a few months away from being completely vested in their retirement program.

I am off in my budgeting this month. I am already into the new allowance and this has to last until the 17th but I am already half way down. I can’t figure out what is making me so spendy and wanting to spend money. I also bought a new purse. Now I needed one but I did not need one that expensive. What am I thinking about these days?

Everything else is going good. I had a little altercation with a colleague this AM about something she was doing on work time after being out sick for two days. I told her it was inappropriate and could potentially be a problem for our employer legally for her to be doing this. She got upset and stopped but then I could not find her for several hours. When our boss called looking for her I was honest and said that I had been looking for her for several hours but had not seen her. Covering for an employee like this is not something I will do.

I had to sing again tonight. I did it perfectly during the rehearsal but then in the actual " performance" to a group of students I totally spaced on the words to the third verse. What the heck? I am so frustrated but decide next time I am choosing a piece from into the woods.

I hope things go smoothly Friday. My sister has not heard me sing since I was twelve and she and her family are coming. My niece is really excited about this. But I am scared the nerves will take over again. It has been so long since I performed but I thought it would be like riding a bike but I was wrong, it's not.

Ugh.

Quiet day today. I just made my grocery list out for the next couple of weeks or so. I have the coupons ready to print so I will head out in an hour or so.
I am still thinking about what I can do for my room. I am thinking of restructuring how he room is set up, maybe moving some furniture around to see what else I can do in here. Maybe moving my bed into the middle of the room more and putting up a small book case for a head board type thing. Would give me more storage in mu room and get my bed away from the wall where I can hear everything. Or I could just start looking for a new place to live. Not sure what I am going to do yet.

Having no real plans for the day is really nice. I will have groceries here, make some recipes for the week, pack some lunches and dinners, and then figure out the room thing, at least looking at what I can do in here.

I spent the day with my nieces and nephew for most of the day. I did rehearse 4 songs to try and figure out what I am going to do the concert, or not perform. I'll figure that out by Tuesday.

My nephew ad his first base ball game ever today. Hs did well but they lost the game. After it was over their family, my mother and I went to Red Robin for an early dinner. I volunteer to watch the kids so my sister and her hubby could go and do something. They ran to do a little shopping and then went to the gym together, swim and work out and whatever.
I watched the kids for about 3.5 hours so that they could do that.

I played Sorry with B (12) and M (4) while N (10) played outside for an hour with friends (our compromise) then he came in and the older kids and I played Monopoly. M assisted me with the banker duties (I told her what we needed and she did gave it to me, rolled the dice, moved my playing piece.) Come to think of it, I really didn’t do much except decide what properties to buy! When she began to get sleepy and I asked if she wanted to watch a movie. She snuggled up to me with her blanket and stuffed bunny and enjoyed her 20 minutes of movie. I think she was surprised I asked her if she wanted to watch a movie as I really don’t believe in it except for small times. Too much TV these days for kids in my opinion. The movie had been on about 20 minutes when sis and hubby came home. I really don't believe in the video thing but I know they have a routine bed time thing and that M would not have gone to bed for me any way.

We had a simply fantastic day and evening and my sister and her hubby got some much needed time alone together. It was just wonderful.

I sit in my room and look around and know I need to organize it better. I was so organized when I moved in but over the months (two years now!) I am not. Part of it is when you live in a small room you acquire more stuff over time but there is no more room to put stuff. I used to be good about if i brought something home, something else had to go out but I have fallen away from that recently. I think I am going to move a half book case into the corner where another one is and try to put something else in that corner. Maybe doing some “Feng Shui” make over will help the flow of energy and how I fel about my room. I am going to tackle one corner tomorrow and make it more livable and feel “cleaner and clearer”.

I blame BA and his room make over for this urge!

I had a two hour rehearsal with the accompanist tonight. He is very talented and spent almost twenty years on Broadway and traveling the world. He totally understand singing and acting is a really character himself.

It was a very frustrating rehearsal because I could not remember the words. Tone good, breathing good, timing excellent, personalization of song good. Remembering the words to the song you have known since you were 10, impossible.
I am unbelievable frustrated. We spent an hour after the rehearsal looking at new music and discussing the chance of changing the song. I just don’t know what to do.

Ugh, my dream of singing again is just frustrating me to no end. I am going to spend the rest of the night looking at old music scores and seeing if I can find something in one of them.

Maybe Children Will Listen from Into the Woods?

In my life version by bette midler?

No matter what from nottinghill?

Whistle down the wind from WDTW? (horrible play but love this song)

As if we never said good bye from Sunset blvd?

A light in the piazza from A light in the piazza? (beautiful play)

With one look from Sunset blvd?

Send in the clowns?

Ugh, lots to look at tomorrow. leaning toward children will listen becaus emy famly would enjoy it and it is a nice piece.

I am taking a voice class here in Sacramento that I love but struggle with. Tonight was our second solo performance of the semester. I am struggling with stage fright a bit and tonight I could not remember the words to the third verse. It frustrates me because I sang for years and now, phbt I can remember songs I have known for 15years?

The instructor still invited me to perform at the special pops concert at the college next friday. I said yes and she is a bit nervous I will forget the words again. So am I but I came home and sang it about 15 times and got all the words. I love this song!

I think part of my problem was the accompanist never worked with me ahead of time and theusic sounded very different than what I am used to. The new accompanist plays it like I know it and it flows better. I can't wait to get back on stage and sing again. I loved it when I was younger and miss it so much.

Thrifty Rays blog got me to thinking about life lists. (Have a wonderful vacation Thrifty Ray!)

I’ve created lists for as long as I can remember. I’ve created goals for myself, some that came true some that didn’t. I am nowhere near doing what I thought I would be doing at the age of 33.

Recently that movie the bucket list got me to thinking. I saw it several times with different groups of friends and discussed it a lot after. Then that scene from the move “Serendipity” came to me a few weeks ago at dinner with friends. The scene at the end of the movie where a friend has written another characters obituary. Morbid I know but it has gotten several of us thinking recently about lost goals, new goals and steps we can take to make them happen.

My friend A graduated from college this past December. She began ten years ago and after three years left school to support her husband to finish his. The plan was, he graduates then she would get to go back to school. Never happened! Her realization that her marriage was over was when he applied for graduate school and never told her. When he was accepted he told her they were moving to Phoenix. This did not happen. She left and never looked back. While celebrating Christmas with three friends she let spill that she had applied for a job out of state in the industry she has worked in for ten years. She got the job and moved in the beginning of January.

Why as I blogging so much about this? She has really inspired me to take a look where I am in life and see where I am going is not where I want to be. I struggle with the decisions I need to make and that the decisions may take me away from family and friends again, including my sister who just moved back to CA with her hubby and kids after 20 years abroad.

Then while writing all my goals and dreams I got an email from a friend who has no idea what I am thinking about or struggling with. Here it is below:

Top 100

I want you to list the top 100 things you want to do before you die. Is it too morbid? No, it’s too real because it’s your life.

If you don’t know what you want, why then are you living? If you don’t know what you want then others will dictate your life and tell you to do.

If you don’t know what you want you haven’t looked in the mirror and evaluated your being. If you don’t know what you want, you are someone else’s statistic. If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, you’re not going to get it done.

I want you to list the things you want to do and then set out to do them.

Include simple things.
Include your dreams.
Include the possible.
Include the impossible.
Include what you can afford.
Include what you can’t afford.
Include your loved ones.
Include your friends.
Include your past (i.e. I m forgiving so and so.)
Include your today.
Include your tomorrow.

Write it down.
Re-read it.
And then live it.

(Taken from a book titled “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” by Dr. Samuel Kojoglanian also know as Dr. Rap. Dr. Rap is a famous heart specialist.)

It has been awhile for me to post but here are some updates:

I paid 1500 for a car repair on Friday. The lovely gentleman told me all about a special they had ONLY this month that included a buy 3 get one free rebate on struts. My struts were original to the car and I have about 125k miles on my car. One was leaking something so I said ok go ahead. Found out when I read the fine print on the rebate, the rebate is good through October 31. This means I could have waited a month and then been able to pay cash instead of paying 700 cash and charging the rest. (I only had 700 in my repair account but would have had the cash next month with tax returns and pay check.)

When I read that I raised holy hell and now am waiting for the owner of the branch to call me and “see what we can do to make sure I stay a customer.” The guy who told me all this BS said, well we only had 2 coupons left, I didn’t know if we would get more. When I replied it was listed on the manufactures website and a website is listed on the coupon he just said well I didn’t know. Bull! I feel totally taken advantage of and can’t believe it. I am not sure what to ask the owner but I feel like asking for all the labor to be repaid back to me. The parts I can live with, just give me back the labor I didn’t need to pay for until next month.

I took my niece and nephew to the movies Saturday to see the Horton movie. Pretty good and well done I thought. Cute afternoon had by all. I paid for it from the money I made house sitting Saturday night and picking up them at the train station Sunday. ($60) put the rest into the cc bill for the car repair.

I took them and their older sister and her friend for a Jamba Juice (they were at an open gym for gymnastics training and missed the movie). While we were walking to our car I noticed the car net to us had their front windows open a bit and a child in a car seat strapped in while no adults were around. I was shocked that someone would leave their child in car unattended. Luckily the day was cool but I was furious. Since it was parked closest to the JJ I asked the kids (two 12 year olds, a 10 year old and a four year old to get in my car and put their seat belts on. I walked back to the JJ and yelled as loud as I could at the 16 or so people, “Has someone here left their child unattended in their car? I just called the police and I wanted you to know.”

A man slunk off his seat and about 8 people followed him out. I knew they were not with him but I am glad there were other witnesses because I totally chewed him out about it as he got his absolutely adorable daughter out of his car.

He actually told me the following two statements:

"It is not hot, the windows are down and she was safe as the car doors were locked." I asked him to relock his car the way he had before. In front of the entire group now standing there I stuck my hand through the open window and unlocked the car and opened the back door. No alarm. I told him if you unlock the car from within it turns off the alarms for most cars." He went white.

The second thing he told me was that his "daughter was shy and would not go with strangers." I said “really? I talked to her through the front door and she came right over to me and held my hand when she got out of the car. In 30 second you could have lost your daughter for ever.”

Just at that time the police came up, partly because I called and also because someone called and reported a hysterical woman (me) yelling at a man and a child (him). I don’t know what the eventually did but the police took statements from everyone who watched him get her out of the car and me.

The kids who were with me just watched and said nothing until I got back in the car then they said they were proud of me for saying something to him. I was so mad I had to sit there for a few minutes and calm down.

I told the friend of my niece to tell her parents I am not a raving lunatic but I will say something if it impacts a child. She told her mom who called me, all her mom said was thank you for teaching my daughter that sometimes it is necessary to get involved and save someone and that it is not OK to leave her younger brother and sister in the car for, even just for a minute.

For those of you who might have heard about the incident, I apologize for the disturbance!

The rest of the past few days have gone by quietly.

Finally got my taxes done I get back around 600 from fed and pay the wonderful state of California 75. I’m ok with that. I already changed my deductions for state so that I don’t have to pay next year.
I interviewed for a new job last week and they called me 15 minutes after I left and offered me the job. I thought about it for the weekend and turned it down. Now you might be wondering why since I do want to leave my job but it comes down to money. If I took the job I would put myself in a corner with a classification that would not pay me any more money but if I stay in the current classification (and pray I get to move to the head agency who owns this classification) I could earn $700 more per month. This is enough for me to want to stay. The job also had a different retirement system and that would cause me to lose more money each month to that on top of what Ii put away personally.
I also applied for a federal job in the same field but came in just shy of being able to be interviewed. At least it was nice to know I qualified for the position. This time last year they said I didn’t. There are several jobs open in the same category and I applied for them all. Some are outside of California so I would have to move but I think I am up for the challenge.
There is one that would require me to just take the train to the bay area for work I think I could handle that for a while as long as I had a mode of transportation out of there in case of earth quake again. I am thinking motor scooter or something like that. Or possibly just moving down there and renting a room form someone for a while. We’ll see what happens but for every job I apply to I am looking at the area, determining a plan of action if I was offered a job.
Easter is coming and it seems so early this year.
My sister and her husband asked it I could watch the kids for the next 9 Mondays as they wasn’t to take ball room dancing class. They have literally no time together and eventuially that takes a toll oon a relationship. I told them even if they don’t like it to find something else to do on Mondays and soend some time together. I think they will enjoy it and I will enjoy getting to spend some time with the nieces and nephews.
Doing well on the spending front. I am within my budget this month and still have all of next weeks allowance/grocery/gas money so I am really happy. What sucks is that I am on spring break from school and there is nothing playing at the theaters to go an dsee. I finally have time and nothing there!
Found a great little town house. It is a short sale and is relly cute, well maintained, nice neighborhood, kitchen already re done. Just about perfect. It is just not anywhere near where I want to live and the commute would be really bad. With gas approaching 4 a gallon I would have to take light rail to work which is something I already do but this would be my only option and would take an hour or so. I am not liking that so I think I might keep it on the short list and see what else I can find. If I gotthe job at the other state agency it would not be a bad commute of only 45 or so miles and free parking! So I keep waiting to hear from them!!

edited to add: My monthly deposit for surveys is up to $73. I am hoping for another couple dollars to make it to $75 for the month. What a nice feeling it would be!

So I sent the application to the job I wanted in West Virginia. Got the email back that my file was complete and they submitted it to the HR person for review. Today I got the email that said I was qualified for the job but my application was not sent on because there were others more qualified. I called to see how far down on the list I was and they said I was number 5. They send only the four most qualified applications for review by the interview committee? I was a bit frustrated when I heard that. They did say that they will keep my application on file for the next 180 days and if something else came up would I be interested in having my application reviewed? I said yes (of course)! They then asked me about the places where they might have jobs opening up and if I was interested in moving to any of them. I said yes to all. I may not be interested in moving to all of the places they listed but if my application is reviewed it starts the clock all over again on the 180 days.

Now I have to admit I was most interested in this one job because it was just an hour or so outside of D.C. I have always wanted to live in that area, even if it is just for a short time because I love D.C. and have loved visiting it in the past.

I went grocery shopping again on Saturday to Savemart. I wanted some ground turkey and they were all priced 3.99 with a sticker that said they were not 2 for $6. I picked up one and finished shopping. As I checked out it rang up for $5.99 on the receipt. I went to the customer service desk and asked about it because all the ground turkey was marked as one price. They agreed with me that it was confusing, no sticker on the shelf where it was and they refunded the price and gave me one of the others for free. I an starting to like Savemart and hope I catch them at least one a week. (so far it has totaled $8 back to me and free products to boot in two weeks.)

I took my mom to see the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee play. It was hysterical and we both laughed so much. There were difficult moments and sad moments but mostly it was funny. They even pick audience members to participate before the show. I was interviewed but did no get selected. Everyone is given pretty hard words except for the audience members selected. They were given words like cow, umbrella and jihad. (although the speller with jihad missed on her first try and was excused). The audience members are up there for about the first third of the play and did really well. The last gentleman was recalled several times until he missed the word and they could excuse him and continue with the play. It is adult continent (one song about puberty and if my straight laced pretty conservative mom can laugh, well then everyone else can) but it was so well done and the actors really acted like 10 and 12 year olds. Just really a cute play that I recommend seeing if it comes to your area!

SO… am looking at applying for a job in West Virginia pan handle near DC. It is in my field and something I would love to do but it means moving 3000 miles from my family. It would mean a pay raise of approximately 25k a year. The cost of living indexes are the following:

Cost of Living Indexes (100 is average of USA)

Overall
Sacramento 119 West Virginia 76

Food
Sacramento 119 West Virginia 96

Housing
Sacramento 129 West Virginia 46

Utilities
Sacramento 110 West Virginia 76

Transportation
Sacramento 112 West Virginia 100

Health (care costs)
Sacramento 147 West Virginia 88

Miscellaneous
Sacramento 102 West Virginia 96


Obviously housing, utilities, and health costs are all cheaper as is the overall cost of living in West Virginia. Anyone know anyone living near the area who could give me advice about the area and if it is nice enough to move there?

I have always wanted to live near DC. It would mean being near my dad, whom I have seen pretty much 7 times in my life. But no big deal there for me.

I am at lest going to apply for it and if I get an interview I can fly back to the area and check it out. Houses are very cheap out there which is a nice thing to see compared to CA.

The other check came in today from the investments I sold. It totaled 2500 and some change. This is enough to pay off another card and either save 390 or turn it into one of the last two cards. All together I have paid off 7k in debt in the past month and over 11 k since November. It feels nice to have a lot paid off. There is still more to do but totally do able this year.

I joined a credit program off one of my cc today. I wanted to see what my current FICO scores were, get an updated series of credit reports and see what happens over the next month as a large chunk of debt is cleared off my records. I found out my scores ranged from 767 to 781 (weird how much they differed) and I’d like to see them jump quite a bit in the next year. Before I purchase a house I’d like to see my scores go up to 800. I am hoping with no debt other than student loans my score will go even higher and break that 800 mark. It was worth it to me to check my scores and get those little alerts each month until I get my goals completed. Does anyone know why the scores differ so much? It always seems that Experian is the lowest and Equifax is the highest, why is that?

I mailed off my tax stuff for 2007 to the new tax person. The new person I used last year has taken the next two year off from the business to spend time with his new daughter. This was his part time hjob (to the tune of about 50 hours a week during tax season) so he has turned all his clients over to his sister who runs a similar business. It took me this long to get all my papers this year. I had a health savings account through my previous job and needed to get their approval for some items purchased this last year and it took forever, even with the receipts I sent to them. So…now that this is taken care of and cleared for 2007 I can get my taxes done and find out how much I owe or get back. This year was to close for me to calculate with my rough calculations. I just hope I don’t have to pay anything for either Federal or State.

February was an expensive month for me because I fell off the wagon in terms of bringing my lunch to work. Today I brought my lunch, yeah me! I almost had a no spend day but I just remembered I paid for parking this morning because I was later than I should have been. But at least I brought my lunch!

I went shopping at Save mart tonight. I rarely go there because Safeway is closer and around the corner.

I bought Mozarella and the label read 4.49 but it rang up at 4.99. I went to customer service and there was a long line. I almost went home thinking it is only 50 cents when someone opened up. She went to check the price and discovered I was right. She gave me the product free and returned my $5 back to me. Who knew? This was extremely helpful because I was $12 over my budget for the week but this way I am only $7 over. (But not really over as I bought my favorite cereal for the next three weeks and some extra carrots on sale.)

I'll be going back to Save mart more often and checing their receipt carefully in the future! woohoo!

I made a decision earlier this week to turn in some investments and receive the money so that I can use them to pay down debt. Between the $4500 I have received thus far and the $1200 I have monthly from my budget I was able to pay off quite a bit this month. This is reflected in the ticker to the left. I have one more investment for which I am awaiting the payment which should be about $3500 or so which means I will pay off one more card and a piece of another. This means that by the beginning of April I will have only 1 cc with a debt of about 9k left. Totally do able by the end of the year.
This means that I will have $1200 out of my budget each month plus the amount I pay in rent ($465) to consider for a house payment. Now realistically I want to pay less than $1665 each month for a house but at least it is something I can seriously consider. Here in Sacramento the housing market is bad and getting worse which while horrible for those who made the decision to buy high and sell low or to move into a house they could obviously not afford it is good for me. I am scoping out the market and area to see where I would want to purchase a house and have two specific areas in which I look. Obviously I want it to be in a safe neighborhood as I am going to be living alone (hopefully). I want to be able to afford the house on my own but I would consider taking in a renter to share the house and expenses keeping my expenses as low as possible and trying to pay extra to the mortgage each month.
I am astounded at the government’s ideas to try and help those who cannot afford their homes now. Why purchase a home that you cannot afford and expect that in the future you would be able to afford it? Especially in CA where the COL goes up every year and inflation costs are not met with the raises people receive? Stockton which is less than an hour away has the highest rates of foreclosures in the nation and will decimate the economy in the middle portion of this state. I know the decisions to help are done because to allow more foreclosures would mean an even worse economy but really. I could have qualified for a home 4 years ago even with my debt and that would mean I would receive the assistance of the government now but I made the decision not to put myself out in such a way that would be bad for me in the future. It just drives me nuts.

I am considering trying to find a part time job, even loading groceries or working in a cafe, to pay off everything faster and get to a nice down payment faster but I am seeing homes in the nicer neighborhoods where I want to live come down a lot even to the mid 150k or so region and still dropping.

There is the possibility of taking a contract job for a univ down south trying to start a certificate program in the field in which I work. That would be helpful and rather a large contract. There is also the possibility of once I find a new job doing some contract work with a contractor providing services on the project I currently work. I know the project, indeed I wrote the scope of work and have worked on this project for three years but I can't do any part time work for her because it would be double dipping into grant funds the currently pay my salary. Once I leave this department and move to another then there is no problem of double dipping or any kind of impropriety.
I really hope I can get a new position. I have applied for many and interviewed and been offered but all of them are lower than I currently am so the raise I get as a state employee at one year would be about 1% with no chance of going higher. There is a new position being advertised that I will apply for tomorrow. It is slightly higher but I can move into it laterally so that is good. The best part is that the next level which I would have to promote into off an exam list is one of the highest paying jobs with the state that is not a management role. To be able to get to that area in a couple years is such an exciting idea. I will see what happens with the application and interview. I do have a favorite job that I want to get but if that fell through then this next position would be my back up. We shall see how it pans out.

So far for March I have two survey checks for $5 and one check for $50 to deposit. I am waiting until then end of the month before I deposit them to better track how much I earn in surveys each month. I house sat for two days this week netting $60 which I already deposited. I have another evening later this month as well as several nights this spring and several weeks this summer. All of that will be put toward debt to try and to get out of credit card debt faster.

I loved the movie Becoming Jane. If you get to watch it I highly recommend it. Simply Lovely!

edited to add: checked mail from Saturday and received another survey check for $2 for a total of $62 to deposit at the end of the month.

I am putting my financial ducks in a row and while I have no kids I do have an elderly parent that I would worry about if something happened to me so I want to be prepared to help her out in the event of my untimely death.

Anyone recommend a company for life insurance?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would like to change my colors like BA did but when ever I go to select colors wether from my work computer or home I get an error on page message in the lower left hand corner. Anyone else have this problem? How do we fix it? Help!

Also my blog seems to be pretty large right now but i can't figure out the reason why?

I sent my mom flowers for Valentine’s Day. I usually don’t do something like that but I had a coupon, plus a website offering 20% off plus no delivery and it was a good deal. They are beautiful flowers and I am sure she is going to love them and be so surprised. I am so happy that I could do it.
Things here are interesting. I am hoping I get money back instead of having to pay but I am afraid I did not have enough taxes taken out for state. Some rough calculations show I am about a 1k in the hole but since taxes are not my thing I am hoping it is ok. I need to find my receipts for the health savings account I had for most of the year. I know I saved them but they are not in my taxes file where I keep all my papers. I am hoping I left them in my desk at work when I faxed them to get the money back. I can remember taking them to work but I do not remember bringing them home again so I hope they are there. It was not a lot of money, only about $500 but I hope I don’t have to pay some taxes on that.
Home for work today, thanks Abe! Would have had a four day weekend but was asked at the last minute last week to train a group of people on Monday and so there goes the four day weekend and any hope of going away for a couple of days. My office management is truly amazing, and not in a good way.
I ran into an old friend from high school this past weekend. The first time I met him was in 7th grade. We were friends for a while and then he asked me “to go steady”. I said no. I continued to say no all through summer camp, each year in high school and the year after he graduated. I ran into him a few years ago after he divorced his wife and we spent some time hanging out but I was dating someone and not interested. Then he was with a girl we knew in high school. I never really cared for her but I hoped they were happy and doing well. Turns out they ended it a year or so ago and he asked me to dinner, as friends. We are going in a couple weeks as we both have business trips coming up and were busy. It will be nice to catch up with him and hear about mutual friends. I am still not interested but it was nice to hear him say he still thought I was as beautiful now as 20 years ago. He is a good guy and I wish I could have feelings for him but I just don’t.

We learned today that the man my mom almost married when I was 3 or so passed away. I don't remember him when I was little but he was a good family friend for over 30 years. It is so sad to think he is gone. My mom is quite upset as you can imagine but I think it I sore shock because she is just beginning to lose old friends.

Went to the dentist and all is good. No reason to go back for 6 months. I am always nervous I am going to have a big problem. I’ve seen the same dentist since I was about 12 so I never want to get on his bad side.

Took my mom to lunch too after the appointment since I was in town. Cheap as she had coupon and the waitress only charged her for a kids meal for her cheese burger. She can't remember the last time she had one and she said it was really good. Spending the better part of the last two days with her was nice. It snowed while I was up the hill and it was beautiful. I am so glad that it did not stick but it would have been nice calling in to work tomorrow “sorry I am snowed in.” hahaha!

I am prepping for an interview on Wednesday. I actually have to put together a mini training introducing me and the organization and how I can benefit them. Interesting idea and a lot of work for an interview. I am a little nervous but since I really want Job XXX not yet announced at another organization I am going to try and see what happens with this one. I am going to turn down the other one tomorrow when I get to work. It is just not worth it to me for this other position.

It was an inexpensive day today. Other than gas up and back to the dentist total spent on lunch was 16.00. Classes start tomorrow!

Only another week until payday and I can pay off another credit card.

Today I took my mom to the movies and for lunch. The first movie we saw was Mad Money. Made us laugh but also a little slow. The second movie was the bucket list. Good movie to me, a little slow in the beginning but great ending!
Am doing laundry now for the week. My sister’s dryer is horrible! It takes forever to dry anything. There are two pairs of jeans and a couple other small things and they have been in for an hour. If the house wasn't as cold as it is I would hang them up but I need something to run errands in tomorrow and to go to the dentist. Yippee… a visit to the dentist. I am going to try and schedule a massage tomorrow afternoon I could use one and I have a kink in my neck and shoulder that is causing pain in my elbow. I need to prepare for my interview Wednesday as well.

No spend Saturday but then again I never left the house today.

I prepared some test interview questions for a colleague going for a new job. I have a reputation for reviewing duty statements and coming up with the exact questions they will ask. I have prepared four colleagues in the past few months and all aced their interviews. What a nice feeling to help someone leave this office.

On other news the panel yesterday said I was number 1 on the list for the interview I did yesterday. It was difficult because they gave me until Wednesday to see if I want to go to the next step or do they offer it to someone else. The only good part is I would be out of the office. The bad things are in one year I would be topped out in salary, there is no chance of promotion to the next level as they don’t have that classification, I pigeon hole myself in the state service and make it difficult to get anywhere else, there is no chance to design training programs just train, I end up losing money every month because currently I don’t pay social security (I have all my credits but I am safety retirement) to the tune of $400 a month, and I would have to travel 70% of the time. But it gives me an out to leave this office. What do I do? This current classification tops out at another 1100 a month and this new one tops out at 400 per month. Ugh. Another interview on Wednesday for a different job.

It was a nice feeling meeting the director of the office and having her tell me, I want you but you need to make sure this will be right for you. I can wait until Wednesday. I really impressed her and it felt good to go in, answer questions, ask intelligent ones, debate the needs assessment I found online for this agency and just blow her out of the water. Often I think I should hire myself out to prepare people for interview. Could someone make money doing that?
Still house sitting and loving it! I truly do not want to live in a two story house but it has been nice not having to deal with house mates. This sit is unpaid because it is my sister and even what this will do for me gas budget this month it is worth it. But when I buy it will not be a two story house!

I am trying something different with my money this month. Usually I broke the three categories I use cash for into three envelopes and grab what I need for whatever. I have done this for a couple years and I really don’t over spend what I set up for the month but it does mean the last week of the month I am usually broke. This month I figured out the money for each week. $40 for gas, $50 fun, $50 groceries and so far I have stayed in line no problem. The second week I didn’t even have to get gas so I added the gas money to my car repair account. (That account took a hit in November so this is needed to rebuild back to my $1000 level.) It seems to be working better for me and I think I found the more refined program to help me save more and spend less.

401k and 457 deductions begin for me next at the end of this month. $450 to 401k, $50 to 457, $280 required retirement savings means I am saving $780 per month to retirement. And this does not include the stuff the state is putting away for me too. My goal is 1250 a month and I aim to get there slowly.

I miss Andrew but I am not sure if I miss him or the activities we did together. I can't afford some of them but he could and wanted us to do them regardless. He has called three times this week and they were good calls but I really know in my heart of hearts he is not the one for forever. I don't want to lead him one or prevent him from finding someone who wants to be with him forever. We are meeting for drinks next Friday before the wedding and going together because we were invited together so I hope that will be fun. Our friends are getting married on the 80th wedding anniversary of her grandparents.

and another week with no fast food eaten!

Quiet. House sat for my sister and her family while they are out of town. Did not sleep well in her house!
Spent money yesterday but will be returning what I bought. Nice credit back to card. I need to shop for a new outfit for the interviews, maybe tomorrow after work.
I watched TV, studied mandarin characters, read, surfed the web for a bit and did some laundry for my sister and her family. She had some stacked up as they rushed out for their vacation. She planned to do it before they left but my niece fell off the balance beam at gymnastics and ended up in the ER. This meant the last two days before they left were crutches, bandages, ice packs and trying to pack clothes BB could wear with crutches. I only hope she is not afraid to back on the beam. And that my sister is not to upset about me trying to find something to do while they were gone. Will find out in three weeks.
Spent no money today which is good! Will be at home tonight and then at sisters for the rest of the week.

Pretty boring week for me! Lots at work I can’t talk about but the situation is getting interesting.

I decided to take 750 out of savings and put toward a credit card. I wish I was brave enough to take more out but with a possible freeze on hiring at the state and maybe trying to leave my job for another one I think I want a little more in savings but if I could get rid of one more card by February I would be very happy.

Got a job interview for Friday with a new department! Not really interested in the job but of course I will do my best on the interview.

I love my current job and duties and have proven myself for three years that I really don’t want to start again. I have my eye on another department where some colleagues have gone (senior managers) who really know me, my skills, and my background and truly believe in the job I can do for them. Hopefully something will come up for this department in a couple weeks. It is really where I want to be and my professional goals lead me there.

Even if the man causing the problems leaves I think I will have to as well because the senior management of the office is upset about the situation and are not happy with me for bringing it up. Ok, let’s review the facts: the man is a two faced employee, shows one face to management and one face to those under him, he uses in appropriate language, has called the office chief a b***H in a meeting with our team, has touched me (and others but I am not sure how many) inappropriately, has lied to managers who are his equals and colleagues about courting their employees to come and work for him leaving the other managers with staffing whole, asked me to mentor a former employee who he later called a “hot, young, hottie who rides a motorcycle.” And I am the problem you have a problem with? If only they knew what he calls them behind their backs when talking those he supervises.

I'm very proud of myself for a personal goal I have managed to keep for 12 days. Might seem crazy to some but I made a goal that I reset with myself each day not to eat any fast food. I had fallen into a habit to get fast food 4-5 times a week. How unhealthy can I be? (at least my cholesterol and triglycerides are still below 150!) I am amazed at the amount of money have saved by not eating fast food. I have still eaten out but not any chain fast foods. I also have told myself I can eat anything I want for dinner or other meals as long as I don’t eat fast food. (So I had fat free turkey dogs for three dinners this week, bad?)

I am trying to figure out why it is so much easier for me to grab fast food. Is it because the last year I a frustrated with work stuff? Tired? Not interested in taking care of myself and why am I not interested in taking care of myself? Lots to explore this year!

I did sign up for conversational mandarin, two swimming classes, and a voice class. Six units in school all things I want to study. How nice for a semester! I think the swimming classes will help with the stress thing and help me sleep. I hope to get back into the gym state of mind and getting to sleep earlier will help with that.

I had to escape my office this morning and so I went to the store to buy milk (2.69). At lunch I needed to escape and realized I did not pack lunch today so I went out to eat (magazine 3.99 and lunch 15.00). Not the most frugal of lunches but I really needed a break and someplace quiet and a good hot meal. It is a wonderful experience each time.

I hate my place of employment. What used to be a sanctuary where I could forget about everything else going on has turned into one of the seven pits of hell. I have never seen it this bad. It used to be my little section was insulated and secure and didn’t face the problems that the rest of the office faces. Suddenly enter new sexist, despicable, rude, crass, know it all manager (who has no experience in emergency management or the processes we use or anything actually related to his job) and the morale goes down. Now picture a manager who is used to having 60 people in the office and where you are the top dog. Suddenly you accept a job where you have 2.66 people (yes 2.66 one person is only 2/3rds time) and the work load keeps building. You have no staff so you start to crap on those you do have. You know it is bad when you boss is actually letting you know of jobs you can apply for to get out of the office. When your boss admits that he is looking to leave and recommends that you do to…well you pay attention. I was so pissed and frustrated I almost cried at my desk. That is another sigh it is time to go.

At least I have good people who have agreed to be references. They are simply wonderful folks that I have had the chance to work with and they respect me and like me and know I try hard to fight for them to be successful. I do love working with them but with the expected hiring freeze none of them have openings I qualify for or those that do are a substantial pay cut (like 1K a month). I have worked hard to get to this level!!

No spend days were Thursday, Friday Saturday. I am thinking about seeing a movie this afternoon but I am also tired and just want to take a nap. Just realizing it is after 1 and I won't be ready until after 2 means no movie for me because I refuse to pay 10 for a movie. I’ll go tomorrow after work maybe and pay 6.
I will register for classes tonight. I think I am going to take the mandarin conversational class. I figure if I earn one character a day I can learn all the ones I struggled with this last semester. This next course is supposed to be 90 percent conversation and pronunciation. It is for people who have not studied mandarin before and I think I fit that category. I just checked my grade and the instructor gave me a B in the mandarin course! I can’t believe it! I struggled so long and hard in that course and he gave me a B! I am excited. I hope to study with him for the second full semester in the fall of 08. Now that I know I got a B I am definitely going to take the conversation course. I think I may take a swimming course or a walking course and a voice (music) course. I think it will be a fun but busy semester.
I did the budget for the month, paid bills etc. I decided to take half the money from my gifts account to pay toward debt. This allows me to have another card paid off by the beginning of February. I will keep putting away the same money every month to the gifts account but I am not going to plan to save toward a specific amount because when I reach someplace where I am comfortable with my savings I can put another chunk down.
I sent out resumes and applications for 6 new jobs and I am waiting for one more to be released so I can apply to that one too. That is the one I would really like the most and I am hoping to get a promotion out of it. But even if I did not get a promotion I would be happy to get a transfer out of my current work situation because the new manager is not appropriate to to work there. I don’t appreciate being called honey or sweetie and I certainly don’t need his hands on me. I know it is not just me he does it to but I am the only female employee under him so…I just want out. He gives me the creeps and is really just inappropriate. He is a walking lawsuit just waiting to happen, I tell you!

Here is the aricle, interesting:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/BuildAKillerCreditScoreIn2008.aspx

Any comments on this revision?

Today is my mom’s birthday. While we wanted to celebrate her birthday with all the family tonight my older sister Alice is sick with the stomach flu so we are going to do it Wednesday.

I surprised my mom with second row tickets for riverdance on Christmas and they were for today. She loved it, has tears in her eyes when it started she was so excited. We saw them about 10 years ago so she was excited to see how it had changed. It was a wonderful performance. If you ever get a chance to see it, do it!

We had lunch before hand at Panera and then the show (matinee) then she suggested she buy us dinner. We had a light dinner (light on entree but good dessert) at the Tower Cafe here in Sacramento. Great meal and great desserts. We had a simply wonderful day.

Since the birthday dinner thing was postponed I cleaned out one box in my room and straightened a little. I have so much I need to organize or get rid of it is a joke. I made the decision to toss a few things (or recycle) but need to do so much more. Slowly and surely it will be cleaned up and organized.

Need to decide what I am going to study this spring but I am waiting to find out my grade in my mandarin course first. Do I retake the first class or can I move to class 1.5? (a half step higher). I wish I knew.

I finally got the calculator working (thanks monkey mama!!)

Long day of nothing and I loved it. I had the best day just finishing two books and enjoying a quiet house with no roommates or anyone around. A great book that I enjoyed immensely is the Glass House by Jeannette Walls. Simply a well written novel memoir funny, touching, just good. There were things I could identify with in so many ways. Something from my child hood (early 80’s) if you see the street lights come on in the summer you are late! That was a rule at our house and she mentions it. Just lots of funny little lines I think a lot of people would identify with from their childhood. The first sentence grabs you! Read it if you have a chance.

The other books was just a trashy novel by an author I like to read when I want to think about nothing and let me mind veg out.


I love to read when it is a gloomy rainy day. Cleaned a little to make it seem I was doing more than just reading away the entire day: laundry, cleaning my room (only a little looks worse than before!), grocery shopping. But to me it was a perfect day!

So I am playing around with the paycheck calendar for CA state employees to determine what my take home salary will be next year.

It does not make sense! Are there lots of changes to the tax codes for next year or something?

It says that if I put away 500 a month more the difference in my paychecks is only about 30 dollars? Even better if I was to leave everything the way it was for another year I would take home an extra 250 a month?? How does that work?

I am ready to call Monkey Mama and ask her opinion or have her play around with the calculator because I cannot figure it out to save my life! It just does not make sense.

I have checked all the deductions and made sure that the things I have taken out (health, dental, eyes etc) are the same amounts as they are not changing next year but it does not make sense!
Help!!

I don't want to wait until feb and a new check to find out i have shorted myself more than i should and am screwed until i can change the deductions again.

I noticed while catching up on my reading that i had not seen anything from Contrary one in a while.

Is she ok? She was one of my top 5 reads each day.

thanks-

working hard to my goals! Keep up the good work everyoen!