I haven't been blogging latley. Some things are going on in my life, bad things, that I'd rather not talk about on the internet for the whole world to read. It's a family matter. Those who want to hear about it can ask me in a private forum. Suffice it to say that 1) no one is hurt in any way... except emotionally. 2) The bad things involve things going on with my uncle that has the entire family worried, nervous, livid, and drained otherwise. 3) Louisiana government, at the parrish level, is corrupt and unjust.
I'm torn between telling My Uncle's story and keeping quiet, but in the end I think keeping quiet will win, because I don't want to do anything to make the situation worse than it is. I should return to blogging sometime next week, when the situation hopefully blows over.
So, this weekend, was a fun one. It's Mardi Gras Tomorrow, so I spent Satuday celebrating the season, and taking in the Spanish Town parade. There are pictures, but none that are any kind of cute and feature me. so, There are no pictures for the internet... THe day was a blast. I had Jello shots for breakfast, then had a rather large margarita before noon rolled around. My friends and I grabbed pizza for lunch, and then headed to a nice parade watchin' spot. I got some beads, but not many, because there was a girl standing near us who had her boobs out the ENTIRE time, so, as you can imagine, she got all of the beads (even though her boobs weren't all that spectacular, and she clearly didn't have enough money to afford a bra with a little more fabric.)
Other than that, my weekend was fairly relaxed. I hung out with my Mom some, and cleaned the apartment lots, and wore pajamas all day Friday and Sunday.
It's Monday, and the day is going by quickly because I have plenty to work on here at work. But I wanted to take the time to write a quick review of a recent Mascara purchase or two.
Fusion Beaty's LashFusion:
This mascara can be summed up in two words. IT SUCKED. I couldn't believe I had paid so much for a mascara this flaky. For the first application everything was dandy, but then, it seemed almost as if fibers had formed inside the mascara tube, and it looked like there were strings inside the mascara. The mascara made my eyes itch incredebly and it was next to impossible to keep my fingers out of my eyes. This wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that once this mascara is applied, you cannot touch your eyes or anywhere near your eyes for the rest of the day without half of the mascara flaking off and making it look as if you had a black eye. I've seriously never seen a mascara flake so much in all my life. On top of this, i saw no volume or legth added to my lashes. I don't normally return cosmetics, but I had to make an exeption for this one just because I thought Spehora needed to know... this mascara is awful, and they should pass the message on to Fusion Beauty. I went in an exchanged the mascara for:
BareEssentials Buxom Lash:
At 10 dollars cheaper than the above mascara, this one delivers on every promise made. It plumps and legthens, dries quickly, and once it's dry it stays put. It's only 18 dollars a tube, and I'd pay twice that without a single blink of my fabulous fluttery eyes.
While I was there I picked up a "earth tomes" blush/eyeshadow/lipgloss collection from Bare Essentials, and Dior Addict Lip Maximizer (which I LOVE)
PS - rember how at the begining of the month I said no more Sephora 'til March? Yea, maybe, just maybe I can go the whole month of March...
New Computer = YAY
I've been considering getting a new computer for about a year now. Mine is 6 years old, and I can't play Peggle and listen to music at the same time without problems. So, I looked into the employee discount I get through my company with Dell... turns out, I can get this super awesome laptop that's about 4 times as powerful as my home computer for 500 dollars off. Plus, and this is the important part, I can order it in pink. So, I ordered it this morning after about 2 full weeks of flippy-flopping about whither or not I want to wait for Windows 7 to come out.
I'm super excited, because I bought a computer, outright, for cash, with my own money, AFTER I paid all of the neccesary bills (and above the minimums). It's a nice feeling.
The only downside, is now I have to wait for dell to build it, and ship it, and all in all I wont get it for another 2-3 weeks.
Anyway, i got put on two more projects at work, and I'm super busy today, so, I need to run.
Money, Money, Money...
So, Today I crunched the numbers. And it is impossible for me to reach my goal of "Debt Free by 25." HOWEVER, I do now have a realistic goal of setting aside $1,500 every month for Debt Payoff. If I do this, I will have it all paid off by the end of 2009. If I only set aside $1,000 each month, I'll be paid off by my 26th birthday. So my goal is 1500 each month with a MINIMUM of 1000. I want financial independence, and I'm gunna obtain it.
That said, I should plan a trip to the 'nati in the near future. When do things thaw out up there again?
Oh and PS to my last post:
I'm super excited for Amber, and oh so psyched to be a bridesmaid!
It helps that her colors are pink and pink, and that she has fabulous taste! Hello Dress I will TOTALLY wear again!
So, I LOVE my boyfriend, but sometimes, it feels like he would rather lay on a bed of nails than make any attempt at being romantic.
He waited to long to make any plans for Valentine's Day, and we ended up spending the night going to Indian Buffet (where they weren't allowing ANY ordering from the menu, and none of the bufet food was good, none of it was even spicy, and more than half of it had meat), then we came home and Boyfriend installed his new harddrive, and I played Hello Kitty online for half an hour then went to bed. I will say this though, at least, he bought me Jewelry (for the first time in the four and a half years we've been dating). He got me a sterling silver necklace with earings to match.
Now, while I was having the least romantic Valentine's day ever, My two best friends were getting engaged, and on a romantic getaway in the Poconose (the later of which was with a boyfriend of only 2 months and they're ALREADY talking Marriage). I'm happy for them, I really am. I'm just jealous, and sour grapes and all that. I didn't get flowers, I didn't get a ring, or any kind of trip (even though I directly told him I'd like to go away a month ago... he looked into prices, and then decided it was too expensive, and apparently decided that he had put enough work into valentine's day completely). I got lousy Indian food and a whole lot of hurt.
I don't ask for much, but i would like just ONE FUCKING DAY out of the year where he makes me feel like a motherfucking princess. I want flowers, and romantic gestures, and reservations at a restaurant where he has to wear a tie, and then DOESN'T COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. Or at the very least, for him to tell me to dress up, and then cook me a romantic dinner, and put on a tie. he doesn't even need to spend any money, I'm just sick of feeling like I'm being taken for granted. And it's not like I've never told him this, it's not some secret. I tell him about once a month, but nothing. And he has even acknowledged these feelings. When he was looking into a Valentine's trip he said that he wanted to book a hotel with a spa, and get me a spa package, but that that was just too expensive, and I was okay with that. But he couldn't think of some way to scale back the evening before just writing it off completely?
So, I had to make my blog protected for a few days. I let it slip to the Boyfriend that I was blogging again, and I didn't want him discovering what his present is, should he go looking for my blog. I'll unprotected it after the weekend.
So, this weekend is exciting for me. Not only is it valentines day, but, Hello Kitty Online (which i guess is like World of Warcraft, but pink-er) is having a trial run from Saturday until the 17th, and I've been excited to play this game for a while now.
I placed an order from Sephora.com (because, clearly, my Sephora embargo applies only to the physical store, right?) last night for some eyeshadows. I only got two sets, both from Bare Minerals, and they should be arriving anyday now. The store has been out of these two sets for sometime now, and they don't sell the colors individually, so when i recieved an email about getting a free ten day supply of BareMinerals foundation with any purchase i said "well, where's the link to the website?!"
I'm a big fan of BareMinerals foundation. It really covers well, and balances my skintone in a way that I've never had anything balance my face before. It's light enough that I don't even feel like I'm wearing make-up, but can be layered heavy enough to cover the most problematic of my blemishes. I recomend it to ANYONE. And Right now Sephora is giving away samples (along with a free "mini kabuki" brush) to anyone who types in "FreeLove" at the checkout online or asks for a 10day sample in stores. I thought getting the 10 day sample in my shade would be a great way to save room while traveling. The container is more than likely refillable, and so this could also end up being a good way to cary my foundation in my purse for touchups and such.
Well, I should be marking up drawings and organizing my walk-downs for next week. So, TaTa!
you know you love me. XOXO.
So, I wound up NOT getting Boyfriend the terrabite hardrive that he's been wanting, I got him a different hardrive that he's been wanting. It's only 300GB, but it's allegedly the fastest harddrive ever. So, yea... He had been talking about getting one that was only 150 GB, and I don't think he knows that they come in 300GB even. So, I'm pretty stoked about it.
Anyway, I've got to finish up some work, so later gators.
Since We last met...
Well, since Friday my life has been very boring.
I left work on Friday, and went home and went pretty much straight to bed. Saturday morning I woke up with my cold in tow. I showered and pretty-fied then headed over to Mom's house to get some Mucinex and waited for her so we could go look at houses. As I was waiting for her to get home I decided to have a little nap, when Mom got home she noted that I looked like I was running a fever, and sure enough... 102.3 (now for most people this isn't too alarming, I mean it's high, but not super high. However, I normally run at around 96 degrees, and that makes this a pretty high fever). I took some Tylenol, and headed home to go to sleep, canceling with the Realtor. By the time I woke up Saturday night, my fever was back up to 102, and until Sunday morning It never went below 100.
Sunday morning, Boyfriend decided to be a jerk - accusing me of TRYING to get him sick (on purpose... but never theorized any motive). So, I did what any grown up would do: I grabbed my Teddy Bear and went to my Mom's house. My dad made me soup, and my mom forced me to drink liquids and take ridiculous amounts of Tylenol, and towards the end of the day, I started to feel better. I stayed home from work yesterday, because I still felt crappy, and had a low fever.
Today, I'm feeling much better, but still pretty stuffy. I need to go to the Mall after work and shop for a Valentine's Day Present for Boyfriend. I also want to pick up the new CD from The Lonley Island (For those of you who are going "huh?" this is the trio of comedians responsible for the LOLworthy SNL digital shorts music videos that have been on latley : "dick in a box", "jizzed in my pants" and "I'm on a boat" to name a few. This group consists of Andy Samburg, and two guys no one has heard of named Jorma and Akiva, and they are fucking hilarious.
In other news, I'm pretty sure I wont be getting a present for valentine's day this year... again... I don't understand why he thinks the appropriate solution to "I can't think of anything to get her" is DO NOTHING, when my mom lives down the street and he knows full well how to contact all of my best friends. After Christmas (he gave me t-shirts), I better full well get something that sparkles, or at least something that spends well at Sephora. It's frustrating to put so much thought into my gifts for him (like this year, I'm getting him a Terrabyte Harddrive that he's been drooling over for like a year while saying "I'm gunna wait for the price to go down") and getting crappy or even worse no present in return. Jewelry! Its not even that hard! He knows i like it, and he knows i like pink.
Pink + Sparkles = great present for me for any occasion!
Someone needs to just tell him that. I mean besides me... because I've told him until I was blue int he face, but that's not working.
Also, he waited until yesterday to try and make reservations anywhere and now everything is booked, so I probably wont even get to dress up and go out. :(
The Plague
well, I got sick on Monday, as you know. I went home, and when I came back to work on Wednesday, everyone else had gotten sick too! There's a stomach flu/cold 1, 2PUnch going around the office, and I just happened to catch them separately, because, now I have the cold portion. FABULOUS. At least I can get work done with a cold, and don't have to burn anymore vacation time.
In other news, I made an appointment to look at my very first house on my very first house hunt for tomorrow, and will be looking at a house, that I will probably never buy because it's a small house, in a cookie cutter neighborhood, and it looks like all the homes surrounding it. On the other hand the homes are all new, and the walls come pre-painted in colors I pick out, and it's fairly inexpensive. It might be just what I need, who knows?
Best Day Ever
Dudes and Dudettes. I am in the best mood ever today. Why, might you ask?
For the first time in what seems like my life (though, it's really just "in the time, since I've gotten credit cards" so, at least 7 years) I did my monthly finances, and found out that after rent and the minimum balances on my credit cards, and all other bills (electricity, cable, water, trash) have been paid I still have enough money leftover to completely pay off the balance of one of my cards (the balance on this card is low, only about 700 dollars... but that's one card paid off people!). AND still have a couple hundred dollars left to cover me for the next two weeks. HOWEVER, sometime in the next few days, I am scheduled to get my federal tax refund money (which is a little over a grand). Half of that money is already slated on getting the title of my car transferred to my name (and the state of Louisiana), and buying car insurance for the next three months. This leaves me with a little over 700 bucks for a "cushion".
I've never felt financial security before, but I'm pretty sure this is what it feels like. I still owe about 400 on my Macy's store account, and I'm debating using the rest of the tax money to cover that, taking me down to only having 3 balances left to whittle. But there's this part of me that wants to take that $400 to the mall... and go bat-shit crazy. I mean, That's money I'm supposed to use to stimulate the economy, right?
So, here's a question i pose to you, dear readers, What stimulates the economy more, paying back the bank? or shopping sprees?
PS - the reason that I am hoping to pay off a higher balance card than my Macy's store account is two fold: 1) The Macy's store is an open account, so holding a balance on that does not affect my credit AS negatively as holding a balance on a closed visa account. (though I am aware that it's still hurting my credit) and 2) the APR on the visa is like 4 times that of the Macy's account.
Another thing to consider. I have a goal to pay off all of my credit debt by May 22nd... My 25th Birthday. I view 25 as the "official" adult age (*and I have a set of rules - at least for myself - to follow once I turn 25*), and part of being an adult is being fiscally responsible and I have to start saving money for "the future" because kids are expensive, and unlike certain guests on the Maury Pauvich show I know that there is never such thing as "enough money" when diapers are involved. Also, I want to buy a house by the end of 2009 (probably even more towards the end of the year, giving me a half a year to save up a hefty down payment and work on that Credit Score).
Anyway, (I think I answered the question for myself in this last paragraph) what do y'all think I should do? Spend like it's going out of style? or Pay off one more bill?
*More on this in a future post...
That new diet I talked about...
So, I haven't mentioned my "new diet" in a while, and that's because it sucked, and I gave up on it.
I know that I can't make a zillion changes at once, so why do I keep thinking it will work? My new plan, is to gradually change one thing about my diet every couple of weeks, and before i know it, I'll be living healthily, and loving it instead of going "But, I want KING CAKE" (Speaking of King Cake, I had a piece of Zulu King Cake at lunch, and nearly peed my pants it was so good). I'm going with the "anything in moderation" method, but truly using my brain when it comes to moderation.I just need to remind myself that moderate ice cream amounts are "half a scoop" and not "half a bowl" and eat healthier things in larger quantities (veggies, whole grains, more veggies) to teach myself that healthy foods are more filling. I think that this will work out better in the end, I never did well with meal plans anyway, and it should help me change my whole lifestyle in the process.
Also, gym membership. I hate to say it, but it's time, I'ma get a membership and work my ass off til it's at least 4 sizes smaller. Honestly, I'd like to start running. I know this is weird, considering I've always hated running, but the past few months, I've been thinking it couldn't hurt to try to get myself worked up to a program. So, hopefully, by this time next year, i can go outside and have a run (or possibly at that point still a "light jog", let's face it, I'm really out of shape, and it takes a while to get up to running) and not have to worry about gym memberships.
This is my solid plan.
Also, I'm back at work today. boo.
So no more than 15 minutes after my last post, I puked in the office restroom, and decided to grow some balls and ask for the day off. I want in to my boss's office and simply said "my stomach has been giving me trouble today, can i take the rest of today off and work on Friday?" he said sure, and I was on my way. I got home, and immediately fell asleep, where i slept (with several interruptions) until about 6am. So I called my boss, and left a voice mail letting him know that my upset stomach had turned full blown stomach flu. I went back to sleep, and just recently woke up. I think the afternoon calls for a tivo'ed how I met your mother marathon with sprite and crackers.
Oh me, Oh my.
So, Boyfriend was pretty sick all weekend, and even stayed home from work today.
Me... I was not feeling sick at all until this morning. and boy do i ever feel sick. I didn't even party last night, I relaxed. But I think I caught Boyfriend's bug, and now... here I am... fighting through nausea... at work. My boss intimidates me, and so I'm afraid to ask for the rest of the day off to go home and puke in private.
Any advice?