Playing Chicken

This post is going to make my mother pee her pants.

Every time this month, I play chicken with the bank. So far, I'm the undefeated champion. (Knock on wood. Or pray for me. Whatever.) My paycheck gets deposited at 12:01 tonight, so about two days before, I started spending it. This is the usual pattern.

I keep meticulous track of my money, and I'm well aware that it generally takes 2 business days for bank/credit card transactions to clear. Looks like I'm going to win again this month! I better quit while I'm ahead, though. One of these days I'm gonna lose. Losing is expensive when you're messing with a bank.

Random Observation - Blogs and other web pages that automagically play music when they load are abso-freakin-lutely irritating.

I'm tired.

So I'm going to bed. G'nite!

Give Me 5 Tag

"Tagged" by Natalie, my awesome cousin in Austin. So here goes.

Five Things on My To Do List:
1. Finish grading (perpetually on list)
2. Create a test and project for web mastering course
3. Vacuum
4. Clean my room (too long on the bottom of the list)
5. Watch one of the DVDs from NetFlix that have been sitting in my living room for over a month

Five Places I have lived:
1. Sparwood, BC
2. San Antonio, TX
3. Lubbock, TX
4. That's it, folks!
5.

Five Jobs I Have Had:
1. Whataburger drive-thru guru
2. Temporary worker for a law firm doing data entry
3. Tech support for Texas Tech's athletics department
4. CSR for AT&T Wireless
5. High school teacher

Five favorite snacks:
1. Fresh fruit - my #1 choice, when available
2. Chocolate bars. Just about any kind will do.
3. Hot tamales - especially for the movies
4. Dried fruit
5. Potato chips, especially salt & vinegar

Five Things I Would Do if I Were a Millionaire:
1. Pay. off. my. debts.
2. Buy a car
3. Buy a house
4. Take a vacation to somewhere ... else
5. Save the rest

Five Things I Miss:
1. My maternal grandma
2. Any of my family that isn't with me
3. Innocence of my childhood
4. Friends I haven't kept in touch with
5. My sanity ... wait ... can you miss something you've never had?

Good News

1. I no longer owe the IRS anything.
Pretty much everyone who reads my blog knows that when I got divorced, I ended up getting screwed on my taxes. I was already in an interesting financial situation and got to add on monthly payments for my back taxes. When I finished doing my taxes this year I cried, but for a different reason than last year. I actually got a tax return. It was small, but it was enough to pay off the bit I still owed to the IRS and pay for a few minor things like food and gas. I'm going to save what I would have been paying them for a down payment on a car.

2. I no longer own a car.
It sounds like a bad thing when I say it that way. I met the junkyard tow truck at the dealership where my Daewoo lay. I signed over the title, he handed over a $150 check. Now I don't have to worry about it any more. It's gone. I only have to make the last 4 payments on the loan and it will be gone too.

3. I am no longer asleep.
I really wasn't expecting this one when I saw my psychiatrist on Monday. I've been stuck in a depressive episode for a while now. In addition to many other things, I felt so exhausted that I could barely stay awake at work. Whenever I did get the time to do something productive, I would just sit or go to sleep.

The lack of working has been catching up to me. The administration tends to notice when you don't get any grades in for the first progress report. I'm also in charge of planning the web mastering course, which I had been making up a day at a time. The stress of all this was just making everything worse. The doctor prescribed Provigil to help me wake up in the morning. The logic is: if I'm awake, I can work and therefore relieve some stress. Relieve some stress, the depression might ease up.

I took it on Tuesday morning. The difference is amazing. I have actually felt awake and alert each day since. I can sleep just fine at night because it isn't like a caffeine pill. Interestingly, it's usually prescribed for narcolepsy. Even though it hasn't even been a week, I've noticed a huge difference. I've been able to catch up at work and get up more easily in the morning. I am so grateful that I've finally found something to help. I really felt like I was getting to a state of being unemployable. I still have so many things to do, but I think I can actually do them now.

I am the Diet Saboteur

You know me. I'm the one who buys you chocolate/food as a thank you gift. I offer you a small treat from my goodie bag. I bring doughnuts to the morning meeting. Sometimes you're secretly grateful for my weight-increasing kindness. But mostly you hate me.

On my way home from the vet's office on Saturday, I noticed a few cute little girl scouts waving signs in front of a Walgreens. It's cookie time! So I thought I'd stop by and buy a box. Or three. Needless to say that only part of one box remains. I got two boxes of samoas (there's never enough in those boxes) and one of thin mints. Mmmmm. Tasty.

I'm not actively trying to lose weight, just don't really want to gain. Sarah's trying to lose weight as much as she can considering her shoulder stuff and, well, me. I also consistently eat fattening foods while she feasts on veggies. I have decided that I am giving up candy this week too. Of course, that does not include girl scout cookies or brownies or steak or french fries or ....

On a side note, the reason why I was at the vet was for Baxter. He has hypothyroidism and he's been prescribed a pill 2x daily for it. I've been giving him his medicine rather regularly, but it seemed that he was getting skinnier again. I was definitely right. He had lost 0.9 pounds - almost 10% of his body weight. He's still mostly healthy, it's just that his thyroid levels are still rather high. The vet said to keep giving him his pills religiously and bring him back to re-test his thyroid levels in a month. If the medicine can't control his hyperthyroidism, he'll have to get part of it removed. I don't know how I'd pay for it, but if there are reasonable measures to keep Baxter alive, well, and happy, I'll take care of it.

The picture of Baxter above was taken in June of 2003, when he was about 6 years old.

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Geekiness - Updated

When Sarah took the quiz, I realized that I started playing video games much earlier than I thought. Pong, baby. I still have fond memories of that weird little paddle controller. I love you Atari.


89% Geek
89%


I still think it's a little low.

YouTube Giggles

Found this while perusing YouTube. Cuteness!

Updates in the World of Stuff

Just a few quick updates:

1. Paid the bill for the defunct Daewoo and raided it for my personal belongings. I had a fun time ripping apart the dash to retrieve the kick-butt stereo that was added post-purchase. It felt like I was doing an organ transplant. The donor did not sign a consent form.

2. Spent my entire lunch time talking to (mostly waiting for) the IRS. I thought I was done paying my back taxes, but they're still withdrawing from my bank account. Turns out, I'd actually missed a couple of months. Oops. Good news is ... my taxes will finally be paid off next month!! :D

*** Special note for tax purposes: In the terrible and unfortunate event that you should get divorced, do it at the beginning of the year. Believe me, it will help. And when you get remarried, do it in December. ***

3. The Daewoo's title is still MIA. Looks like Progressive lost it, but I'm going to have to check again tomorrow. I need the durn thing to sell the junk heap and get it off the dealer's lot. I'm sure their sales are being decimated by that abomination sitting in the back.

4. I saw the press conference about the new First Presidency live online. Awesome stuff. I totally got a confirmation from the Spirit that President Monson is our prophet and President Eyering and Uchtdorf are called by God to be in their new positions. I rather like President Uchtdorf. I was able to listen to him talk at a stake conference about a year and a half ago. His talk addressed divorce and his words calmed my soul. I feel privileged that I was able to shake his hand that day.

Stay tuned for more updates ...
Maybe one day I'll actually post the story behind this blog's title.

Ode to Healthy People

You pay your premium
Always on time
You take all your vitamins
And keep a sane mind

You exercise regularly
And your diet's just right
You use your stress management
And don't stay up all night

From one who's not healthy
My hat's off to you
Thank you for paying
For all that I do

My doctors and specialists
Drug companies and shrink
All want to salute you
But wish you would sink

Please don't submit
To the doughnuts and joe
Without your subsistence
I have nowhere to go