The year in pictures...

I was reviewing the year in pictures on MSN. I came across Madonna's picture. Now, I'm sure many people love her and that's all fine and dandy. But me personally, I can not stand her. However, she at least had a sense of fashion and fitness. But what the hell has she done with herself??!! I think she's totally let herself go, but in a superfit way. She looks disgusting to me, I'm sorry people, but I'd rather look old and wrinkled and chubby any day compared to the way she looks. I never thought she was particularly attractive (nor particular ugly either) so I'm not too horribly disappointed or anything, but still! Blech!

oh, P.S. I think the above picture has been photo-shopped, but you get the idea, that whole sinewy arm-leg thing just freaks me out.

And then, worst of all, I realized it's an epidemic when I saw a picture of Sarah Jessica Parker. OHhhh noooo!! Maybe it's just that these women are working out the same but getting older, so they look more and more sick. Ewww, look at those arms, not attractive to me dude, unless you are a dude.

The Ultimate Movie List...

These are my favorite movies of all time:

1) The Notebook - Enough said.
2) Superbad - I am a sucker for the ultimate in crude, crass, badass comedy.
3) Can't Hardly Wait - to me this is my generation's version of 16 Candles, it's got all the predictable stereotypes and the perfect mix of comedy and drama.
4) Anchorman - An awesome comedy. Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd are my all-time favorite comedians.
5) The 40 Year Old Virgin - Pure genius.
6) Bobby - I really love this movie, I am especially partial to true stories.
7) Boiler Room - Vin Diesel at his finest.
8) The Shawshank Redemption - A classic
9) Crash - because I love movies that make you think
10) Ray - ditto on the true stories comment.

I definitely have more to add, I'm thinking a total of my top 25, I just have to think on it more.

The mystery of Brad Pitt..

I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Saturday night. I must say, I can safely conclude that Brad Pitt is not just a hot dude, he is an excellent actor as well. Although, I really don't understand the fascination with Brad Pitt. I've never really thought him to be super-hot, he's okay, I mean definitely more attractive than the average guy, but not absurdly so. Anyway, it was a very poignant and fabulous movie. One of those that makes you think about life and want to walk around all serious and speak in a British accent. Or, uhhh, maybe that's just me. :-D
So that means I must make a list of my favorite fabulous movies!!!

The daunting budget..

Ever since I began working full-time (at the ripe old age of 16) I've had to keep some sort of budget. Mainly because I hate checking my mail and also because I have always lived paycheck to paycheck, and I have to make sure all the bills are paid. So, here goes:

Mortgage $452 (yes, it's very cheap, but I also live in a house that's less than 800 sq feet)
Car Insurance $70 (yes, that's with full coverage)
Cell Phone $50 (I hate talking on the phone, the average amount of minutes I use per month is around 90, believe it or not!)
Cable internet $60 (no cable TV though, that saves about $50 a month!)
Utilities $150 (Water, electric, gas)
And now the yucky stuff:
Credit Card 1: $175 (my goal is to have this one, at $5400 right now, paid off at end of Aug)
Credit Card 2: $68 (this one will be paid off at end of Jan tho!)
Care Credit (dental loan) $71
Furniture Loan $80
SBA (small business admin) Loan $80 - this was a loan due to my house being flooded, I had insurance for the actual home, but not the contents.

Grand Total: $1256
This number is not at all terrible, but honestly with the economy the way it is, and with me not having a degree yet, my goal is to be able to live on about 1k a month in case of a dire situation. So basically, if I get laid off, it won't be out of my means to take the first job I come across, even if I'd only be making $9 an hr.
Therefore, my two most important goals are paying off CC#1 and CC#2, I know, I should be more worried about savings. But, there's a good reason I can't seem to save a dime, this is due to my money-grubbing family, they have access to my savings account, and anytime there's more than $10 bucks in there, then all of a sudden there's some emergency and they need a loan. So, basically it seems like I'm making more progress by paying off my credit cards, because I actually SEE a difference. I know, it's not logical at all, but once I get my CC's paid off, then I will save money (probably cash at first, and NOT TELL ANYONE) for an emergency fund. My goal is to definitely have at least 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.

My Current take-home pay: $2250
So, that's about $800 to my credit cards each month, which I've actually been pretty good about paying on (this is because I usually have OT, which is what I use for food/gas). I have managed to be pretty frugal, except for the fact that I eat out every day. But, honestly, when you're only one person, it's a lot more expensive to spend $100 a week on groceries, vs. a meal from taco bell for $2.50. And despite the holiday season, I've been doing excellent.

First of all, I don't celebrate X-mas (this is a long story and I don't want to get into it) and so I've spent exactly $0 for anything regarding the holiday, and, despite the fact that I've made it very clear that I do not celebrate, people still buy/give me stuff. The main thing this year was gift cards, which was a major contributor to the purchases I've made recently. So I've updated my wardrobe and relieved a little stress by shopping, all for $0. I say "relieved a little stress" because it's very hard for me to live on basically $75 bucks a week, like in an emotionally exhausting way. I have to drive half an hour to work (one way), so gas is about $20 a week, so that leaves $55 bucks to eat on. Luckily I have an awesome boyfriend who will buy me dinner and take me to the movies every once in a while. Plus, work occasionally caters lunch, so I'll have a few spare bucks to pick up hot chocolate from Starbucks. So, anyway, I was very thankful to get those gift cards, it allowed me the freedom to get what I wanted/needed. Have I mentioned I love gift cards?! I don't care how impersonal they may seem!! So, I think everything is going well. I plan on paying off those two CC's by August of next year, and maybe even sooner if I get quarterly bonuses. After that, I will be putting that same about (about a grand) towards savings each month, so by February 2010 I will have about 6 months of expenses in savings (Nope, not my current monthly income, just my costs).

Also, just to note, I'm not in too much of a hurry to pay off those dental/furniture loans, only because they will be paid off in 2011, I don't have to worry about paying on those the rest of my life because they're not revolving, so I feel a little better about leaving them alone and just paying the min. payments.

Making a list...

I won a competition at work today and got $150 bucks!!! Whoo hoo!! In all my excitement I randomly decided to check out a nearby premium outlet mall. After work I drove 15 minutes in the wrong direction so I can trudge through the Guess outlet and Kenneth Cole outlet, and all that excitement was for nothing. There were so many things I could not decide!! And I definitely did not want to spend the whole entire $150, and for some odd reason I was struggling with spending even $35 for cute heels. First of all, I decided that I definitely need to lose some weight. I am by no means fat, however I've gained about 20 pounds in the past year and a half, and that is really depressing to deal with. And honestly, I look atrocious in jeans right now. My body is out of proportion (just like most people's!) my thighs/hips are very thick, yet the lower part of my leg (calves/ankles) are skinny, so when I put on jeans I look like a flippin' can of busted biscuits. I don't know how to explain it. Anyway, I decided that since so many things caught my eye, I needed to make a list. Because there is stuff I actually need, I was not looking to spend money just for kicks.
Here's the list!

1) Jeans (fo sho, I only have one pair of jeans that fit!)
2) Brown pumps (these are a must-have, and I've been looking for just the right pair for a while now)
3) A pretty shirt (I.E. something colorful, perhaps purple, red or turquoise)
4) Purple or red heels (I guess this may seem random, but I don't have any colorful heels, and I need something to pop out with jeans!)
5) A new purse (preferably purple or brown) I only have one purse, which is sad considering I'm a girl. I just don't buy one until mine falls apart, it seems like a waste of money...
6) A Black or White winter coat, I don't own a heavy coat, and while this may seem odd, I live in Texas and I'm inside 90% of the time, so there's very little need really, but I've always wanted a nice, thick, winter coat.
7) A nice sweater (seems simple right? It is)

Okay, so obviously I don't need a lot of this stuff. But it's at least it's a plan.

So what are the odds that I'm going to get all this on $100. I'm going to go with slim to none unless I just completely do not care about quality. But, I can definitely work on the list over the next few months.

**UPDATE

So, I went back to the outlet mall and I got 4 out of the seven things on my list. Yay!!

Jeans $24 (Guess, half off of half off, hah!)

Shoes $30 (Kenneth Cole Reaction, 30% off of half off)

Cute Shirt $16 (Guess, half off)

Sweater(s) $35 (Aeropostale, one was 12.99 originally 49.99 and the other one was half off)

Grand Total: $105, and I officially love sales and I've decided it will be only be rare exceptions that I pay full price for anything!

**Update 2

I got $125 for X-mas this year. So, on black Friday (yikes) I braved the madness and went back to my favorite outlet mall. I've never attempted to shop the day after thanksgiving or X-mas, and now I know why. First of all, the sales really weren't that great, in fact I saw better sales when I went the weekend before and bought the other items on my list, and second of all, the traffic is just absurd, I think it's more irritating than the rude customers and irritated saleswomen.

First, I hit up Kenneth Cole, blech, nothing going on there. Then, I went to Guess (yes again, I freakin love Guess) and also, not much going on. Then I went to BCBG which I absolutely adore even though their stuff is vastly out of my price range, but, it's supposed to be the day of sales. I tried on a few things, and they had TONS of dresses on sale, and I mean on sale, like 70% off, which meant the dresses were still about $90-$125 bucks, too much for me (right now). I might feel better about paying that much for one dress when I have my credit cards paid off, maybe. After I tried on a bunch of clothes (and nothing really looked right, I swear they're making these clothes smaller and smaller), I wondered over to their accessories. And I saw it, the cutest purse ever. I was immediately in love, and it was only $69, marked down from $225, I decided I could pay this much for an absolutely adorable purse, especially since it was so steeply discounted (picture is not exact, but similiar) . It's black though, not purple or brown, but I'm totally okay with that. I left the store and finished my trek around the outlet mall and I came across ALDO. Yay! Just what I needed, a store with super-cute (Albeit somewhat poor-quality) colorful shoes. I went in, and I was immediately in love with the first pair of shoes I saw

However they were not on sale ($90) and they did not have my size (yeah despite the price I actually asked for my size). So, I thought, okay fine, I really MUST HAVE these shoes (it's amazing how much more you want something when you've just been told you can't have it), and I decide to leave the outlet mall and drive 25 minutes West to a regular mall. Normally I would not have done this, because the full-price thing would have scared me off. But, it was Black Friday, and I was sure they would be having some sort of sale. I got to the mall, and after passing through Macy's and seeing a to-die-for pair of Nine West (purple and black croc skin, yummy!) I made my way to ALDO. And lo and behold, they had the same pair, and guess what? For $59.95, this somewhat irritated me for some reason (maybe it's the fact that you go to an outlet mall to pay less). Anywho, I tried them on and discovered they were extremely uncomfortable, and I am just not the type of girl who will put up with pain for an awesome pair of heels. I just can't do that! SO, I went back to Macy's in hopes of buying the pair of Nine West I had seen, however they were pretty much wiped clean of almost all the heals in my size (7 1/2), so I went back to ALDO and bought a pair of purple croc-skin heels. They're very cute, and I'm very satisfied.

So, the moral of the story? This is why I never drag anyone shopping with me. Because it took me six hours and two different malls to get only two items. Who would do that to their bf or best gf? I wouldn't, and he would kill me and my gf's would rip my hair out. Now, I only have one item left. Wheehee!!!

Phew...

I'm so glad for my boyfriend (gag I know)...but seriously. I only have .83 cents in my checking account, and I don't get paid until Friday. So If he didn't bring a pizza over, I would have went to bed hungry (waahhhh!). On another note, I really need to start working out, it's pathetic. I was looking at the Myspace pictures of Corrie from the Paris BFF show (mainly because I think it's weird I know her boyfriend and I'm best friends with her BF's best friend's wife...life is just weird) and the girl is damn fit. It makes me sick...but then again, I work in the corporate environment...she is trying to be a model. So maybe it's not fair to compare myself to some of these people....still I can't help it....

Fun facts...

1. I was homeschooled for most of my life. Go ahead, ask all the questions you desire. There was really nothing exciting about it though. I woke up at noon, I generally never studied, and I finished when I was 17 by taking the GED (this is not the norm though, most homeschoolers do have a curriculum/schedule). Oh yeah, and no, I'm not weird, okay? I know that's what you were thinking. I do have friends, and I am able to successfully socialize.
2. I've lived in a car before.
Yes I did, we were poor. I lived in a car for 3 months when I was 7. Big deal. Needless to say I really appreciate having a roof over my head, and hotels creep me out. All of them do, even super-fancy ones.
3. I like hospitals. This is probably strange to most people. But, my mom is an x-ray tech, so I've been around them all my life. I like the smell of them.
...speaking of smells.
4. I love the smell of gasoline and car fumes and auto-shops. Don't know why...
5. I am average looking, I am 5'5, I have green eyes and brown hair. I am not particularly pretty or particularly ugly. People have called me really "cute" before, which makes me cringe, but in reality, if I don't have make-up on and my hair is not straightened, then I am borderline hideous. Honest. If you ask my boyfriend he will tell you I am drop-dead gorgeous, because that's how sweet he is (or how much of a liar he is, take your pick)...
6. I have a sugar addiction. No, I'm serious. It really is a BIG problem. Do they have rehab for sugar addicts?
7. Speaking of addictions...I don't seem to have an addictive personality for cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol. I have tried all of the above, and they do not provoke any addictive tendancies. They just don't appeal to me. Now I'll have a drink with the "girls from work" every once and a while, that's about it....isn't that a little odd?
8. I am excellent at grammar/english (yes, yes, I am tooting my own horn, sorry) and terrible at math. However, I'm making an A in pre-calculus right now, and I made B's in both my college English classes. What gives man?
9. My favorite thing in the whole entire world is a long, hot shower. I have a tankless water heater, so I can experience this wonderful luxury on a daily basis. yay for me!
10. Speaking of showers...I hate baths, I think it's disgusting to lay in your own filth and at least not take a shower afterwards. Yet I do not have a problem sitting in a hot tub. What a silly hypocrite I am...
That's all folks (for now...dun dun dun)

I wish...

That I had listened to my Dad about credit card debt. If I had, I would have an extra $1500 a month, AFTER all my bills. This is a lot of money to me, I'm not a baller okay, I make 40k a year, which is actually pretty good in my area as far as cost of living etc. But anyway, instead when I was 19, 20, and 21 I buried myself in credit card debt. I had gotten a lot of it paid down, then my house was flooded during a terrible storm (I'm talking the water got up to 4 feet in my house), and although I had flood insurance, we decided we wanted to make some upgrades. We thought they were reasonable and within our budget, however when you get screwed over three times in a row by contracters, suddenly, I'm in over my head and I'm just hoping to get it fixed enough to live there. So, unfortunately I relied on my credit cards. I've been beating myself over the head about this for a year and a half now. BUT, I'm also (reluctantly) excited because although I'm already tired of "cracking down" and budgeting (why has no one ever mentioned how mentally/emotionally exhausting this is?), I should have my credit cards paid off by end of next July. It's so close, yet so far. (that's 9k paid off in the next 7 months, whoo hoo!) And why am I reluctantly exited? Because I'm worried something major will go wrong, and I won't get to my goal. I don't think I'm generally a negative person, it's just a fact about my life, something will pop up at the absolute worst time and ruin any plans I've made (see bove about flood). So, mainly I'm really worried my dad is going to get fired from his job. You'd think I'd be more concerned about getting laid off from mine, I can't really explain what I do, but it'd be about like being a nurse and getting laid off, it's just the least likely position to be eliminated with our company, in fact, we've hired 4 people in the last 6 months. Anyway, so my Dad, he's a collections rep, and do you know how hard it is to collect on medical debt right now? No one gives a damn, they're trying to pay their utilities and feed their kids, and I really don't blame them. Except...if my dad gets fired, around where we live, the kind of job he can work is few and far between for an old man with major back problems (he can't stand for more than 30 minutes at a time, well there goes all the fast food joints and Wal-Mart!) and a very complicated work history (I don't want to go into detail) so I'll be paying his mortgage...and his utilities....and whatever else he needs. I know that this situation is certainly nothing out of the ordinary right now, with the economy (taking care of your parents I mean) and all. I know I'm not alone, but I also know I'm the minority. Why could I not have been born into a family with parents that could take care of themselves? Or at least learned from their obvious and atrocious mistakes? Jeez. Oh well, I'm trying to stay positive...At least I can take care of him if I have too...right?

Mini-rant

This is work-related, and I know many will not understand unless they work in the same exact environment as I do. But, I just have to vent. MY SUPERVISOR IS AN EVIL WITCH FROM HELL.

Although her job description is mysterious to most of us, as it seems she does nothing all day, we do know that one of her tasks is to audit various reports. However, she decides she only wants to do her job 3 weeks before the end of year, because her yearly bonus (rumored to be in the thousands, much more than we get in an entire year) is riding on how clean those reports are. So I'm sitting at my desk, trying to catch up on open/unworked accounts because our archaic system has been out of commission and/or running slow for 5 working days, and she's sending freaking e-mails to me about work that's already done and stuff that was updated less than two weeks ago! What the HELL, first of all, just so you know, we are only required to update our stuff every two weeks (but I will admit most of us do it much less often than that because we know our supervisor only audits at the beginning of a quarter, so hah), so her e-mails are ticking everyone off (I'm not just a raving lunatic with a nasty temper, trust me). Not only that, she's putting a flag on every single one of these accounts that is related to each email, which will affect our yearly review, and our yearly raise. So, the woman decides to do her job (only because HER supervisor is telling her to, because HER supervisor is going to get thousands in bonus too) once out of the whole entire year (for this particular report anyway), make everyone miserable and more behind, AND affect what measly raise we get for the year too (max of 3%, YES the MAX is 3%, LAME). Besides the fact that updating each account does ABSOLUTELY no good, because we are waiting for information from someone out in the sales field, who does not care, they'll get it in when they get it in. Period. In fact, harassing them just ticks them off and makes them even slower to respond, seriously, I've tried to do my job the proper way, but it just put a big-time damper on the admin-sales relationship.

SO basically, I'm pissed at my employer for creating such an idiotic protocol, and I'm really pissed at my supervisor because she follows the protocol whenever her lazy, alcoholic butt feels like she might be losing out on dinero, and also she is RUDE to boot. Does no one know how to send a professional, kind e-mail these days? This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Seriously, does it HAVE to be unfriendly, sarcastic or just straight-up rude? I'm in Texas okay, I know in other parts of the states/world e-mails are brisk, short and to the point, but damn it, where I live the people generally are courteous and usually super-nice, that's the way we treat people, and that's the treatment we expect in return (what's strange is my supervisor is from here as well, so I don't know what her damn problem is...) Just say please or thanks OKAY?! Not hard. Really it's not hard. You can fake it, I do it all the time...
UGH
Okay I'm done....so much for mini....

P.S. We're getting a new VP over our department effective 01/01, I am seriously contemplating writing an anonymous letter to him...anonymous because I don't want to get fired, and this is the kind of place that will fire you just for stirring up stuff...I'm just not sure, I think I'll wait until I'm not so pissed off.

About me....

Okay, so I've always heard of the intrigue and possibly addicting nature that is the blogging world. I've heard about it in the movies, magazines, articles ETC ETC. I've never really understood it's appeal or even what it meant until I came across the blog titled Fabulously Broke In The City. My eyes were opened. How fantastic! This was all because I googled "Single in the Suburbs" in order to find a new posting; I noticed a link to a site with a preview that appeared to be some sort of rant about Single in the Suburbs. This piqued my interest, since I had been following the article for a while. I guess I was really bored, who knows, I don't have cable, OK?Anywho, I started reading this woman's rant about how incredibly stupid the "character" (I guess it's a character, I always thought that was a real person..) is with her finances. Which, I cannot disagree with, that woman is a complete pushover (and she knows it) and unfortunately she seems to be rather financially retarded. Anyway, I progressed on to read other blogs, and I am completely fascinated. I don't think I have anything of interesting sustenance to write about, but what the hay, it can't hurt right?
First of all, I'm in my mid-twenties, I work in medical sales (but I am not an actual salesperson, I wish I made that much moolah), I am going to school part-time for Business Administration (I'll graduate in, oh, I don't know 2019?), and I have a boyfriend, who is a guy that seems to have just emerged from a romance novel. No exaggeration, he is fabulous. I'm kind of just waiting for him to disappoint me, isn't that pathetic? :-D We've been going out for over a year now, so it's all good so far.
I bought my first house when I was 20, I guess that's supposed to be an achievement (no help from parents or anything mind you) but I've found it's just weighed me down, because now I want to move closer to where I work (half-hour drive) but I'm stuck with this house, which of course I cannot sell right now. Great.
So, that's all the major details I guess. Until next time....