Life Update

I've been quiet on the personal front for a while. A busy spell, getting my finances in order so I didn't lose my house. Long story in short form: I was making partial payments to the mortgage company but didn't talk to them. They served me with foreclosure papers. So I've been in a scramble to find more money ever since. I managed to get less than half of the reinstatement fee together with the loan modification came through. My house note is now about half of what I was paying, which means I'll have money to pay on other debts now.

The snowball method vs. pay off the highest interest rate first is a non-issue; the loan with the lowest balance is the one with the highest interest rate. And I think I have a system in place to make sure I don't get complacent and forget the important bills. Because when head goes into sand is when I get into trouble.

The stress has been killer on the steampunk story and house cleaning naturally. I have a three-day weekend thanks to Memorial Day. Mom has already booked Monday as a spa/getting ready for the wedding day. So Saturday becomes cleaning day mixed with a little writing, and Sunday will be sewing day mixed with a little writing.

May 7th the Bachelorette Party: It was fun. Renting a hotel room on Bourbon was a great idea. I managed to have fun even though I was still reeling from having just been served with the notice of seizure. The only bad thing was it was a hotel right on Bourbon. I don't remember anything after then boom-booms from the clubs finally stopped, which means that's when I passed out. But I had been trying to sleep for a long time before that.

If we do that again, I'm packing the air mattress too.

May 11th new medication: My doctor put me on Byetta, otherwise known as the prescription that scared me silly last visit. My taking it has been spotty, thanks to late hours at work. What will help the most is regularly scheduled exercise and I know it. :p

May 15th High School Reunion: It was a lot less awkward than I feared it would be. I even managed to have fun for over three hours. Judie and I caught up, and I found out what many of my classmates have been up to in the fifteen years. We should do a better job getting the word out for the next one though.

Work aggravation: My hours are 7:30am to 4pm. I try to get in around 7am so I have some time to settle, eat breakfast, check email, etc. Thanks to traffic, I usually get home somewhere between 5pm and 6pm.

You wouldn't know it with all the overtime I've been clocking. I don't mind the overtime, if it's our busy season. I DO mind--a lot--when it is happening every single week for multiple days. It makes me irritated and I don't do anything when I get home hungry and irritated. And my old routine of just have supper in the city and wait for the traffic to go away is now kaput. You have to take Byetta BEFORE supper and I keep it at home in the fridge.

Happy camper I have not been over this.

Sewing progress: I'd be a lot further along if I would stop coming home too late and tired to work on the bridesmaid dress. :p I'm fairly confident that I can finish most of it this weekend and turn over what I can't do to Mom.

To Do List Progress: I need to get back to this. I started to analyze what was going wrong and then foreclosure crisis put a halt on the introspection.

Current shoulder pain: I have no idea what I did, but the right arm and shoulder hurt to the point I'm having trouble reaching full range of motion. I've ruled out lifting anything heavy or differently, so that leaves sleeping on it wrong or now that I have dealt with the financial stress my body is letting me know just how bad it was for me.

Exercise plans: I've been trying to find something uncomplicated to do. I really miss the old days where walking was as easy as just leaving my dorm room. I got pointed to One Hundred Push Ups and I really like how you just concentrate on one thing for six weeks. Hopefully my arm and shoulder pain will clear up so I can start on this next week. If not, I may started with one of the other exercises: Two Hundred Sit Ups or Two Hundred Squats.

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The BookWorm

NARNIA!!!!!

I have posts of more substance that will have to typed later. This news is too good to pass by.

Out of the whole series, Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the Silver Chair are my favorites. I think because Eustance and Jill overcome more in their journeys. And I was more than a little annoyed that the Prince Caspian movie didn't have an Easter egg at the end referencing the next book. They could have focused on the picture of the Dawn Treader and got in tighter until it came alive. *Sigh* That missed opportunity would have been so cool!

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The BookWorm

Wednesday Progress Report

Monday: I only crossed of four of the ten daily items, but I crossed off four Big Rocks for the week and put in forty-five minutes on the bridesmaid's dress.

Tuesday: Crossed off three daily items and one Big Rock. Working late killed my concentration for more creative pursuits. But I did enlist my mother's help on the sleeves on the real dress.

Wednesday: Looks better than Tuesday. I already have four daily items crossed off, but I will be late arriving home because of the chiropractic appointment.

Usually this is a great opportunity to catch up on writing hour time. I just have to find something that doesn't require a computer. :p

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The BookWorm

Big Plans

I have big plans for today. I plan on crossing off everything listed for Monday!

It's really not polite to laugh like that.

Seriously, I need to reestablish order over the chaos and that means following the list with actual rewards. I have earned quite a bit and still haven't watched them.

The Oil Spill: Mix of good news and bad news.

Good:

• It's Louisiana sweet crude which doesn't act the same way the heavy crude that the Exxon Valdez spill was made up on. So we probably won't see a black tide event.
• The weather and currents has been making it hard to clean up in the open water, but it has kept the bulk of it offshore.
• We've got great facilities like the Audubon Institute to take care of the injured animals.

Bad:

• This is not a spill; it's a spew. They've given up trying to calculate how many barrels of oil are leaking into the Gulf now. Until we plug the source, we have no idea how bad it can be.
• The source is a MILE under water. That's 1.60934 kilometers for you metric readers.
• Seafood is a renewable resource, but it will be hit hard. Worse, the bans keep the commercial fishermen from earning a paycheck. Yeah, BP is going to pay restitution but you can't count on a check you don't have.

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The BookWorm