2 days in review

Last night (12/15/2010) I could not sleep until I had sent an email off to a professional/friend contact and (and) made the decision to submit the report regardless of what any supervisor or administrator said because the Law stated otherwise.

My back momentarily stopped hurting after I sent the fax.

I've got to draw up a monthly and weekly budget for myself.  Without having classes 4 nights/week, I should be able to work this out fairly well so the habit is established by the time I have to start class in the spring along with my internship.  Then I'll get 3 months off with the summer to save even more, only to resume the one course and internship in the fall.

$100 for 2 weeks of gas
$75 to 100 for 2 weeks of miscellaneous (i.e., food, shopping)

Leaving about 3/4 of my paycheck in the bank.  Saving up that way for a while will enable me to feel safe financially before setting the move-out date in stone.  I'm so my father in terms of money: pinch and fret and pinch some more.  But I'm really just entering "taking care of myself mode" with the paychecks that I do have, getting $200/month for the past 1.5 years wasn't good.  It all went towards gas.  It got to the point that I would return things bought weeks previously just to get extra cash for gas and not having to ask for more.  I feel so bad for having to ask for money.  I don't want to be put in that position again.

Other things I want to take care of are some activities like kickboxing or something active that can be put to use (i.e., forget yoga or aerobics, or a gym membership).  What good is running on a treadmill, never going anywhere.  I love hiking, I get to read at the summit or take photos.  Getting the sense yet that something always has to be put to use?  It's not just an end to itself?

hm, anyway, work in the morning and Family Christmas Tree Decorating in the Evening .... (signing off)

just wanted to share a photo ... until I can get the last of my photos from the now-broken camera

itchy fingers, can't wait to see what I got and edit them

A Pair of Rants

I am contemplating a permanent move from my Xanga blog to here on Blogger. Xanga has begun in recent years to foster “-ish” sites like ManCouch which is often derogatory towards women and is the ole boys club; Datingish which frequently discusses what base to be on at which date or cohabitation; Revelife which is Christian, but antagonistic towards Catholics, etc. Then this week Mathematicalbagpiper, a fellow Xangan, faked a suicide note.

Not the best of reasons for why Xanga is the right community to stay in, although I have been there since 2004. I like the people I subscribe to and read on a daily basis, but between the ish sites, the boys crying ‘wolf’, and the general other kinds of trash on Xanga, there’s little to really keep me there. Why would I want to align myself with something like that?

I do not have a problem getting a job, any job, in order to earn some money. What my parents are unaware of is that I was a kettle worker/bell ringer for the Salvation Army in December for 7.5 hours per day every day for $8/hour; rain or shine. So my mother tells my dad this morning “Tell Meg to go to H&M for a job application; and tell her not to be embarrassed.” Excuse me? Embarrassed? I’m beyond embarrassment, humiliation, or anything else! In fact, I’m almost proud enough to say, “Hey, my health care social work job market is so bad, that I worked as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army to earn a little cash! Take that!”

With that being my attitude, I’m further injured by the fact I have to ask my dad for gas money. I got $20 on Monday, and again I requested gas money today. Let’s do a little math.

At $3.079/gallon, $20 gives me 6.45 gallons of gasoline.

Essentially I get 25 miles/gallon: 161.25

Each day this week I have driven up to Culver City where I take classes at West LA City College. The commute from my house to there is 23.2 miles.

I drove straight to campus and back on Monday and Wednesday:

Round Trip: 23.2 x 2 = 46.4 miles

2 Round Trips: 92.8 miles

On Tuesday I drove to campus: 23.2 miles, then the next 12.9 miles to an apartment near USC for dinner, then back down to home to sleep, another 25.6 miles.

In total, I drove 92.8 miles on Monday and Wednesday, and an additional 61.7 miles on Tuesday.

In total I drove 154.5 miles in three days; according to the ideal gas consumption I should have another 6.75 miles in my tank available to me, which I used this morning to drive to the gas station, 2.2 miles from my house.

So, why the presumption by my father that I’m wasting gas money?

Let’s not even begin to ponder the fact that I only get money for gasoline and nothing for food. That’s right, the days I leave the house without food in tow, I don’t eat. How’s this, I pulled the last $20 from my account (before the bank charges me overage), three weeks ago. I used $10 on dinner out with friends (think I’m able to afford a $5 tip?!? Hah!) and the remainder of it went towards buying beer – for beer bread that is quickly becoming popular for me to bring to potlucks. I used the last of those $20 on soup last week for dinner on Thursday evening (my parents were out of town), and $1.68 for medium fries on Monday for dinner. I had fries for dinner, until I could get home and eat something more substantial at 9:30pm.

Want to add insult to injury? My dad wants me to pay him back for every $20 I ‘borrowed’ from him to pay my cell phone, gas & food money (back when I got $ for food) in undergrad, grad school, and my current time of unemployment. I’ll save you the trouble – its more than $14,400.

And I’m supposed to pay off $50,000+ in student loans for getting a Master degree.

Don’t complain to me about money, unless you’re more broke than me.