Ever since I got out on my own, I’ve basically lived paycheck to paycheck. And it’s not fun. It sucks when it gets down to a few days before payday and you don’t have enough money in your checking account to get groceries.

It hasn’t been that bad for some time now, but I’ve still been living paycheck to paycheck. I have managed to have money for groceries and other necessities, but when it comes to “fun money” … there’s not a lot of that sitting around. My main problem is the credit cards that I had and used during college … for books and food and other things that I didn’t need to use them for. I only have 2, but that’s bad enough.

The past couple years have definitely been better … ever since I started working as a web programmer. I’ve been make larger payments to my credit cards … definitely over the minimum payment. And I’ve gotten really close to getting one of my credit cards paid off. I actually made an extra payment today. My scheduled payment isn’t due until the 18th. I should be able to get that sucker paid off over the next 2 months. That will leave me an extra $200 a month … that’s what I’ve been paying for the past year or so. When that’s done, at least $100 of that will go toward the other credit card … maybe $150 of it. That would mean $300 or $350 payments on that sucker. And according to my calculations, I could get that one paid off in 7 or 8 months … depending on what I decide to send them. When both of those are all paid off, I’m getting rid of the second one but keeping the first for emergencies (and hope to NEVER have to use it).

This month, something has happened that has never happened before. You see, when I started the new job at the beginning of the year, I got a pay increase … a pretty decent one as well. My paycheck for Feb. 15th had 96 hours on it … so it was rather nice. And around that time, I got my tax refund back (not real huge, but still good enough). Those 2 things combined to leave me quite a bit more left in my account at the end of the month than I’m used to. Enough that I’ve been considering getting a new desk. I had thought about getting a new camera, but I’m not sure any more. It’s been so long since I’ve taken pictures. But I have enough in my account after bills to be able to get a desk and a camera.

Now … I’m not gonna get both … not even sure I’ll get one. I’m so used to NOT spending money. I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop … either my car is gonna completely die or I’ll lose my job or something will happen. Yep … I’m a pessimist.

Where it’s most notable that I don’t spend money is grocery shopping. It’s gotten to the point that I HATE going grocery shopping. I just don’t know what to buy … especially when it comes to meat. Everything seems so expensive. It seems like the only meat I end up getting is hamburger or chicken or the occasional roast if they’re on sale. Now I actually have money available to buy better cuts of meat and better quality produce and other stuff. But I don’t. I look at the prices and leave it on the shelves. But I don’t have to now. How does one break a habit like that? I love to cook. I have money available to buy ingredients to make recipes that I’ve been dying to make. But I don’t. I think I need a financial attitude makeover … LOL.

I do know one thing that I’m going to be doing once the first credit card is paid off. I’m going to open a second savings account that is earmarked specifically for a house. I am so sick and tired of apartment living. I want my own house. I want to be able to paint the walls any color I want. And I want to be able to wash clothes any time I want to and not have to worry about the machines not being available. I want a SEPARATE room for an office since I work from home. I know that I’m probably at least 2 years away from being able to get a house, but at least I’m starting to plan for it. I also need to put more money in my current savings account. Getting my lappy depleted it somewhat. I want to build that back up for emergencies … so I don’t have to use a credit card. The biggest thing for that account would be car repairs. I really need to get my car looked over in the next couple months so that it lasts me a couple more years. I plan on doing that once the weather warms up.

Boy … this post ended up more rambling than I had planned … sorry. I guess I shouldn’t post when there’s NASCAR on tv … LOL.

A while back, I decided to join Twitter. Now that I have, I’m completely hooked. I even downloaded Twhirl after Mace suggested I use a Twitter client and after seeing Christine posting from it. I’ve been using it ever since. Makes it much easier to keep up with the new ‘tweets’.

I’ve been starting to follow more and more people. It makes it easier to follow conversations when they’re not one sided … LOL. And it jut so happens that most of the people I follow live in Houston. It’s all Christine’s fault. I started following her and Mace and started adding people she follows. Since she lives in Houston, she’s bound to follow people from there. Following their conversations makes me wish it was more techie up here. I know that there are geeks up here, but I just don’t know where to find them. I’ve done some searching from time to time for blogs from the area. But the only one I know of at this point is Mace. Maybe he knows of more. Or maybe I just need to get out of my apartment and start hanging out at coffee shops. LOL

But even if there a lot of geeks up here, I don’t think they’re as social as they are down in Houston. I was really jealous reading about the Twitter meetup they were having this past weekend. I would love to go to something like that. To meet people who blog and have Twitter accounts and are geeky like me. But until I find people like that up here, I’m living vicariously through them.

What really makes me jealous about following all these Houston Twitterers (is that a word? LOL) is their talk of coworking. OMG … I would love to be able to do that. While I don’t work for myself, I do work from home. I could really work anywhere that had wifi (I’d need a power source too because I have an external hard drive with my work laptop that would need to be plugged in). Being able to do that would solve my space issue and it would give me some much needed social contact. I did find out that there are people doing the coworking thing in Minneapolis, but that’s too far away for me. Maybe I should try to get something like that going up here. But I don’t know if there are others who would be interested in it. And I’m not the kind of person who would be good at getting it going. I’m too much of a follower.

I know … I sound like I hate living up here. Well … only during the winter. Other than that, it’s not a bad place. That’s why I still live here (that and ‘cuz my family and friends are here). But I do wish I knew more techy/geeky people. I wish I new the people whose blogs and Twitter feeds I read. So … if you live up around here (the Fargo, ND area) and you happen to be reading this and have a blog or Twitter feed, leave a comment with a link to it.

Now I have to go. It’s almost time for General Hospital (I love having SoapNet on digital cable …

At the beginning of the year, I started working from home. From day one I’ve known that my apartment isn’t big enough. It was fine when I left to go to work. But now that I work from home … and now that I have my laptop … it’s just not big enough. I do have a desk. It used to work out just fine. But that was back when all I had was my desktop. Now I have my desktop, my work laptop 17 inch), and my personal laptop (15.4 inch). I’m using the monitor and mouse and keyboard for the desktop with my work laptop (now that I FINALLY have my KVM switch). That setup works just fine. I could use just a touch more space for papers and such, but all in all, it’s fine. But that leaves my lappy floating around the living room. I had it on the coffee table for a while. But it’s not the best spot for it. I moved it to the kitchen table this weekend. It works pretty good there … especially since I generally don’t eat at the table. I did for a while, but I usually end up on the couch, using the coffee table. The only problem with having the lappy on the table is that the power cord is draped across the room from my desk to the table. Granted, my apartment isn’t that big and it’s not that far from the desk to the table. But still. If I’m not paying attention and I’m dragging my feet … not gonna be good for the lappy.

What I really wish I had was a separate room to set up as an office. If I had a 2 bedroom apartment, that would be perfect (even better if I had a house … but that’s not gonna happen for at least a couple years … although, it is a goal I’m starting to save up for). I could probably afford it too, as long as I didn’t look at the new buildings that have popped up on the south end of town. But I really like the location that I’m at now. Nice and close to the grocery store and gas station. Only a couple blocks south of 13th Ave and I-29. A really good location. I did look at the property management’s website to see if there were any open 2 bedroom apartment in this building on the one across the way, but nothing. So it looks like I’m stuck here for a while longer … either until I have enough saved up to start house hunting or until I go completely bonkers from being stuck in a 1 bedroom apartment nite and day … LOL. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

The only real option I have left is to get a bigger desk. But I can’t go all crazy on that. I do have a limited amount of space. I looked at some desks at Office Max this weekend when I went in to look for a new keyboard. I found a couple that I liked. Both are corner desks. Currently, my desk isn’t in a corner. And putting in a corner would mean that I would have to move the kitchen table, and the table doesn’t work anywhere other than where it currently is (in the corner). But the one I am seriously considering would work where my desk currently is. It wouldn’t stick out too much. It’s the Vantage Collection Corner Desk. And apparently it’s one of the ones on sale this week …

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Now that I know it’s on sale (hopefully it’s on sale at the store and not just online), I need to seriously consider if I want to get it or not. I just don’t know. I don’t wanna settle. But I’m not sure how long I can handle my current setup. Good thing I still have most of my tax refund left.

I was planning on getting my hair cut this morning. Mona (my friend and hair dresser) works from 9am to 4pm today. My plans were to head out around 9:30am or so to get my hair cut and then stop at Walmart to get some stuff that I needed (and since it’s right by where I get my hair cut). But that plan got blown away. As I mentioned yesterday, we had some crappy weather coming. But I was hoping that it wouldn’t get as bad as they were saying or that it would die down before I wanted to go out. But nope …

…BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST THIS AFTERNOON…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND FORKS HAS ISSUED A GROUND
BLIZZARD WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST THIS
AFTERNOON. THE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

NORTHWEST WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS WILL OCCUR TODAY
CAUSING BLOWING SNOW AND POOR VISIBILITIES ESPECIALLY IN OPEN
COUNTRY. LITTLE ADDITIONAL SNOW IS EXPECTED. ALSO WIND CHILL
TEMPERATURES WILL FALL TO 25 TO 35 BELOW ZERO BY LATE SATURDAY.

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR
VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT
CONDITIONS…MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. TRAVEL IS NOT
ADVISED IN OR NEAR THE WARNED AREA.

Yeah … I had no plans to go out of town, but I still don’t wanna drive around in this … even in town. I just don’t wanna deal with the wind OR the wind chills. The windchill right now is -25°F. Not fun.

But Mona works tomorrow too. So hopefully the weather will be better and I can get my hair cut then. Sunday is normally my lazy day, but I’ll do that today. I’ll plop my ass in front of the tv for damn near 12 hours of NASCAR today … ending with the Bud Shootout tonite. After practice last nite, I have a feeling the race is gonna be CRAZY!!!

Wait … don’t answer that … LOL.

This morning, FedEx left a package with me for my neighbor across the hall. No problem. I work from home, so I’ll be home all day. I can do that. And besides, this neighbor is a boy. He’s a cute boy. It gave me an excuse to meet him. I’ve seen him around the complex but hadn’t met him.

He stopped over about 12:30pm to pick up his package. He’s even cuter up close … He was actually conversational … he just didn’t pick up his package. But after the conversation, I REALLY feel like a dork. Even now … over 5 hours later.

He said something about me being a NASCAR fan. I was like “how do you know that”? Apparently … I get a little loud when I watch the races … He even knew that I was a Dale Jr fan. He said that one nite he came home, and there must have been a nite race going on. He heard me yell something about Dale Jr trying to go 3 wide. Ooops. Heehee …

I told him that I’d try to be quiet this season (it does start this weekend after all ). He said it was okay. He said it was entertaining. Not sure what to think of that. Or the fact that he remembered my outburst. Maybe he’s a NASCAR fan too. And maybe he’d wanna watch a race together sometime. Yeah … and maybe pigs fly … LOL.

On Sunday mornings, I usually go out and get a Sunday paper … mainly for the store ads. When I went this morning, I had a little surprise. There’s a parking spot next to my garage. While walking to my garage, I noticed something on the ground in that spot that didn’t look right. It was black, but it wasn’t fluid. It was glass. The vehicle parked in the spot had it’s back window busted out. I decided that when I got home from the store, I’d call and report it. It turns out that the owner of the vehicle has to report the vandalism. I have no idea who’s car that is. If I did, I’d knock on their door and let them know. I tried to do a good deed, but failed. Oh well. At least I tried and didn’t ignore it.

I’m not sure if it was a random thing or not. None of the other vehicles in the lot appear to be vandalized. But I can’t get a good look at some from my balcony … at least not the backs of them. But this hit WAY to close to home. That’s right next to my garage. What if it had been some crazy person who had managed to break into my garage? My car could have been trashed too (not that it’s the best car, but it’s still getting me where I go … most of the time … LOL). I just don’t know why people do shit like that. But I’m definitely glad that I have a garage.

Christine has declared today as a day to stop blurking. What the heck is a blurker? Well, as Christine defines it …

Blurker (BLUR-kur): n. 1. One who reads many blogs but leaves no evidence of themselves such as comments behind; a silent observer of blogs. 2. One who reads many blogs but has no blog of their own; a blog-watcher or blog voyeur.

I admit … I’m a blurker. I read a few blogs daily, but don’t comment much. I really don’t like to comment just to comment. I wanna have something to say that is on topic. But since Christine gave the go ahead to “come out and play”, I’m gonna. Probably not until after work … I’ve got some other stuff to do during my lunch hour. But be warned … if you have a blog that I read, be ready for a comment … LOL.

And since I’m going to stop blurking today, I want you to too. Come on … leave me a comment. Please. Don’t make me beg … And if you have a blog, leave the link so I can stop by. I’m always on the lookout for more blogs to read.

Living in an apartment doesn’t give you many choices for color. I mean, you can’t paint the walls. Unless you live in an apartment where they let you paint. So, my apartment doesn’t have much color in it. White walls. Khaki-ish colored couch. Beige carpet. Pretty bland. See for yourself …

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I find myself watching HGTV a lot (it’s either that or the Food Channel). I’ve got tons of ideas, but can’t do any of them (either because I’m in an apartment or because I don’t have the money to spend). One of the ideas that I got in my head recently was to buy new pillows for my couch. The ones on it were the ones that came with it, so they’re the same color as the couch itself. I thought that if I got some pillows, it would spice things up a little … or at least make things not quite so bland. So … since I was on a spending spree today, I decided to go check out Gordmans to see what they had for pillows. Of course, I was immediately drawn to the green pillows. But no … no green. I wanted color. While I do like green, I wanted something more dramatic … more spicy. LOL I found one that I really liked. And luckily, they had 2. So I bought them. I mean … they were only $10 a piece. They’re called ‘Game Board Salsa’. There’s my spice …

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So … whatdaya think? Did I do good? I like ‘em. But I really wish I had a house to I could REALLY decorate. That’s gonna be my next major goal. Build my savings back up so I’ve got money for closing costs and all that fun stuff. Then I’ll go house shopping. But that won’t be for at least a year and a half … probably two. Gotta make the apartment homey until then.