You’d have thought it was the end of the world by the way I was running around the house this morning like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Yesterday I had been proud to set a new personal record and demolish my paycheck in less than 5 minutes. It was easy to do too. Larger than usual payments to each of my 3 student loans, a significant payment to my visa card, and largely significant payment to my best buy card (the macbook is finally paid off). That left me with the $500 that I had sitting in my account and that would pretty much remain there until the next paycheck. I don’t like to spend that money. With several house sitting ventures coming up I’d have more than enough cash to sustain my needs like food and gas for my car over the next 15 days. I’d have that $500 as a safety net if I needed it. That was the plan anyways.
The freak out occurred when I opened up my bank account this morning and noticed I had less money in there than I should’ve had if all my payments had gone through. Not all my payments had gone though, thank the lord, I was able to stop one of them, but what had happened is I forgot about the all important, it sustains your life, health insurance payment (I hate that payment, I can have a house with that payment, ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but at a minimum, I could have an apartment with that payment).
I’ve never forgotten that payment before, I mean, it’s paying for that insurance that makes sure I get all the supplies I need for my diabetes, that keeps me alive. After long thought, I decided that I was so anxious to pay off my best buy card, which I still owed half of my laptop amount, that everything else basically became insignificant. My little budget and schedule of payments mattered not. I totally broke the teachings of Dave Ramsey on multiple occasions this paycheck. If I had paid the minimum payment on all bills with the exception of my Best Buy card because it’s the smallest amount owed, it wouldn’t have mattered that the health insurance payment was also due. Then, next payday, I could’ve taken that surplus that I didn’t put towards bills and just let it chill in my account and put it towards my Visa card because that’s the card with the next smallest amount. It’s called snowballing debt.
It works when you do it properly, if you get all excited like me to get stuff paid off and you don’t follow the rules then things start to fall apart. Dave Ramsey tells us all the stuff he tells us for a reason. I gotta try to stick to it a little better.
Sue challenged me yesterday, with the Maniac Monday One Word MeMe and yeah, I’m a day late, but yesterday was a little maniacal so it kindof makes sense that this didn’t get done (read: on monday). One word answers aren’t easy for me, I’m a detailed kind of person (that’s why I say challenged), but here we go:
1. Where is your cell phone? missing
2. Your significant other? non-existent
3. Your hair? growing
4. Your mother? dancing
5. Your father? dancing
6. Your favorite thing? bike
7. Your dream last night? unmemorable
8 Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? ex-diabetic
10. The room you’re in? mine
11. Your hobby? cycling
12. Your fear? dying
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? ummm
14. What you’re not? ecstatic
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. One of your wish list items? kayaking
17. Where you grew up? NM
18. The last thing you did? blogged
19. What are you wearing? dogtags
20. Favorite Gadget? speedometer
21. Your pets? dogs
22. Your computer? hermes
23. Your mood? emotional
24. Missing someone? yeah
25. Your car? pegasus
26. Something you’re not wearing? underwear
27. Favorite store? REI
28. Like someone? meh
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today
let’s see here, I choose Jules, Alli, Drew, and Ashley to answer all these questions with just one word. Have fun!
Actually, Ashley, I challenge you even further, I challenge you to answer yours with pictures that you found on flickr (I really enjoy those posts)
And Drew, I’d like to see you answer yours with pictures you’ve taken ;P
So, I’ve been slacking over here when it comes to writing, I’m really just not passionate about it anymore, but I was trying to write with the letters theme that NaBloPoMo has going on right now.
One of the things that I’ve noticed is that some hits to my other site, RideToRemedy.com are coming from emails.
Being that it’s an email, I know nothing more than the fact that there was a link in a “letter” to my site. I always wonder, what’s being written, what’s being said, is it good, is it bad?
What’s in those emails…
I was walking into the office after lunch and in one hand I had a 12 pack of diet coke. In the other hand, an open Red Bull.
The ladies outside the doors just looked at me with eyebrows raised. (They were aware that I was trying to lay off the soda and caffeine.)
The words that came out of my mouth were:
“I just don’t do well if I don’t have a vice.”
Dear Dreams,
You’re incredibly strange, I’d say lately, but it’s not just lately, it’s all the time. Take last night for example, you had me stuck in an airport:
I had not a clue as to where I was, all I know is that I was stuck in an airport with every flight I was supposed to be on being cancelled. Every flight I rescheduled to be on was cancelled shortly after I paid. I saw Jim and Stephanie in line and I talked to them briefly. They even had a buffet in their line, so I got into line with them, but apparently you had to have a wrist band for southwest airlines on your wrist, mine was for northwest airlines. So I had to vacate the line.
I went to the Northwest Airlines booth and asked them the status of my flights, flight 615 from wherever I was to TN and flight 819 from TN to Albuquerque, NM. The flight to TN had been cancelled. I asked how I could schedule to get onto another flight and they said that just past gate 6G there was a computer station, but that we had to have our own computers. I pulled my MacBook out of my satchel and smiled. The lady pointed the direction.
I went to the computer station, a guy was packing up so I was going to take his spot as there was no one else in line. As I was plugging in my computer Ariel comes up to me and asks if she can do a quick search for gas prices in Santa Fe. I asked her why and she said she had to drive a load out of Santa Fe to San Antonio. So I raised my eyebrow and let her do her search. When she left I went about my search to find a way home, it dawned on me to ask her how she was getting back to Albuquerque, but only to late because when I turned around to ask her, she was already gone.
That’s where you left me, stuck in the airport in some unknown city unable to get back to Albuquerque.
Thanks for that,
Courtney
Continuing with letters…
Dear Markus,
Mayonnaise, that’s what you want to know about. Hilarious. *rolls eyes* Ok, here we go:
I’m not a mayo eater. I don’t like it at all unless it’s mixed with mustard on my meat sammiches. When I was little my sisters would eat peanut butter and mayo sammiches. Talk about disgusting. It still makes me sick just to think about it.
Another thing to note is that Miracle Whip is not Mayo. It’s sweet and disgusting and does not pass my very own personal quality control. I will not eat it.
I try to avoid mayo on sammiches that I get from restaurants and the such.
Why mayo? Why did you want me to talk about mayo?
Courtney
is getting very difficult.
I don’t have that many people to write letters to. In fact, tonight, I can’t think of anyone to write a letter to. Although if you were to give me pen and paper, I could probably sit down and write a letter in a heart beat.
Perhaps we could play a round of “Ask Courtney”. If you have a question that you want an answer to, feel free to send it to cbenefiel at gmail dot com (obviously not all written out like that, use common sense) and I’ll respond to your question.
Dear Readers,
I had a question submitted and so I’m going to answer it. A reader was freaked out by all the letters, they didn’t understand what was going on and that would make sense as I didn’t tell you what was going on here on Traveling Thoughts. So, the question was: “what’s with all the letters?”
Well, dear concerned reader, the letters have to do with this month’s themed nablopomo.
“For writers, this can mean letters to the editor, love letters, fan letters, ransom notes — I’m not encouraging illegal activity, but the list is endless.
For typography lovers, it’s a month full of fonts!
For photographers, it’s license to go out and shoot things both manmade and natural that resemble a member of our beloved alphabet.”
Here on Traveling Thoughts, I’ve decided to write letters. If you’d like a different take on letters, I’m going through the alphabet and writing about words that describe me and my life on RideToRemedy.com for each letter in the alphabet.
Courtney
Dear Paisley,
Mom took you today to get spade, I haven’t seen you this calm since you were a little puppy, in fact, I’m not sure that you were ever this calm since we’ve owned you except for when you’re asleep.
You’re all of 5 months old, and mom, took you to get a couple teeth pulled and to get a hysterectomy. How nice of her huh?
You’re in your bed, you’re hair is looking magnificent, you’ve got this faux hawk going on and a cone around your neck (I’d show you except I was forbidden to take pictures, in fact, I was warned that if you in the state that you’re in made it onto the internet, that I’d end up on YouTube the next time I’m sick. I asked dad if he’d put a cone around my neck too, he said yes.)
I thought it was a perfect picture opportunity, mom said “you’re not doing that to my little girl”.
Get better little girl, it’s sad to see you all drugged up.
Courtney
