Four years ago I took off to New Zealand. I had about $300 in cash (thanks daddy), a passport, and paid tuition. Oh, and some credit card debt. Now, I have much much more, and no New Zealand.
Reading the other blogs out there, with people paying off huge amounts, is really getting me motivated. I've been back in the states for almost three years now. The people who made it into Vet school the year I was over there are doing their clinical year right now, getting ready to finish school in November.
All I've got to show for it is a pile of student loans big enough to buy a very nice car, and credit card bills (admittedly not all wracked up at school) that could buy a slightly less nice car. On top of that I've moved from a place where I had a (relatively) good paying job, centrally located house, health insurance, and in state tuition. I've moved to a place where, right now, I have none of that. Some things will fix themselves- a year after I change my license and voter registration I'll be in state. Once I get a job (jobs?) I'll have income, and hopefully eventually health insurance. As soon as I find a cheap, running car the location of my home will only be a problem proportional to the price of gas.
But I've decided that I want something to show for that time I was away. I've pretended on and off again to pay off or down the bills I have. I've also spent time- lots of time- pretending that the whole debacle either didn't happen, or wasn't all my fault. Until I pay off the school, the cards, and the interest, I won't be able to move on. It's one of the things that stressed me out before, and something that I need to accept about myself- I don't deal well with debt.
I'll list all my debts soon- maybe tomorrow. I know what they are- mostly- but I'm not quite ready to post them all here. I want to put them up with the spiffy little widgets that everyone else has- provided they don't cost money.
For now, though, I thought I'd just give warning. Dave Ramsey talks about Gazelle like intensity. I don't think I'm there yet. I'd like to be, but there are some things I still want to enjoy- drinks or a concert out with my sister, a new computer (I'm still using the broken laptop from four years ago), a WoW account. I realize these are wants, I just really really want them. I'm working on developing that intensity.
Since there's only so far down my spending can go, I've got to get some income. I need a full time job, a part time job, and maybe another part time job. I hope to land a server job- I think I'm bad at it, but that doesn't mean that I really am. I'm doing a cheap eating project, a dollar a day for a year (I hope). I'm working on a budget, getting an emergency fund in place, and stashing my credit cards, debit cards, and everything else in a safe deposit box, where it's tough to get to.
I'm really just starting, but I know I've got great company out there in the world. And that I really can't travel until I've got this taken care of. It's time to move on, and that means paying for my mistakes.
Follow along, it's sure to be at least a little entertaining. Like a train wreck, only without the big pile of smoldering rubble and dead bodies.
February 10, 2010
February 8, 2008
Quick update and a rant
I owe about 85k from my little adventure in NZ. I'm working on paying it down. At Hel-mart. Don't suggest that one, but I keep going back. To make my life happier, I learned about 4 weeks ago that I could have gone back to California, where I haven't lived since the end of 1998, and not paid out of state tuition crap. Don't I feel stupid now.
Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike Wyoming? Ok. So Wyoming itself isn't so bad. It's more the people.
Begin rant-
Rant deleted to protect the very very old.
End rant.
So, anyone know of a legal way to up my income about $500 a month? without another full job? Or selling plasma? Or taking off my clothes for a room full of creepy men? After all, even creepy men have standards, and i still have 20 NZ junk food pounds to lose.
j.
Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike Wyoming? Ok. So Wyoming itself isn't so bad. It's more the people.
Begin rant-
Rant deleted to protect the very very old.
End rant.
So, anyone know of a legal way to up my income about $500 a month? without another full job? Or selling plasma? Or taking off my clothes for a room full of creepy men? After all, even creepy men have standards, and i still have 20 NZ junk food pounds to lose.
j.
August 31, 2007
Ok, so I lied.
I will post a couple more times, but who knows when.
What I did on my summer vacation-
I moved back to Wyoming (for those of you who don't know where that is, it's north of denver and south of montana. Basically, it's the big empty place in the map east of Salt Lake. Those who've seen the movie SLC Punk will know it as the place with the strong cheap beer.)
My stuff is, of course, still in NZ, since I haven't sent the paperwork back yet. Though there is always the chance that my former flat mates have given up on me and sent all my stuff to the sallies.
I'm not in school at the moment. I have a couple more months before I have to start paying on my loans, so I might as well use them. Plus, by the time I remembered to try to beg my way back into a school here, they'd all started.
I will be going back to school eventually, though. But I think vet school will have to wait until I have the patience to sit in a room and hear the same thing over and over again all day (ok, the patience to just sit in a classroom all day) and not go bonkers, and the dollars in the bank to pay at least most of it. Which means not for at least a couple or 5 years.
In the mean time, I've been vacationing, eating taco bell, velveeta shells and cheese, and all the ranch dressing and doritos I can get my grubby little paws on. I'm applying for as many jobs as I can here in town, hoping to pay off my stupid loans, and plotting my next escape from Wyoming. I was thinking California.
Oh, and I have a job interview this afternoon. I just need to find some shoes that aren't flipflops, sneakers, or wicked witch heels. Something between sneakers and heels, I think, that I can still ride my bike with.
Hmm... other than that, not much going on with me. Catching up on my playstationing, my wii playing (oooh, wii sports is fun!), my TV viewing. Oh, and getting ready to go see my mom get married in september.
Wow, I sound disturbingly happy. I think it's the caffeine.
j.
What I did on my summer vacation-
I moved back to Wyoming (for those of you who don't know where that is, it's north of denver and south of montana. Basically, it's the big empty place in the map east of Salt Lake. Those who've seen the movie SLC Punk will know it as the place with the strong cheap beer.)
My stuff is, of course, still in NZ, since I haven't sent the paperwork back yet. Though there is always the chance that my former flat mates have given up on me and sent all my stuff to the sallies.
I'm not in school at the moment. I have a couple more months before I have to start paying on my loans, so I might as well use them. Plus, by the time I remembered to try to beg my way back into a school here, they'd all started.
I will be going back to school eventually, though. But I think vet school will have to wait until I have the patience to sit in a room and hear the same thing over and over again all day (ok, the patience to just sit in a classroom all day) and not go bonkers, and the dollars in the bank to pay at least most of it. Which means not for at least a couple or 5 years.
In the mean time, I've been vacationing, eating taco bell, velveeta shells and cheese, and all the ranch dressing and doritos I can get my grubby little paws on. I'm applying for as many jobs as I can here in town, hoping to pay off my stupid loans, and plotting my next escape from Wyoming. I was thinking California.
Oh, and I have a job interview this afternoon. I just need to find some shoes that aren't flipflops, sneakers, or wicked witch heels. Something between sneakers and heels, I think, that I can still ride my bike with.
Hmm... other than that, not much going on with me. Catching up on my playstationing, my wii playing (oooh, wii sports is fun!), my TV viewing. Oh, and getting ready to go see my mom get married in september.
Wow, I sound disturbingly happy. I think it's the caffeine.
j.
August 4, 2007
Home
I'm home. And broke. Or rather really really in debt. I'll leave this up for anyone who wants to see what *not* to do when you move half way around the world for school. And for the small amount of actually useful information I managed to cram in there somewhere/ somehow.
j.
j.
May 31, 2007
It's 8:13 AM, do you know where your lazy blogger is?
Setting me loose on the unsuspecting populace of a sick small town at 7:40 this morning was, perhaps, a mistake. Not because I'm inherently evil (tho I am) or because I have an appointment at 9ish. Or even because for some bob-awful reason I had cash. Oh no.
It was a mistake because I ran out of soda at about midnight. And I haven't slept since. I've watched bad movies, and read bad books, and made fun of both (in my head). But I did not sleep. Because I had no caffeine. This is serious problem.
Perhaps I didn't tell about last week? (I think it was last week... specifics a bit hazy....) Some chick got mugged (kinda) outside my house on monday evening. But by then I had been out of soda for, like, 2 whole hours. And it was 6:30, so Kmart was closed. And the incompetent grocery store was out of soda, so I had no caffeine. So I tried the one across the street, and *they* had not the right brand. And none of the gas stations on the way home had it. And some ditz in a car tried to run me over, and didn't have her lights on.
Dude, important point here- j. needs a new set of knees. She waaaaay deep in debt. She not be unhappy if some brain dead insured type hit her, break knees, and *pay for new ones*. This not a problem. However, driving down the middle of the street, in the dark, without your headlights on, then swearing at sweet, innocent, law abiding j because you're a dumbass, that not ok. And unlike hot boy/boy nekkid party, it not even ok in theory. (mmm, boys....)
Sorry, where was I?
Oh, yeah. Caffeine + me= good
Me-caffeine = Bad.
I hit the grocery store (which is down to 3 bottles now, I pick up more tonight....), starbucks (cafffffeeeeeiiiiiinnnnnneeeee!!!!!!!!!) and the bakery in about 5 minutes. I into town and back in 23 minutes, give or take. With bad knees. And no caffeine. It a motivator. And a mood altering wassname. I loves it.
And I feel sorry for anyone who runs into me when I not got any, and can't get more. I've seen rabid angry dogs who were better behaved.
j.
It was a mistake because I ran out of soda at about midnight. And I haven't slept since. I've watched bad movies, and read bad books, and made fun of both (in my head). But I did not sleep. Because I had no caffeine. This is serious problem.
Perhaps I didn't tell about last week? (I think it was last week... specifics a bit hazy....) Some chick got mugged (kinda) outside my house on monday evening. But by then I had been out of soda for, like, 2 whole hours. And it was 6:30, so Kmart was closed. And the incompetent grocery store was out of soda, so I had no caffeine. So I tried the one across the street, and *they* had not the right brand. And none of the gas stations on the way home had it. And some ditz in a car tried to run me over, and didn't have her lights on.
Dude, important point here- j. needs a new set of knees. She waaaaay deep in debt. She not be unhappy if some brain dead insured type hit her, break knees, and *pay for new ones*. This not a problem. However, driving down the middle of the street, in the dark, without your headlights on, then swearing at sweet, innocent, law abiding j because you're a dumbass, that not ok. And unlike hot boy/boy nekkid party, it not even ok in theory. (mmm, boys....)
Sorry, where was I?
Oh, yeah. Caffeine + me= good
Me-caffeine = Bad.
I hit the grocery store (which is down to 3 bottles now, I pick up more tonight....), starbucks (cafffffeeeeeiiiiiinnnnnneeeee!!!!!!!!!) and the bakery in about 5 minutes. I into town and back in 23 minutes, give or take. With bad knees. And no caffeine. It a motivator. And a mood altering wassname. I loves it.
And I feel sorry for anyone who runs into me when I not got any, and can't get more. I've seen rabid angry dogs who were better behaved.
j.
May 20, 2007
Expanding my musical horizons
So normally, when I want to get my brain working (happens very rarely) I pop in some JS Bach and Fugue my way to a happy brain.
But I've been told there's more to old dead guy music of the possibly mind expanding variety than just dusty old Bach and Mozart. I'm told there's a Beethoven guy too. Crazy, I know.
So I wandered out into the ever seeing vastness of the internets and located me some Beethovens (no, not the dog, or the movie about the dog).
I'm listening to it right now, actually. Picked up some piana sonatas. I'm about halfway thru the first now. 21 in C major, op 5 blah blah blah. So... rather than let the music pull me into working brain, all the first.. wassname (movement?) anyway, the "allegro" one, all it made me think was... "how the hell do you make your fingers move that freaking fast? and what was he on when he wrote that?"
It's like listening to angsty anime on fast forward. Does he like me? he hates me, he loves me, he dumped me, he's screwing my best friend, he looked at me, he wants me, he's changing schools.... I mean... Change pace, fine, but this is like getting tossed in and dragged out of a wind tunnel every 30 seconds or so.
Maybe it's just the pianna players interpretation? If not, I gonna have to stick to the more mundane Beethoveny stuff, 9th symphony and all that.
I guess I just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it. But damn, how do your fingers move that fast?
And yes, this is school related- Bach calms me down, makes my brains run happy. It's like drugs, only cheaper. "Hey kid, try some Fugue, you'll like it, everyone's doing it. All the cool kids. You wanna be cool, don't you? "
Oh man, I'm the street peddler of music that gives most people headaches. Now if only it paid like drug dealing and prostitution.
j.
But I've been told there's more to old dead guy music of the possibly mind expanding variety than just dusty old Bach and Mozart. I'm told there's a Beethoven guy too. Crazy, I know.
So I wandered out into the ever seeing vastness of the internets and located me some Beethovens (no, not the dog, or the movie about the dog).
I'm listening to it right now, actually. Picked up some piana sonatas. I'm about halfway thru the first now. 21 in C major, op 5 blah blah blah. So... rather than let the music pull me into working brain, all the first.. wassname (movement?) anyway, the "allegro" one, all it made me think was... "how the hell do you make your fingers move that freaking fast? and what was he on when he wrote that?"
It's like listening to angsty anime on fast forward. Does he like me? he hates me, he loves me, he dumped me, he's screwing my best friend, he looked at me, he wants me, he's changing schools.... I mean... Change pace, fine, but this is like getting tossed in and dragged out of a wind tunnel every 30 seconds or so.
Maybe it's just the pianna players interpretation? If not, I gonna have to stick to the more mundane Beethoveny stuff, 9th symphony and all that.
I guess I just not sophisticated enough to appreciate it. But damn, how do your fingers move that fast?
And yes, this is school related- Bach calms me down, makes my brains run happy. It's like drugs, only cheaper. "Hey kid, try some Fugue, you'll like it, everyone's doing it. All the cool kids. You wanna be cool, don't you? "
Oh man, I'm the street peddler of music that gives most people headaches. Now if only it paid like drug dealing and prostitution.
j.
disturbing lab
So... (yes, school, again)
About three weeks ago now, we had a lab where for half of it we watched videos of strange stuff, and for half of it we tested reflexes and brain stuff on each other.
The second half wasn't bad. I did lose my ring, tho... and learned I have a freaking huuuuuge blind spot in my right eye. Big surprise.
The video, tho, was really disturbing. We watched (and were lectured on) a decerebrated frog, pigeon (here after called "flying rat") and a cat.
Just in case you don't get what that means, they take out all the fun parts of the brain, and basically just leave a pulse and respiration. Oh, and reflexes. Sort of.
So first was the frog. Who stood funny, kinda hunched. Didn't go anywhere, obviously, since it's brain was gone. Then they showed a frog with a cut across... brain stem, maybe? something like that. It looked like green slime. I'm not sure it was really alive. It was gross. Anyway, they played with those two (and a live, brain having one) for a couple minutes, then suddenly there's one pinned thru what I'm gonna call the nose, and they're doing weird stuff to it. Good thing I don't eat frogs.
Then the pigeon. Apparently, when you take a flying rat's brain away, it's still a flying rat. A blind one, and totally uninterested in food or other rats, but still, it flies, leans, does all it's need to move stuff just fine. Damned flying rats. The made one (I think it still had a brain) ride around on a birdy merry-go-round, to watch its head tick. Funness.
Then it was on to the interesting stuff. Ten minutes of kittens, some guy in a cage with 10 kittens, and all the neato stuff you can do with a live, healthy cat (if you don't like your arms), like drop it from not very high and upside down and watch it flip around. Or make it's head spin. Or about half a dozen other things.
Then suddenly we're in a lab. And there is a cat in what cen best be described as a cat stand. A cat which, missing most of it's brain (and looking like, rather than put the skin and stuff back, they just painted over the skull with tar) was acting like my mothers dog. Just kinda lying there with its tongue out. 'parently, when you take out the front of a cat's brain, it isn't really a cat anymore. The guy couldn't get it to do any of the stuff a "normal" cat would, even when he flipped it over (showing off a wicked trach(sp)) to show that it wouldn't flip its head around. I don't think he dropped it tho... It woulda kinda gone "thunk".
So there's a floppy beanbag cat, without a brain (basically) and this guy just flipping it around. On the video. For us. Well, and "many" classes in the past. They're supposed to be old videos. Ok....
Yeah, really gross.
Did I mention I get tested on this?
blech.
j.
About three weeks ago now, we had a lab where for half of it we watched videos of strange stuff, and for half of it we tested reflexes and brain stuff on each other.
The second half wasn't bad. I did lose my ring, tho... and learned I have a freaking huuuuuge blind spot in my right eye. Big surprise.
The video, tho, was really disturbing. We watched (and were lectured on) a decerebrated frog, pigeon (here after called "flying rat") and a cat.
Just in case you don't get what that means, they take out all the fun parts of the brain, and basically just leave a pulse and respiration. Oh, and reflexes. Sort of.
So first was the frog. Who stood funny, kinda hunched. Didn't go anywhere, obviously, since it's brain was gone. Then they showed a frog with a cut across... brain stem, maybe? something like that. It looked like green slime. I'm not sure it was really alive. It was gross. Anyway, they played with those two (and a live, brain having one) for a couple minutes, then suddenly there's one pinned thru what I'm gonna call the nose, and they're doing weird stuff to it. Good thing I don't eat frogs.
Then the pigeon. Apparently, when you take a flying rat's brain away, it's still a flying rat. A blind one, and totally uninterested in food or other rats, but still, it flies, leans, does all it's need to move stuff just fine. Damned flying rats. The made one (I think it still had a brain) ride around on a birdy merry-go-round, to watch its head tick. Funness.
Then it was on to the interesting stuff. Ten minutes of kittens, some guy in a cage with 10 kittens, and all the neato stuff you can do with a live, healthy cat (if you don't like your arms), like drop it from not very high and upside down and watch it flip around. Or make it's head spin. Or about half a dozen other things.
Then suddenly we're in a lab. And there is a cat in what cen best be described as a cat stand. A cat which, missing most of it's brain (and looking like, rather than put the skin and stuff back, they just painted over the skull with tar) was acting like my mothers dog. Just kinda lying there with its tongue out. 'parently, when you take out the front of a cat's brain, it isn't really a cat anymore. The guy couldn't get it to do any of the stuff a "normal" cat would, even when he flipped it over (showing off a wicked trach(sp)) to show that it wouldn't flip its head around. I don't think he dropped it tho... It woulda kinda gone "thunk".
So there's a floppy beanbag cat, without a brain (basically) and this guy just flipping it around. On the video. For us. Well, and "many" classes in the past. They're supposed to be old videos. Ok....
Yeah, really gross.
Did I mention I get tested on this?
blech.
j.
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