Serene of the Oakland Serenes

It's 5:08pm right now. My next class starts at 6:30 (usually a few minutes later than that, actually), and I've already eaten and done all my homework. That means I genuinely have an hour and change to just hang out and do what I please. This is limited a little by the fact that the library computers don't offer any privacy, so I won't be typing up any posts I wouldn't want strangers seeing over my shoulder or anything, but oh, my. An hour to myself, with nothing pressing on me! (I have essays due Monday; I don't count that as having homework to do, because they're already in good-second-draft form or better. Likewise a little reading I need to do before Monday, but the book's at home and it's short, anyway.)

Whee!

( And speaking of school... )
( About my mom )
( Call for submissions )

1) I am facing my finances without flinching, at long last, and it's less painful every day. My net worth is in the red right now by approximately $10k ($4k in student loans; a few thousand in medical bills from when I was uninsured; a few thousand in loans from family members -- I'll know more accurately when I've gathered up all those long-ignored medical bills and start answering the phone when creditors call -- but thankfully, no high-interest debt like credit cards or car payments); I hope to go into the black by this time next year. More later if I feel up for it, but that's my basic goal, and we'll see how it goes. It won't be easy, seeing as how I made around $16K this year (and mom sent me another $5K or so to help with child-rearing expenses), but I think it could be doable, especially if I pursue freelance work more diligently and/or get a raise, which is a possibility.

2) The kid has been playing the piano on and off for a couple hours. I love it.

3) Summer hit Berkeley yesterday. It's actually been hot here. I wish I could ship some of this to my friends who are still in winter.

4) Is it silly that the thing I'm most excited about re: the tax refund is that someotherguy and I can get our dental work done?

5) Today is the birthday of both sogwife and my baby brother. They're a year apart, and as different as two people can be, but I love them both. Tomorrow night is the traditional birthday corned-beef-and-cabbage dinner. :-)

6) My dad friended me on Facebook, and minutes later someone posted this, which I had to share, but I will confess to having paused for a minute before hitting send. :-)

7) The magazine lost $632 in 2009. That feels like a respectable first year to me. It puts the thing squarely where I said it was, which was "moderately expensive hobby". I know people who spend more than that on yarn and beads in a year, so I don't feel too bad about it. If I revive the magazine, and I hope I will be able to, I will have to be a LOT better about keeping records, though, and not just dumping receipts into a file drawer. Taxes took way too long this year. Normally, I've got them done by the first week of February.

8) And speaking of recordkeeping, I found an excellent piece of money-tracking software for linux called GnuCash, and I love it! I actually had to brush up on double-entry bookkeeping before using the software, but the documentation is so good that I was able to do that in an afternoon, and the software is very robust and does everything I need it to. Suck that, mint.com.

9) Tomorrow is medical-stuff day: EKG, echocardiogram, and thyroid blood tests. I tell you, if I keel over, it won't be because doctors weren't trying to figure out how to keep me alive.

10) I really love our Farm Fresh To You CSA. I had to scale back on the size of the box (back to regular from one size bigger), but that's because I've been busy and not cooking as much. That'll probably change now that Disability Awareness Week and the taxes are over.

Days of busybusy (magazine, family stuff, social stuff, housekeeping stuff) has fried my brain. I'm broke, but my pantries (typo: panties) are full (eww!) and the magazine will start wending its way to people tomorrow, after which the next issue goes to the printer at the end of the month (oy!). Been really enjoying reading The Graveyard Book to the Munchkin, and catching up with TV shows while I do clerical stuff for the magazine.

Haven't talked much about my new hobby, which is couponing, because I'm strangely embarrassed to be having so much fun doing it. I got $22 worth of stuff at CVS today for $.89 plus tax, and I immediately called my mom to brag. It's a game, and I'm having a blast (and feeding my family for less than $80 most weeks). Also, I think I will never again run out of cereal, toothpaste, mayonnaise, spaghetti sauce, or canned soup. Those things are always on sale.

( And now, surveys from micheinnz because that's all I'm up for. )

Me, to someotherguy: "Listen to this: just for fun, I listed all the countries where the contributors in this issue live: Canada (but from Europe), US, Tajikstan, US, US, UK, Canada, US (from Canada), UK (from Ireland), US, Greece, US, UK, Germany..."

Him: "Cool. And the really cool thing is you didn't do it on purpose, or even know where most of them were from when you got their stuff."

Me: "Exactly."

I am taking a sick day.

( mildly icky, not-too-detailed details: )
Meanwhile, I will work on the magazine and go through bags of clutter. May just call the whole weekend a wash. I really feel the need to rest.

What are your weekend plans?

First, the trivial stuff:

1) Maker Faire is lots of fun, especially if you go with someone who is laid-back, moves at roughly the same pace as you through fair-like things, and doesn't mind crowds. Was mildly surprised that we only saw two people we knew the whole time we were there. Had much fun, saw MANY MANY hot geeks, and saved our fair-food money for a nice Greek-fast-food lunch after we left. My joints are FURIOUS with me for some reason, but I had a blast, and I even remembered to buy/use sunscreen.

2) Also, bought crocheted poo for the teenager.


Then, non-trivial:

I am having some trouble holding it together, though so far I have only melted down for a few minutes at a time here and there. The Munchkin who doesn't live with me is having serious troubles, which means my mom (with whom he lives) is having serious troubles along with him. Between that, my upcoming three-week furlough, and my health stuff (more about which under the cut), it's hard to push through the day some days.

I've made some adjustments that will help:

A) Quit my volunteer job at the WCRC for the foreseeable future
B) Decided that the summer issue of the magazine will come out in August, not June (August is still summer, right?)
C) Encouraged someotherguy to remind me, every time I start to make some fun plan or other, that I am pretty overloaded right now and might want to rest instead. (He normally doesn't parent me, and wouldn't do so now except that I've asked him to, which took some effort on my part.)


( Health stuff: no penalty for not reading )

Good: I have a job I love.
Good: I mean really love.
Good: I work part-time for a decent wage.
Bad: This means I don't make very much money total, but
Good: I get lots of time off
Good/Bad: It's also a ten-month-a-year job, so I get two months off every year,
Bad: Unpaid.
Good: My boss found money in the budget to cut my furlough to one month.
Good/Bad: That month starts next week.
Good: So I get a whole. month. off!
Bad: And my June 1 paycheck gets to stretch until August 1.

It's not going to be a real problem, but it's going to be tight around here, and I may have to do some fancy footwork or borrowing in order to get the magazine out on time. Won't be able to do anything that costs money for at least a couple of months, but I'm becoming such a hermit lately that that's unlikely to be a problem, and I have been to the movies THREE times in the past month, so I'm not feeling deprived or anything.

And I have a job I love. I can't go forgetting that.

I can't stop looking at the magazine. I show it to everyone who stands still long enough. I've sold a few copies at work, but that's not really why I'm showing it off -- I'm just so happy about it that I can barely contain myself. And I keep thinking about how much better (or at least bigger and more diverse) the next one will be. I'll also have more time to savor the next one, now that all my Big Life Stuff(tm) is done with.

I think we're going to have enough multimedia content to do the CD in summer instead of fall, too.

*bounce*!

What an eventful day I've had!

I worked a longer-than-usual day.

I picked up the magazines, which are beautiful.

I walked into the OB/GYN's office to talk about getting the Essure and walked out with an IUD.


So I'm a little spent. I really really really don't like OB/GYN procedures, especially when they hurt -- they make me feel violated. So I'm gonna go buy something easy to throw into the oven for dinner, and then I'm gonna soothe myself by stuffing magazines into envelopes.

And I can't have sex for two weeks!

When last we left our heroine, there were 202 gems of emaily goodness in her 42magazine.com inbox. Right now, there are 225, and I'm gonna try to get down to 100 tonight, if I can. I have the house to myself at the moment, so I like my chances, but we'll see. I think I'll turn on some Sarah Harmer and get cracking.