I feel pretty lucky.  The economy has taken a big hit, but my lifestyle hasn’t changed a bit.  I think the reason is that I avoid debt like the plague. 

• I own my car (I financed it new for 36 months and paid it off 4 years ago – and the car is still like new)

• I have paid down my mortgage by sending an extra $250 every month, so that my equity is double what I owe (which will give us a nice down payment on our next house).  We didn’t buy the biggest house we could afford.  In fact, we bought a house that was worth about 1/4 the amount we were approved for. 
• I use one credit card and pay it off every month.

I live within my means.

That.  I think.  Is the key.

Not my most profound statement ever LOL  However, for the past several years, I never took actual “vacations” of the 1-2 week variety.  This year I’ve taken 2 of them.  One for a week and one for two weeks.  That really cuts into the PTO.  I have always just used them here and there.  Take a Thursday and Friday off to go visit my sisters for a long weekend, or something like that.

I have only 2 days of PTO left.  But I have 12 sick days (the max we’re allowed to carry).  Maybe it’s time for a mental health day.

We are finally taking our Christmas decorations down today.  I think this is the longest we’ve ever kept them up.  We took the lights off the house last weekend. (We meaning I stayed in the house doing laundry while Mac took the lights down LOL)

I ordered an electric blanket from the Sleep Number company in early December that I never received.  They claim it was delivered to my house on Dec. 12.  It may have been delivered, but it wasn’t delivered to my house.  I have never had problems with deliveries being misdirected or stolen.  I have a feeling they aren’t going to do anything about it.  That is bull because I had no choice on this.  They didn’t stock them in their store so I was required to have it delivered.  If they tell me the problem is between me and UPS I’m going to call my bank and refute the charge on my credit card.

I’ll wait til they call me back but I have a feeling this is NOT what customer service is all about.

My Starbuck’s card was getting old and it had a crack in it.  I can’t remember when I first bought it, but I went online and registered it, and had it auto refill for $100 when it got down to $10.  I called yesterday and asked them to stop the auto-refills, and today it was my intention to get a new card and have the balance transferred.  Well, I couldn’t find my old card.  I think I may have accidentally tossed it while I was on the phone to Starbuck’s yesterday to cancel the auto-refills.  I went today and got their new red card – they will donate 5 cents from every purchase for AIDS research.  Since I work in philanthropy, I figured this would be one way of me doing my part.

Then I called Starbuck’s again and told them I lost my card.  They transferred my balance to my new card without any hassle.

This is what customer service is all about.

I was in training yesterday with a coworker and someone I’d never met, but who had worked at the place I worked at until 2004 (she worked there from 2005 – 2007).

I am not really “up” on what is PC but never want to offend anyone by my ignorance.  I mentioned that Barak Obama was getting all of these “he’s black” accolades but it seemed that they were ignoring that he was also half white.  I said “Why don’t they say he’s our first mulatto president?”  Oops.  Turns out that is just as offensive as the “N” word.  I had no idea.  I wonder how many people I have offended by telling them, over the years, that I thought mulatto children seemed to have the prettiest skin color, ranging from the color of coffee with cream to cocoa.  I always envied them. (Which is probably why, in my younger years, I was always on a quest to have the darkest tan on the block.)

I really hope the girl yesterday believed I really had no idea that “mulatto” was such an offensive word.

Correction

It turns out that it’s just not “PC” – it went the way of the terms “colored” and “negro”.

I forgot how sharp kitten claws could be!!!  Our adopted kitten is cute as a button, but dayam!  He has to learn to stop using his claws to greet me.  He will jump on the back of my chair, then jump right onto my back, using my skin and his claws to stay upright.

When I was in junior high school, a really cute boy (Rick) sat next to me in one of my classes – I forget which.  He was kind of quiet and shy and it didn’t take me long to develop a crush on him.  My crush was crushed one day when I saw him make an awful face when someone mentioned my name to him.  From that day on, or at least, once I got over the hurt, I decided I just didn’t like him.

In high school I had a crush on a really cute boy who played the piano (Curtis).  I loved watching him play but he just wasn’t interested in being anything more than friends with me, and then not even the kind of friend you hung out with.

I didn’t really have much luck with boys when I was younger.

I ran into Curtis online a few years ago and we became friends – I even went to visit his family.  I ran into Rick online recently and we have become friends.  We met up last weekend with some other friends from school.

Time really does change things.  35 years ago I would have been so tongue-tied around these two there is no way we could have ever been friends.  But time has mellowed me, made me comfortable with who I am, and made me able to be friends with these two guys – this just wouldn’t have happened 35 years ago.

Today was my first day back to work after my two-week vacation.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I made sure I had all the little stuff caught up before I left.  I spent about half the day just reading email and attending meetings.

I was acknowledged at a meeting for celebrating my 2nd anniversary with my company this week.

Went to karaoke last night and met up with some high school friends.  I haven’t seen Sue in 15 years and I don’t think I’ve seen Ray since graduation (35 years ago).  I sang so many songs that my throat is now raw.  But I got my karaoke fix for a while.

I’m driving back home to Chicago today.  The only change I want today is where I am.  The weather is holding out at just above freezing and no percipitation.  I hope it stays that way for the whole 5 hour drive.