Left Brain, Right Brain

Jon installed Quicken on our network so we can use it from any of the computers here at home. I plugged in my 2 checking accounts, my money market account in Fargo, and my student loan so far. Then I started poking around because I've never used this program before and was curious to see how it works.

Under "About You" Jon has entered his name, his birthdate, and answered "Are you married?" with YES, and then put my name in as his "spouse" - only with his last name! I thought that was kind of cute. He had also answered "Do you own a home?" with YES. I'm so glad that he is really starting to look forward to the wedding and marriage and is getting excited about it all. What a big sweetie. ^_^ It's making it a lot more fun and easy for me!

It's weird, I can't tell if it seems like a long time or a short time, but 6 months, 6 days is only 190 days. And now that winter is starting to finally wind down, that just leaves spring and summer, at the end of which we will be getting married for real. FOR REAL!!

Counting down to September 23, 2006

I have a bit of a rant about one of the departments at my work.
( Corporate Accounts Payable, Nina Speaking! JUST a moment! )

OK, it finally happened. I got my internet hooked up. Can I get a w00t. Huh. Yeah.

Why am I always so low key? Weird. Anyway, the stupid thing is that I had "Basic" cable TV added to my account because it actually made my bill $4 less per month, so that's fine, but "Basic" is REALLY basic. Like, I get reception on the networks, plus a bunch of public access, a few Jesus channels, some news channels, a shopping channel, and not much else. If I want anything GOOD, like Discovery, TLC, History, Comedy Central, or whatever, I would have to pay an additional $30 a month for what is called "Basic 2" service! heh. More like BASIC SCREW. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Maybe in a couple more months, once I catch back up on my credit cards, I will just go for the full digital package. The only appeal in that is all the super awesome digital music channels I would have access to, but I guess all the weird "specialty" channels might be a lark to flip thru some time, too.

About my credit cards. I had planned on going into debt when I moved down here. I am now in debt. Well, not BAD, but as far as I'm concerned, any debt that is not a car loan or student loan or mortgage is BAD debt, so I am really uncomfortable most of the time now. I am paying for COBRA insurance from my old job until I convert to a perm employee here at my current job. It's over $200. Stupid. I was paying almost half that out of pocket before my job covered me! Sheesh. Oh wait... I was supposed to contact Blue Cross here in MN when I moved. Shit. I could be getting better rates privately. Shit. Dammit. So anyway, I paid for COBRA in October, and also paid for November, but I FORGOT TO WRITE THE NOVEMBER CHECK INTO MY CHECKING REGISTER. Argh. So that made my balance about $200 less than I was thinking it was for a few weeks. That was totally frustrating when I found out. At least I caught it last night. I am so close to the edge on that account it is not even cool. I figure by the end of November my checking acct should be nicely padded again, and by the end of December (I hope) I will be able to start hacking away at those credit cards. Thank GAWD for 5.9% fixed APR on that MasterCard... and let's give a pathetic little "w00t" to the Discover Card cashback bonus award, which now has to be $20 minimum before you can get it back.

I will be mailing my car payment today, and after that happens, I will officially have just ONE MORE CAR PAYMENT!!! YAY!! It won't mean more money though, just a reorganization. Jon loaned me a chunk of money last month, and I will be paying him back in the same amounts that my car payments have been. Not huge, but it will work. He is not in a hurry. I'm so grateful for his generosity. That's the ONLY reason I have been able to stay above water financially these last couple months while getting settled into my new job. I got my first 40-hour paycheck last Friday finally, and another one will be coming every week now. Regular income is nice. I don't really care about money, but I like stability a helluva lot. Once I get everything settled to my own satisfaction, I will be able to start doing some serious saving again, and finally get started on that Roth IRA I keep wishing for.

My birthday was on the 6th. I kept it on the downlow. It was cool, not a lot of people knew, and Jon took me to Ichiban. We had Justin and Jen with us, and they didn't even know it was my birthday until I finally told them! It was awesome. I hate having so many people know and then calling all this attention to me. I like to be private about that. I think its because birthday attention is attention I have no control over, haven't called to myself my choice, and can't really escape once it starts. I hate that. But it was a wonderful birthday on Saturday. Probably one of the best I've had in the last 10-15 years! Thank you again, Jon.

OK, I'm at "work" doing nothing here, so I better try to find something productive to do now... This job is cool. I love it. They have kegs floating around the building at least on a monthly basis. I never partake, but it makes for a cool, relaxed atmosphere. My boss asked if I wanted a hard lemonade a couple weeks ago. I mean, wow!