Monday, April 28, 2008

Snippets That Make Conversations

Important Things I've Heard Lately:

1) I'm proud of you (Mama)

2) I love you Baby J (Tina)

3) I think you're right (Gary)

4) You can do it Jen - of course you can. (Shayne)

5) We'll make it happen, don't worry. (Kiki)

6) We are pleased to welcome you to the Faculty of Social Work ... (U of R)

So far, 2008 is rocking my world.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Can't Stop This Thing We Started

Some things have been on my mind and I'm assuming more will pop up as I write these ones down.

- At least once a day my boss asks me if I'm coherent before he starts explaining something to me. My 3 month review is at the end of this month. I wonder if I'll be coherent for all of that.

- I worry that I'm not the woman Shayne thinks I am. He sees all the best in me and sometimes I think to myself "I can't live up to this woman you see in me".

- Every time I read Kristy's blog it makes me want to write again. I wish I could write in a way that inspires others to sit down and pen random thoughts.

- I never want to live a life where I don't enjoy driving around late at night listening to alternative rock from the 90's.

- When I have kids and they move away from home, I will call them at least once a week. I never want my kids to miss me the way I miss my Mom.

- I like going to the gym because it's still a luxury. It's still "me time".

- Sometimes I think my farts are unnaturally loud.

- I wish I could be in a reproduction of Hairspray - I would only accept the role of Tracey.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Good For Nothing Tuesday

Some Things I Hate:

1) People who drive 40km/h in the passing lane
2) Line-ups at the McDonalds drive thru the ONE TIME I need a chocolate milk shake
3) Getting my milkshake only to discover some ass clown made it half strawberry, half chocolate
4) People with no telephone manner (I answer and get "Tryg" and that's it. Not "Can I speak to Tryg" or "Is Tryg there" just his name. So I've taken to responding with "No, this is Jen" Gets 'em every time.
5) The sound of LoudGuy's voice (my co-worker)
6) Facebook Application requests
7) People who take artsy photos of themselves and then try to convince everyone that they're NOT vain, the photo just came out like that
8) The overuse of the term "You had me at hello"
9) The feel of chalk on my skin
10) Sticky keyboards

Thursday, April 03, 2008

If I Had No Money Honey ...

I've spent my morning hard at work (read: diving into MSN's Money & You artcle archives) learning about money - how/why/where we spend it. I have to admit, a self professed mis-manager of all things money related, I'm impressed. Normally an article about money would have me running for the hills (or devoting another 3.5 hrs to the miniclip.com website) but these articles were truly inspiring. One woman lives frugally and makes it work on $12,000 per annum. Confession: I make over $20,000 a year and even that doesn't seem like enough. Oh yeah, she's also 48 with a grown up daughter knee deep in wedding plans.

Recently I opened a Savings account - and promptly deposited $100 into it. Boy was I proud! It's still there - don't worry, I just checked. And next Friday, my bank will automatically transfer another $100 into Savings - lather, rinse and repeat for the next 11 months. Whoa - hang on. Am I on the road to financial stability? Weird ...

I've always wanted a Savings account but was never in the financial place to have on. Buried under credit card debt, I was lucky to pay the minimum payment on my Visa every month - at 24.5% interest, the struggle is understandable. Recently, I received a letter from my bank - I didn't open it right away because letters from financial institutions always scare me but when I eventually read the letter it said this: Due to consistent payment made by the due date, as of April 8th 2008, your interest rate will DECREASE by 5%.

NO. WAY.

Never have I received a positive letter from my bank. I'm sure the person typing it had tears in his eyes too. What a lovely affirmation. Within the next 3 months, I will have a $0 credit card balance, at least $700 in Savings (God willing) and fully paid bills.

Today, life is good.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Rumblings and Goings-On

They have a court date tomorrow. Our drug dealing, door slamming, pot smoking neighbours, that is. While Muss and I can't afford the time off work to go down there and heckle, we're delighted (once again) at the prospect of them losing their apartment. Is that mean? No ... no one likes mini-bike riding drug dealers. At least not in Canada.

Tina comes home for a visit in less than two weeks!! Thinking of how close she'll be (if only for a while) makes me really happy. And a little sad cause I know she'll have to go back to England eventually. Did I mention that? My sister lives in England with my Mom and I miss her desperately.

The song "I Am Colour Blind" just came on - I haven't listened to this song since highschool - which was an alarming 6 years ago. This realization comes on the tail of a somewhat disturbing dream I had last night. I was reunited with a couple guys from my graduating class and we were shooting the proverbial breeze. In the end, one of them was promising to save me because a girl I used to work with had gone on a shooting spree. Are my daily worries manifesting themselves via violence in my dreams? This is the second time I've had a dream about being shot/shot at in the last few days. This may be cause for concern ...