Life coming at me

I've had a good week.

I mentiod in my last post that I had a few areas that I wanted to work on, specifically budgeting, getting more organized in general and doing Weight Watchers.

All three have been going ... pretty well. I won't say I am doing perfectly well, but I am absolutely making progress.

Budget
Well, like I said, I worked out a budget based on what I normally get paid. I had some extra money in my paycheck this time, so the budgeting may change up a little once I don't have that excess, but things are looking good for now. I was really careful to split up my money into cash, savings and checking the way my budget said. I put $400 in savings; that will help cover upcoming bills (half), adds $25 that I intended to add to my savings and then also adds an extra $100 to savings that I intend to either put toward a Canon Digital Rebel (camera) or a MacBook Pro. I'm trying to decide which of these goals I want to work toward first. I could definitely get the camera sooner, but I also know that it will take so long to save up for the laptop that I should probably start now. So for now, I'm just saving. I will try to decide soon where the money will go! I'm also a little anxious to see if I will stick to my limited amount of cash. I already feel like I may have budgeted a little low for eating out, but I'm going to do my best to stick with what I've got. For anyone else who is struggling with budget/financial stuff, seriously, check out the book Generation Debt. It's very good, and I've learned stuff from reading it that I feel like will benefit me for a long, long time. Oh, and I also talked through all this with a financial advisor person (who actually was not exactly the right person to talk to, but who made me feel good nonetheless) at Wachovia, and she seemed to think my budget looks pretty good - as long as I stick to it, of course.

Organization/Time
Well, first off, I bought myself (with money I had budgeted) a new, cool calendar that has color-coded sticky tabs so I can be a lot more organized about where my time is going. I'm pretty excited about that. I guess I will have to see over the next few weeks how my time is getting split up. This week I have focused on getting some errands done and setting aside a little bit of time for myself and for time with Kettle. This has been tough, but I did go shopping by myself (killing two birds with one stone since I was able to pick up some birthday presents), and Kettle and I were able to have lunch and dinner together once this week. I also took some time tonight to get my room straightened up and a bit more organized. I am hoping that I'll be able to clean my car up a bit tomorrow, because it REALLY needs it. I think, for the timebeing, if I can focus on getting all my ducks in a row, then I can turn my attention to dividing up my time even better in the following weeks. I also have to buckle down at work and get some stuff done for Profile, which is our annual progress publication. I can earn some bonuses by having stuff done by certain deadlines, and that would definitely be a good thing.

Weight Watchers
Well, of course, this is a struggle, but I am definitely trying. I did OK with what I ate this week, especially with eating lots of fruits and veggies. I struggled with what I ate for dinner (I had Sonic one night, and I had Chinese food tonight), and I also had a hard time making it to the gym (I only went on Wednesday). So those are some things for me to work on this week. My weigh-in day is going to be Wednesday, so I'll try to remember to update about whether I lose/gain/stay the same. I'm looking forward to being in better shape, but I just have to convince myself that all the hard work is going to be totally worth the end result.

So, yeah, as for this weekend, I am dog-sitting, which is a lot of fun. I picked up Ranger from Kettle's house tonight. He's asked several times if I could take the dog for a weekend, and I told him before I didn't think my parents would let me. But I finally asked and they (grudgingly) agreed to let me keep the dog here for a couple of days. He's having fun exploring around my parents house, and I'm sure he'll have a blast running around in the yard tomorrow when it's daylight.

Kettle and I are invited to a Halloween party tomorrow night, but he has to work sort of late, and I have been feeling kind of icky, so I'm not sure if we're going to make it. I'm going to try to spend some time working on some Christmas presents tomorrow, too.

My nephew's birthday party is Sunday, so we'll be going to that, then we are planning to have some us time, which we haven't had nearly enough of lately. I'd say it's definitely tough on both of us to have such crazy work hours. We see each other all the time, but seeing each other at work is much different from cooking dinner together or watching TV or playing tennis or whatever. So, yeah, I'm excited about that!

Ooooh, and I finally asked at the local coffee shop about whether they would be interested in displaying some of my photography. The owner wasn't there, but the barista said she would try to remember to ask him about it. That would be a cool project for me. Another cool project that I'm going to be working on is a story that I'm planning to pitch to Relevant or Radiant Magazine. My friend Alaina, who is the coolest ever, has a really awesome life story, and I think it's something other folks should get to hear about, because she's had a chance to make an impact on an international level. So, yeah, I need to e-mail her to get info for the pitch. I'll hopefully get around to that this weekend, too, but the first thing I have to work on (before I do any of this other stuff) is writing two stories for work (one on a development project in Troy and the other on Barack Obama's rural agenda).

So, anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend, and I will try to keep this thing updated with what's going on and how I'm doing with everything!