Wrapping up 2009

Well 2009 is on it's way out the door and 2010 is promising to be filled with BIG adventures.  After spending a few days in (not so) sunny Florida, I'm relaxing (and job/apartment hunting) over in the Big Easy.  My parents dropped in on grandparents and greeted lots of DRAMA.  My mother made a fool out of herself getting piss ass drunk on her first night.  At least the family down here got to see it first hand and know how much my brother, sister and I weren't blowing it out of proportion.  Today I rented a moped and went looking at apartments.  Everything went well, despite the rain and my wipe out.  I'm still bruising at the moments, but only got minor raspberries on my knee and some scratches on my thigh.

Before heading off to the airport I did finally run out of deodorant and made my own solid using coconut oil.  The jury is still out on it's effectiveness, some days good, some days not so good.

I got a text from one of the waiters at the cafe and they're interested in renting out my master bedroom.  Hopefully this doesn't fall through, cause I could really use the help.

Sadly my dad has yet to come pick up the dresser out of my living room.  I did corner him and get him to commit to doing it some time in the near future.  I'll just have to harass him until it gets done.

On Monday I got a call for an interview.  So next Friday I'll be re-interviewing for a new position with Customs and Border Protection.  It's not really what I want to be doing, but I need some money until I get out of Virginia.

Bye Bye Baby Car

Well, it's official.  Baby Car is sold, and just as it decides to snow.  At least the guys at the cafe are looking out for me and making sure I have a ride to and from working this the horrid snow.  I can't wait to leave Virginia and all this sticky slippery white stuff behind me.  And to make everything else ok, my paper got approved so all I have to do to finish my masters is a power point presentation.  Life is good.

Moped/Scooter Purchased!

Well I did it.  I've got me a shiny new (to me) scooter.  Ok, technically Zoe is a motorcycle, but only cause she's got a 150 cc engine.

I've paid down Baby Car and am just waiting for the payment to clear (by Thursday) and then Baby Car is going to CarMax.

I Got a Job!!!

I got hired on the spot today at a local bar/restaurant/pool hall.  I start work tomorrow.  I'm so excited to have a job that will not force me to sit behind a desk all day.  I loved waitressing in college because I get to interact with so many different people.  As shy as I may come off at first in person, I really love being around people.  I still need a second job, but I've got lots of applications out there and I'll continue to stalk apply for retail jobs locally.

In the mean time, I did the very scary thing of cashing out my 401k. 0.o  Considering I'm still waiting on money from my unemployment claims and my bank account was to the point where I could pay any bills this month something had to be done.  So as soon as the check comes, the car will be sold and the moped purchased.  I've got the moped all scoped out and am anxiously checking the mail already for the cash so I can put my plan into action.

In paper news, I'm currently at 39 pages.  Just one page short of the 40 page minimum and I've still got three and roughly a quarter chapters left to finish editing/expanding.

So today is definitely a day for celebration.  Things are going good.  I'm gonna survive!

December Challenges

Alight, so I'm actually getting to posting my December Challenges in a timely manager this month. So without much futher ado, here they are:
→Clear out unused furniture
→Eat three meals a day
→Make own solid deodorant
→Reduce beauty routine (make the minimal used now even less)
→Sale baby car
→Use up pre-packaged items in apartment

First up is getting the bed frame and dresser that are no longer in use out of the apartment. Currently they are both sitting in my living room as a painful reminder to harass my dad to come pick them up or to ask one of the ladies from my women's group to help me take them to my parents house.

Next up is one of my new lifestyle/health changes.  The focus is on simply stopping and eating something three times a day.  I'm not worried about what exactly I'm eating or if it's enough, the focus is simple to get my body used to eating three times a day.

Next, I'll be making my own solid deodorant from coconut oil, provided I use up the last tube of deodorant that I still have hanging around the apartment

Then, it's on to my beauty routine.  I've finally found a no 'poo shampoo that my scalp likes and an amazing vinegar rinse that got my locks manageable.  Make up is down to chap-stick when my lips are dry or a touch of lip-gloss and eye-shadow when I want to feel like I'm glammed up.  I've forgone any extra moisturizer for my face, I just don't need it.  Now I'm still trying to find the perfect face wash: honey or LUSH's Baby Face solid.  Once I settle on this I can check this off my list.

The next big lifestyle change for me is selling baby car.  Now I can't go without any transportation, public transportation just isn't reliable enough and I'm not able to handle the hills on a bike (nor am I in any type of physical shape to manage biking locally...just not there yet).  So I've decided on a moped.  Much more economical (for the environment and my wallet) than baby car.  I've actually looked at one last week at a little mom and pop shop and will own it as soon as I've sold my car (will definitely have it in the next two weeks!!!!!!!!!).

And as always I'll continue using up the pre-packaged items in the apartment and replacing them with either homemade or Earth-friendly alternatives.

November Wrap Up (a little late)

November was a bit of an off month, to say the least.  The November Challenges that finally made there way up to the leader-board were:

→Make own solid deodorant
→Use up pre-packaged items in apartment
✔Cut my own hair and bangs
✔Make tooth powder instead of using tooth paste
✔Tolerate Green Smoothies

I'm going to give myself a pass for not completing four challenges since November turned into the "get Hope out of her depressed state" month and "get Hope working on her final paper" month.  Let's just say thank goddess for antidepressants, cause if you were depressed and had to pay for antidepressants without insurance it sure would make you depressed (nearly $400 0.o).  Towards the end of the month I began feeling like my old self and then completely freaked about my paper.  Though I'm happy to report that I'm currently at 34 pages of the 40 page requirement.  Alright, before I ramble on too much more lets get to the challenges that I attempted:

→Make own solid deodorant So this one didn't happen yet, only because I found more deodorant when I went on a middle of the night cleaning spree (more to come on this later), but I did finally find and acquire all the ingredients for this, so it's only a matter of time for this one.

→Use up pre-packaged items in apartment Still an on-going battle, but I am down to my last roll of paper towels and finally on the absolute last tube of deodorant.
✔Cut my own hair and bangs There were lots of hair trims this month, still not great but better than nothing
✔Make tooth powder instead of using tooth paste I definitely succeeded in this endeavor, though I had to add an extra 10 drops of peppermint oil and it's still a little on the icky side but I can definitely handle it better now.
✔Tolerate Green Smoothies nuff said about this already

I'm still struggling with my insomnia, and let me tell you depression and insomnia are not a fun combo.  But I'm back to my old ways of handling my insomnia: massive cleaning sprees.  Ok, so we all know how I've moved out of the master bedroom in my two bedroom apartment and into the smaller bedroom.  Well, I still had quiet a bit of stuff just hanging out in the master bedroom.  So since I still don't have a job I'm trying to rent out the master bedroom (still no luck there), which meant that I needed to finish cleaning out that room.  The biggest culprit of stuff still hanging out in there was the bathroom.  Remember when I said I thought I had successfully decluttered the majority of the bulk from the apartment?  Well apparently I was wrong when it came to the bathroom.  I found all sorts of stuff I had no idea was even in the bathroom, like a unopened back of cat litter. Well after three days of purging I'm happy to say everything fits in the one half bath without the counters and cabinets overflowing.  There are still somethings I could probably toss, like my caboodle and my make up that I only were once in a blue moon but I did empty the caboodle and only kept my green eye shadows and favorite lip glosses/chapsticks.