Slacker Shae, back from Utah

Sorry I've been horribly negligent! But I had an amazing trip to Utah with family and friends. Now I'm just excited for Darren to come back on Tuesday! I feel like I've been in a long distance relationship forever! Thanks to those I saw, and I'll have to catch up to those I didn't next time!

Recipe Tag

My cute friend Shawna started a recipe tag and since my family knows how much I love cooking and trying new things, I figured I would join in. Everyone who want to join in just post a recipe on their blog. This is my newest favorite meal!

BASIL CHICKEN PASTA
Shalisa Thompson
1 (8 ounce) package angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
2 cups boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cubed
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or hot sauce
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

I prefer to cook my chicken with garlic salt and pepper to taste so it’s well flavored to begin with. Cook the angel hair pasta as directed till al dente. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onions and garlic till onions are softening. Stir in the tomatoes, chicken, basil, salt and hot pepper sauce/red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to medium, and cover skillet. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot and tomatoes are soft. Toss sauce with hot cooked angel hair pasta to coat. Serve with Parmesan cheese. Variation: instead of fresh tomatoes, use canned, diced tomatoes. Still delicious!

This is pretty easy especially if you use canned tomatoes. And Darren and I both love this one!

The Redline Metro and Shae's Commute

Most of you have probably heard about the accident on the Redline Metro that happened last Monday. 9 people were killed and I think over 70 were injured. I do take the redline home and to work but I'm on the opposite side of where the accident was. That doesn't mean that this hasn't affected my commute though! Tuesday I got into work a half hour later than normal. Trains are going really slow, and they're driving them manually as opposed to the much faster automatic system. They think the automatic breaking system failed or at least failed to recognize an obstacle and that's the cause of the accident so until they have confirmed this, they are going manually. On Wednesday however, this was my favorite. Not only are the trains going slow, they are going farther between. So normally when I get to my stop, I wait about 4-6 minutes for a train, tops. Now, I am waiting 10-20 minutes for a train. I'm on the second stop of my side of the metro so normally the trains aren't super full yet. However, you give people about 10-20 minutes to build up and you have quite a crowd! So when trains come by my station, they're already quite full. On Wednesday, I waited about 15 minutes for a train, and when it came it was so full I wasn't sure I was going to fit! Since I'm the second to last stop, when we see trains going the opposite direction we know they'll be coming back soon. Since I remembered seeing two trains fairly close together, I decided to risk it and wait for another one. I lucked out and it came along less than 5 minutes later and it was much less full. I even got a seat! Well, about 3 stops away from where I get off, we were now super super full. And because we were so full, our doors malfunctioned and couldn't close completely. So they took our train out of service and we all had to get off and try to wait for another train. The problem with this is that the trains coming along are already so packed, that they can only fit about 3-4 more people per car. Literally. People were stuffing those trains so full that doors were being closed on appendages, bags, purses, even whole bodies! But people kept squishing and fit a person or two more. Well, picture if you will, about 200-300 people who are already late for work because the trains are so slow, trying to squish onto these trains with barely enough room for 4 more people. It was quite comical. I sat on the platform and giggled to myself. More than an hour later, there were still about 50 of us on the platform when an unusually less crowded train came by and I think we all got to fit in. Or at least the large majority. I even had enough room around me to text Darren without having the cell phone 2 inches from my face! I missed the meeting our branch had that morning and got into work an hour and a half late but my boss knew what was going on and kind of expected this to happen for the next little bit. Today it only took the train 20 minutes longer than normal to get into work. It's an improvement!

The other day on the way home, we were also very very crowded and a little girl about 7 or 8 had her arms around her mother who was standing extremely close to me and the little girl feeling there was someone close to her mother started to feel my arm and stomach. I tried to step back in surprise but we were crowded enough that didn't work out real well. I kind of laughed when I figured out what had happened but it was a little startling for that split second. Hopefully they get this situation figured out soon or we'll start having people get smothered to death.

There is a bright side to this sad situation. I don't think I've ever talked to people on the metro as much as I have lately. It's hard to ignore the person who's lap you're basically sitting in, or the person who's arm is around you so they can reach a pole to hang on to, or the person who falls into your arms when the train stops/starts. So I'm getting to know my neighbors in more ways that I probably would care to, but the talking is good anyway.

New York Weekend 2

I'm back from the second trip to New York and while this one was a little more stressful, still very enjoyable! I don't have any pictures since Darren's sister, Cari, took them this time but when I get them, I'll share. Loren and I drove "JJ's" new car up. I put that in quotations because the car is really Darren's parents but JJ will be driving it. We met Darren, JJ, and Cari at Darren's house pretty late so we bid goodbye to Cari and JJ who were staying at their cousin Scott's house and then we went to sleep. Saturday morning we woke up, fixed breakfast together, ate quickly and headed out the door for Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Which, by the way, the Statue of Liberty is not on Ellis Island. It's on Liberty Island. I didn't know this but we made it to both places on the same ferry ride. While we were stuck in traffic trying to get through the Holland Tunnel, Cari realized that our tickets were for 1:00 and not 2:00. We missed the 1:00 ferry and even the 2:00 ferry but they let us take the 2:20. We didn't even get off the boat at Ellis Island, we just stayed on and went to the Statute of Liberty so we didn't miss getting to go inside the pedestal. They are going to start letting people go inside the statue starting next month for the first time since 9/11 so I'll have to make another trip up there. We did get to look up inside of the statue though which was still very cool. She's not quite as big as I thought she was but learning about the building of her and what not was still very fun.
After that we were trying to figure out the order of the evening since we had tickets for Wicked at 8:00 (which we double checked) and we still hadn't eaten and it was about 5:30 and we needed to drop the car off at Darren's. We decided to hurry home and find a restaurant on our way to the theater which we did. We ate at a fun Cuban restaurant which was delicious then hurried to our show. We we got there and showed our tickets to the first usher, she said we were another two escalators up. Cari informed us that we were the second to last row so we knew we were going to be high up. Well when the last usher looked at our tickets he pointed to the back in the middle and said, "The last row of seats you can see? You're one behind that." We about died laughing. And he was right! There was a row of seats hidden back there we couldn't see! The didn't even light it back that far! But we still had a good view of the stage and it was amazing! I was little disappointed with the way they did a couple of songs ("I'm not that Girl" especially) but overall very good.
Sunday we slept in ("we" meaning Darren and I.) then we had breakfast together and relaxed together. Later we met up with the rest of Darren's family for a late lunch/dinner and then walked through Central Park. It started to rain but they were determined to play frisbee no matter how close we were cutting it to missing our bus. And miss our bus we did. We did eventually make it home however and even though I'm on about 4 hours of sleep, it was a very enjoyable weekend. Darren's coming down here for the 4th of July so he can enjoy our fireflies. I'm very excited too!

FIREFLIES!!!

I saw my first fireflies of the season! I went outside to let the dogs play for a bit, and I saw some lights across the street. I started to look closer and I realized what they were and got a really happy smile on my face! I watched for about a half hour. The dogs seemed more confused by them than anything. The first one I tried to catch Sandwich ate. But she immediately spit it back out. Eddie seemed to try to chase them but wasn't trying to actually catch them. I'm officially happy I'm here for the summer. :)

My first weekend in New York!

That's right everyone! I made it back! No dead in a gutter for me! I didn't take many pictures and they were all taken with a cell phone camera but here they are.



This is the view from the top of the Emipire States building! This was our first stop on Saturday morning. I wasn't extremely impressed but it was fun because it was with Darren. :)

This is Darren with the very tip top of the Emipire States building behind him. This is a sneaky trick they pull to make their building taller than it really is. Add a perfectly useless tower on top of it. And ta-da! After that we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's the largest Cathedral in the United States. I personally hadn't been to a cathedral before but I know this one was pretty big indeed. It was also very pretty.

While we were there we saw a wedding (which I believe is what this picture is of) and two baby christenings/blessings/baptisms (they were twins) and a lot of really pretty architecture. After that we headed to Darren's office:

He has a candy jar on his desk if you can't tell and we stole lots of it. Is it stealing if it's his? After that we headed home by going through Grand Central Station. I took a picture because this is where the lion from Madagascar comes out of the tunnel. I asked Darren to act like a lion for me for the picture but he declined.

On Sunday we went to a Flea Market and Central park and Central park zoo. I was disappointed with the zoo seeing as there wasn't a Lion, a Giraffe, a hippopotomus or a Zebra. Dumb Madagascar getting my hopes up. :( But the monkeys were funny and the see lion was entertaining. Next weekend it's the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and WICKED!!! :)

New York New York!

I'm going to New York city tomorrow night for the first time ever. I'm scared I'll be dead in a gutter somewhere come Monday or hopelessly lost and have to walk back. Darren's in New York for the summer with his 2nd year associate job and we'll see how my first visit goes. We're not planning on doing anything too exciting, maybe a small bit of sight seeing and that's about it. We're going to see Wicked later this month which is what I'm really excited for! So the purpose of this trip is to make it to New York, not die, and make it back in time for work Monday. Good luck to me!

EASTER finally....

Sorry this took so long but here's Easter pictures!

This is everyone getting ready for the great Easter egg hunt of '09. Otherwise known as "get the loot"

She's not old enough to hunt yet but she chilled with us anyway.

Mallory found the only golden egg with only a little bit of help. Okay it may have been more than little help because this hole in the wall was covered by a calendar and she's also being held up so she can reach it. But it was minimal help.

Carson showing off his prize. He found this one himself!

Jordyn stole this purse from me. She noticed me carrying it around rather possessively and figured there must be an egg in there, and there was! Little thief.

This egg that grandpa hid got her hands dirty!

Who hid one in the garbage can?

She had help with this one too. :)

More hunting

These next pictures our us counting our eggs!!! I think there were 185 eggs???

I'm sure I won. :) Happy Easter!

The most amazing thing I've ever done. Or at least really close

Today at work, my boss locked his keys in his office. This isn't a problem for most people because we have spare keys somewhere. We have a box of random keys in our vault so we opened the vault, got out this box, and opened about 5 packets of keys and none of them were his. He was starting to panic about now. His car keys and house keys were in there along with all his work and he had no way to get home. He started to get ready to climb up through the ceiling tiles in the room next to his office and try to climb over to his office and drop through the ceiling. I told him no, that was the stupidest thing I'd heard all day. He asked me why I thought this was such a bad idea. I told him it was because the ceiling tiles were really thin and not made to be walked upon and he would fall through and die, and he already had a bad back and shouldn't even think about trying something like that. He said he HAD to get those keys. I told him to get me a broom and a wire hanger and I'd get them for him. He didn't believe me. HA! We didn't find a broom, but we found two sticks that were screwed together. This is the contraption I made:

Keep in mind this is after I was done.

I work in the IRS building in downtown DC. The building is quite old as you can imagine. We have radiators throughout our office and in the case of Doug's office, he shares his radiator with the office next to his. This is a picture of the radiator in the office next to his:

I took my contraption and managed to get it through this very small hole in the wall and into Boss's office. This is the Radiator from my Boss's office:

I managed to snag his bag and drag it over to the radiator where we managed to wriggle it underneath the radiator, however it was backwards so getting anything out of it was difficult. I pushed the bag back into the room and got it flipped around so I could pull things out of it. I finally managed to find his keys and he got into his office. This is where the bag was:

My fellow coworkers think I was a theif in my previous profession now. I'm just amazing. :)

I'm such a slacker

I've been way behind with this blog thing with Darren having finals and me trying to find activities to do to keep me out of his hair. But he will be out of town from now until the end of the summer almost entirely so I'll have more time. Right now I'm just really excited Darren is done with school and that it's the weekend! Hooray!

The best friends in the world

I just got back from my trip to Utah which was awesome! First i got to see my family a lot which is amazing in and of itself. I got to go to lunch with Jamie which was really fun, then she gave me a tutu for my birthday. A tutu! I love it! I danced around her apartment with her daughter looking at me like I was a crazy person which is hard to get a one and a half year old to do. After which I made tutus for my 6 nieces and we all danced around my parents house like crazy people while my nephews looked at us like we were crazy people. I got to go to lunch with an old friend and then the girls I used to work with threw me an early birthday party. A SPONGEBOB birthday party. How cool are my friends?!? I got spongebob legos, a spongebob cake, not to mention spongebob tablecloth and dishes. And we made rubber bracelets for each other. Sunday night after playing with my family all day long, I got to hang out with two of my swing friends until early in the morning. All this after they had just completed an 8-11 hour trip from Denver. Aren't my friends amazing? They were even willing to dance with me a little. Then I got to come home to my boyfriend in DC. Life is good.

Yes, I'm single and I have a blog

I realized while skimming through my friends blogs, I'm the only one that's single and has a blog....Or maybe it's that I'm the only one I know that's still single? That does seem like the more logical solution since these friends I speak of I knew before they were married, hence, when they were single. So therefore, I'm not the unusual one. You are all unusual for getting married. :)

100 things I've done in my life

I read on someone else's blog somewhere and since I'm bored at work I thought "why not?" Then I realized this was taking way longer than I thought...but it's done now!

Things Shae's Done:

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Danced in the streets (multiple times)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Went rock climbing outdoors and made it to the top
7. Seen Niagra Falls in person
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Danced with Frankie Manning
12. Held a starfish and a sea cucumber
13. Watched fireworks from a lake
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Stuck paperclips in a socket (dont' do this FYI.)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Been to the top of the Sears Tower
18. Grown my own vegetables (right now! :))
19. Seen The Declaration Of Independence
20. Watched a chick hatch
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (on accident)
23. Taken a sick day because I was sick of work
24. Built a snow fort
25. Rubbed an alligator's belly
26. Climbed a tree
27. Watched puppies being born
28. Ice skated on an outdoor rink
29. Seen a banana tree (they grow upside down!!)
30. Watched a sunrise and a sunset
31. Flew an airplane (flew it! Myself! With someone there in case I messed up!)
32. Climbed to the top of the Hill Cumorah, many many many times
33. Been to the Sacred Grove at night
34. Been kissed on a beach
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Learning to read a different language (maybe speak it someday)
37. Went clay pigeon shooting and hit some clay pigeons (with bullets!)
38. Stood on the step that the "I have a dream" speech was given from
39. Written a love song
40. Rolled down a grassy hill
41. 4ung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Met President Hinkley
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Rolled Easter eggs down a hill (I'm sure mine won)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Swam in the ocean
49. Held a shark
50. Been to the top of the Washington Monument
51. Been Snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Been to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a play
56. Invented new lifts for swing dancing
57. Been dropped on my head while swing dancing
58. Kicked someone in the head while swing dancing
59. Slapped someone
60. Restrained from slapping someone (although I'm sure they deserved it)
61. Fell asleep by the fire
62. Never stopped believing in Santa Claus to some extent
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Had my tonsils removed
65. Danced like no one was watching, even when they were
66. Cried over the news
67. Maxed out a credit card
68. Danced in point shoes
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood behind a waterfall
74. Been lost in a city
75. Been laid off from a job (2 now actually)
76. Seen the changing of the guard at the unknown soldiers tomb
77. Never broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Built a tree house
80. Attended the inauguration of the first black president
81. Given a speech
82. Worn a tutu (in front of a large audience)
83. Had a crush on someone and never told them
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Book of Mormon in 2 weeks
86. Seen the White House in person
87. Caught a fish
88. Had chickenpox
89. Been proposed to
90. Never had stitches because I cut myself, only surgical stiches
91. Been forgiven and forgave
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Been scared of the dark
95. Jumped on a trampoline (even managed a flip or two)
96. Driven across the country
97. Been in a car accident
98. Become addicted to my cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day
     

This is from my visit to the American History Museum. They were some of my favorites! Oscar the grouch, Kermit the Frog, and Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt! The other picture is from Roosevelt Island. That's Loren on the left, and Darren on the right, and if you couldn't tell, that's a very giant Theordore Roosevelt in the middle.

More of Christmas. Thanks to Kari for Eddie's awesome accessories! :)

Christmas!....in MARCH!

I finally got pictures off my camera! Here are some Christmas pictures for the family!

Eddie and Sandwich

This is my roommate's dog Sandwich! She's very enthusiastic about pretty much everything but she REALLY loves it when I bring Eddie home from Darren's. She loves to get Eddie to chase her and thinks it's awesome. This first video is when I first got to the house and Sandwich was extremely excited to play with Eddie. Eddie however being the sissy that he is, is nervous when he first gets to the house because he thinks Sandwich wants to eat him.

This is them after Eddie's gotten used to the idea he won't be lunch. Notice how Sandwich has a toy in her mouth? That's because she thinks that's why Eddie like to chase her. However Eddie just likes to chase running objects. They do this around the house for quite a while. Sandwich will keep looking because her to make sure Eddie is still there. I myself find it quite humorous. If you'll notice, at the beginning of the movie you can see my roommate Daniel on the porch. That's the Sandwich owner. :)

Eddie's long fur

Dad will keep asking how long Eddie's fur is getting. This is Eddie with a hair elastic in his hair. Darren likes to torment the dog if you can't tell. See how long it's getting? :)

I should invest in footwear companies

Since most of the people who know about this blog are family, I believe that most all of you know about my dog's love for chewing on anything that goes on feet. My father bestowed upon him a gift of his favorite pair of slippers for Christmas. Eddie has loved this gift! He chews on these slippers all the time (slipper since I accidentally left one home in Utah). Eddie spends his days at Darren's house while I am at work and Darren is at school. Since this arrangement, Eddie has chewed up Darren's favorite pair of moccasins which I then replaced with some new moccasins which were more like slippers, and another pair of moccasins like unto the pair which Eddie chewed up. To be fair, Darren had done more than his share of wearing these shoes out but Eddie helped speed up the process of retirement. He still tries to chew these slippers up even more. He has also chewed on Darren's new pair of rope sandals. And Darren's new Moccasins. Multiple pairs of my flip flops. And today, Loren's slippers. Puppy, let's get one thing straight. Dad's slippers were a gift. Not all slippers or feet coverings are for your enjoyment. I've bought more shoes this year than in the last 5, and unfortunately not many of them have been for me. I buy toys for the puppy, and chewie sticks, but it seems that he still prefers what he's not supposed to have. He's worse than a teenager.

Shae's new obsession

Doctor Horrible. One of the funniest most awesomest things ever. If you go to the bottom of the screen you can hear some of the songs. It's from this very short musical (45 minutes). I'm writing this because most of you are family and I know you wouldn't normally watch something online. Well, this time you should. Love you all!

I'm really behind...

I’m so sorry I haven’t been posting so much….ever. I’ll try to improve though! Just wanted to put a quick note to say I am still alive, this is still me, and I will try to get better.

1/20/2009

So my wonderful puppy, Eddie for those of you who don’t know him, thinks it’s fun to chew on my underwear. I personally think it’s annoying and really gross. The only reason I mention this awful awful thing is it also allows for some really embarassing moments which others find hilarious. For those of you who don’t know, I stayed with Darren and his roommate, Kedar, and brother, Loren, for about two weeks before getting my place. Some of my dirty clothes are still mixed in with Darren’s and my puppy is left to his own devices at Darren’s house while we’re at work and school. As you can see, this means he’s not always well behaved. For instance, today. I come home, he greets me with his excited little puppy dance, and I start putting my coat away and things, and I spot something on the couch. My underwear. Thank goodness I was the first one home!!! This brings me to the story of this weekend. I was playing on my computer in the bedroom while Darren did homework at the desk and I hear Kedar walking down the hallway. I hear him stop, then hesitantly call out my name. “Shae?…….. ….. …. Eddie’s out here…..and he has…..some spongebob squarepants underwear……” Oh awkward. Not only does my dog drag my underwear all over the house, he leaves it in the hallway!!!! Come on puppy! Be discreet!!!

1/16/2009 Evening

Darren and I went to Target. We picked up 100 hangers for my new place (exactly 100) a new laundry basket. We also got a new shower curtain and bath mat for Darren’s bathroom. Against Darren’s wishes. The reason behind forcing him to get a new shower curtain and bath mat you might ask? If I hadn’t already thrown away the old one I would send pictures. Ew. No one word in the English language could describe it better. Boys are different creatures I’ve discovered. They do things differently, live life differently, and enjoy different surroundings than girls do. For intance, I like clean things. Not necessarily uncluttered, but clean. It gives me great pleasure to walk into my bathroom and smell the lemony scent of a cleanser of some sort. Let’s just say, I’ve never had that pleasure in DC. The bathroom is funtional to a boy. It doesn’t have to have the decorative towels that match, or the shower curtain to match the bath mat and toothbrush holder (or for that matter, even a toothbrush holder). It just has to have hot running water and a toilet. Which this one has thankfully. However, once you step into the shower and close the shower curtain, the dark blue shower curtain fades into black spotted. Once again, Ew. Could you believe they actually argued with me that they didn’t need a new shower curtain? We asked a passing customer at Target if he should get a new shower curtain once there was mold on it and she didn’t even hesitate. Darren wanted to find a guy. So we asked his roommate when we got home. He didn’t even want to step inside the bathroom. Shae wins.

1/16/2009 morning

This morning was an adventure! I got up and ready alright, and even though it’s amazingly super cold I made it to the metro. They were flashing signs that said there was a delay. Apparently trains had been sharing tracks at the other end of the line but things were running normally at that point. It just meant that every train was already super crowded even though I’m only the second stop on the way. We get 2 stops away from where I get off and my train dies. But they weren’t ready to admit it was dead. They open the doors, they close the doors. They open the doors they close the doors. Open close open close open close. We got off the train, then we got on the train, then we got off the train, then we got on the train, then the doors closed the doors opened, the doors closed the doors opened, then the train finally pulled out of the station empty 25 minutes after it got there. There were 3 trains waiting right behind it, all super full already, and the people on the platform tried to pack themselves in like nobodies business. Doors were closing on people because it was so crowded. Being smart and not wanting to be a sardine, I waited about 3 trains before I even attempted to board one. Over a half hour later than I should have been, I finally made it into work. I realized I forgot my lunch. But I did have work shoes!

1/14/2009

I had the WORST morning since I’ve been here. Darren helped me moving into my apartment last night and while we weren’t up super late, it was still later than I planned on. I spent the night at Darren’s since we didn’t get everything into my new place for me to be able to sleep there. This morning I woke up at six (ick!!!) and showered and everything, said goodbye to Darren, tucked the puppy back into bed, then I couldn’t find my backpack with my purse in it. I looked everywhere. I figured I may have possibly left it on the metro which super worried me since it has all my credit cards and everything in it. I decided to stop by my place just in case. I wear tennis shoes to work since I walk about 3 blocks to the metro then three blocks to my job and I change into my dress shoes once I get to work and I remembered to put them in my car. I drove to my apartment, went inside and my backpack was there!!! Halleluiah! So I grabbed it and strode off the metro. (In the really cold snow mind you). I’m halfway to work (about 15 minutes on the metro) and I realize I left my dress shoes in the car. I would have to wear my tennis shoes all day. Dumb. I finally get to work about 2 minutes away from being late, help get set up and settled into my office when one of the girls comes in and says that my shirt’s not appropriate for work. I wanted to slap her. Or throw one of my chunky tennis shoes at her. She said she’s old fashioned and it’s a really nice shirt but that it’s not professional and I shouldn’t wear it again but I could check with Doug (my manager) if I wanted. (This all wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have figured out what was so inappropriate about it. It was a white tank top with a blue shrug that ties half way down.) After she left the office I almost cried. When Doug came in though I asked him about it and he said it was fine and sounded a little annoyed that she had even said anything to me. So I felt better after that. And I had a hot dog and French fries for lunch. So life was okay.

1/12/2009

At about 5:30 AM, the puppy started to whine wanting out. Since I had to be up in about 30 minutes I really didn’t want to lose that sleep if possible. So the bedroom door was opened to let him out thinking he would make his way to the dog door and off to sleep I went. I remember him climbing back into bed, but that’s about it. I got up sleepily at six, and wandered to the kitchen. When I turned on the light, I noticed a wet spot on the carpet. That lazy no good puppy! Couldn’t even make it to the back door! Grr!!! I cleaned it up, informed Darren the puppy was naughty, and left for work. I got a text message at about 10:00. The puppy hadn’t been quite as naughty as we thought. Darren had turned the dog door to only let him back in the house. Not back out. Oops. Sorry about that puppy…

Instant Gratification

I had to write this for an article in my job's weekly newsletter back in October 2008. I figured rather than let it be forgotten I would post it here. So....HERE! :)


We currently live in an age of instant gratification. When we want something, we not only want it now, we NEED it now. People used to save for a car, home, furniture, or other major purchase for months or even years beforehand. However, because of our instant gratification lifestyle, a lot of people buy what they want now, putting the purchase entirely on credit. This seems like a wonderful solution for our now mindset. For example, I don’t have to wait to enjoy my new 2009, state of the art, cooks, cleans, and does laundry, all accessories included, off the lot vehicle. I get to take all of my friends around in style and I’m feeling pretty great about life. My $800/month payment is just the cost I pay. Since my financial institution has approved my loan and my debt to income ratio is low enough, I must be fine. While all of this may be true, if I had saved that money before hand, I wouldn’t have to come to the realization that it’s hard to part with my $800 every month now for something I already have. Maybe I would have realized that since I’ve worked so hard to save that money, that the 2006 model that only cleans, is more than enough to satisfy my needs.
By saving for something, we not only save the interest we would have paid on our loan, but we realize the value of the money we are spending for these large purchases. If nothing else, it will help us appreciate our purchase more knowing how much work went into it. In comparison, if we get it instantly, we may start to resent it because it is costing us our now income.
Another part of our instant gratification mindset, is that we tire of our instant purchases quickly. I’ve seen more and more auto loans that start off over the value of the vehicle by 25% or more. While some of this could be to include taxes, registration, and some other extras, most of the time this additional amount is because they traded in a vehicle that they were already upside down with. Instead of keeping my two year old vehicle until I can pay it off and possibly save for a new one, my now mind takes over and says if I’m already upside down in my current vehicle, being upside down in new one isn’t any different. On the surface, this logic seems to make sense. What is the difference? Well, the reason I am probably upside down with my current loan is I probably bought a vehicle that lost value quickly. This happens most commonly with a new/newer vehicle. When I trade in this vehicle, am I going to buy an older vehicle? Unless I’ve had a change of heart, no. I will buy another new/newer vehicle which will also lose value quickly. Even the first time I do this, it can result in a 150% loan to value ratio. Eventually, it will become difficult to find a financial institution that will take my new loan or refinance my old, even with perfect credit.
A lot has been said recently about paying attention to where our finances go. This shouldn’t mean just paying attention to the fact that we have a loan on a purchase we made. Part of that should be put into paying attention to what kind of purchase our money goes into. Using the above example of a car loan, when looking to purchase a new vehicle, we should put some research into how quickly the vehicle traditionally loses value. This can tell us if we want to purchase a brand new vehicle, or perhaps the same model from 4 years ago, or even a different model all together. We should know how and why our decisions are made. Do we base our decisions on a now desire? Or do we think through our choices before coming to a conclusion?

Sorry if all of this is redundant

I found it was easier to have my blog on Blogspot than where it previously was so I am transferring it along with my previous posts. Sorry if these are redunant and you hate them.