I am crazy bored lately. Especially at work. I probably shouldn't write that down on the Internet, should I? My mind is constantly wandering, though, and the minutes drag by. Of course, once I am cognizant of this, they drag by even more slowly. I am always checking the clock to see how long I have until lunch, and then the time from lunch until 5:00 p.m.? B-R-U-T-A-L. First off, I want a mid-afternoon nap. Second of all, I want to be in bed, under the covers, not napping, but hibernating. Is this nesting? I don't know. But sitting at a desk in constricting pants is not jiving with my heart's desires. Ya know? I mean, does it ever? Are things that different now? No. My pants have always been restricted, and I have always been sitting at a desk. But these weird months between finding out I am pregnant (oh yeah, blog, I'm pregnant!) to actually realizing the results of the pregnancy (i.e. having a child - I don't mean 'realize' as in 'it suddenly dawned on me', i mean 'realize' like 'to make real, give reality to') I find it impossible to focus 100% on work. Or even 75% on work. I still do a good job, I think I'm still going above and beyond (just a tad) so I'm not worried about it, just more annoyed that I have to be here.
For instance, today, after going home for lunch, I stopped and got a hot carmel apple cider from the local coffee shop. Instead of devouring it on the ride back to work (about 10 minutes or so), I only allowed myself a few sips before getting back to my desk. My thought was that if I had a hot drink to distract myself with at work, then time would go by more quickly. Or, if I have something to enjoy at work, then I'll be marginally more happy this afternoon. I did afford myself the luxury of taking the top off of the drink and savoring the fresh whipped cream with carmel drizzled atop. Is that not the best part of getting ANY drink at a coffee shop? Enjoying the accouterments of a warm beverage, straight off the lid. Ahhh.
What else to mention in this disjointed post? So now that we are finally credit card debt free (wahoo!) and have some money in savings (gasp!) and aren't paycheck-to-paycheck, well, now it's time to return to our old ways of acting as if we're paycheck-to-paycheck. I know it's crass to talk about money in public, but whatever. In truth, we've never BEEN paycheck-to-paycheck, but we've had the mentality of this: spend every penny we can on paying off the debts. Makes sense, right? There are tons of personal finance programs/books/website/radio shows that tout the same thing. So we took that approach that we should be really frugal with our money (create and stick to a budget, i.e. $50/week for eating out, $75/week for grocery) and all leftover money went towards paying off the wedding debt. Which was stupid to accrue in the first place but ah, you only get married once for the first time, right? ;)
So I took to my trusty spreadsheet (you know it!) and plotted out how much money I WOULDN'T be making while on maternity leave. Holy hell. So between now and then, I have to save four-digits per month, minimum, to cover my lack of pay for those few months. This is depressing for a few reasons: just when we're starting to get some savings, and can afford the luxury of buying a new book or a new pair of shoes (haha these are luxuries to me after 10-months of paying off the credit card!), you're back to the mentality of paycheck-to-paycheck. Except this time, all of our extra money is going towards savings, instead of debt. So at least that part feels good. We're also approaching things way differently now that we ever have... more of a cash-only perspective. Buy a crib? Pay with cash. Need a years worth of contacts? Pay with cash. Don't do it until we can pay with cash. Now, I don't mean we walk into stores with wads of 20s... we do pay with a credit card, but immediately transfer the money from checking to savings. It's really refreshing, and a huge load off of my shoulders that we aren't accruing more debt. Okay, I'll stop being tacky and I'll stop talking about money now...
Last point of the day... I prefer my cookie dough... cooked into a cookie. That is all.
