How to Get Yourself Out of Dumb Debt... I Hope

Confession: I am still a bit swamped in my dumb debt. I have not gotten myself out of it yet, but here I am, proclaiming to the world that I have been an idiot with my finances in the past (and present) and it is high time I gave myself a public shaming.

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It would probably make sense if I first explained what I consider to be "dumb debt". I'll start by explaining what I consider to be debt that is (usually) reasonable (there are exceptions to every rule): student loans, car payments, medical bills, and your mortgage. Dumb debt is most everything else.

What Is My "Dumb Debt"?
For me, most of my dumb debt is still related to my early years of "independence" when I got my first credit cards and thought I could get away with paying for most everything with them, including occasional trips across the country with no real purpose. Other forms I've incurred are the "I thought I could afford to pay just that much more extra on this bill, but turns out I can't do math" debt that actually puts you further in the hole than you started. The shit that turns into a truly vicious circle.

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Balancing Life and Work... Harder When You Actually Like Your Job!

Ignoring the fact that I even had a job!

I've never really had trouble separating my work and home lives. When I'm at work, I do my job... whatever it is... and when my hours are up or I'm off the clock, I just sort of forget about it all.

That's what I've done historically at least. But I think it's beginning to change, and there is a simple reason for it - I actually like my job now! When I head home after a day's work, I keep thinking about what I'm working on and sometimes even break out my laptop later in the day to continue my work. I'm writing, editing, and developing content (not to mention posting on and monitoring our Facebook page) for a living now. Not my dream job yet, but it's on the road!

(For those who are wondering, my ultimate dream job is to work as a full-time writer for HowStuffWorks.com. That would be AMAZING. Just sayin'.)


The best part about it is that I am happy to keep thinking about work and doing my job beyond the typical 8 hours.

Ah! You see the paradox too, didn't you? If I like my job and am willing (and happy) to take my work home with me, how does my regular life fit into the equation?

I'm Back! (and) Am I a Jealous Lover? Discuss!

O! Hai thar!

I bet you thought I had left this blog to rot in its... not... being... uhm... posted in...ness.

Ahem.

BUT ALAS! You were fooled by my mere busy-ness with other aspects of life and blogging! To begin with, I've finally gotten Fun and FlirTea off the ground and begun posting there. This is where much of my writing time has disappeared to, so my personal blog has indeed fallen by the wayside for a brief time. Never fear, kind friends and readers! I am back and do intend to post with at least semi-regularity once more.

Other than the release of my tea blog, I have been quite busy in life and work as well! I've been spending more time with friends, going out dancing, attending an occasional concert, doing yoga more regularly, and... oh yeah. GETTING PROMOTED AT WORK! Success indeed!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here before or not, but I've been trying to get back into copywriting for quite a while and, after years of hard work and doing what I can in my company to get there... and suddenly I am! It took plenty of time and work, but I am the newest Copywriter (and Social Media Clerk) at Build.com. Yay!

Naturally, to celebrate my new position, my body chose my first full week in the job to get stupidly sick with a gnarly cold! Fortunately, I am getting over it now, but I still have a dry throat and slight cough.

But enough of the updates! Part of what brought me back to this blog at this time is something I've been thinking about lately. Not long ago, I finally was able to establish a friendship with an old ex-boyfriend I had very little contact with over the past 3 years since our relationship ended. And this friendship is a real one, where we are comfortable around each other and can even make jokes about the years we were dating.

Things I Like

Today is Valentine's Day (shocker, I know). I can't say I have a lot of particularly strong emotions about it. I've had a grand total of 2 boyfriends on different V-Days, but it never really was one of those things I thought much about. I guess last year we went out for sushi at the last minute, but it wasn't a planned thing, so it was almost more of a regular "let's go out for sushi" sort of night than anything.

So, instead of waxing long about what V-Day means to me, I figured it would be more fun to write about things I like. Because when it comes down to it, V-Day is really just a day to celebrate someone you really care about. So why not make it a day to celebrate the things I care about instead?

• Receiving actual letters in the mail
• Sending things in the mail (part of this for me is that I get a sense of pride from it as well, since I'm a notorious procrastinator when sending things by post)
• Working on projects that I legitimately care about
• Travelling
• Seeing friends and family that are far away
• Watching ridiculous movies
• Reading a good book that actively engages me
• Watching thought-provoking movies
• Discovering a new TV series that I turn out to like so much that I only watch it until I make it through all the existing episodes
• A nice cup of tea
• A nice gaiwan of tea (see what I did there?)
• Travelling (yeah, this gets a double feature)
• Enjoying a decent cigar with great company
• A cold beer
• A pint of cider in the local pub
• Bulmers cider in the local pub
• Going out dancing and just not caring what anyone thinks
• Going out dancing and not having a single drop of alcohol, yet still not caring what anyone thinks
• Sharing my personal interests with others
• Teaching friends, family, and strangers about topics dear to my heart
• Sleeping in (for me this means 8am)
• Trying something new
• Going on solo road trips
• Exploring new places
• Meeting new people
• Indulging in a pint with good company at the end of a long day
• That butterfly feeling you get in your stomach when you first begin to "crush" on someone and they're around
• Completing a task I've been working on for a while

I'll leave it at this for now! But I definitely could go on listing things I like for a very long time!

Yowza! What a Family!

I'm pretty sure I've indicated as such in the past, but in case I haven't, I have a HUGE family. All added together, I have 8 brothers. Each of my parents came from families of 4 and 5 children, leading to a large number of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Plus, many of my cousins are married and having kids these days. 

I know some people who aren't particularly pleased with their families. Even through the first year or two of college, I always had extreme difficulty understanding people who would talk about how much they disliked their parents, siblings, etc. The way I was raised with the family I had, it just sort of blew my mind. And, in some ways, it still does!

I'm not going to pretend that I've always gotten on smashingly with my family. I grew up with 4 older brothers who would take time to torture their little sister from time to time. I went through my "disaffected youth" phase where I was semi-regularly at odds with each of my parents in turn. I was kind of a bitch to them on occasion and I still feel guilt over that some days. I'm also not going to pretend that they were perfect always. As any parent could tell you, it's a learning experience. You'll never be the perfect parent all the time, and you'll never do everything right in the eyes of your child (or other people, for that matter).

In Which a Large Box of Tea Falls Into My Lap (Sorta)

I'm just so excited, I can't contain myself. As I've mentioned, my brother currently lives in China. Not long ago, he mentioned sending me a few samples of teas from one of the local tea shops he frequents in Wuhan. Expecting a small box, I was thrilled to find a large one handed to me at the Post Office when I went to pick it up.


I figured there was a good chance some of the box was sort of stuffed to prevent things from bumping around. But I was wrong! Every last inch was packed to the brim with tea (and a gorgeous set of tea cups)!


I unpacked it all on camera so I can send the video to Greg, so I won't necessarily get into the exact excitement as I opened each item. Besides, I'm pretty sure you can all get a good idea just from knowing me or reading my blog, oh... ever!

Holy Road Trip, Batman! (The Finale)

Now, for my final adventures on this 3 day road trip! I arrived in Las Vegas to visit with Laura. After much hugging and excitement, I let her know that I had done a little research into tea places in the Las Vegas area I wanted to check out. Happily for me, she was right on board with going on a tea adventure!

After some Google Mapping, we narrowed it down to 3 locations and determined the order in which to visit them. I grabbed my Garmin and away we went with Jessica, Laura's roommate. As we were on our way to the first location, I realized I had never named my Garmin, so we decided to call her Georgia. Georgia directed us and, all of a sudden, Laura yelled out, "A LAKE!" for we had, in fact, discovered a (man-made) lake in Las Vegas. It was in an area known as The Lakes, so it sort of made sense, but we were very excited! We found the address where the first tea shop was supposed to be and, instead, found an office. Yes, I know. Totally lame. But we did find a lake instead, so we called it a win.