Y6 D350

You know how nice it is to pay bills and not be completely stressed out? Took me six fucking years to get to this point. I seriously need to go back and look and see what I wrote about how long it was going to take me. I am pretty sure I was supposed to be slightly better by 2015, but hey, making it to a goal is still making it to a goal, right? Sorry if I am dwelling on this, but you don't know how good it feels to finally be making some GOOD decisions about my life. I have made a lifetime of not always the best decisions and for once, I am being smart. You know why? Because I have someone else to care about that I actually do care about.

On a less mental note, I am writing this from my new desk setup. I should take a picture of it. I have been hating my desk for a while as it was really two small table shoved together in an "L" formation and not really a true desk. We remedied that yesterday. We had to drive to the middle of nowhere as the Office Max we originally wanted to go to no longer exists. That's what I fucking hate around here - one day things exist the next they are out of business. But we found the open one that has desks and made the drive. I had looked online first and was set on a particular one not so much because I liked it, but because the price and size were okay for my needs. B pushed me to sit in every one. I brought a measuring tape with me to make sure I laid out how big three monitors was going to be (yes, I ordered a monitor for the laptop for when I am at home. I am essentially making a docking station for it.) I finally decided on a U shaped one. It's pretty sweet. Just one small set of drawers on the far right side to put things into. Otherwise, three completely open desktops for me to work on. So much ROOM! When we finally got back after also going to a Goodwill next door (B found a great purse for $5), going to Best Buy for a keyboard (for the above mentioned docking station setup. Side note, I had some rebates on my account and got a real mac full size keyboard for $16 thanks to all the gift cards on my Best Buy RewardZone account) and having some lunch, we then started the long process of building this beast. It did take a while and finally finished up around 8pm. Exhausted, I sat down with B to relax and watch some TV. I then putzed around on the internet and went to bed around 11:30.

Other things I took care of yesterday included all my timesheets, expense reports, bills, dying my hair, and putting laundry away. For a Sunday, I did a lot. More than most, that's for sure. I only have classes Weds - Friday this week and I wanted to make sure I had today to myself. I was supposed to have a class on Tuesday but unfortunately no one registered for it. It's okay, I have been working hard the last two weeks and can use the time for sure. I did really good on my Austin expenses. Impressed even myself. I was there from Friday to Saturday. 8 full days of meals, hotel, car, etc. We had a hard cap at $2000 for all expenses. My boss knew this would be a challenge and he asked me to keep air, hotel, and car as close to that as possible, and then try not to exceed $60 per day for meals. HA! For the entire trip, I managed to get the total expenses to $2098. That's for EVERYTHING. I am really proud of that. We knew we would have to each a portion of expenses and he was prepared for $500 and I did for $98. Damn I am good. Tulsa came in around $1400. So for two weeks on the road with 14 days of car rental, hotel, six flights, and food, I did it for $3500. Not too fucking bad. We will get back all but $98 of that. That's the sign of a pro traveler.

So everything is done, new desk is built, clothes are all settled, which means I can relax today. I didn't relax yesterday so today it is. More importantly, today is Avengers day! We are off to as early a movie as possible. I am looking forward to it.