Gonna be a long post

Wow, been quite a while since I posted here, and so much has happened in the past few weeks -- not so much in my personal life, but in general.

1. In case you didn't know, the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series! I work downtown at 18th and Walnut, just a few blocks from Broad Street. So, my boss decided that, after the large affair we hosted the week before, we deserved a "field trip" to the Phillies parade. We went with a bunch of other people from work down to Broad and Lombard, waited for about 90 minutes for 5-10 minutes of parade, and loved every minute of it! Luckily, I know how to get home using SEPTA in ways that do NOT involve regional rail, so I was able to avoid the 4-5 hour wait at the trains and took the El and a bus that dropped me off literally across the street from my apartment -- thank God!

2. The Presidential Election -- I'm not going to go into detail, but I'm very happy with the result of our election in the United States. No, I DON'T think that the day Obama takes office everything will automatically change. I DO expect that over many years some things will go in a different direction than they have been. After eight years of the current administration, I'm ready to see what someone else can do.

3. Our fundraising/visibility event was October 23 and was a huge success. Our Inspiration Award winners were all very... well... inspiring! I don't think there was a dry eye in the house and when you see people like this overcoming obstacles such as AIDS, drug addiction, mental illness, depression, job loss, and homelessness, it helps to realize that maybe you aren't as badly off as you previously thought. I know some people I'd really like to drag to one of these luncheons to show them how bad it can really get and that if these people can drag themselves out of it (with a little help from us), than we're OK.

4. Did I post my declaration here that I wasn't going away for any holidays this year? LOL, well THAT'S been blown out of the water. I'm visiting my parents over Thanksgiving and my sister is coming out from CA, too. It's a 5-6 hour drive, so mostly gas is what the expense will be. My sister has also decided that I will be visiting her over Christmas and New Year's in San Francisco! I'll be out there about 10 days. She'll be working part of that time, so I can take BART and get around that way. She offered to leave me her car to drive around, but she has a nice Acura and I'm not much of a city driver and think I'm better off navigating BART. I'd be a nervous wreck with her car, but it's nice she offered. :)

5. I still haven't found that camera cord, but (again) I really haven't been looking. I'm almost done with Skeleton Crew. If I really tried, I could have finished it by Halloween, but I was a bit headachey and didn't want to push it.

6. I now have a Facebook account. If anyone is interested in friending me, I'm Mindy Bogue. I may not friend everyone, but most of the people who read my blog have been coming here for a while and I "know" you. :)

Finances

I posted a few days ago about taking some time off to visit my parents, maybe go to Gettysburg. Well, I've done a bit of an about-face since then. I was doing pretty well for about a year on my goal of becoming debt-free. However, in the last few months I've really lost my focus and the only way for me to get it back is to concentrate on paying it off and getting more into my savings. To do this, I'm putting off any travel for the next 6 months or so. I told my family so they know I don't plan to travel for the holidays, and they understand. They want me to be financially secure. I'll still have that stinkin' student loan for a while, but this way I can get everything else out of the way and then I can put extra money toward the student loan.

I have one exception that I will make. If my sister visits my parents at some point, I will probably go ahead and visit at the same time. She's in CA and I'm in PA, so we try to make plans to see each other if one of us is on the other coast for anything and have a little extra time. A 5-6 hour drive to NY is cheaper and quicker than the flight from Philly to San Francisco.

It's going to be tough, but I'm trying to keep the big picture in front of me. How great will it be to only have that student loan to pay off, and then not even have that? It's also important to me to boost what paltry savings I have, as I work for a nonprofit and if the government starts making budget cuts nonprofits will probably be one of the first sectors to really feel it. We are a successful nonprofit, but we do get a lot of funding from government grants.

Now, that's not to say I'm not going to take any time off. I do plan on taking a day here and there and maybe do something local -- go out to Longwood Gardens on a work day in the fall, go to Fireside Stitchery during the day to pick out some nice threads for the Christmas gifts I'm making, etc.

Best laid plans...

Well, so much for going to NY this weekend. I intended to leave today, but heard last night that much of I-81 in PA was going to be closed through Noon today. Later today they said it would be closed for another 24 hours. So, I called my parents and talked to them about it, and we decided that since they aren't selling the house immediately and can still sort through some things on their own, that it's not a biggie and they'd rather me not try to get up ther by using other roads that may be in even worse shape. So, I'm going to be home this weekend and go to work on Tuesday. That's actually good because there's plenty to be done here and at work. I hate feeling like a wimp, but I just have no idea what the other roads are like up there near Allentown. So, that's that.

On a happier note, I went shopping today and discovered there's a Feiline's Basement nearby. That place is awesome! I bought a new black scarf (left mine in NY last time), black gloves with little flowers embroidered on them, a black headband for my forehead and ears so that I can stay warm without wearing an actual hat, a new purse, a new tote bag, a new wallet, 3 pairs of cute socks, and a fleece pillow and a fleece blanket for the car. I paid about $80 for all of it, and almost half of that was for the awesome Liz Claiborne tote bag, lol. I usually buy cheap tote bags and then they never carry right. This one is aweseome and has short handled and an adjustable shoulder strap so I can carry it without dragging it or put it on my shoulder without it banging on my knees when I walk. I had to get a smaller wallet to fit in the purse, but I was going to do that anyway because I don't really need to carry my checkbook with me.

So, now my shoulder problems will probably be better. I noticed that my right shoulder had been bothering me lately and I'm sure it's because I was carrying too much stuff to work every day, or just carrying it the wrong way. This will work out better for me.