The Big Recap - Finances

Well. Let's see here...

Part the First: The Debtening

Once upon a time, there was a girl named J-Bird. She was planning on applying to grad school, and having been told how expensive this was, had been dutifully socking money away for months and months, in that automated way all the finance gurus suggest. When it came time to apply, she was very relieved she had, because it was pricey, like the eggs of faberge and the chav bags of LV. Then came interviews, which were even more pricey, because they required J-Bird to not be at work. And immediately after the interviews came the 90th birthday of J-Bird's grandfather, in Taiwan, a far away land full of mystery. When J-Bird returned and looked at her finances, she was In The Red, and now indentured to Senor Visa.

Part the Second: The Paying

J-Bird was sad to be broke, and spent many a week working away her indenture and paying evil evil interest to Senor Visa. Also occuring in these weeks: J-Bird's bestest friends had terrible, awful things happen, J-Bird got dumped, and some people decided that since J-Bird had opted out of grad school, she had Ruined Her Life and was doomed to be a Failure. This is the part of the story where you feel sad for J-Bird.

Part the Third: The Sorting of Affairs (Monetary, not Romantic)

Having realized that owing large sums to Senor Visa was not the best option, J-Bird thought of ways to prevent this from happening again. After reading some books by wise people, who go by the names Orman and Bach, she decided to start tracking her spending, some might say obsessively. She found herself spending way, way less this way. She also kept socking away money, this time for an emergency account. All extra monies went into this account. When J-Bird's minimum goal is reached, some of the extra monies will go into more fun savings accounts, like Travel and such. Jbird is working for herself, and not for Senor Visa. And those people stopped telling J-Bird she had Ruined Her Life, and good things started to happen for her bestest friends, and even though J-Bird was still dumped, life was full of champagne and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.

I'm back, yo

Lots has happened:

I applied to grad schools, got accepted to 6 of 8 (better than I expected) went to interviews for three, and decided on...not going.  That's right, I'm staying here.  Some took this news better than others.

I learned about wine, and to love wine, and now I'm wine buyer.  There's a switch, huh?

I was dating someone for a few months, then that ended.

I went to Taiwan with my family, for my Grandpa's 90th birthday, and ate 'til I exploded.

I started to fall into a mini-cycle of carrying a balance on senor credit card, and since I'm reasonably good at math, was instantly horrified at the amount of interest I'd been paying, and therefore started to buckle down on controlling my finances.

I ate a delicious meal on Friday night at Boneta.  Seriously, it was true love in my mouth.

In things that haven't changed, my friends are all still awesome and make me laugh at every opportunity.

More detail to come, first I have a picture of the now to update!