Also sold this week–our Wii Fit. Neither of us have used it in over a year, mostly because it wasn’t doing anything for either of us besides making us sore without any benefit, and they’re fetching pretty decent prices on eBay right now as they are not in stock very many places. Glad to be rid of that, and that it is going to someone else who seems very excited about it.

We ordered Ivan’s couch last week. They had an awesome grey herringbone pattern available so that’s what it’s going to be in 6-8 weeks when it arrives. It was $100 cheaper than expected and we only had to pay half the money upfront, so we were more than prepared for that. Woo!

The Sasquatch lineup came out last week and we’ve been trying to convince Ivan to change his flight to the previous week so we can all go, but it’s yet to be seen whether that will happen. Sunday’s lineup in particular looks AMAZING. I’ll be sad if we can’t go but at least we’ll have an Ivan, which is exponentially better than any music festival.

Having to rest my arm a lot lately as the RSI is pretty painful from crocheting. Very frustrating because I really, really want to create. I bought a wrist support which I plan to wear to bed which will hopefully help some.

Today I reconnected with one of the most influential people in my life as a teenager and I am so happy I did. I certainly wouldn’t be who I am or where I am without her.

I mention this because I seriously believe I’m feeling awful because of stress. As soon as our credit card payment cleared on Saturday I felt this incredible weight gone from my body. I felt less moody and sarcastic, and was content to engage in pleasant, light conversation. I really felt different. As I write this today, on Tuesday, I am finally feeling like my body is the correct temperature (I did take my temp on the weekend only to discover I was colder than “normal” when I thought I was feverish) and much less fragile than I have been feeling. I do not constantly feel like I’m on edge, ready to snap at the next person who does or says something stupid or to silently curse someone who walks too close to me on the sidewalk. I feel more like me than the anxiety-ridden ghost that’s been haunting my frame for the last year. I took all of this stuff really hard; I am a very sensitive soul and have a tough time dealing with setbacks. It seems like this is my body’s way of purging itself of all this negative energy that’s been clinging to me.

I really look forward to the next few months for our lives to reach an equilibrium again.

Finished this one back in September, but only now got a chance to photograph it!

Here it is in all its lap-blanket glory. I finished this before Christmas but only now finally got time to get a decent photo. Considering selling it on Etsy, but am unsure of pricing at this point. I welcome your suggestions.

• Pay off all credit card debt
• Repay the money my parents lent us for the house
• Pay off half of the remaining principal on the car loan
• Save 3 months’ worth of living expenses in emergency fund
• Exercise an average of 3 times per week
• Finish painting house interior
• Fully establish freelance business including branding/marketing
• Make and sell something on Etsy
• Open Roth IRA with Vanguard
• Finish at least 1 painting
• Explore new music
• Plan meals early and eat healthier
• Make one international trip (Australia or France)

• Eat out at a restaurant maximum 1 time per week and learn to cook a few more meals
• Only drink beer at restaurants or special occasions and instead drink sparkling water
• Exercise an average of 3 times per week
• Pay off outstanding debt (except for car and house)
• Begin investing money
• Save at least 4 month’s worth of expenses in high-interest savings account
• Begin urban gardening in spring
• Work with Jules to get business up and running
• Get more involved in online communities like Ravelry
• Start painting again
• Finish all blankets I have begun
• Paint house interior
• Make curtains for sunroom
• Go camping several times during summer
• Adopt a third kitty
• Read more books on Kindle
• See more movies
• Listen to more music (and less podcasts) than 2008
• Learn more about newer software applications (Adobe products in particular)
• Properly learn how to use the manual functions of my DSLR camera
• Try to pay a bit more attention to world events
• Save enough money to take a proper vacation towards the end of the year (Europe? Australia?)
• Visit hachi in San Francisco again
• Take at least one trip home to Oshkosh, if only for a weekend
• Be more pro-active at my job
• Relax more and try not to let things bother me so much

Considering the upheaval of the second half of the year, I am pretty happy with this.

The orange room is mostly complete! (Better photos to come, hopefully!)

We had a really quiet Thanksgiving and Christmas at home. It seemed like many people we know were either sick or also trying to save money so they also laid low during the holidays. This was just fine, and allowed us a really stress-free time, including two 4-day weekends in a row between Christmas and New Years. We got a lot of rest and relaxation in.

A few weeks before Christmas we went to see my favorite band in the whole world, Mew. The venue was pretty crappy and small, it was a Thursday night, we had to pay a crapton for parking, the bands were over an hour late starting, and both of us were in terrible pain from standing/leaning, BUT…the second they appeared on stage, all of that washed away and I was completely entranced. Aside from the aural delight their music evokes, their live shows also present a rich and stimulating visual component to supplement the sound. In short, they put on the best damned show ever. It is an all-encompassing experience which touches all your senses at once. I have seen many a concert in my time, but that was by far the best. It is evident in their presentation that they absolutely love what they do, that they give 100% no matter where they play and who is in the audience. The lead singer, Jonas Bjerre, has said in interviews that he creates the animation & lights to go along with the music to take attention from him, as he is incredibly shy, but for the most part I could not take my eyes off him. It is precisely that shyness that makes him such an attractive frontman; he is the anti-rockstar. I clung tightly to Jules’ arm and squeezed him a bit too hard when my favorite song was played, and at that moment felt like one of my life’s wishes had been granted. After the show my appreciation for Mew climbed to a new level entirely and has stimulated my passion for music after a few years of sliding further into musical burnout.

As I mentioned before, Jules has begun playing the guitar. He’s using an Epiphone DR-100 Acoustic (Vintage Sunburst) which seems to be a really great instrument for a beginner. Both of us are very excited about it, and he’s been trying to convince me to try playing an instrument. I am still unsure about that idea, as I feel like I don’t really have any sort of natural musical ability, and that my contribution to music could probably be best manifest in my passionate support of other people’s talent. I know a great deal of success has much to do with practice, but I guess we’ll see how I feel down the road. I might surprise myself, who knows? For now it’s just Jules and his scale and chord practice.

Ivan (Jules’ little brother) got his American visa, and he will be moving over to the US at the end of May! He won the green card lottery after applying half on a whim, and after his online animation course with Pixar is finished he will be looking for work in the states. He’ll be staying with us for awhile as he looks for work and gets himself situated, but it’s unclear what will happen after that. We are so excited to have him come over because he is one awesome dood and it will be so much fun. I am really looking forward to seeing how American girls fawn over him because he is quite a catch. :3 Heehee. Our main task before he arrives is buying him a “bed” which will be a sleeper sofa we can keep in the craft/guest room. We will buy it from Sleepers in Seattle. Seriously. Yep.

We have yet another new kitty named Leela. Our friend Max got married and had a baby so he was looking for a new home for his kitty as she wasn’t getting enough attention in their house. He couldn’t find a suitable home so we agreed to take her, and she fit in pretty much immediately. Unlike our other cats, she is not demanding at all, and mostly just keeps to herself. She is sweet and friendly, and really tubby. She’s lost a bit of weight since we took her in but she still has a way to go. The vet told us she’s actually just a big cat, and while she could stand to be a bit lighter, it would only have to be about a pound and a half. We took all 4 of them in last Saturday and everyone is healthy, so hopefully that’ll be the last time we have to do that this year!

I’ve been exercising several times a week on the recumbent stationary bike we got in November, which is so much better than the Gazelle. I am able to get a much more satisfying workout and am able to read at the same time, which makes the time fly by. This was a fantastic investment, much cheaper than the treadmills we had been considering. I love it.

I’m currently working on another granny square blanket, the Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. I know it’s a bit late for that but I really like the design of it and I had some pink yarn I have been stashing for over 7 years that I really, really wanted to get rid of. It’s working out quite well for that! Unfortunately the thing is like 7′x7′ so it’s ridiculously big. I just hit the halfway point. I’ve mostly been doing that while Jules plays video games at night (Assasin’s Creed 2, Brutal Legend, Dragon Age Origins, Zelda Twilight Princess, Uncharted 1 & 2, Bayonetta, Bioshock, Mass Effect to name a few) and during our Friday D&D sessions and Saturday get-togethers at Nat’s place.

In other news, Jules got a much-deserved raise at work awhile ago and shortly after that his boss quit, so he is running the department now. He’s working long, tiring hours, and responsible for more than he should be able to handle, but he handles it anyhow. Really hoping they hire him an underling soon. I remain the sole member of my team at work, and it definitely has its ups and downs. Still not my dream job by any means, but it’s a steady paycheck (currently very, very important!) and I am clearly making a difference here. I am not sure what I will be doing in the future yet but for now this situation is acceptable. The commute still isn’t great but for the most part I can come in prior to 7:30 and leave before 4 most days so I can often avoid rush hour and catch the express bus home, which shortens the trip by nearly 45 minutes some days. I don’t like getting up at 5:30 but keeping this schedule allows for much more quality time in the evening so it’s worth it. The Kindle helps.

Mum & Dadcaster have preliminarily invited us to come stay with them in the south of France sometime at the end of this year. Very excited about this as the place they are staying in is gorgeous and I have never been there before. We’ll have plenty of time to save up some money for tickets too, yay!

I’m sure there’s tons more noteworthy things that have happened since I last wrote, but that’s all I can remember at the moment. I’ll try to make this more of a regular thing so this doesn’t happen again. Having these details written down in a proper timeline helps me keep track of things too.

Just how much we’ve improved our situation over the last few months, with numbers redacted to protect the innocent.

I realize it’s been quite awhile since I’ve written anything of substance in here. The main reason for this is that Twitter has essentially become my mode of expression recently due to its quick turnaround. It’s nice to shoot off a little missive to the world within the 140-character limit. It keeps things concise. If you’re curious about what I’ve been up to, you can follow me on Twitter. I’ve been using Twitter on and off for some time but hadn’t really discovered how much it had overtaken my “real” blogging until recently.

So now I should get down to what I use long-form blogging for: talking about life, love, and finances. As you might recall, back in October I posted about being really close to freedom from credit card debt. This will hopefully be one of the last times I ever bring up that subject again. Throughout the last few months we have been working really hard to pay off the remainder of debt corroding away at my wallet. I have to admit that I’ve splurged a few times on clothing for work and yarn and other household items, as well as buying Jules a guitar and some better RAM for his computer and a few video games, but each time it’s been me who has caved. Jules is really good about this, because he knows my resolve is weak and I am trying my hardest. His relationship with money is very casual so things don’t get to him the way they do with me. He doesn’t feel guilt about dropping our hard-earned money on a guitar, he just forgets about it and enjoys playing his guitar. After all, money is just a means to an end, right? I’m happy he is this way because it balances things out for us quite well, and it’s a great reminder for me to lighten up some.

In any case, the current situation is looking pretty good. I have picked up several freelance contracts over the last few months and was able to earn a bit of extra money, and because I was able to write off the laptop I bought for my business, I didn’t technically earn a profit at all so I didn’t owe a heap of federal taxes this year (like I expected to.) When Friday rolls around this week and the paychecks are directly deposited, I will be able to take those funds and wipe out the rest of the debt that has been haunting me since before the layoff. As far as I can gather, that will be the last of the constant reminders in my daily life that I was let go from the job I really wanted to have. Even after all this time, I am still really bothered by that and having this last bit of debt clinging on has been like an ever-present taunt from the universe. Hopefully once I transfer that last payment I will return to that comfortable position of feeling like I’m actually in control of my finances. I can recall in the past how surfacing after drowning in debt has made me feel, and I absolutely cannot wait to feel that again.

Truth be told, I truly believed I had job security at my last company. I loved working there, I loved the people there, and felt like I made a difference. I felt indispensable. As a result of this I wasn’t nearly as careful with our money as I should have been. We’d just bought a new car, a house, and had tons of repairs done to said house to make it nicer. We started putting money into IRAs, but I wasn’t actually saving any money for emergencies. I really didn’t think we’d have an emergency. Of course, now that I’ve seen how quickly things can change, I realize that I should have exercised a bit more caution. Before buying the house I had sacked away a fair amount, but all of that went to the down payment and after that we never really had any “extra” money to put away because I kept spending it on the house in fits of creativity and excitement. I kept careful track of where the money was going each month, but didn’t move to make any changes. By the end of 2009 we’d spent roughly 70% of our income on the house (through mortgage payments and improvements and supplies.) The house is looking great, true, but I have been mentally and emotionally restless because of the position we are in financially.

I have decided that I am never going to allow this to happen again. I am never going to take my job for granted or assume that any purchase I make this month I can just pay off next month. I am going to save money each month and make sure we have enough to cover our expenses if something crappy happens again. Clearly we are not immune to the same problems everyone else in the world faces every day. Shit happens! We will face the next random setback in a prepared state this time and not have to stop living our life for a month or three until we recover. You read it here, and I am accountable. Feel free to question me about it. Guilt trip me if you have to. I don’t want to ever feel as out of control again as I have the last 6 months.

• Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites
• Air - Talkie Walkie
• The Dresden Dolls - The Dresden Dolls
• Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
• Radiohead - Kid A
• The Decemberists - Picaresque
• Opeth - Damnation
• Halou - Wholeness and Separation
• Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
• Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours