I’m so excited for tonight!  The Lifetime premiere of Coco Chanel starring Shirley MacLaine airs tonight at 8 pm.  I’ve had this on my calendar for weeks and now the time has come for me kick back and watch.  Can’t wait!

Yesterday was the day of my birthday barbeque and even though I didn’t really want to celebrate at first, I’m really glad that my parents insisted on throwing me a little birthday bash. 

I thought it was just going to be my close family and friends but it turned out to be a bigger deal than I thought.  It was so great to share good times with my family and friends, some of which I  hadn’t seen in months.  Everyone either gave me a gift or a card.  At the end of the night I collected a total of 2 bottles of Grey Goose, 1 bottle of Patron, a beautiful handmade bracelet, a Yankees t-shirt and over $300 in cash.  Happy Birthday to me!

Sure, I felt a little akward receiving gifts and cards at my “old age” but having my parents come together again just for me and bringing everyone else I love together made me feel like a kid again, and it was awesome.

I was scanning my bills and I came across a bill that I completely forgot about; a medical bill from over two years ago, when I didn’t have insurance.  The good news is that the balance is only $300.  The bad news is that since I kept ignoring the bill it went to collections .  So for $300 I tarnished my already not-so-great credit.  I called the company today and made a payment today for $150.  I’ll pay the balance off next week when I get paid again.

It could’ve been worst.  At least this bill is low and I can pay it off without stress.  My debt keeps getting  lower and lower…

I recently received an invitation to attend the wedding of a college friend.  I hadn’t spoke to this person since last year, when I attended her baby shower.  Prior to the baby shower I hadn’t seen her since we graduated college, four years ago. 

While in college, her and I were like peas and carrots.  We were hardly ever apart, and when we were, people would ask about where the other person was.  Once we graduated, things changed and we drifted apart.  It’s sad to say but this happens to many friendships.

When it came time to write her a check (for her wedding gift) I was stumped. I was bringing my BF as my guest so obviously I had to consider him as well (I was always told that I should give the amount that a typical dinner would cost at the venue + my guest’s).  Considering the price-per-plate method I figured $250 from both my BF and me should suffice.  My BF thought this was too much but I thought it was average.  This of course was the minimum amount I considered.  I think of her as a distant friend at this point.  Had she been someone I didn’t feel was so distant I would’ve easily gave a lot more.

With that said, what is the right amount of money to give at a wedding?

Last night I caught a new episode of the Dan Ho Show on Discovery Health.  I love this guy!  He’s all about simple living; making do with what you’ve got, and he’s determined to simplify people’s lives one episode at a time.

Dan stresses the importance of having balance in our lives.  Friends, family and love is all you need to truly be happy.  Clutter and “things” will never bring happiness as they will eventually weigh us down. 

America needs to embrace Ho.  Every time I watch a new episode I feel very zen and centered, almost therapeutic. Can’t wait for next week’s show!

I don’t know what happened to me this morning but I knew as soon as I woke up that I was not feeling myself.  As usual, especially after a relaxing weekend, it’s difficult to dart out of bed and get on with the day.  In most cases, whenever I feel like this I have my coffee, read during my commute and by the time I get to work I’m over it.  But not today.  For some odd reason I decided that I should treat myself to a (disgusting) Burger King breakfast.  I never, EVER eat there.  And after today, I probably won’t be eating BK for a very long time.  When I finally sat down to eat my breakfast (with the hopes that it would help me shake off my Monday blues) I discovered mouse droppings inside my french toast sticks.  That’s right, MOUSE DROPPINGS!  I was so disgusted and felt sick to my stomach.  Still, I had to shrug it off and continue my already not-so-great day.

Since I didn’t want the morning to influence the rest of my day, I though it’d be nice to go get lunch and eat it outside in the park.  The warm sun was sure to turn my day around, or so I thought.  I called my dad to say hello (since I knew he would probably be eating lunch too) and he informed me that my cousin would be visiting from out-of-town next week and if I was willing to entertain him.  The same cousin who three years ago broke into the home I was visiting while on vacation and stole my labtop, camera and some spare cash that I had lying around.  Is my father nuts?!  Does he really expect me to embrace my cousin as if nothing ever happened?  The hurtful part of the conversation was that my father never acknowledged the fact that my cousin did this to me, even when I showed him proof.  He shrugged it off as if it were no big deal and at that time it was so painful to have my father not defend me to my family.  Eventually I got over it but speaking with my dad today brought back all that anger I once had towards not only my cousin but my father for not giving the robbery any importance. 

Although both my breakfast and lunch were ruined, I remained determined to stick it out at work and not go running home, like I so desperately wanted to do at that very moment.  I engaged myself into my work and genuinely spoke with my colleagues.  I was over the mouse droppings and I was going to get over my cousin’s visit. 

On my way home from work, I stopped into Burger King and asked to speak with the manager.  When she walked over to me I calmy told her about what I had found in my breakfast.  She was mortified and quickly offered me anything I wanted from the menu.  I assured her that that was not the reason I wanted to speak with her.  I said, “I don’t want to make a big deal, I just think you should know.”  She looked at me and said, “I’m sorry.”  At that moment, I felt a huge relief.  I realized, sometimes it’s really important to be acknowledged.  And if you’re really lucky, when you’re feeling down someone will look at you and sympathize.  It really does make all the difference.

Yesterday my boss’ boss was in town from Phoenix.  He visits every month or so to see how the department is doing.  My manager is never happy when he comes but I’m pretty indifferent since I don’t work closely with him. My manager, L came over to my desk in the afternoon to “vent” about him and casually mentioned that he had stopped by desk this morning (before I was there) looking for a stapler. He proceeded to go into my drawers, even though my stapler was right on top of my desk and told L that it was inappropriate for me to have credit cards in my desk.  First of all, they were Transit Cheks! Second of all, my transit cheks were at the bottom of my desk underneath a bunch of business cards, which means that in order for him to have seen them he had to be digging through my stuff.  And he actually wants me to believe that he was looking for a stapler?  I don’t have anything private in my desk and I certainly don’t have anything to hide but I absolutely hate when people go through my things, company owned or not.  If I needed to borrow something from a co-worker and they weren’t at their desk, I’d wait until they got back.  And I definitely wouldn’t go through their drawers…you never know.  Can you believe this guy?

I was browsing the web today and came across this awesome website, Apartment Therapy.  I’m ashamed to say that I spent in insane amount of time on this site today when I should’ve been working (sorry, I simply could not resist!) 

My favorite feature is the house tours, where you can tour people’s home designs.  Most of the featured homes are very small, i.e 500 sq. feet!  They manage to do amazing and creative things with their small spaces.  Very inspiring!

My brother is an amateur boxer who after leaving the sport for awhile has decided to start training again.  Since I’ve been insanely bored with my workout routine I though it’d be the perfect time to buy these gloves that I recently saw online.  Not only does my brother get to train me but we both get a great workout at the same time.  The fact that I can take out all my frustrations by physically punching somebody is an added bonus.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve cleaned up my financial mess but lately I’ve become obsessed with organizing.  I want to organize everything!  My desk at work is immaculate, everything is in it’s place.  I ‘ve begged my mother to let me help her organize her attic.  I’ve organized R’s massive sneaker collection.  I daydream about having a huge pantry I can fill with glass containers and label them “cereal”, “oatmeal”, “cookies.”  It could be a phase but all I know is that I definitely want to milk this for as long as I can.

Obviously it’s not polite to go around asking people if I can reorganize their junk drawer so I’ve decided to turn my efforts to myself.  My debts were paid off but my financial papers were not exactly in order.  That’s when I turned my attention/obsession to file boxes.  I found tnis small woven file box at Office Depot for $20 and it’s perfect to house all my important papers.  It also matches our new bedding, which of course makes it even better!