06.05.08
Cool New Laundry Service
One of my co-workers told me about this new laundry service and I wanted to share it with my fellow New Yorkers. The company’s goal is to” revolutionize the way you do your laundry.” The website makes it easy to order service and they work around your schedule. They even offer shoe service and special discounts. And with all the unhealthy toxins that cleaning services are known for, you can rest assured that My Fresh Shirt is doing their part to help the environment; they’re also eco-friendly by reusing garment bags and hangers.
This is one service that I’m definitely going to be taking advantage of. As much as I love doing laundry, I wouldn’t mind a day off every once in a while. They always fold your clothes so professionally… I can never get those crip folds!
06.03.08
Horrible Case of the Mondays
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.
05.17.08
Mint!
I recently signed up at Mint.com and I absolutely love it! My cousin had told me about a few months ago when he first signed up and I checked it out back then but never signed up. I was hesitant to have all of my information online but after researching the website and speaking with him some more, I decided to sign up too.
It took less than five minutes to register and see all of my “assets” displayed before me. The website has a lot of cool features. It’s able to pull information from your accounts and show where you spend all of your money, displayed as a pie chart. My favorite feature is the mobile alerts where you can register your cell phone and have text messages sent you if your balance dips below a certain point.
I have to admit, I just signed up a few days ago and I’m addicted. I log in everyday to monitor my transactions and see all my accounts. It’s great to see that although I don’t have a ton of money, I’m definitely making progress.
05.08.08
Why Was He Going Through My Drawer??
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?
05.01.08
My New Favorite Website
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!
04.16.08
Smashbox Lipgloss
At the recommendation of a makeup junkie co-worker, I ran over to Sephora today and bought the new lipgloss from Smashbox, O-Gloss Intuitive Lip Gloss. What made me even more curious once I read the ingredients was the avocado oils and pomegranate seed. It has a smooth consistency that glides onto your lips without making them feel sticky. It’s tasteless (a positive for me) and “intuitive, ” meaning that it changes to a different pink color according to your skin’s chemistry. The best thing about this lipgloss is having my boyfriend tell me how soft my lips feel when he kisses me… without him even knowing that I have a new gloss!
My New Veggie Shopping List
I’ve been extremely low on energy lately and while I can attribute it to a lot of things (my long commute, little sleep, little exercise) I definitely feel that my new veggie diet may have something to do with it.
Friday night I met up with some friends and made a new friend, M who happens to have studied Nutrition Therapy in college. M tells me that it’s very likely that my low energy levels can be a result of eliminating meat from diet. He goes on to tell me that effective ASAP, I need to add the following things to my diet:
- Almonds
- Soy or Greek Yogurt
- Oatmeal
- Bananas
- Eggplant
- Sweet Potatoes
- Chickpeas/Hummus
After doing my own research I discovered that not only are these foods high in energy but they have added benefits as well; eggplants help control cholesterol levels and are a good source of folic acid and potassium while chickpeas are power legumes providing lots of protein, fiber, zinc and calcium.
My new found knowledge has definitely helped me to make better shopping decisions ( no more Doritos and Twizzlers). I bought everything M suggested and I’m hoping that I’ll see a significant boost in my energy. This just goes to prove that eliminating meat from your diet doesn’t make you a vegetarian, you have to replenish the nutrients you once got from eating meat protein. Wow, did I just call myself a vegetarian…?
04.08.08
Pink Boxing Gloves
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.
04.04.08
File Boxes
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!
03.24.08
I Finally Paid Off My Credit Cards!
Today is a prosperous day. I made my final payment on my credit cards. Yes, that is correct. I am 100% credit card debt free! And it’s probably one of the best feelings I’ve had in a very long time.
This victory was 8 months in the making. I decided back in August (after returning from a very expensive trip to Asia) that once I returned, I would get serious about my credit card debt. I had attempted to work with credit counselors in the past to no avail. I always felt that it put me at a disadvantage not knowing exactly where my money was going each month if I worked with a debt management agency. So I started with a simple excel spreadsheet. The first column indicated the name of the account, the second column showed the balance, the third showed the payment plan and so forth. I used columns to record as much information about the account as possible. I even used a “Notes” column where I would write things like, “Pay ASAP, high interest!”
Once I took the first step of writing everything down (and I do mean everything), it actually became fun. It became my little side business, where I was benefitting directly from my efforts. I was eager to track any progress on my payments and post the new balances as soon as something was paid off. It felt so great to see the new balances go down every month.
After 8 months of continuos, and on time payments I was able to pay off over $6,000 in credit card debt, including some student loan payments. I am by no means a financial expert ( I cheated my way through college accounting), but I knew that if I could commit to writing it all down that it would help me accomplish two things 1) I would be able to see my financial situation in its entirety and 2) I would be able to manage and track it on a regular basis, making it much easier to pay off.
Making my final payment was an indescribable feeling. And all it took was that first step.