Facebook Free for 30 Days

I deactivated my Facebook account last night.

I’ve been trying to quit Facebook for years now. It’s not a healthy environment for me. I’m not sure it ever was, but it’s definitely gotten worse during the dark days under President “He Who Must Not Be Named” (if you don’t want your blog comments full of frog-loving trolls). Last night was the worst. There’s no need for me to be sobbing over social media when it’s a pain and torture that I inflict on myself.

And yet, I still couldn’t permanently delete.

It’s Valentine’s Day! Treat Yourself!

Maybe you have a Valentine and maybe you don’t. It doesn’t really matter. Friends, partners and lovers come and go, but self-love is forever. There’s no better day of the year to buy yourself a little something than today.

Here’s a fun Self-Gifting Guide for every price point based on your budget!

No Spend November Update

I’m half-way through my No Spend November Challenge. How’s it going?

Well…

I was doing great. Really great. And then a significant number of US voters (but slightly less than the majority) decided that Donald J. Trump would make a good President and I did some stress shopping. And some more stress shopping. And then just a bit more stress shopping.

I realize blaming stress is just an excuse, but hand to God, I did not buy anything outside of my rules until Florida started looking like it was going for Trump. My email confirmation of my first online order is time stamped Nov 8, 2016, 9:13 PM. That’s Eastern Time. Considering what was happening at that moment, I don’t feel as if you can blame me for a moment of weakness.

No-Spend November 2016

I like stuff. I like buying stuff even more. Clothes, makeup, weird little (mostly cat-shaped) tchotchkes to keep on my desk – I love it all! But I’ve realized lately that I have entirely too much stuff. Stuff that I don’t use. And even though I have all of that stuff that I’m not using, I’m still buying new stuff. The madness has to stop!

That’s where the No-Spend November Challenge comes in. I’m starting a teensy, tiny bit early because I want to be able to shop after Thanksgiving. (I’m only human!) I’m also not going to be quite as strict with myself as some other folks. If I get too restrictive with myself, much like a crash diet, I’ll just end up going on a huge shopping binge by day four and giving up completely. I’m trying to seriously reduce my discretionary spending – not go cold turkey.

The Brunch Report

The Brunch Report is a Monday recap of my weekend activities including who I saw, where I went and of course, what I wore. 

Well, friends. It was quite a weekend. The weather and my ex-husband conspired to put a damper on my spirits, but it simply couldn’t be done. Good friends, good food and great fashion will always prevail!

I dressed for my date on Saturday in a lovely light coral Floral Ruffled Challis Sundress from Torrid. The weather was awful, so I added a white 3/4 sleeve cardigan to give myself a bit more coverage. I really wish this rain would go away. I’ve got too many cute and flirty sundresses hanging in my closet that are just dying to be worn!

Not Saturday Night (same outfit though)

Ode to an Aveo

My Aveo wasn’t the nicest car. In fact, it was the absolute cheapest car I could find at the time. But it was there when I needed it. And even though we would later come to have a series of bumps (literal and figurative) along the road, the Aveo was an important symbol to me. It marked the start of my financial recovery.

Change No. 1: Time Management

I suck at time management. Lots of people say that. But I mean it down to the depths of my chronically late being. I have very rarely been on time. For anything. I frequently underestimate how long it is going to take me to complete a task (e.g. drive to work) and subsequently screw myself over before I even start. It’s bad. Real bad.

I’m also not a morning person. In my dream world, I would be working 4pm to midnight. But this is not my dream world and I have parental responsibilities that require I work the standard 9am – 5pm corporate gig. The corporate world loves morning people. And I need the corporate world to love me.

Well, shit. We all know what I need to do.

A lot – okay, most – of my problems stem from my horrible time management skills. I’m often late and I don’t complete tasks. This is a problem in both my personal and professional life. And that’s why it needs to change. I’m going to batter myself into becoming a morning person if it’s the last thing I do this year (and it may indeed prove to be the last thing I do this year).

Step One: Regularize my sleep! 

This is harder than you might think. Getting up at 5:30am is complete and utter bullocks. Especially since my start time at work is 9:00am. But there are an entire host of reasons why I have to get up so ungodly early that I won’t go into here. Just know that the 5:30am is not negotiable. And I would even get up at 5:00am if I could (which I currently can’t, because I can’t even get up at 5:30am).

Getting up at 5:30am, means going to bed at 10pm if I want even a hope of getting seven hours of sleep a night. Trying for eight hours of sleep a night is a laughable pipe dream, so let’s just try for seven, okay? I suppose I could get 7.5 hours of sleep if I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, but that almost never happens. Especially since I’ve yet to actually be in bed by 10pm yet.

Is there any good news?

Well, yes. I have managed to get up when my alarm went off at 5:30am exactly two times in the New Year. The downside being I later crawled back into bed and went back to sleep. And was late for work. But I choose to see getting up those two times as a minor victory, regardless of how many times I reset my alarm and hit the snooze button less than an hour later.

This is my main task for January. Getting myself into a regular sleep schedule. One week down and I don’t have much to show for it. Hopefully, this will get easier?

2015: Time for a Change

I’m having a mid-life crisis and it’s right on time. I’m 38. Old enough to know that things don’t always turn out the way you planned. Young enough to regroup and move on. I’m not trying to recapture my youth. I’m trying to figure out what the hell to do with my adulthood.

I’m not sure what’s kept me bogged down for the past five years. It would be simple enough to blame my divorce or the economic turmoil that left me first unemployed and then underemployed. The reasons don’t really matter. Because there’s no excuse for spending the last five years just treading water and that’s basically what I’ve done.

That ends now. It’s time to start swimming.

Changes

They’re coming.