dianaschnuth

I’ve always joked around that I’ll get my student loans paid off just about the time I retire. Sadly, it looks like that’s not far from the truth. When you consider that my education cost just about half of what our house cost, and we’ll have that paid off in another 30 years… If I keep paying $160 toward interest and $15 toward principal, that’s about when I’ll have my student loan paid off, too.

The good news, though, is that I have a pretty good start on my 401(k) plan. Just gotta stay with Sky for another three years to become fully vested and reap the rewards of the sweet, sweet profit sharing.

Not to be a financial evangelist, but considering that Social Security could well be defunct by the time we young’uns retire, I would highly recommend that you—yes, you—enroll in your company’s 401(k) plan, if they have one. It’s worth it to save early—I only put back $50 a month, and I’ve already got a pretty decent chunk of change in my plan. Might even keep Aaron and me sated for an entire month or two of retirement! 🙂

Points to ponder…

…and they can see your house.

OMG.

It’s really weird to come across someone’s images folder and surf through it. (Caution: Some adult content. Some disturbing content. Some random content in Italian.)

I would now like to apologize for being such a damn whiner in my last post.

I spent some quality time surfing around Tomato Nation and reading random long-forgotten personal sites in my bookmarks. Ended up reading Eric Schroeder’s blog, and got an earful (screenful?) of what I needed:

its that time of the year again: time to LIVE. that’s right, no more of this crap i’m doing now. you’ve heard the arguments before, but i’ll present them again:

make it a day. why? today’s not just any day. some people get married today. some people die. some have their first child. imagine having your firstborn son or daughter today! you’d always, always remember it as one of the happiest days of your life. so the fact that you’re probably not having your first child today doesn’t mean that you can’t make today one of the most memorable and happy days of your life.

so live for it. don’t let it pass you by. what can you say you did today? sit in an office, talk on IM, is that all? some people died today. and they don’t have ‘today’ any more. sometimes i feel like i need to seize and take hold of today just out of respect for those who can’t.

so make it a day. do something great. look at a calendar and know that you lived life to the fullest each day. don’t fake your way through life. don’t eek your way through life either. take it, grab hold, and live it.

So, enough whining. I have a kitty on my lap, music on my WinAmp, and friends on IM. All is right with the world.

I don’t know what my problem is. I feel all blah. To be a little more specific, I feel extremely bored and disconnected. I think my attempt at marathon websurfing is my brain trying to combat my disconnectedness.

FYI, my definition of “bored” isn’t necessarily “there’s nothing to do,” but more of “nothing I can think of sounds good.” I mean, I could go make some candles, or I could put my clothes away, or I could exercise or practice my mellophone, or I could try to find something on TV. I could even go eat. But none of that sounds good.

I feel physically bleh, too, which isn’t helping. Either the Slim-Fast low-carb snack bars or the sugar-free Halls cough drop I had at work today acted (as promised) with a “laxative effect” —eww. Actually, it’s more of a grumbly-gassy-slightly-queasy effect for me during the day, culminating in said final effect upon arrival home after work. On top of that, my lower back’s been all funky and feeling out-of-place for the past couple of days (and nights); and, of course, once I got that all stretched out and cracked and popped and what-have-you, my left ankle / heel / Achilles tendon started feeling all funky and tight and making me limp. I have no clue what I did to make it do that. And the back of my neck/shoulder hurts, too, like something’s grinding wrong. Oh, and don’t forget the band-aids on my right thumb and left toe where I’m trying to finally stanch the wart epidemic I’ve been experiencing. (Don’t worry, they’re common warts. Says so on the Compound W box.)

Am I a freaking wreck, or what?

I’m gonna go find something to do. Hopefully. Blah. *sigh*