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All About the Benjamins

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I know I really need to schedule in some downtime into my life, but there always seems to be something that NEEDS to get done. I guess I should be grateful, because there was a time in the not so distant past where my life was totally crazy and I had no sanctuary of my own to rest. Now at least I have my own apartment as meager as it might be, but it is all mine as long as I pay the rent...LOL.

My next major goal in life, besides finishing my undergrad degree, is to become a homeowner. Sadly, if the economy does not start to get better my dream may not get realized for sometime. I really do hope that all of the years of sacrifice I have had to make in order to get my degree pays off in a big enough way. I mean I am being realistic I don't expect all of my financial difficulties to go away with one fell swoop (although that would be nice), but I at least will like to have some breathing room in my budget to really start aggressively saving up for my own home.

It really has been very hard for me to save, because something always seems to come up. It really doesn't help that the price of everything seems to go up by the minute and my salary in comparison seems to stay stagnate. I guess the best thing I have going for me is that I am inherently a saver and I don't go spending my money all willy nilly on ridiculous things that I don't really need but just WANT. I have never been one to try to keep up with the Jones' so to speak. I could care less what they have and I am definitely not trying to go broke getting it. I try very hard to live within my means. Most of the time I am successful, but sometimes I do have to steal from Peter to pay Paul.

The one thing I am very proud of is that I do not have a whole lot of debt and I have decent credit. I would love to say I have great credit but my credit is pretty new. I thought I was doing fabulous when I was in my early 20's because I had no credit card debt, because I had no credit cards...LOL. All I ever heard was people talking about all this mounting credit card debt they had especially in the military. No one ever told me that I NEEDED credit in order to get a great interest rate on say...a new car or get an apartment. But I digress...

Like I was saying before I don't have a lot of unnecessary debt. I have two credit cards one major one and one clothing store one that I am about to get rid of. I only have the clothing store card because when I got my first job out of the military I needed new clothes right away. I have a balance on my major credit card...in fact it is maxed out right now because I used it to pay tuition. As soon as my GI Bill comes in next week...the balance goes bye-bye.

The next piece of debt I have is a small student loan that I regretfully had to take out last year. I was very broke and I needed to get a new computer and to pay the upfront costs for my tuition. Times were very lean, because of some medical things I had to take care of for E. I really needed to finish school so I took out a small loan to get started, but I have great interest rate and I should be able to pay it off fairly quickly.

My last part of my debt is my car note, but in a few short months it will be paid off. I decided once it is all paid for instead of looking at the extra cash as free money. I am going to direct deposited into a high interest avings account and pretend I don't have it. That added on to the amount I already deposit should accumulate into a nice down payment for a home pretty quickly.

Well basically this is the start of my plan and hopefully nothing major comes up that I have to tap into that savings account for anything. This year I also cut out all unnecessary spending, and I am really budgeting everything to the penny. I make sure that I do give myself an allowance, so that I am not feeling too restricted. I give myself a certain amount of cash every pay day to do with what I want.

So, far my plan seems to be working and I actually had a little extra money left over after all bills were paid and allowance was doled out this month. I am putting half of my surplus into savings and the other half...Hmmmmmm...

Oh yeah...If you have any money saving tips or tips on buying a home. I will be more than happy to listen. Like most things in my life I am going at it alone.

Save Me From Myself

I just adore her and I am so glad she is so happy.

E's Theory on Bar.ack Ob.ama

I jumped the aisle last year just so I could vote in the Democratic primary election today. McCain is my pick as a Republican, but how could I not be a part of history. I mean a woman and a Black man both vying for the Presidential nomination...WOW just WOW.

E and I woke up bright and early, so that we could get to the polls before the crowd. We were one of the first 10 people in line and once the polls opened at 7am we were in and out by 7:15am. I even took the time to fill out a couple of surveys.

E and I have talked a lot about the election and how history is being made with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as Democratic canidates. To my surprise his enthusiam as to the prospect of having a President that looks like him running the country was dim to say the least. Here are a couple of snippets of our conversations:


Me: E, Barack Obama is very close to making history. This is so exciting!!
E: Are you gonna vote for him?
Me: Yes
E: OH No!!!
Me: (looking puzzled) E, don't you think it would be great to have Black President.
E: No (faced all frowned up)
Me: Why not?
E: If Obama wins the election then he will crush my dream of being the first Black President!!
Me: *blank stare* hmmmmm..... Sweetie as much as I would love for you to make history this country just can't wait another 30 years for you to run. We need help now!!
E: (pouting)
Me: ROFL!!!

*************

E: Awww Mom!! I can not believe you voted for Obama.
Me: Well I told you I felt he was the best canidate and I have to vote my conscious.
E: He is too perfect. He has gotta be some sort of spy...
Me: Huh??
E: ...and only a little kid would be able to figure it out and they knew no one would believe a little kid.
Me: O.K. Mr. smarty pants who sent the spy?
E: Aliens
Me: If he is an alien spy then what is he going to do once he becomes President?
E: Who knows what he's gonna do? Probably rob all the banks...
Me: Sigh!!!! Good night!!
E: But Mom, it's still morning...
Me: I don't care. Good Night!!

Well folks, if Obama turns out to be some kind of bank robbing Manchurain Canidate sent by aliens you heard it here first.

WHOA !! Did Y'all See This????

I am so glad he is ok.

"Nessun Dorma!!!"

Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head and you just can not rest until you hear it? Well this is what happened to me today. The trouble was I had no idea what the name of the song was. Thank God for iTunes!!! I just punched in Luciano Pavarotti's name and listened to all the songs until I found the one that I wanted. Here it is I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.



Here are the words in ITALIAN;
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che fremono d'amore
e di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun sapra!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diro
quando la luce splendera!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun sapra!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincero!
vincero, vincero!


ENGLISH
None must sleep! None must sleep!
And you, too, Princess,
in your cold room,
gaze at the stars
which tremble with love
and hope!

But my mystery is locked within me,
no-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it as my mouth
meets yours when the dawn is breaking!

And my kiss will break the silence
which makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name,
and we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Fade, stars!
At dawn I shall win

It's Official...

I have been inducted into the lameazz blog club by none other then Sissy herself one of the founding members of said club...sigh.

Things have been just so busy latley between cub scout meetings, work, re-organizing/cleaning my place and these two new classes I just started. I have not had the time to really sit down and write. Hell, even when I do have a minute that I can be writing I am just too tired to think of something. I guess I can catch you up a little bit in what has been happening with my life...let's see where to begin.

Work- I have really changed my whole way of thinking when it comes to my job. I was quite miserable for a while, but now things seem a little brighter. I actually look forward scratch that I don't dread waking up in the morning like I used to go into the office. Right now I am working on a couple of nice projects that are keeping busy. One project in particular I am the most excited about because I am learning about a subject that I am very interested in. This is going to be a fun new learning experience and hopefully a stepping stone for bigger and better things with the Firm. Even if it does not lead to more money and better position where I am working currently it will look GREAT on my resume.

Son- It was touch and go for a minite with E in school. He is a smart kid in fact he is a bit too smart for his own good. His teachers really underestimate how totally manipulative he can be. Anyway, the problem was not academically, but his temper was getting him in trouble. Nothing a few weeks of no privileges hasn't been able to fix though. He has had to work very hard to earn EVERY bit of fun he been able to have. Hell he hasn't even been able to open any of his birthday or Christmas gifts given to him by my family and friends.

Hmmmmm....I had two more paragraphs here a second ago and now they've just disappeared. UGH!!!!

Well, since I am too tired to re-write all of that I will just have to catch you all up on the rest of it next time. From now on I will try to post something at least twice a week.

Ciao!!