Feeling tense

No clue what is going on, but I feel like I'm on pins and needles. And the sucky thing is that it seems like every time I start to relax, something jarring pops up. Example: yesterday was just plain beautiful outside. So I decided to pop on my swim suit and go lay out by the complex's pool. I was there a solid hour and was all relaxed (I'm a Leo, the sun makes me naturally happy) I walk back inside my apartment and gasp. Pure panic.

Bits of Dove Promises' wrappers all over the floor. My 15-lb dog managed to pull a Target bag off the coffee table and destroy the bag. Dog owners know that chocolate is pure death for a dog, so I called the vet immediately. They gave me two options - bring him to the after hours emergency clinic ($125) or call ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Hotline ($65). Ok, despite my panic, did anyone else realize there was poison control for pets?! I was oddly impressed. I decided to go that route. Called the 800 number and within minutes was talking to a representative telling the story. Seeing as how my pup destroyed the ENTIRE bag, they determined that yes, that is a deadly dose. The vet advised me to give him 1 tbs of hydrogen peroxide, walk him around for 15 minutes and induce vomiting. If after that 15 minutes nothing happened, I was to give him another 1 tbs.

Have you ever had to force feed a dog? Not just force feed, but force feed a liquid?! Oh the horror. I even had a kids medicine syringe, but my pup has an amazing gag reflex and was coughing it up immediately. Finally I had to straddle my dog, pop his head back and basically choke him with the peroxide. But it went down. The true horror began.

Anyone who tells me that I am not prepared for a baby, clearly has never seen me handle projectile milk chocolate dog vomit. It did not stop. So for an hour I dealt with inducing sickness in my dog. After it was over with, the representative called me back to check to see how he was doing. I felt that he had "expelled" enough material that she advised giving him water and a handful of kibble to see if he could keep it down. He did. I was to monitor his activity level and if he became lethargic or stopped eating, I was to take him to the vet.

He's been fine ever since.

Jeeeeeeeez-us! Whatever relaxation vibe I had was dead.

If that's a relationship, then I'm ok without one

I've been having a great little week. My budgeting has been AWESOME, even with a surprise decision to go to the NCAA Championship this week (I have an undying love of basketball); I've maintained my budgets and have a nice little savings started.

Then I get an email on Wednesday. From my best guy friends fiancee. She's not in love with him anymore and wants to break the engagement. AND SHE HASN"T TOLD HIM YET. *Hits brakes hard* Why the hell is she contacting me first?! What am I supposed to do with this information?! Holy hell, what is going on?!

Apparently she felt the need to contact me because she 'wants to make sure he's ok afterwards'. She feels he's too possessive of her and that it could at some point border on violence. I was clear to say I had never seen a possessive bone in his body, but at the same time I have NO CLUE what goes on "behind closed doors", ya know? I did ask if he had ever hit her - because regardless of being a bestie and someone I've known since I was 11 years old (will be 30 this year) - but hitting a woman is NOT acceptable. Thank Jesus, she admitted that there has never been an incident.

Um...now I can handle breakups, but ENDING AN ENGAGEMENT is new territory for me. Recovery for men is different for women, all I can think is that it involves alcohol and strip clubs for men. I'm not sure that I can honestly prepare myself to help him with that.

So I ended up having a mini-friend crisis break by spending that evening at a local sushi place. I was ok with ordering whatever I wanted and threw in  2 martinis for good measure. Total bill ended up only being $30 which was truly amusing to me as the martinis were $9 a piece, so clearly I didn't go as insane as I thought with food.

Basically I'm just in a holding pattern with this info. The fiancee admitted she was lost and so confused, so I'm hoping this is just cold feet, but I guess we shall see.

Jesus, if this shit happens with relationships, I'm fine without one.

Budgeting B!tch

"Wow, I love how you're taking this so seriously" ~My friend Christina

It's ironic that I choose to go on a budget 2 months before I leave on a cruise. My mother (who I get my spending issues from, totally) thinks it's great that I'm putting myself on a budget, but the moment I told her I couldn't go shopping this past weekend because of my budget she wasn't so thrilled. In fact, she ended up calling my father, telling him what I'm doing and then he called me to say that he'd pay for anything I bought because I "needed good cruise clothes". *Sigh* Yes, I'm truly thankful to have parents who can do this for me, but I don't think they understand that the giving nature is what got me into the "Who needs a budget?" mindset. But I digress.

I bought a Suze Orman book (Women and Money, on clearance for $1.99 at Half Price Books) and the following:

Bitches on Budget by Rosalyn Hoffman. Seriously BEST BOOK EVER!! Just snarky enough to capture my attention while still acknowledging that budgeting is necessary.

Being a “bitch” means having fun, knowing what you want, not settling for second best. It means being savvy. Smart. In control. In other words it’s a way of living—NOT a way of treating others. Be a bitch without being bitchy. Be generous and share your money-saving tips with the rest of us. Pretty please? We’re in it together, after all

It's definitely not Dave Ramsey "Stop Spending ANYTHING"; it is more realistic for what I'm looking for. For instance, stop spending money on low quality pants (Hello, JCPenney Worthington Pants with zippers that always fall apart, I'm looking at you) because they are inexpensive. Rather pay for the quality pant that will last longer than 3 pairs of the cheaper pant. That makes sense on numerous levels. Because of some of the tips in the book, I've already thinned out some of my clothing and donated them to Goodwill. I'm going to take some of my suits to a consignment shop later this weekend.

I've also downloaded the Easy Envelope Budgeting Aid (EBBA) app for my Droid which is CRAZY helpful. If I'm spending something, I just pull that bad boy up and can see exactly how much I have left for the week (well, bi-weekly since that is how I set it up). The only negative is that one envelope I have is showing I've got a negative balance....when I don't. I'm confused what I did there.

Anywho, I'm trying and interested in seeing how this goes :-)

Son of a....

So apparently I'm out of the Diva Dash :-(

I've been doing my training and noticing that my feet were going numb. At first I just assumed it was because I was increasing my running activity. But then the numbness grew. Now I wake up every morning with numb toes that I can feel all the way up to my knee. So I got scared and called a doc. Apparently, I have neuroma's (2) in my right foot. I've been strictly instructed to not run.

Doc did recommend bicycles and swimming. Either option I can do in my area, but I'm having trouble finding a cycling group to ride with. Houston is scary for cyclist. I do own 2 bikes (mountain and a road) but given all of  the traffic....I just don't know that I can imagine cruising around the Galleria on my OCR.....

In other news, I've managed to lose 4 pounds in the past 2 weeks :-)

Financial Peace

The season of Lent is upon us and my little Catholic self has gone into a bit of overdrive and reflection. For 40 days and 40 nights, I have elected to give up fast food. This brought about a series of questions from friends who thought that was too severe of a restriction, but really people?! I believe Jesus died for us, I can do without a Whataburger (#7, no onions but with jalapenos) for a few weeks.

Anywhosits, as I was filing my taxes last night, I realized just how much money I made last year.....for a single woman with one small dog.....I should have craploads saved. And yet I don't. So this morning, despite some hyperventilation on my part, I tried to layout a budget. Honestly, I've lived on my own since I was 17, but never really had to budget before. I was on scholarships and parents dime(#fistbump to my pops for that debit card) in college. After college, the salaries that I've made have always been 'tight' but if I wanted to go do something I could. Every company I've worked for, thankfully, had 401k or 403b options so having a retirement has always been established and transferred as I switched companies. But actual savings for 'emergency situations' not so much.

And this is going to make me sound like the most un-American girl in the world, but owning a home has never really been a dream of mine. OR rather, it's something I always assumed would happen when I married someone. I never wanted to own my own piece of property...I never saw the point.

But when I saw my gross salary and all that last night. I got scared a little bit. I don't make millions, but I do make enough that there should be something left over at the end of the month to tuck away. But there isn't. So I logged onto my bank and reviewed their "Personal Spending Report" feature that I always ignore. I nearly choked on my Mr. Pibb when I realized how much I'm spending on "Restaurants" and "Retail". NOT ACCEPTABLE!! So.....I'm attempting to create a budget to get me on track. Will report back later with my outline!

Legs O'Fire

So let's explain how I ended up signing up for the Diva Dash ... and the subsequent Fleet Feet "No Boundaries" 5K running clinic:

Like every woman on earth that doesn't live in freaking California, I have some weight to lose. I'm greatful to genetics and God that I carry my weight well, HE gave me curves and I've actually had arguments with sales clerks when I go in to try on a pair of size 14 jeans. Apparently I look like a 6/8 *fistbump to Jesus*

Anywhosits, I'm staring down the barrel of age 30, and even though I'm so totally geeked out about joining the "Dirty 30" club, I also have noticed my body is changing just enough that I'm none to happy with it. Lo and behold, the same darn week I'm thinking about this, Shape magazine (via Facebook) announces the Diva Dash in Austin, TX in April. That's a 5k plus obstacle course every 1/2 mile, only a quick little 2.5 hour drive from me. I send the link out to a couple of my coworkers....they forward it on to other friends.....and the next thing I know, we have 12 women who want to do this together. Ah-freaking-MAZING!!! So we signed up.

I don't run. Like, seriously. Ever. Point of pride: I actively sat out of running the mile in High School. EVERY WEDNESDAY! I hated running....well, I didn't hate running, as much as I hated the gym teacher who would tell me that I wasn't running fast enough. And my town was so small that we had the same damn teacher every year. So one day, I just 'forgot' my gym clothes and willingly took the D for the day....and ketpt the streak going once I realized the teacher got pissed off about it. Gym teacher actually called my parents, who thank God, told her that I was an honor roll student and if the worst you can say about me is that I wasn't dressing out 1 day a week, it wasn't the end of the world.

So what the hell posessed me to run this bad boy? I have no clue, I need a change. I WANT TO DO THIS. So I started researching. Stumbled across a beginners running clinic that starts on Thursday. I hemmed, hawed, and whined to everyone who would listen. And do you know what all of them said?? "What's the worse that could happen?" "If you do the Dash, you need to train. This is perfect." and so, I signed up for that too. I asked others if they wanted to join me and all looked at me like I lost my mind. Except for one, my friend S, who is a freaking size 0, but I love her anyway (and she's a dietitian, so being a size 0 kinda makes sense).

To get a jump, I agreed to go walk around Memorial Park, the loop at Memorial is just over 3 miles, so perfect for me to see how I do. I walked the loop in just under an hour..and truthfully we talked for a bit instead of straight concentration on walking, so I know that worse comes to worse, I'll walk the damn Dash in an hour ;-)

I've lost my mind

And signed up for


Lord help me!