1 Year Plan September 29, 2006 ~ 12:28 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz , comments closed
Saturday Sky in Brooklyn
I’ve been thinking about where I’d like to be at this point next year. For years I’ve been saying I want to be debt-free (not counting student loans) by the time I’m 30. Today I got to thinking about what else I’d like to accomplish in the next year of my life. Here ’tis:
- Be debt free (aside from student loans): the retroactive pay on my next paycheck should go a good way to helping me with this one.
- Put money into savings each month and not have to withdraw it.
- Be able to pay more than the minimum on my student loan payments every month.
- Learn to spin (starting out with a drop spindle, hopefully moving on to a wheel). This way I can make yarn for knitting friends as well as myself.
- Knit a sweater. For Rick. I realize I am tempting fate with the “Never Knit a Sweater For Your Boyfriend” rule, but I will arrange a pre-nup on the sweater. If we break up, I get the damned thing back.
- Do more theater gigs. I’ve been very lax about this of late, since the theater where I am Resident Dramaturg has switched to mostly daytime rehearsals (which I can’t do, because during those hours I am busy being an academic office monkey), but if I can’t get gigs there, I need to start looking around for other gigs. I need to dramaturg more.
- Write that damned book with Jordana. There will be some blog changes coming up that have to do with this, and we will be looking for your input on the book. More on this later.
- Write more short stories. My chapter story on Fanfiction.net is languishing, so I need to finish the damned thing. It’s not for lack of reviews or interest from my readers, it’s from sheer laziness on my part. Shame.
- More work on the blog. This template is nice and all, but it’s missing some things I want. I think I’m going to have to learn how to design my own blog template to be completely happy with it. Some years ago I had my own website and I learned HTML to make it, so I don’t think it will be that hard.
- Taking care of me. I’ve let doctor and dentist apppointments slide in the past few years because my insurance sucks. It will still suck, but I will have more money with the coming of the new contract, and I need to get myself taken care of. That and doing more yoga to take care of my back and neck. I don’t need to add to health woes by not taking care of what I can on my own.
There it is. If I can manage those ten things, I think 30 will be a good milestone. And this will be the last introspective post I make for a while, I promise. No more navel gazing for at least a month.
Meditating on the meaning of 29 September 28, 2006 ~ 10:42 am
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz , comments closed
Outside of Pittsfield, MA
We’re two days away from the big 2-9 here, and I’m still having problems with it. Not the party, that stuff is settled, at least for the beginning of the night. Friends are coming and it looks like it’s going to be a kickass night. Earlier in the day should be fun, too, since my favorite knitting shop in the city has set up a “Learn to Spin” session just for me. Okay, not just for me, but really, how cool is it that there’s a spinning workshop on my birthday? Finally, someone celebrating it for the holiday that it is!
I think my problem is that I don’t know how to feel about 29. Rick keeps telling me that “age ain’t nothin’ but a number” (obviously because he wants to feel closer to his girlfriend who is, at this moment, 24 years younger than him), but we also live in a society that tells us that 29 is the beginning of the end. Your youth is behind you, grasshopper, and now you are old!! For women, this is especially tough. We’re given all these signals that if we aren’t married with children by this time, there is something wrong with us. It’s better in the big city, where most women aren’t married or mothers by the age of 29, but the subliminal messages are still there. Time is running out! You are going to die unloved and alone and your body will be found weeks later half-eaten by Alsatians. (Yes, I just borrowed freely from Bridget Jones’s Diary there.)
The educated portion of my brain doesn’t buy that. I am in a loving relationship with a wonderful man. I have two great practically step kids whom I love, and who think I’m pretty damn cool in return. But at the same time, I realize that when my mom was 29, she was pregnant with me. And I remember thinking when I was a kid that she was much older than my friends’ parents. She was in her 30s when I was little, for wool’s sake. The only reason she seemed older than my friends’ parents is that they were all products of Beaver County and had their kids in their early 20s. She was so not old. But a little nagging voice in my head says “You are going to be so old when you finally have kids that you won’t be able to play with them.” (Two seconds later, the little nagging voice says, “Wow, I’m glad I don’t have a kid to take care of so I can throw a moody, sit down and have a beer, and be completely anti-social the rest of the night.” My head is a confusing place to live in, and I obviously don’t know how I feel about anything.)
I don’t think I’ve been this thrown off by a birthday since I turned 20. If I could just figure out what 29 means to me, I’d be fine. But I can’t. And apparently my body is just as tangled up about it since my period started this morning and I have the cramps from hell. I know how you feel, body. I know how you feel. So I guess I’ll just keep musing about it…maybe by the time I’m 30 I’ll come to some sort of conclusion.
Continuing my mission… September 27, 2006 ~ 10:58 am
Posted by Julie in : Politically Incorrect , comments closed…to spread the word of Olbermann. In case you missed his reaction to this past weekend’s Clinton interview in which Bill finally stood up and said “Hey, at least I went after Osama, which is more than some administrations can say” (not Bill’s exact words), here’s my hero Keith laying the smackdown on President Asshat:
Money Makes the World Go Around September 26, 2006 ~ 10:14 am
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Deep Thoughts , comments closed
Berry Pond ~ Pittsfield, MA
We are, as of Thursday, exactly two weeks away from my new contract kicking in. This means that on October 12, Julie will be getting a nice big check that includes retro pay from the past four years. Well, sorta. 2% of the raise apparently goes right into my union’s welfare fund and we never see it. And since the retro pay and the regular paycheck are combined into one, I’m going to get slammed on taxes. Hopefully I’ll see some of it back in February…I can never remember if I’m supposed to have my Withholding set to ‘0′ or ‘1′ to get that. Anyway, the retro money is going to be used to pay down (or maybe off, depending on how much I get) my credit card bills. I keep telling myself that this is the responsible way to be, that if I pay off the credit cards I’ll have more money every month and I will be able to afford that new 80 GB iPod soon. Julie does not like being responsible when she wants a new fun toy, so this is also a test of willpower. It kinda sucks.
I was thinking a few weekends back what a luxury it must be to have all the money you need to pay off bills each month and then money leftover to buy things that you want without even thinking about it. I’ve never had that kind of money. I’ll grant you, I have enough cash to make more than the minimum payment on my credit cards and pay the utilities, the rent, and the student loan payment with a bit left over, but I blow through that bit left over like no one’s business. I like to buy new books. I enjoy getting new clothes. I hit yarn stores fairly regularly. I even cop to going to the drugstore to get fun toiletries like John Frieda Vibrant Red color glaze. But in the grand scheme of things, these are little. What would it be like to be able to buy furniture if I wanted it, without having to forego my little expenditures? I’ve been needing a new dresser and nightstand for ages, but I don’t have the money necessary to get them. So, like most people, I go without the bigger items.
I know that if I lived anywhere in the country but New York City, my salary would allow me to have the luxuries. I would be able to buy a house, a car, all sorts of things. But I love where I live too much to leave it. This is a city where if you make less than $50K, you’re below the poverty line. I can’t think of one person I know in New York who makes $50K (okay, wait, I can, but she doesn’t count since she’s not a friend, merely someone I have to associate with on occasion). Several of us (myself included) are closing in on it, but we’re not there yet. Is it because we don’t have the extra money that we view it as security? It’s not all-consuming for me, since I do have a certain amount of disposable income, but I do spend a decent amount of time thinking about it. I know I’m not alone on this one, since many of us are living paycheck to paycheck and/or in debt.
What do you guys think about this? Is money security for you, or could you care less? What would do if you had all the money necessary for bills and a lot left over every month? Would you spend it? Put it in savings? Invest? What?
Monday blah. September 25, 2006 ~ 10:21 am
Posted by Julie in : Daily Grind , comments closedDoes sleeping sickness still exist? Because I slept a ton this weekend and am wishing that I were still in bed, sleeping, right now. I say this knowing full well that when I slept until noon on Saturday I hated that I had wasted half the day. I guess this means I’m not a teenager any more, since when I was 15 I could give a shit less that half the day was gone.
My boss has just informed me that I can’t take Friday or Monday off for my birthday, since she will be out both days. I can understand that she has to take her cat to the vet on Friday (Joe will be seeing his vet on Thursday), but dude, she had to take Monday off too? She’s not Jewish! Her husband is, but she’s not. Come to think of it, that means Monday is going to be a ghost town here. Maybe I’ll just sleep at my desk that day and pretend that I’m at home.
Aaaaand we’re back. September 21, 2006 ~ 10:39 pm
Posted by Julie in : Random Insanity, Technobabble , comments closedSorry for anyone who’s tried to see my blog in the last hour. I’ve been upgrading to Wordpress 2.0.4 manually, and what they neglect to tell you is that waaaaay down at the bottom of the “uploading” instruction page, it tells you that you don’t have to do half the steps if you’re only going from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4. Of course. After I have nerve-wrackingly deleted many files, worn off my beer buzz, cursed to high heaven, and eaten some chocolate, then I find the damn shortcut. *sigh*
In the meantime, if you’re here because the Yarn Harlot sent you, welcome. There is no knitting in this post, or many others because I’ve been lazy with the camera lately. Knitting of mine (and that of friends) can be seen here. There will be more knitting in both places soon. However, if you want to read about my meeting with the Harlot, go here.
For those of you not caring about knitting (*gasp!*), I have something that Vince tipped me off about: Cumming, the Fragrance. Go, watch the commercial. You get to see nekkid Alan Cumming buns in it. We’ll wait. Actually, you don’t have to come back. Just remember that it was Alan Cumming who shattered my innocence with whispers of velvet ropes and pens in my ear.
Party planning sucks September 21, 2006 ~ 11:20 am
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz , comments closedOkay, I’m looking for help from other NYC bloggers here. I’m trying to plan a night out for my 29th birthday (which is going to kick me in the teeth next Saturday, September 30). I had originally thought to have it at Avalon (the old Limelight). However, and this is a big however, they no longer have a guestlist. I do not want to spend my birthday standing on line to get into a club. I want to spend my birthday night in a club.
So this is where I need your help - what’s a club that has the Avalon feel? Preferably someplace that has different music in different areas, something like techno, hip hop, reggaeton, trance…that should suit the crowd of people I’m inviting fine. There needs to be a guestlist so we can get in easily, and I’d like it if there wasn’t too much of a cover - I want my friends to be able to afford this. And yes, if you’re in NYC and want to join us, you are totally invited. The more the merrier. So help a birthday girl out, wouldya?
Memories September 20, 2006 ~ 11:10 am
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz , comments closed
Salon, Brooklyn Heights
Memory is a strange thing. I tend to block out unpleasant ones, which means I have practically no memory of my time in Catholic school, and only a select few of my grandparents, who could be real tyrants when they wanted to. The Catholic school memories are understandable - I only went there from kindergarten through second grade, and who really wants to remember evil nuns? But my grandparents…I knew them until I was about 15 years old. Shouldn’t I remember more about them? Obviously Julie’s brain works in mysterious ways to protect her.
But Julie’s brain is devious, because it still allows me to see, in great detail, all of the humiliating moments of my life. That time when I called my 4th grade teacher, Miss Petruska, “Mom” in the middle of class? Yep, crystal clear. That time when I was headed to bed at my babysitter’s and I thought her husband was talking to me when he said “Do you have any cash?” and I replied “Just my lunch money,” and they laughed? So vivid that a blush of embarassment still creeps to my cheeks when something brings it back. What the hell is that about? Why am I stuck with these memories? Why do they still make me cringe all these years later? Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?
cheer up, emo kid September 19, 2006 ~ 3:40 pm
Posted by Julie in : The Girls , comments closedRick and the girls have been playing around with Garage Band on his computer, composing songs. Some are good, some are bad, and most are vaguely reminiscent of a really early version of Moby’s “Play” album, with the same sounds looped over and over and over and over again ad nauseum.
They were playing some of the songs for me this weekend when I was over, and the Oldest’s song suprised me. Unlike her father and younger sister’s songs, it was not all about the rhythm section and sounded pretty ballad like. In the beginning. And then in the middle it started to go in a distinct electronic/metal direction. I told her that the change-up was really unexpected.
And then she reminded me that she’s 14 by saying:Â “That’s because I’m emo.”
As emo as you can be if your favorite musician is Jamie Cullum, at least.
Who caved? September 19, 2006 ~ 10:31 am
Posted by Julie in : Politically Incorrect , comments closedI heard on the radio this morning that Dubya’s approval rating is up to 40%. All I want to know is: who the hell caved? Which members of the American populace woke up stupid, forgot everything this asshole has done, and thought “Yeah, he’s not so bad”? Because there’s no other excuse for it. His 9/11 speech was complete and utter bullshit, so I can’t really believe that anyone fell for it. And dude, if you did? Get the hell out of the gene pool. And do me a favor, drop me an email so I can lock you in a room where you can watch Keith Olberman’s 9/11 commentary until it seeps into your oh so dull brain that the president is not your friend. He’s in this for himself.
Speaking of Asshat, I had this wonderful daydream the other night. It was shortly after my boyfriend said, yet again, that Bush is a war criminal. How kickass would it be if he was convicted by the World Court and had to resign because they threw his ass in jail? Preferrably a nice European version of Gitmo? Come on, you know you like the idea.
