I don't understand why it is that other women feel the need to be covered in makeup and have their hair done just so in order to look good. I hear all the time how women have "let themselves go" just because they don't put on makeup every single day, or they toss their hair back in a ponytail and leave it at that. I mean, yeah, I'd like to find a way to remove blackheads and all that, and I like to at very least have my hair brushed when I go somewhere, but I don't feel the need to put on makeup just to run to the grocery store.
I find that looking natural is the way to be, at least for me. I see so many women who don't need the makeup piling it on every day. Sure it adds "color" to your face, and nine times out of ten, colors that do not naturally belong on your face (really, PINK eyeshadow...um no). Seriously, if you are one of those women who feel they absolutely have to have makeup on, try going one day without it. You might just be surprised at how good you look.
Bring on the summer, a time when it is so much easier to just get out there and get moving! Taking walks is so much easier in the summer. Grab a bottle of water, put on some shorts, a tank or tshirt, a good pair of socks, a good pair of walking shoes, and grab your iPod/MP3 player and head out the door. Don't think about it, don't consider it, just go. Yes, that is just one of the reasons I love summer. I don't have to have fitness equipment during the summer, but it's great to have it during the winter. ;)
I plan on starting a walking regimen, most likely on Monday. It will be around the building at work Monday-Friday, and then around the neighborhood on Saturday and Sunday. I figure I'll start out by moving, then I will start working on cutting back on what I eat. My boss told me that I don't have to give up what I love eating, I just have to eat less of it. She was huge at one time, and said what she did was cut everything she ate in half and either threw away the other half or shared it with someone else and started walking. Let me tell you, we had a "walk Alorica" thing in March and my boss got 2nd place for most laps around the building. When it comes up next year, I want to participate, so I need to get training for it now.
I'll just bring my iPod to work with me, put my ear buds in and walk for 2-3 songs. I'll track how many laps I've made and see what it brings. Hopefully a thinner, healthier me.
When I went shopping for my current laptop, I admit that I did not actually do a lot of looking around. I went to one place, found one that was in my price range and had decent specs and purchased it. I did however have a few things I wanted. While I think netbooks are cool, I decided against one, as they're small. Some companies and stores actually call them "mini" laptops or "minis." The regular laptops are small enough without having to have an even smaller one! LOL
So I got the laptop I've got now. I think it works well for me, but a friend of mine is now looking at the netbooks and planning purchasing one, which of course, makes me want to check them out again. However, I'll probably do my shopping online and see what I can dig up, as I'll actually need to save up to get another computer. But I'm trying to decide if I want or need another computer. I have 2 desktops and the laptop as it is. :)
I was talking to a friend of mine who still works at the hospital I used to work for. I guess there have been all kinds of cutbacks, including discontinuing the matching contribution for the 403(b) plans (like 401(k) but for non-profit organizations). She said she figures next they'll be asking the employees to pay the full premiums for their health insurance or their term life insurance. She's technically old enough to retire, but my friend can't retire because she can't afford to. :(
That's happening to a lot of older people now. They can't afford to retire because their 401(k), 403(b), or pension plans have been eradicated by their employers and Social Security just won't be enough. It makes me going to RedBox and renting movies with a promo code to get free rentals look like I'm just being petty in comparison. But really, I think the ones who are being petty are the businesses that are cutting off their retirement plans and causing people to literally have to work until they die. I understand the economy is in a recession, but come on people...picking on the elderly?
I'm a blog reader. I love blogs. I'll read just about any blog you put in front of me, unless of course, it's about a specific subject that I'm not interested in. You know, things like a nuphedra review, or something like that wouldn't hold my interest very long. But personal blogs? I adore them. I'll read personal blogs all day long.
There are some blogs I read that are just recaps of twitter activity. Some give tips and tricks on better blogging. Some tell you how to use social media such as MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc to your advantage. And some blogs are just what is going on in the life of the blogger. Other blogs are book review blogs. I'm a book reader too. ;)
So what do you read? Blogs? Books? Magazines? All three?
In this economy, we hear a lot about things like debt consolidation. But you have to be so careful when you're dealing with that kind of thing. You have to know where your debt consolidation is coming from. If you don't believe me, then read this story carefully - it's a true story. It happened to one of my friend's and her husband.
My friend and her husband obtained a debt consolidation loan through one of the umpteen services that showed up at the beginning of this century. They had about $650 a month automatically debited from their checking account, which was then broken down by the company and filtered out to the various bills on the consolidation loan. This worked beautifully until about 2003. Then the whole thing went to pot.
Friend's husband is in the military. He went overseas and she went home to Iowa. While in Iowa, she noticed her monthly amount of money was bigger, but attributed it to hazard and seperation pay for her hubby being overseas, and so did her hubby. They couldn't have been more wrong. You see, they asked me to check the mail at their house in Texas. So I did. And I started noticing statements coming from credit cards I knew were in that consolidation. I kept telling friend that she was getting that stuff, but friend didn't listen. Then I finally opened one of them and read it to her. That's when she found out.
The feds had shut down the debt consolidation service she had used. None of those bills were getting paid anymore. In fact, the service hadn't even been able to inform customers they'd been shut down. Friend found out when she went to the website and there was a message there about it. They ended up in bankruptcy because they just couldn't pull themselves back up.
So please, if you go the debt consolidation route, make sure you know where your loan is coming from.
I had a particularly nerve wracking day today. I came back from break around 2:30 and discovered an older gentleman speaking with my boss. He had a headset and Y-cord with him. I thought he was someone from a training class looking for someone to Y-cord with and listen to. Well, I was right about one thing, he wanted to Y-cord and listen to someone. But he was our site director. I'd never even seen him, much less met him before! Well, my boss decides that he should listen to me. After the call I had, I wouldn't have needed any natural appetite suppressant! I had one in the call I took with the site director listening!
I can't really talk about the call, but let's just say that the customer was upset, I calmed him down, got him taken care of, and he was very happy at the end of the call. The site director decided the customer's comments warranted a "kudos" call, so he had my boss set me up with a kudos call. Now normally kudos calls don't get you $5 Subway gift cards, but this one did. Why? I was on the phone for $45 minutes and according to the site director, went above and beyond what most reps would have done.
I didn't really thing so, but... he did and I suppose that's what counts. He kept saying how pleasant I sounded, how impressed with me he was. That's interesting to me, as all my other call center jobs, I've never impressed anyone and none of the other site directors have even cared to know who I was. ;)
What on earth is wrong with some of my coworkers? Honestly! We had a guy come in to work today, ticked off because he couldn't buy what he wanted to. Granted it was a kid about 18-19 years old, trying to get audio racks for his apartment or vehicle, or wherever you would put an audio rack, but still. In this economy, all he's complaining that he didn't get enough this last check to get what he wanted. Some of us are struggling to pay rent, car payments, utilities, etc. He's griping about not having enough to buy a non-essential item.
Sometimes I wonder how our teenagers these days are being raised. I see so many of them that are spoiled. They come in to where I work and go through training expecting that they'll just be handed their paychecks every two weeks with very little effort on their part. They don't want to earn their money, they want it to be like Mom and Dad - hand it over and keep quiet about it. So many of them get upset when they realize they have to actually work - and that work comes before partying. Well welcome to the real world kids. It's not all fun and rainbows. You get told no, and you get told no often. You have to pay bills, you can't party whenever you feel like it.
We had one gal who made me so mad - she wanted to go party on Friday and Saturday nights, so she made up a bogus excuse of going to school during the day and needing to be on this specific schedule so she could attend classes. Then, after she whined and cried her way into that schedule she wanted, her sister came up and pointed out that the girl wasn't even in school this semester. Our boss was not happy. Neither were any of the rest of us. It just went to prove - teens these days have gotten into the habit of getting what they want, no matter what. My question is, when are parents going to stop it?
*I realize not ALL teens are this way, but the greater majority of them ARE and their parents are NOT helping.*
I hate buying gifts. I really do. I just hate buying gifts. I never know what to get people. Probably because the people I know are not particularly easy to buy for. It's not like I've got people who are just complete sports nuts who want nothing but sports gifts. I've got some who want music related things, some who want movies, some who want sports, and some who don't care if they get anything or not.
Usually I pick up gift cards, or I make them go with me and pick out what they want me to get them. Much easier that way. Of course, lately with BFL, it's been easier. A domain name and some hosting or an iPod shuffle and she's happy. ;) Other than that, the rest of the people I have to buy for, they're much harder to deal with. Maybe I should just start doing gift cards exclusively. Then I just wouldn't have to worry about it at all.
