Christmas Gifts

Christmas shopping time is here! I don't know about the rest of you but I kind of despise Christmas. It's definitely not the fun thing I remember from my childhood. Not only is shopping for presents kind of stressful, but it seems like it's all about the presents and not about the overall picture of spending time with those who mean the most to you. Yes, it's pretty cliche that I just said that but it's true. A lot of the time I don't even know what would be a good present to get someone. Also this might sound a tad harsh but I get a lot of presents from family that I never even use and somewhat wish they didn't even give me a present at all. A lot of the things I get or give seem kind of thoughtless and all out of the act of just giving a present.

Anyway, I'm curious what you guys are going to give your family and friends? I wanted to knit people scarves but a. I don't know where my knitting needles are at this point, b. I don't think I remember HOW to knit and c. not sure how long that will take! I am still considering it. I would like to only give presents to my CLOSE family and friends but some people I feel like I have to give a present to because they give me one. Feeling my dislike of Christmas gift giving anyone??

On a different note, who saw New Moon? I think I fell in love with Jacob Black ALL over again!

When Life Takes Hold..

My blog suffers! As I don't have anything TOO exciting to mention or bring up (finances = bleh) I thought this would be a good time to do a small overview of how my 26 goals are doing so far!

Personal Finance:
1. Research and open a Roth IRA
2. Save an emergency fund of at least $3000 - in progress
3. Pay down at least $10k in CC debt - (slowly) in progress
4. Save at least $300 for Christmas shopping
5. Pay off Prosper loan - in progress

Education & Career:
6. Get into a Graduate program
7. Pass board certification exam
8. Look into jobs at other agencies (weigh out pros and cons)

Leisure & Fitness:
9. Get Cycle certification - COMPLETED! 11/09
10. Get AFAA group fitness certification
11. Run 3 half marathons (Already doing 2 in October!) - in progress, 2 down!
12. Run 1 full marathon. If the event is after my 27th birthday, at least have registered and started training
13. Get weight down to 130
14. Do one full (unassisted) pull up
15. Snowboard 2x in Tahoe during Winter Season
16. Organize a party class or team teaching once every 2 months
17. Incorporate more flexibility work. Take yoga at least 3x a month

Travel:
18. Visit one place I have never been before - in progress! NY in January!
19. Visit Pacific Northwest 1x in Winter to snowboard
20. Go to Disneyland

Personal/Hobbies:
21. Read 22 books - in progress. Slowly, 1 down, 21 to go. ha ha ;)
22. Volunteer 2x
23. Reorganize clothes, donate old clothes and shoes
24. Start knitting again
25. Cut back blackberry use (maybe try to limit times checking phone, text messaging, etc) - eh.. don't have a blackberry anymore but I am trying to cut back phone use. So I'll say in progress!
26. Take a class for fun (Cooking, physical education or arts/crafts)

Feels Good

It feels good to finally be coming back to my senses (financial and otherwise) and getting my life back on a track of normalcy. My spending has been off the HOOK lately. Being single can add up - social events, bars, keeping your mind occupied with something other than your ex. Now, it's time for me to get back to studying and preparing to achieve my financial and personal goals!

The second course for my certification started so it's back to studying. Also, I'm going to try to take the CBEST soon so I am going to start preparing.

I'm also back to brown bagging my lunch to work which will hopefully save A LOT of money that I have been spending on eating out! Also now that all the birthdays are over, it's back to eating dinner at home for the majority of the time.

I'm going to the Pacific Northwest this weekend for a pretty chill weekend with a friend, I have no plans for halloween other than hanging out and maybe carving some pumpkins and handing out candy at their house. I don't have a lot of expenses planned for this trip so hopefully I can keep it reasonable.

All in all, I'm back on a goal oriented mindset...

Birthday Season is OVER (for me at least) and some rants..

Wow! I feel like I got flooded with birthdays in October! Tons of close friends and family all had birthdays this month. Maybe I'm attracted to Libras? Not exactly sure but I'm glad because it means the end of big celebration dinner/happy hours and more money in my wallet!

Celebrating my birthday big time with all my friends has never been a big interest of mine. This year I celebrated my birthday with my family over dinner, and once with some of my close friends over dinner. Maybe I'm not as social as my Libra counterparts, but doing a big dinner at an overly expensive uptight restaurant with a bunch of people that I'm not THAT close to isn't really enticing to me.

My biggest problem I have with these types of events is when the tab comes, I'm almost positive almost half of the people don't put in enough money to cover their share. I know Debt Ninja did a post mentioning this, but I hate when people don't take into consideration the fact that they have to pay the tax + tip/gratuity. HELLO, just because your meal was $9.99 doesn't mean you can drop a $10 on the tab and leave! Also, I thought this was common birthday etiquette but shouldn't everyone pay a portion of the birthday celebrant's dinner and drinks? At the last two large dinner/happy hour celebrations I went to I'm almost positive that a lot of people did not contribute their even portion. I ended up paying over $50 at both when I know my food and drinks plus a portion of the celebrant's dinner did not cost $50! I'm not going to sit there and try to hustle everyone for their money, but I hate those idiots that come and just sit like a deer in headlights when the tab comes up short! Maybe this is why I don't have any interest in hosting BIG birthday celebrations, because I'd rather just spend it with those that I am close enough to and can trust won't put others in weird money situations!

Anyway...end of rant. Just saying people, don't try to party with the birthday celebrant if you can't put your fair share of money in! I'm glad all of those birthdays are over, now onto the holidays! :)

Working on Goal #11: Half Marathons (part 2)

This past Sunday I ran my 2nd marathon, which means I'm almost to my goal of 3 by age 27! I did the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, which is the largest women's event in the world! With 20,000 participants I feel lucky to have gotten in last minute! This race was a lot more enjoyable for me than the race I participated in two weeks ago. Aside from the awesome finisher's gift (a NWM Tiffany's necklace handed to you by firefighters) San Francisco is a beautiful city to run in with nice colder weather. My main concern going into this race were all the HILLS! If you're familiar with San Francisco then you know what I am talking about. I heard they changed the course a bit from last year and for some reason I can't remember running that many hills last year when I participated in the full! The hills were difficult for me to run not necessarily due to my lack of ability, but because a lot of them were very narrow and packed with tons of people and so basically you just had to shuffle behind the crowd all the way up! They had a lot of cool motivational signs all throughout the course and in a cheesy way it does make you feel strong and proud to "run like a girl"! They also handed out gatorade (which is my preferred sport drink), mini luna bars and moons, Ghiradeli chocolate, oranges and Safeway Rancher's Reserve Steak bites on the course (because what I really want to smell or EAT at mile 11 is meat??) Last year I think I tried to enjoy everything they had but this year I honestly wanted to try my best to run and get the thing over with!

The next half marathon I plan on registering for is at the end of March. I'll probably take it easy in the colder months on the running and try to work on my other fitness goals. I will however try to make it a point to do SOME running and not stop all together like I did last year after NWM, just to stay in the groove of things.

Here's a picture of the necklace! We also got a Nike Dri-fit running shirt as well.

I would definitely recommend this race to anyone (guys included)! Entry is on a lottery basis, and registration is sometime in the spring (March/April). However, Team in Training can put you in during their summer and fall training seasons since this is a race to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. My experience last year running with Team in Training was great but the main difficulty with doing that is fundraising the money. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so the fundraising minimum to get into the event alone was $2100, which means it would be more if you live out of the area and have to fundraise for the event, hotel and airfare.

All in all, I had a GREAT run and I can't wait to do my next!

Updates (Finally!)

Ok so my personal financing self has been in shambles. Seriously. I haven't been budgeting or watching spending for that matter (like you couldn't tell from looking at my networth?) I updated my side bars to reflect my birthday goal list and also updated my networth. Today I actually did some semi-productive things which were:

-Deposit $100 to E-Fund
-Deposit $100 to Car Fund
-Pay $100 to Nordstrom Visa
-Pay $100 to Visa #1
-Pay $66 to Discover

I'm going to withdraw my cash for my envelopes tonight, so I can get my debit card OUT of my wallet. I also went grocery shopping for lunch items since I've been spending money on food every day!

I promise...more productiveness to come soon :)

Working on Goal 11: Half Marathons

This past weekend I ran my first of 3 half marathons that I am shooting to do in my 26th year! Last year I did a full in October but this was my first half! It went relatively well considering I kind of fell off my training in September. With school, work picking up full time and my breakup, running wasn't my top priority. The longest run I did prior was about 7.5 miles and that was at the end of August. I work out on a relatively consistent basis but my preparation could have been better.

Unfortunately, I found out the next day that 2 people died at the race. A 34 year old and a 35 year old which is crazy and sad. Any casualty is unbelievable but for an event with only 12000+ participants it seems even crazier! The temperature that day was only 68 degrees at it's hottest, so it's really unfortunate and shocking that 2 people passed away.

I'm doing another half on the 18th, so I think this was a good "training" run. Here are some things I learned (and re-learned) this past weekend:

• Take it easy. In the beginning I think I ran a little too fast, considering that I wasn't warmed up it caught up with me a little around mile 3. I was trying to keep up with my friends that were with me but considering that they are faster runners and that I've been experiencing pain with my knee it wasn't the best idea I had.
• DO NOT experiment with food/drink the day of the event! I don't even know why I tried this considering that I have done an endurance event before but here is my lesson learned. When we arrived at the event my friend had two 5 hour shots, and she gave me one. I'm pretty used to drinking caffeinated beverages but I've never had one and I drank it anyway. I'm not gonna gross you out here but lets just say I wasn't feeling too hot around mile 3-4. It did eventually pass once I started drinking my other regular fluids. Experimenting to find out what works for you is ok, as long as you do it PRIOR to your event! No one wants to puke (or worse) while running and no one wants to see that either!
• Water is your friend, but in moderation. The causes of death for the 2 people that passed away have not been released but I have my speculations that if it wasn't due to a preexisting medical issue that it was probably either from lack of fluids (dehydration) or drinking too much water. Water can be good for you during exercise but in excess and without the right mix of sodium it can actually dilute your blood and be absorbed into your brain. Drinking water in moderation with electrolyte replacement sports drinks are your best bet (gatorade, cytomax, etc) Also, eating carbohydrate supplements such as gels or chews in combination with water and/or a sports drink to wash them down will provide you enough sodium and carbs for energy.
• Don't take any pain/injury lightly, and treat accordingly. While training for this marathon I started experiencing pain in my left knee while running. The pain usually goes away while running and hurts after leading me to think it is runner's knee, which is a pretty common thing. Instead of getting a brace or learning to tape my knee, I just decided to "ride it out" and I was in a lot of pain after. Also, I had been experiencing some weird pain in my right calf the week prior to the event, and after my right foot has been hurting pretty bad. I'm assuming my arch either gave out or I have plantar fascitis. I will be using KT tape to tape up my knee and potentially my foot for the next event and taking all precautions to not injure myself completely.

The course I ran on Sunday was all flat which in my opinion is worse than a course with hills. The lack of variation in the course makes you use the same muscles the whole time which I think was in a way harder. The course I am running on the 18th is VERY hilly (in San Francisco - which has some of the most torturous hills known to mankind!) so I'll have to see if I still feel that way. I'm hoping doing the "test run" on Sunday will help me be better prepared for the 18th. Wish Me Luck!


On a PF note, I've been kind of bad lately... I promise to get back into frugal and financing mode soon (I JUST withdrew my money for the first half of October today...tsk tsk!)