Today I got a bonus and cost of living adjustment with retro pay! I didn't have any idea it was coming.

The economy is going to hell soon. Yet I am doing better than I ever thought I would be a year after graduating.

I was at three credit cards...two seriously delinquent and now a I have none. I have one loan with an individual who I now owe less than$300. Now I have no debt besides this and my student loans.

I have been able to purchase a few new clothing items.

My private student loan with a variable interest rate fell from 8% to 6%. The monthly payment fell by $30, yet I am still paying the full 8% rate. Now my question is, do I change my 4.8 and 6.8% fixed interest rate to something lower so I can pay the variable interest rate loan which is very likely to go back up? It really upsets me that my loan rates are so high for student loans that they give to the financially needy. It is all because I graduated in 2007 that my rate is locked at 4.8 and 6.8. If I were fortunate enough to benefit from the 9/11 terrorist attacks my rate would be at 1%. The difference between these rates is absolutely ridiculous when thousands of dollars is in play. These people that graduated right after 9/11 are still in the same economy that I am yet I have to pay 6.0, 6.8 and 4.8 while a friend of mine that graduated right after 9/11 has twice the loans I do but has the same monthly payment.

I finally found an apartment! It is a totally done deal and we are moving in no later than the 1st of June. For those of you who do not know, I live in a ridiculously small space with my ex who now happens to be one of my best friends. Our living arrangements have been almost unbearable at times (you could only imagine) and for a long time we just didn't have the money to do anything about it. So how ridiculously small is our apartment? It is a studio, not a one bedroom, but a single cramped studio with two people a rabbit and at one time a 20 gallon fish tank. Now that I have my finances under control we are able to afford to make the move we have been waiting for for years. At one time we thought that we needed to find separate living spaces because we did used to date and that does seem weird. If you think of it as we were always meant to be friends and not lovers though it isn't all that strange. It is nice finally having some money to live in a space that I feel I deserve. I have always been working so hard between work and school and always just barely getting by. I guess with my huge student loan payments I still am struggling, but I am actually handling those quite well and definitely have the extra money for the new apt.

For the last 4 months or so we were looking every single day at all the ads and seeing on average 2 apts a week. I wish I could tell you how many we have seen. There was always something that just wasn't quite right or it was just an absolute N.O. I think maybe we were looking for an apt at one of the worst times of the year, but still it took us forever. Sometimes I would feel just so down about not finding a new place. It really felt like it was consuming me. There was one apartment that we found that we really liked and we didn't end up taking because the people wanted us to put $1200 in security down and we said no because we found that excessive. At times I regretted that, but now with the place we found, I know that it was right to turn it down.

So what are the specifics of the apartment that make it so wonderful? The location is idea for us. Auburn and Gill Alley by Norwood. I am in the "heart" of the "Elmwood Village" (ha!) It is second floor with no other tenants above us. There is a porch facing Auburn. Half of the porch is covered by an awning and the other half is open. Hard wood floors in the living room and dining room with natural wood support beams in the ceiling. 3 Bedrooms!!! Yes we are going from a studio to 3 bedrooms! There is also a back sun room that we are going to use for the rabbit and for an office. Every room has a ton of sun light. There is a nice washer and drier in the basement and is not coin operated. We have a laundry shoot to drop our clothes in. The two bedrooms that Steve and I would stay in are identical so we don't have to fight over who has the best room. There is central air conditioning. This is definitely a luxury. Rabbits can over heat very easily and it is awesome that we can use it if needed on those really hot days. The landlords live below us and are super awesome. They are young professionals and get along great with the current tenant. Their lease requires that we carry renters insurance which I think is very compassionate of them because most landlords wouldn't care if all of your stuff was burned up because they wouldn't be liable for it. The stove is GAS which I freaking love. They are installing new stainless steel appliances and even offered to have somebody come in and build us this awesome island type counter top like they have in their home which is almost identical to ours. The color of the paint is not right for us so they are giving us money for paint. And oh my god it has a claw foot tub! We have had a freaking shower stall for years now and are desperate to take a nice bath. These old tubs are the best..you really can put a lot of water in them for a nice good soak! The third bedroom is so perfect. My mother can come and stay with me when she comes to visit and won't have to stay in some hotel room. She is going to love it. I'm so excited to be able to have guests stay over. The living room is large enough where we could have many people come and chant with us and we can have small meetings. We can grill on the porch and we are already looking to get a glider to put on it and my dad is going to give me a grill. This place is so awesome! (e:mike) and I are definitely going to be using it to the max!

So thats my story from rags to riches!

Last year at this time there was a lake of dead fish. Tons of them. I tried to find my journal about it but it took me way to long to find it and I gave up.







So last year was a massacre of fishes and this year we see an introduction of a foreign species. My questions are; when were these introduced and will this further upset the local ecosystem? Don't people realize that this isn't cute to release foreign species?

When: Saturday 4/26/08

Where: Central Park Plaza

What: Computers, CRT's or monitors, keyboards and mice, printers and scanners, fluorescent bulbs, cell phones, rechargeable batteries, VCRs DVDs and TVs

Who:




Why: Why they picked Central Park plaza as a drop off....I have no idea.