Picture of the Day

Photo Challenge #15

"A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently"

Last year I spent a lot of money.  And this year I'm forced to deal with it.  I sort of ignored and was naive about my budget last year and instead focused on my triathlon team, training, and races.  Then I took a trip to Germany in the Fall.  2013 has so far been financially stressful.  My mortgage and health insurance payment has gone up this year.  My paycheck is now less than it was last year because of taxes.  Due to my job situation, there hasn't been an opportunity to request a raise in the last 5 years.  Simply put, my bills are higher and I'm making less money.  Not a great situation.  So I'm working on being a better manager of my money.  It means saying no to a lot of things I'd like to do.  It means cutting back on things that I didn't used to have to worry about.  I love being a home-owner, but sometimes it is extremely stressful.  Not having a money cushion is stressful.  I've wanted to go back to school and take some classes, but the certificate I wanted to pursue isn't covered under financial aid and I can't afford it out of pocket.  Kind of knocks the wind out of my sail.

But I'm working on taking care of it.  It is a slow process and will take a long time to complete.  A mind-numbing test of my patience.

But it's the turtle that still wins the race, right?  As always, I'm working toward simply crossing that finish line!

Picture of the Day

Photo Challenge #14

"A picture of your favorite band or artist"

Beck

I have trouble with these "favorite" challenges.  I have lots of bands and artists that I like.  But I suppose I'll choose Beck as my favorite right now since I've consciously enjoyed his music for the past 10 years or so.  I get to finally see him in concert this August, which I am MORE than excited about!!

Observations

Can we all acknowledge what a miracle it is to find a significant other and both be on the same page with whatever relationship it is that you have with each other?  Thank you.

It has recently again come to my realization the following (please allow me the sweeping generalizations of heterosexual single-people):

• All men lament the perceived truth of the statement, "nice guys finish last"
• All men think that they are the unique "nice guy"
• All women think that they are less dramatic than the majority of females
• All men think that women are crazy
• All women blame their bitterness and unhappiness on men

It's a little fascinating to me that dating when you're older is much more difficult than dating when you're younger.  I thought it would have gotten easier as time went on; we have matured and grown up.  We are all adults and should have figured out how to communicate with each other at this point.  

And yet, that is not the case.  I find that dating is much more confusing now than it used to be.  Men have turned in to complete commitment-phobes and run away at the mere thought of choosing only ONE woman to go out with at a time.  Women can't WAIT to have a legitimate trusting relationship with a man, and in turn end up scaring the single pants off of the men, as the men interpret and read women's projections as:  I WANT TO GET MARRIED RIGHT NOW!  It's just not an easy area to navigate.  Inaccurate assumptions are made on both sides, nothing is really truly discussed openly and honestly, and nobody understands each other.

I vow to get my knee back to feeling better (Please, knee, PLEASE!!) and making this my statement for the rest of the year:

I need to get back to being able to train for races.  Especially triathlons.