where is your money going?

This is cool:  Federal 2011 Taxpayer Receipt 

take another hit

Just when I thought 2011 and my crap year was over – nope… coming back to haunt me through my taxes.  Apparently my current employer didn’t withhold any state taxes… and as I glanced at my stubs I completely missed it in a year’s worth of paychecks.  I know it sounds so stupid and now I’m screwed and owe DC a lot of money.  UGH! 

good book

I’m hooked on books on ‘tape’!  I still remember the first one… Mom and I were driving across the Mid-West to my cousin’s wedding, so to occupy ourselves we rented (or purchased) Les Miserable on tape (or CD – whatever).  I think we got that because we were going to see the play later that year at the Miller but didn’t know the story.  Well, needless to say, if you know me then you know that is one of my all time favorite musicals!  And I honestly think it might have been because we first listened to the book.  While I’ll never really know that for sure, what I do know is how much I love listening to books on tape.  Therefore, now that I’m again in a commuting role, most mornings I catch up on the news via NPR and most nights I listen to whatever awesome book I have at the time (unless it’s after 7 pm then I’m strictly a Delilah fan all the way).  So I’m writing this because I want to share with you my latest book – it was awesome!!!

Tina Fey wrote a book called Bossypants.  It’s a book about her life and how she got to be who she is… but instead of just a general here is my life this is told in classic, sarcastic, honest Tina Fey style.  Awesome!  Not only does she write the book but she also does the audio reading… it was just really so great I think everyone should listen to it.  And no I’m not being paid or asked to do this, I just sincerely had a great time listen to the book and think everyone should try it out.  So, please, do and let me know what you think. 

Year-End Perspective

I can’t even begin to count the number of times this year I’ve mumbled, “This year sucks.”

The year started with an unexpected job turn over.  While stressful transition, I’m now working as a financial education coordinator for a foreclosure prevention agency.  Thankfully, I work with amazing people both co-workers and clients.

Next, unfortunately, I was with a friend walking home from dinner and we got robbed.  No worry, only our stuff was stolen and we are both totally, completely unharmed and thank goodness for online accounts.  By the time the police arrived we had almost everything notified and/or canceled.  Throughout this incident and the aftermath, my life has weirdly felt like an episode of Law and Order!  Haha!  After the robbery, we had to send various documents to both insurance and detectives, then in the summer there was a line up, then late summer we testified before Grand Jury, and this fall a trial date was set and then postponed.  Can’t you just hear the music and the black screen with date posted on the bottom just like in Law and Order?  To be honest, this is DC, I never in a million years thought that a simple robbery case would get this far – very surreal!

I’ve had plenty of money and health woes throughout, too. Nothing major, but it’s been one thing after another, non-stop, this entire year. Things had finally settled and I realized I now don’t fit into any of my pants.  All that hard work of losing weight and getting into a healthy shape went out the window with all the stress and life transitions.  So now I’m rushing around trying to get into shape and prep my knee before a big marathon walk in May, it’s just not exactly ideal.

There has been so much going on in my personal life I kind of checked out on my blog and friends. I’ve just felt completely overwhelmed by everything I’m dealing with, compounded by holidays, and who cares about blogging, right?  So while I was off licking my wounds, I’m hoping that I’ve kept a good perspective on life.  There’s something humbling about a reality check on life, isn’t there? Sure, I had to get a new job but I have the experience and education to find one in my field that I like.  We survived the robbery with no physical signs. While my income has drastically decreased, I’ve never had to worry about having a roof over my head, clothes on my back or food on my table. Life might not have been smooth this year, and while I’m mourning the loss of my skinnier waistline and less-stress life style, I’m very grateful for the friends and family that continue to be supportive of me – even when I’m MIA or crazy (yes, Mr. that one’s for you).

I’m not sad to see 2011 end. It HAS been rough – really rough. I’ve contemplated the meaning of life hard, cried harder (this coming from Ms. No Feelings), and laughed some. I’ve grown to cherish my friends even more and learned a hard lesson about listening to gut reactions the first time (even when it involves work related situations). I’m ready for 2012 and all the amazing things and new friends/opportunities it has to offer.

I hope you’ll keep coming back to visit as I can’t stay away for too long (back to the basic for 2012 – that includes blogging again)!  So enjoy the holidays and see you in the New Year!

Love ya,

Chasity, Chaz, Chas… or C

…and more visitors

Um… yes, I love having friends visit!  The middle of December I had three awesome friends visit.  The first, a colleague, I got a chance to take to one of my favorite places to eat, Founding Farmers.  It was so super great to have a chance to sit for the night and just really talk and chat, no work related convos.    The second was one of my AOII girls (again!), she was in town for work and then stayed with me for the weekend but unfortunately (yet thankfully) got snowed in.  DC didn’t get the snow, but the mid-west did so she got stuck with me for a couple more days than planned.  It was so super awesome to have lots of time with her …(of course we dished about boys, work, food, life, etc)!  My last visitor is also a colleague that was in town for work for a couple of days.  We got to spend those nights at the bar drinking, hanging out, talking about various work issues, and his new little one - super cute! 

Like I said before, there is nothing I love more than being able to spend time with good people.  Yes, that’s the extrovert in me, to continually surround myself with awesome people! 

chi-town at christmas

The first Friday of the even months I head off to Chicago for work… it just so happens to also be one of my favorite cities, especially at Christmas time.  Thankfully I have friends in the city so I stayed the weekend to hang out.  The work part of the trip, I’m sorry to say, didn’t go so smoothly but hopefully next time will be better.  Cross your fingers for that please!  However the weekend was awesome, I ended up staying the weekend with a friend and we just had a great time hanging out.  She is also newish to the city so we had to do a few of the typical things too:  eat at the John Hancock Cheesecake Factory (she knows the person that designed the inside!), went to an awesome craft show, saw the Christmas lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo, had hot chocolate at Ghirardeli, wandered up the Magnificent Mile, ate at Gino’s East (did I mention I brought a pizza back for friends – we enjoyed that Monday night), and then went out to brunch at this awesome place on Sunday – Orange.  For brunch I ate these awesome ginger bread pancakes with apple/cinnamon spread in between  …it was amazing!    Actually the whole weekend was very cold but very fun – love Chi-town!!!!  Oh and I saw the windows at Macy’s Thursday night while I was taking a work breather.

annual ofn conference

Awesomeness!  So at the begining of November I was off to SFO for a work – it was the same annual industry conference I’ve been at for the past five years.  Yup, -kind of amazing!  The conference itself was to be expected, lots of good people to meet and network with, along presentations with my new job, but nothing workwise that was new.  However, after hours and the following weekend I had a lot of time to just chill in San Fran, catch up with friends, meet a couple of newbies, and have a few classic San Fran activities.

The first being able to watch the parade for the Giants after they won the World Series – talk about amazing!!!  I love baseball and just being able to be in the area with that kind of fan excitment is awesome… and let’s be honest, my two teams are not getting into the world series anytime soon.  Later that week a few of us went out bar hoping one night – it was sooo much fun.  Thankfully we had a couple of locals with our group so they took the lead and showed us around town, it was so much fun to dance and just, in general, have a very fun night letting loose with friends.  The conference ended with me finding time for a tourist type bus tour around the city (I saw the Full House house!!!!) and a very nice dinner with a few of us, along with the friend that I was staying the weekend with.  Very delicous food!  Actually, all my food that week was good.    My weekend was a blast hanging out with a new friend, also a local, doing the site seeing thing.  We decided to adapt a see a site have a drink theroy for the day… I’m now a super fan that all vacations should be like that!  Then my last day there was a typical rainy day, so I spent the day shopping, eating, and drinking with the friend I was staying with.  We totally veggied out and it was perfect! 

mornings hurt… literally!

So, most of ya’ll know I’m self-proclaimed, seconded by others, to not be a morning person.  Mornings to me are just the worst…my body physically aches, my head always pounds, and my stomach is doing flops – not fun!  However there is this thing called a j.o.b. and life that kind of mandate the waking up at certain ungodly hours of the morning.  Alas, I have decided I do like my paycheck therefore I continue in this horrid tradition. 

That being said, this morning was exceptional painful…and I’d love to say it was because I had a good workout yesterday or drank too much or whatever else fun I can think of.  But no… it was painful because I did my normal routine – NPR comes on, I wake up, open curtains, try to open my eyes enough to press the snooze button and repeat. Well this morning apparently the ‘try’ in opening my eyes didn’t work so well – I ran full speed (for a sleeping zombie), I thought eyes open (but clearly not), head first into a wall (actually protruding corner to be exact)!!!  Now the spot directly above my right eyebrow is a little tender (yes Mom, I iced it and will repeat) and I’ve got a minor headache – hum?! 

I swear to you…it’s not just a one-sided disdain for mornings – apparently they hate me equally as much! 

performance evaluations

So last week we got introduce to our office’s new performance evaluations… and I’m find myself asking why do I always feel like evaluations and performance plans are such a negative thing?  Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the need for them and I’ve had great reviews in the past.  On the other hand, I have  not really had a boss actually be as open and conversational as the instructions/directions always say.  It is always supposed to be about ways to grow, build your career within the company and build skills that will take you to the next step (whatever that may be).  Instead it always feels bad (yes, even in my reviews that were awesome and super positive I still walked out feeling awful – it wasn’t until I reread the actual written review that I knew it was supposed to be a positive review), not to mention it takes so much time on both the boss and employee to put the documents together … so, right now, in the general sense of performance evaluations, I feel like it just sets up a system for bosses and employees to document failure versus positive actions/growth. 

P.S. …no this feeling is not just based on my previous job – it’s a cumulation of jobs so I’m just thinking out loud (for better or real).  I’m just curious what other people think?

the wonder of cosi salads

In my quest for a sanity, better eating habits and delicious food I walked through the Cosi salads on the days I didn’t have time to pack my lunch (this past month).  Not so good for my budget but a little more helpful in the sanity factor when life felt upside down with the tide rushin in!  Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion of three things, pertaining to my preference of Cosi salads:

1. LOVE the bread.
2. Signature is my favorite!
3. …but think I like their soups better.

Now, only to get me as dedicated to my own chefness… hahaha!

Details: (if you want my food option)

• signature – awesome, my fav so far
• caesar - thinking i’m not a huge fan anymore, kind of like the intro into the salad world
• greek – i can’t do feta cheese and don’t like kalmata olives (too salty) soo that makes this a what? for
• shanghi chick – ok better than i was expecting
• cobb – nope just don’t like
• bombay chix - me and asian spice not so great friends
• steak salad – ranch on it?!