May 15, 2022

I wrote this over two years ago (pre-COVID…that seems like AGES ago!) but felt it necessary to still post, so enjoy. 🙂

-February 2020-

Podcasts have been my thing lately, with ‘Skimm’d from the Couch’ being one of the podcasts that I’ve been glued to.

I was listening to the most recent episode which featured Erica Williams Simon, an entrepreneur and author. The quote in the description of the podcast quite nicely reflects why I started originally this blog, which is “The only way out of feeling stuck is to move.”  

Quick summary- Erica Williams was in a job that was draining her very existence and one day just upped and quit (sound kind of familiar?).  But one of the things she mentioned doesn’t get talked about in success stories of people who do what she and I did is the financial pressure that comes along with leaving a job.  I know I talked about what I did to cut my finances and how I managed, but I wasn’t sure if I ever made it very clear that there was a lot of thought and planning that I did prior to. So, that’s what I’m going to do right now.

While Erica Williams just upped and quit, I was a little more calculated in my decision.  When I first started this blog, I shared something I wrote a few months before I actually quit.  That’s because I couldn’t just up and quit as much as I wanted to.  I knew that I needed to ensure that I considered my (and my husband’s, because remember I got married about 6 months before leaving) finances.  I’ve always been somewhat decent at putting a little away each month, but it became even more important that I ensured that I had a solid savings to last me for a decent amount of time, especially if I wasn’t able to find a job for a while.  So that’s what I did.

For me, it was calculated and not impulsive.  I took the time I needed to ensure that I had a decent savings.  I planned it out so that when I quit it was at the beginning of the month so that my health insurance lasted through the end of the month.  I made sure that my spending was under control BEFORE I quit so that I wasn’t paying credit card bills a month or two later that were “normal” while I was working, but out of my comfort range when I was solely depending on my savings. *Quick side note, I always pay off my credit card statement monthly, so that’s why this change was so important as I was not going to not pay off my balance monthly even when not working. Screw credit card interest.*

While there are definitely those stories out there that glorify crazy decisions that people make, but don’t forget that there were things I had to do and stop doing because it was the financially responsible thing to do. I couldn’t go on living life as if nothing had changed. It was not always glamourous. There were plenty of things I was frustrated with during my “down time” that I shared previously.  

For me, there was no up and quitting.  It took time, patience and a plan.

PSA- if you have the time to listen to Skimm’d from the Couch, I highly recommend it! 🙂

Lastly, I use the word “I” a lot, even though I was married. That is because I wanted to make sure that before I sprung this news onto my husband that he knew that I had given this a lot of thought and was already making the changes needed to ensure that I would still be able to contribute to and support our family as we make it through this time.

May 12, 2022

The company I work for had layoffs yesterday.  Luckily, I am not impacted BUT have had this yucky feeling in my gut, especially when I wrote this post given that everything was happening as I initially wrote this. I’ve always known that things like this can happen, but I think this feeling is the reminder that we are truly dispensable. The importance of ensuring that my ducks are in a row (eg. resume is up to date <it isn’t>, LinkedIn profile is up to date <also isn’t>, etc.) is what has been looming in my mind because, what if I do get impacted in the future? What if this is a sign of a downward spiral for the company? I know that many, if not all, companies have probably needed to make decisions like this but I can’t help but wonder. I don’t want my life to be defined by my job but having the financial security, which in retrospect is not secure nor will it ever be, is nice. All this to say that I felt funky yesterday. That my heart goes out to those impacted. And that this is a stark reminder of the fact that change is inevitable- I just want to be as prepared as possible for it.

May 11, 2022

It has been a long time!…again. I really need to stop waiting a year to write my thoughts down as this is super therapeutic for me. Anywho, I digress…

I was watching Nat Geo’s Dog Impossible recently and it really resonated with me (more on this shortly) and made me realize that it has been a while since writing down my thoughts, so here I am! I left off (over a year ago!…my goodness it has been a while) wanting to share more about the pup we rescued as it made for an interesting story, but so much more has happened since then that I’m going to recap essentially the last year or so to share what my last post eluded to and then some.

We Bought a Home

Given that COVID seemed like it wasn’t going away (remember when we thought it was only going to be around for a few weeks? That seems like the world’s meanest joke now) and that I was going to be working from home for the foreseeable future the hubs and I decided to amp up our home search. We were told to wait given that the housing market was starting to get a little crazy (little did we know given how much crazier the market would end up getting), but we were getting stir crazy in our tiny 1-bedroom apartment. 

Long story short, after 3 failed offers we finally found a home in September 2020 a lot further away from where I thought I would be living. The home reminds me a lot of where I grew up (this is a good thing) and has what we were looking for: a yard, a backyard, enough rooms for us, my office and potential, future kids, a garage and a driveway. We’ve been here now for over 1.5 years and have been enjoying the positives (and negatives) of home ownership.

Our Pup’s Name

I shared previously that we adopted a pup. Well, we named him Duke. Long story short, someone tried to claim that they met him first and tried to put a hold on Duke first. We had to put a “hold” because he was a stray just found, in the event he had an owner looking for him. Therefore they would only accept ”holds” on him so that if no one came forward there was a list of people interested in adopting. The individual who claimed to see Duke first actually did not. We were the first to meet him that day. The manager needed to get involved, the other person got a tad bit confrontational- so we found it fitting to name him Duke, because we almost had to duke it out for him!

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

When we met Duke at the shelter we were very observant of how he responded to us, how he acted acted when we touched his ears and paws and how he reacted around other dogs. He didn’t seem to care about the other dogs and was just a total love bug. He still is an absolute cuddle bug.

Long story short, he gets very, and I mean VERY, excited when he sees or hears other dogs. He doesn’t want to kill the other dog, he wants to play with them. He just doesn’t know how to cap his excitement. It’s to the point that we have to walk him very early and way past sundown to avoid other dogs because he pretty much loses his mind. He starts yelping and barking loudly, jumping and getting tangled in his leash, even when we hold him on a short leash. I’ve had other dog owners not feel comfortable to walk past us with Duke’s behavior. Unfortunately we cannot take him to the dog park anymore (we went twice after we got him and he did great…not sure where his current behavior came from) nor doggy day care because he does not have the proper temperament. This has made it difficult to go places and do things because we’re not sure where we can board him, since most boarding places including private at-home boarders always have other dogs.

To top things off he bit my cousin’s kid. My cousin’s kid is ok thank goodness. There was no permanent damage done, just some blood, and the little one seemed is perfect spirits the next morning saying bye to Duke as they left. I have to add that Duke and my cousin’s kid got along so perfectly that entire, 3-day weekend! Needless to say, the bite came out of left field for us all. In retrospect, we as his owners missed A LOT of cues where we should have intervened, which is the main reason why we did not surrender him to the shelter. The second reason was because the shelter wasn’t taking anymore animals because it was the day after the 4th of July and they were at capacity. And lets be real, if we said that he bit a kid there’s a good chance he would have been put down and, if not, would have had a difficult time being re-adopted out because of his behavior issues. Plus, we made a commitment to take care of him and I’m determined to do that.

**This is where watching the Dog Impossible show ties into my post. While Duke is not killer aggressive like the animals in that show, his behavior really limits what we’re able to do, similar to the owners on the show. The owners on that show said things that really mirrored thoughts that I’ve had, which is how watching that show reminded me of my much overdue post here. So, this is how that all tied together. Ok, back to my post…**

So, essentially we’re trying to get Duke’s behavior to a manageable level. We were going to see a behaviorist last year so paused any additional training (we kept doing the things we already learned from his beginner classes) but because things kept getting postponed because of COVID. Ultimately they were only doing tele-appointments (but still charging the same price as an in-person appointment) so we opted to wait things out and try an online training program of a trainer whose podcasts I’ve been listening to for a while. Of course, this wasn’t until months after we were planning on taking him to a behaviorist so I’m still barely at the beginning of the training course. Fortunately my sister is also a veterinarian so we’re going to schedule some time with her to discuss what medication we could put Duke on to help aid with his training.

With all this said and done, you may be wondering why we’ve taken so long to get to this point with Duke (since the last post was well over a year ago and the verbiage I used above is present tense). Aside from everything else that kept his behavior appointment from happening, I got pregnant!

More on that next. 🙂

February 5, 2021

Oh my~ first and foremost, I can’t believe that I last posted almost a year ago!  It’s crazy to think of all that’s happened since then.  Funny that my last post was about checking in on my 2020 resolutions.  Long story short, I was able to cross off 3 resolutions in 2020!  I’ll definitely have to write more about our home buying (one of the crossed off resolutions) experience another time as that was quite the experience.  But, the main reason for me posting today…

It’s our rescue pup’s 3-month gotchaversary!  These past 3 months have been a whirlwind with a ton of ups and downs.  But, with it being his 3-month gotchaversary it got me thinking about everything and made me realize that I wanted to put some of these thoughts down as words.  So, over the course of the next few posts I’ll be reflecting on what life has been like with our new addition…the good, bad and the ugly.

Stay tuned…

April 23, 2020

After posting my belated resolution post I figured that I should take the time to do a quick status check on how I’m doing with my resolutions being that we’re a third of the way through 2020 already.

Career

I still haven’t hit my 1 year mark with the company and there is a best practice that promotions or salary increases don’t happen within one’s first year.  But, knowing that my 1 year anniversary is coming up I’ve been making sure that conversations I have with my boss have included conversations around growth and development. Hopefully, we see movement in regards to this category soon.

Social

Given the state of the world this one has been a challenge.  But, as I think more about this, we could FaceTime or Zoom, so I will be revisiting this.

Physical

Even though we’re quarantining, I’ve been staying pretty active.  It also helps that the company I work for is a game that evolved from fitness.  But I’ve also taken advantage of doing various workouts at home.  I’ve lost a few pounds since working from home.  The one thing I need to get back into though is running.  I’ve been cycling a TON though!  And I definitely need to get my butt down to the beach to put my toes in the sand.  I’m working from home right now so there’s no excuse!  If there’s anything I feel like I’m acing though it’s the sunscreen application.  I’ve been consistently reapplying before taking my dog out for a walk.  Go me!

Community

Won’t lie.  I have not thought about this at all.  Need to reprioritize this.  It will be interesting to see how many people are open to donating given the rise of unemployment.  But, I’m happy to report that my close group of friends have not been impacted by any layoffs or shut downs.  Thank you God!

Financial

I’m actually still optimistic that this will happen in 2020.  While working from home I often find myself wishing we were already in a home so that I could have an office to work out of, but I digress.  We’ve continued to save money and have been keeping an eye out on the market.

Overall, I’m pleased with the progress I’ve been making especially since I haven’t really looked at my resolutions since I wrote them.

April 19, 2020

So, I was supposed to post this back in February, which was already late in comparison to the fact that I recapped my 2019 resolutions on January 5th.  I can’t remember why I didn’t post this when I originally intended but it’s funny to see how I ended it.  If only my February 16, 2020 self could have known what the state of the world a mere 2 months later would have turned out like.  Regardless, here it is…my 2-month overdue post about my new, now not-so-new, resolutions. 🙂

-February 16, 2020-

Okie dokies, after much thought and consideration, here they are!  Say hello to my 2020 Resolutions!

A few notes: I didn’t like the idea of just trashing the goals that I did not achieve last year.  It would be like me accepting the fact that I didn’t and won’t accomplish them and I don’t think my goals deserve that.  So instead, they will stay on until they are accomplished and are in red.  Not that I’ve ever just thrown resolutions up to have them, but this will really ensure that I give thought to the resolutions I come up with.

Career

-promote into the next role, whatever that is

-get a nice pay bump

Social

-spend more time with my husband’s friends (because we don’t)

Physical

-run a 1/2 marathon PR (<2:24)

-comfortably fit into the jeans that I have

-get into a good habit of reapplying sunscreen throughout the day

–put my toes in the sand at least once a week

Community

–become a Grand Champion with the Alzheimer’s Association

Financial

-BUY A HOME! (I’ll have to write about our home buying adventure in a later post.)

-[need to achieve the above goal first] get our savings back to the 6 month cushion that we had prior to buying a home

2020 is going to be an awesome year!  As you can tell by above, I’m confident we will be home owners.  Can’t wait to see what else the beginning of this decade has in store for us.

April 17, 2020

Man, what a crazy time it is right now!  Who would have ever thought that we would be living through a pandemic that has pretty much shut down life as we know it.  Even though it’s been about a month since our “new normal” (social distancing, stay-at-home orders, etc.) started it still seems so surreal to me.

While my husband and I have been doing our best social distancing, staying home but wearing masks when we are out, it’s been difficult accepting this new normal.  For example, when walking the dog earlier today I found myself irked when the couple walking towards us, even after we moved to the side where there was a decent size opening, still walked into the street to make the biggest effort to walk around us.  My dog is a 4 pound chihuahua so she doesn’t take up much space.  I understand why the couple walked around, but still found myself bothered by that at first.  My initial thought was “how rude”.  But then it made me think, when things get better will people still walk into the street when passing you?  How long will it take for people to feel comfortable around each other?

Quite frankly, I don’t think things won’t go back to what they were pre-pandemic so it will be so interesting to see how things pan out once the dust settles.

Until then, I’ll keep trekking along in this journey called life and embracing everything that I can with the way things currently are.  Like, me being able to work from home (actually, the sheer fact that I still have a job while millions have lost theirs is something that I am beyond grateful for) and taking my little pup on more walks than she probably wants—I’ll definitely embrace.

Stay safe and healthy out there!

January 7, 2020

Happy New Year!  Early last year I shared my 2019 resolutions.  I don’t always achieve them 100% and last year is no different.  BUT, I wanted to go through and see which ones I achieved in good ol’ 2019.  Like they say in this Forbes article “describing your goals in written form is strongly associated with goal success”.

-from January 5, 2019 post (new updates are bold & green)-

Career

*DONE!* -become SHRM-CP certified

*DONE!* -get a HR job someplace I love where I have weekends off

Social

[kinda…at least more than before, but not enough to confidentially say done] -spend more time with my husband’s friends (because we don’t)

Physical

-run a 1/2 marathon PR (<2:24)

-comfortably fit into the jeans that I have (going down one size wouldn’t hurt but my current pants are definitely on the tight side)

-get into a good habit of reapplying sunscreen throughout the day

-put my toes in the sand at least once a week

*I started to do the last two points, but didn’t maintain well enough.

Community

-become a Grand Champion with the Alzheimer’s Association (I have been involved with the Alzheimer’s Association as a volunteer now for 4 years but have walked at the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s event for the past 7 years.  Walkers who individually fundraise over $1,000 are considered “Grand Champions”.)

Financial 

*DONE!* -get our savings back to the 6 month cushion that we had prior to me quitting

*DONE!* -start the home buying process (getting pre-approved!)

-back to today-

Proud to say that I did a good job in the Career and Financial sections of my resolutions.  As for the other areas not so much.  I’m going to put together my 2020 resolutions and will share them soon.  🙂

December 31, 2019

As I was looking through Instagram I saw a lot of ‘Top Nines’ posts as I’m sure many of us see at the end of every year.  But, the posts I enjoyed the most were the posts that reflected on the past decade.  Those posts got me thinking about my past decade so that’s what I’m going to reflect upon here! 🙂

Before I start on that though, man, what a year! I’m proud and happy to announce that I’m still happy where I’m working.  No changes of heart (at least yet) anywhere near as quickly as the last position I was in, so I’m very grateful!  Now, to the point of this post…

10 years ago today I was 6 months out of my undergraduate degree, wondering why the heck the world had to be at the height of a recession that made it so hard for me to get a job.  Even with a degree!  I was working a part-time, seasonal position at Coach.  My best friend’s fiance at the time (now husband) put in a referral for me to work at a big box retailer but that was about it.  

Forward through the next ten years- I got that job I was referred to, got out of a relationship that was holding me back in many ways, moved next to the beach, started and completed my MBA all while navigating the beginnings of my professional career through a Chutes-and-Ladder-type trajectory that lead me to where I am today.  
I traveled the US and the world, ran 34 half marathons and picked up bike riding.  I attended more concerts and sporting events than I ever thought I would.  

I made life long friends, celebrated many weddings and welcomed a lot of babies into the world that I have the honor of being called “auntie” by.  Went and partied like you’re supposed to party in Vegas for the first time (and a few more) this past decade as well.  

I met a man, got married and adopted a little chihuahua that was in very poor health when found but as healthy as can be now.  All of this is just the tip of the iceberg called ‘The Last Decade of My Life’.

As I reflect on the past ten years all I remember are the positives.  I mention that because I’m realizing that the negativity I felt, even just this past year around the lack of being able to find a home (yup…still no home -_-) or back when I couldn’t land a job, are not what I remember.  So, going into this next decade I want to remember that and minimize those negative thoughts and feelings and focus on all the great things that I know are going to happen!

I wish everyone an amazing New Year!  The hubs, pup and I are hanging out watching some TV and enjoying some yummy cupcakes to ring in the new year.  Can’t wait to see what this next decade has in store for us!

Cheers!

July 13, 2019

I had the most affirming conversation with my husband a week or two ago as we were driving to go check out some houses.  Quick side note- we still do not have a home.  The house buying process sucks, but I will save that rant for another time.  🙂

Quick (or not so quick) back story: Since meeting my husband, I have always encouraged him to do more.  Doing more would equate to making more money.  And while yes, I wanted him to make more money (when we first met I was making almost 4x as much as him) it was deeper than that.  I knew he had the potential to do more.  Even more so, it hurt to see my man doing a job that was wreaking havoc on his body.  His job was very labor-intensive.

With us both aware of our income differences I didn’t want my encouragement to ever come off as motivated by money, which I was always afraid that it would so was mindful of.  Regardless, I’ve encouraged him to consider other opportunities that he was approached with, and sometimes did more than encourage.  For example, there was one time I was in the car with him when he received a call from an old co-worker trying to get him to go work with him.  The call was on speaker phone since we were driving.  I then yelled out towards the end of their conversation (because I’m nosy and loud), “Let him know when and where and he’ll be there!”.  Yes, I inserted myself probably more than I should have.  I’ve since changed my approach. 😬

Since my husband and I started dating he left the place he worked at for 12 years and has been at 3 other companies since.  And, unfortunately the grass was not always greener on the other side (until now! More on that in a second…), which I have always felt partially responsible for, even though he assured me that wasn’t the case.

I don’t think I previously wrote about this, but my husband did begin a new job over a month ago!  For the first time in his career he is not beating his body into the ground and instead is able to use his years of experience in his field to help train his teams and support them however they need to be supported.  For the first time ever he is consistently generating income as a salaried employee and finally (hopefully) won’t get mad at me about planning trips because he doesn’t have enough vacation time because he is finally consistently accruing time off as well!  Anywho…

Fast forward to a week or two ago: my husband actually thanked me for pushing (or, like I like to say, “encouraging”) him to do more and not be complacent.  SAY WHAT?!  ☺️🥰