A Sisyphean Challenge

Have you ever gotten that feeling that you're in an uphill battle with no solution?  I figured that the extra financial muscle I've earned in my recent career move would be a good thing for my credit.  Have old debts?  Pay them off and your credit rating improves, right?  Wrong.  Pay and the vultures swoop in.  I just paid off three old delinquent accounts on my credit, only to have them replaced by three more older ones dredged up again by these junk-debt scavenger companies that call themselves collection agencies.  My credit score fell by 50 points in the last month alone because of this crap.  How is that fair??  The only thing I can take comfort in is knowing that there really is an end, it's just a matter of being disciplined enough to keep paying off what I owe to get to that point.

It makes cents, and it all adds up.

Mike, an old co-worker of mine, once told me about a German proverb that roughly translates to "He who doesn't value a penny, doesn't deserve a dollar."  Despite the fact that I'm now making about double in pay than I was at the time I heard that proverb, my outlook on money hasn't changed much at all.  I still buy the store brand of cereal, keep an eye out for sales or clearance items, and shop around to find the best bargains.  Then today, I sure felt the true meaning of that proverb at Fry's grocery store, as I cashed in all of my pocket change collected since the beginning of the year.  After feeding the CoinStar machine for about 10 minutes, my final total of spare change came out to $139.90 with one dirty dime that the machine refused to recognize.  That's $140 of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that I've received in change from all of the food, drinks, movies, gas, and other things I've purchased in the past four months.  Wow, it really does add up, doesn't it?

Hello again (finally). Yes, I'm still alive. =)

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," wrote Mark Twain. I can soooo relate to that, seeing how I've been out of touch with everyone besides my daughter and my coworkers for the past three months thanks to work (and a forgotten password).  It seems like so much has happened since then, including my transition from temporary to permanent at FNBA with a nice raise to boot.  Besides that, I've got a backlog of messages and blog entries to read spanning from a friend finding out she is carrying a baby girl (congrats, Jen!!) to a marriage proposal at the Renaissance Faire (congrats Manda and Robert!!).  I received some birthday wishes and valentine's loving and got in touch with more family.  All in all, life is busy, but at least a majority of it has been in a good way.  Thanks for the messages, posts, and comments... I've missed all of you!  Blessed be.