Birthday Blog & Obligatory 28th Birthday Personal Inventory
I can’t say that I have any special feelings on my 28th birthday. Usually I have a better year in the odd numbered years, so 28 should actually be a bit disappointing, but I have a feeling that this year could have a few tricks up its sleeve. I think this will probably be the last birthday I celebrate that is not accompanied by the “Oh shit, I can’t believe I’m neither a) married, b) have a job, c) have kids, or d) have purchased any significant assets including, but not limited to, real estate.” Hopefully a car purchase may help to partially mitigate item (d). But I digress…this year I will NOT have those thoughts. This year’s birthday is filled with one single overriding thought: “I’m unemployed! FUCK YEAH!!!” (sorry, Team America has crept into my brain and I have had that song in my head for the past week).OK OK OK….OK
So here is my status update, for those of you who have ever read my stupid blog before: I finished my last 2.5 month assignment in Hong Kong, in which I occupied with work, shopping, drinking and eating for most of the time (not in that order). After my final week (that can only be described as a Dim Sum Bonanza) I flew my ass over to Vancouver for a couple of days in which I met up with my old college buddy Elaine (also an Orange County survivor / escapee) who was kind enough to schlep up to Vancouver to see me! Vancouver can best described using the following assortment of word pairs (not in any order):
Cheap Sushi
Pretty stuff
Nice people
Fresh salmon
Hong Kong
Not stinky
Then I headed back to NYC, found a sublet for the months of August and September and have been taking Spanish and Mandarin classes whilst preparing to take my GMATs, which I should probably attack before the end of July. I still have to sign up!
So, I don’t want to go on and on with “what it means to me to be unemployed”, “how I spent my summer”, and “what will I do next?” The answers to those are easy. Respectively a) it rocks, b) eat/drink/sleep and c) some kick-ass shit.
Here’s what you have actually been waiting for: my personal birthday self inventory or what I also like to call “Big Life Changes Since I Left my Insane Banking Job”
1) Wallet Downgrade – Once I got back to NYC I realized that my black leather Gucci wallet (that I bought in 2002 in Sydney Australia while I was still high on all my purchasing power given the exchange rate) was simply too LARGE for my new toned-down non-credit card based existence. I don’t need to stuff it with receipts for things in the hopes of getting reimbursed, and I don’t need all the slots for credit cards and ID badges, because I’m not supposed to be charging things, and I only need my ID badge when I want to pretend to be an employee to get free stuff! The solution: I once got a small leather wallet from Structure (before they it a sex-change operation and was renamed “Express Men”) that I have been using. The leather isn’t as nice, and there is no little monogrammed Gucci symbol metal thingee, but it functions well for my new toned-down lifestyle and I don’t have as much unsightly pocket bulge (also important sometimes).
2) Keyboard Realization – I broke down and purchased a keyboard and mouse for my crappy laptop. For some reason the “a” and “e” keys on my laptop (who uses those keys anyway?) have crapped out and require extra pushing. Plus I can’t manipulate “excel” in the same way. So now I am back up to speed with this funky Microsoft wireless keyboard. I do still miss my really clicky keyboard from college, but I wouldn’t want to keep up the neighbors! Typing is fun!!
3) Outlook at Home – Yes, I’m insane, but I paid the extra $10 per year to have my Yahoo email account upgraded to let me sync it up to Outlook. I NEED OUTLOOK. Its like a drug to me, and I think quitting would be much tougher than the week on suffering in which I cut caffeine out of my life (Picture this: NYC, 2003. A handsome young man is slumped into his desk chair in a crowded office at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. His puffy, dark ring-encircled eyes continue to fall and people around continue to ask “are you ok?” That young man was me.)
4) Reduced cost of Gym Membership - I also was able to cut the cost of my gym membership, in a way. While employed I would go to the gym on average 2-3x per week, or 8-12x per month. That means that (based on my $51.29 membership fee) I was paying ~$4.27 - $6.41 per visit! Now that I go 5x per week, it only costs me ~$2.56 per visit. That’s like a 40-60% savings! Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
5) Shift from Black to White – I noticed recently that the constitution of my laundry has changed completely! I am now doing much more white laundry than before, and my dark color laundry has tricked down to only a few pairs of fun black undies and a couple of t-shirts. Almost everything else is white! I think I wear white socks every day now, while black socks are only used for (extremely rare) night time events. I might as well just put my dress shirts into storage!
6) Out of wine – I’m out of wine people!!!! (except for my reserve stash and the L'Apres Midi, which I refuse to touch unless its a special occasion! And I don’t know how to build it into my budget! And frankly, I shouldn’t be drinking so much of the stuff, but that’s a different matter. I might do a wine order, but I’m moving so soon I might skip. ARGH! Such a dilemma!!!
