Goodbye January

Well, this has been quite the eventful month. I wrapped up my first extended vacation from work, hung out with my Floridian friend, met a few new folks in person and in spirit, got sick and better twice, and messed up my car. I'll get to that last one later, since I haven't written about it. So far it's a pretty good start to 2009, considering this time last year was when I first handed my resume to somebody wearing a Lockheed Martin polo in Coffman Memorial Union.

It's crazy to think that I've come this far in a year. Graduation, getting a real job, getting settled into a career, and high-tailing it across the country to my new life. Inside, though, I don't feel all that different. I've always been pretty proud of what I've been able to do; I'm not the kind of person that has to do everything right or else I get upset with myself. I like doing a good job, sure, but if I have to toss a little duct tape on there so be it, as long as whatever I'm making still works. Hell, even if I were still job hunting, I'd be proud that I got my degree and just figure that times are a bit lean.

But now I've flown the coupe and I'm out and about. I do whatever I want whenever I want, make the mistakes that go along with that kind of behavior. Case in point at a little after midnight on Wednesday when I slid on the freshly-fallen snow and smacked my wheel on the curb, shattering a bit of the hub cap and screwing my alignment up. This caused the steering wheel to wiggle back and forth, which was extremely annoying. Anyway, I took the thing in yesterday and I got a replacement wheel, tire, and realignment. Thankfully nothing was bent in the undercarriage and so the cost wasn't sky high. I did have to shell out more than four hundred bucks, but it could have been a lot worse.

But yes, car works again, I am no longer dying of space plague, and everything's sunny and happy. I was however planning on bulking up my savings a little this month, being a five-Friday month and all, but a good amount of that fifth paycheck got eaten by my car. Oh well, though, at least I didn't have to choose between getting it fixed and eating, for example.

In other news, I'm already setting up appointments for folks to come visit again. Parents will be out to visit in late April along with my sister and Sylvia, and possibly Sylvia's dad Randy. Tony's got to come out and see me again soon. Scott's due out and/or I've got to haul myself over to the west coast just in time for it to break off into the ocean. Adriana wants to come out and possibly look at schools. Andy will be about four hours away, so I'm sure I'll see him frequently enough anyway. Andrew should get out at some point and I don't know, be loud in my apartment or something. Anyway, lots to look forward to!