New Year's Heave

Tomorrow is NYE!! and, I'm feeling my old age for the first time--I have NO PLANS.

I haven't spent it at home/alone since I was in high school--I've always had plans with people in my hometown (if I was here), in New York City, in DC, in CA, or Honolulu! This year, however, I failed to ask anyone what was up until the last minute--I just sort of assumed with all the people I knew at home, someone would invite me somewhere. Alas, I overestimated my popularity here...

Everyone here is either spending the time with the kids they've had in between my last NYE in VA and now, or with their extended families, or at a house party where I don't know the people (and they aren't at liberty to invite me). :( As for my other, non-hometown friends, they are in Cabarete (I had never heard of it until a few days ago!), Hong Kong, or elsewhere in the US--no funds are available for any traveling, esp. now that I am in debt again!

So, in the absence of REAL plans, I've convinced my mom and dad to hang out with me. We're going to try that new Natural Pizza Hut pizza, grab some movies (I still haven't seen 'Wall-E'), and play Wii and scrabble and other games. I am the lamest 30 year old ever. I bet one of us goes to bed before 12 am!

Since we are gluttons for punishment, my sister is supposed to come, too. This is not going to go well. Thank goodness, luck shone down on us and my aunt and uncle haven't heard anything from social services about my cousins.

I leave for NZ this Friday. I'm so sad to go! This is the longest I've spent at home for four years. As my parents get older and the problems mount, it gets tougher and tougher to leave them. And it is going to be hard to go back to the NZ life--I still haven't found my groove there, and the BF becoming an EX-BF and living with him for the next 5 months is going to make it even more challenging. Home is a safe place--people love me, I don't have to worry about relationships, work, or money, really, but it has its own issues, and staying here would make it too easy to hide from real life.

I started packing tonight. Unfortunately, I only get 2 suitcases at 50 lbs each to take back with me, or else I have to pay $200 PER BAG that's overweight. You'd think 100 lbs of stuff would be enough, but it's not!!! I've been weighing the suitcases on the Wii Fit board. :) It has many handy uses.

Computers Hate Me

My mom got a laptop computer from my Dad this Christmas (with PAYMENTS--these people never listen to me!), and I was trying to hook up the new laptop and printer to the wireless network, when all of a sudden Verizon cut off our DSL link. For some reason, my laptop still is connected to the internet, but the desktop can't through the hardline (my mom's new laptop is now connected through my laptop, which is hardlined into the modem and router). The desktop doesn't have a wireless card, so it's kaput for now, but the point of all this is: I have a very unreliable internet connection right now, and may not be able to post much in the next week or so.

My sister continues to be very ill. She came over for Xmas eve for the family gathering, with us hoping that her new meds had kicked in. They haven't. Of course it was a disaster, with her calling Social Services on my aunt and uncle, because she thought that they were abusing my 15 and 13-year old cousins. I really hope SS knows my sister's reputation, because while my aunt and uncle are NOT abusing my cousins, I've seen enough Lifetime to know that that is more of a 'guilty-til-proven-innocent' charge than not. Good Lord, where will this end?

I really hope that your Christmases/festivities were very cheerful and happy!

Happy Holidays!

Whether you are celebrating Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or another seasonal celebration, enjoy it!

I'm taking a break from the nonsense that is my family tomorrow--I'm driving about an hour north to meet one of my best friends EVAH for lunch and some browsing. The rest of my dad's family (sans my sister, uncle, and grandma...so sad) is coming over to my parents' house that evening. We'll go to church for the Xmas Eve service (my favorite!!) and then come back for dinner and presents.

Enough!

Enough of the sister drama. Time for a break. This morning I've already distracted myself by scanning 3 photo albums worth of photos (sooo many more to go), shampooing all the rugs and cloth furniture in the house, cleaning the bronze handles and namepiece on my parent's woodstove (see here), and sanding and painting two wooden Xmas tree ornaments that my mom intends to give out as Xmas gifts to family.

(I used the salt-flour-vinegar combo on the bronze, worked like a charm.)

Later, I'm (crazily) going shopping today with my $50 Old Navy gift card, awarded to me by Capital One for being a good consumer. I'm also armed with the $10 off $50 coupon, last seen on Revanche's site. I'm just glad that in SoVA, on it's WORST, busiest shopping day, is not one-tenth as busy as anywhere in SoCal on a normal day!

I'm Struggling...

...to figure out how my life will be without my sister. Not exactly without her, but definitely with her in a lesser role than she always has been. She's been the most important person for at least the last 20 years--we fought alot growing up, but then right about the time I became a freshman in HS, we suddenly became very close. She became someone I could trust not to go to Mom and Dad when I needed her to keep a secret, she became my sounding board, and she became my rock. My most cherished memories with her are chatting with her, driving to school, on those rare occasions when my mom would let me borrow the car. The radio blasting, we'd talk the whole fourty-five minute commute to school and back, about things I couldn't tell even my other 'best friends' in H.S. So to not be able to tell her things anymore, or count on or trust in her, well, it's going to leave a big void that I have to somehow fill up in another way now.

The boundaries are the hardest part--how can I still be her sister and care for her without being so involved when I see or hear her hurting herself?

Yesterday she had some drama with my dad and ended up busting out of her group home to go see a lawyer to go sue him and at the very least, get him arrested.

I think I'm better off just not knowing the details of her latest life-ruining scheme is. Today, she did something else, but I refused to listen when my dad tried to tell me about it, even though I wanted to know! My dad said it was something illegal. Every time I hear something bad about her, I get concerned, I get angry, I get emotional. And then the next time I talk to her, I want to bring it up, ask her about it, and try to figure out what she was thinking so I can help her not do it again. I obsess with how to help or make her life better. But again, what I'm doing is just stressing ME out and not helping her one iota. So--I'm going to try to just not know so many details. Which means less talking to her and telling my mom and dad to only tell me need-to-know details, like if she's in the hospital or not.

I think the hardest part is that sometimes she's semi-reasonable and I think I can trust her again. Then she gets sick again. So, sometimes the rules apply, and sometimes not.

Anyway, figuring this out is going to be a tough road.

Blech. This whole drama has taken over my life, my blog, my waking hours. I don't know how my mom and dad do this year in, year out!

I Have to Laugh...So I Don't Cry

Ha. If you ever have wondered what I look and act like off-line, look no further. About 5 of my acquaintances have called me up or messaged me on facebook or myspace to tell me that the geeky girl from Momma's Boys reminded them of me.

I hadn't caught this gem of a show yet, but I researched it on YouTube this evening and OH MY EFFING GOD. Are they serious? I don't dress that bad! Or wear my hair like Heidi! Or act so anxious! I know they don't mean to do so, but I'm slightly offended! However, to concede a little, if I hadn't heard the previous comparisons to myself, I would have found her kind of adorably charming, even as I pitied her social awkwardness. Her portion is from 0:24 through 0:38.

In addition to my debt, I guess it's time to work on my grace.

Deal of the Day

HERE is a link to alot of discounts for many, many retailers, if you use your VISA card to order.

I personally used it today in conjunction with a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card I found randomly when searching through my drawers a few days ago. The gift card was left over from last Christmas. There's no B&N within an hour of my parent's house, so the only way I was going to use it was online, and I'm never home long enough to receive the shipped packages...until this vacation.

For the curious, I received free shipping and 10% off my order of New Moon and Eclipse, books 2 and 3 of the Twilight series. They are oddly sold out of those two books in all of my local Targets, bookstores, and WalMarts. I then added code U9C9L4K to get an additional 10% off (if you are a BN member, you can find codes to get at least 15% off at retailmenot.com).

Less than $22 was taken from my gift card, so I have $3 left on it. I will take these books to NZ and sell them (books there are EXPENSIVE). I can probably get at least $20 for each, if not more for all four books in the series. The whole set was selling for over $100 on trademe, the last I checked.

My Awesome Deal of the Day

Ann Taylor hunter green work pants from the Rugged Warehouse, marked down to $14.99. When I got to the register, it rang up as $7.99! With .40 cents tax, I spent $8.39.

Lunch was about $7.

A Mixed Bag

So, lunch went ok. Kind of. My dad was supposed to take my sister to her doctor appointments today (again, what are we paying the state workers to do if not this kind of thing? How do ill people without relatives with vehicles and spare time get to the doctor?), but my sister rebelled and said my dad was 'too tired' to drive her, and she didn't feel safe with him, so I had to take her. Unfortunately, her appointment was at the same time as my planned lunch today. So I had to miss half of it to drop her off and pick her up again. We went shopping after lunch and after I picked my sister back up.

Unfortunately, my sister was not herself, and the people I was meeting with hadn't seen my sister since high school, before she got sick. While shopping and while we were talking outside, she kept making very weird remarks and stopping the conversation. No one knew what to do, and I felt bad for bringing her, so I left after about 10 minutes to take her back to her group home.

I know it must feel horrible for my sister to feel like she was weird or didn't fit in, but she keeps doing things that make her stick out. She cries because she's overweight or in debt or socially awkward, but then she makes it worse by eating terribly or buying something or telling random people that she's going to sue them. The most recent thing I discovered is that she bought a diamond ring for about $3,000--someone actually gave her credit...and the shop owner that sold her the ring remembered her today because of the huge sale it was. When I asked her where the ring was, my sister said she pawned it for groceries one day for a few hundred bucks.

I know it's terrible of me, but I have no hope left that she'll be able to sort her life out. I'm tired of being dragged in the middle of it, of saving her from herself, of giving advice, of constantly worrying. She used to be my best friend, but now she hates me, says I'm the cause of all her problems, and there's nothing good there anymore. She actually grabbed the steering wheel the other day to run my mom and I off the road going 65 mph, and now I'm honestly scared for my life when she's around sometimes.

I hate to say this, or act on it, but she's too far gone for me to call her my friend anymore--she's just someone I'm related to that has a lot of problems. Every trace of the person I knew ten years ago is GONE. For my own sanity, I think I'm better off letting her be a mess and not hearing about it, and letting the state deal with her. I feel like a horrible person, but I can't keep putting myself in the same situation over and over again and expecting different results. It's time to do something different.

Exhausted

It's my vacation, and it feels n.e.v.e.r.e.n.d.i.n.g. I am so tired. I'm slightly dreading going back to NZ, because of the whole re-adjustment to different foods and insane prices coupled with the BF issue, BUT it is a whole different kind of stress compared to being here and, 1) trying to keep my dad from smoking and eating sugar (diabetes, lung illness), 2) trying to keep my dad from giving money to people (we are down on our luck, ourselves! and my mom is killing herself working--quit giving money to drunks and 'friends' who siphon your gas and save it so mom can retire!!!) and giving my mom a sounding board, and 3) trying to not care about my sister anymore, because I know I'll just get hurt again. Now, I love my family, and nothing is worse than being away from them...except for being with them. It's dreadfully hard to explain, but I bet most of you get it.

Against my better judgment due to my extremely un-holiday like mood lately, I'm going out thursday with some ladies that used to be my best friends in high school. We're eating lunch and then going discount shopping. I am in debt, but clothes are cheaper here in the US than they could ever be in NZ, even with the exchange rate, so...I'm allowing myself to buy some much-needed clothes here for work. Plus I have gift cards. My debt diet starts when I get back to NZ. I SWEAR.

Here's hoping it all goes well!!

Craziness

Really. again, my sister decided she hated us, yelled, and demanded to be taken to her group home while we were decorating the Christmas tree this evening. When she got there, apparently she was acting crazy and called the cops on me AGAIN.

I don't know what's going on with her, or what I did, or how to fix/solve/help this at all. Perhaps nothing. She has also decided that she should disown us, and, so here we are, again, left in the wake of her emotional instability. Something that she, too, is at the mercy of and has no control over. She was crying to me last night that she was upset with herself for doing that to me. I forgave her, of course--it's not her fault, really, at least not the person that I know--but we're back in the same position again today. Dad says that we probably won't let her come home again while I'm here, to protect me from getting arrested or hurt by her. I'm sad that my parents have to choose between me and her, and that we will be missing a member of our family on Christmas morning--an unprecedented event.

In any case, I was supposed to hang out with people from high school this week. I don't think I'm going to be up for it--too upset. I think I need to lay low and hang out with my mom and dad while I'm home. It'd be too hard to explain why my sister isn't around, and I'm not close enough to any of them to get into it.

My Sister Called the Cops on Me...

For serious, she called the cops on me. My mom and sister and I were in the car on the way to go shopping, stopped for gas, and my sister bought a pack of cigarettes. My mom and I got upset with her (cigarettes are killing my dad, and killed my grandma), and she decided to stay in the car while we made another quick stop. We got back to the car, and she was GONE, just disappeared. We paged her over the store intercom, searched the parking lot, nearby stores, nothing. Eventually, the cops came up to us and she said we were threatening her. We had to explain what we said and the cops treated us like criminals until we told them about her past. It was HORRIBLE.

My sister said that she bought the cigarettes to 'be independent.' I just don't understand her anymore. She disappears from places we go, doesn't say where she's going or when she'll be back, so we're left waiting.

Haven't had alot of time or energy to worry about my debt now. Seems like the least of my problems.

This is going to be a great Christmas.

Ok, deep breaths! I'm really needing that Wii Yoga now.

I'm In Debt Again...

For nearly the same reasons I went into debt in the FIRST place, I'm in debt...AGAIN. It happened very quickly, as in the past two weeks, but was fully anticipate-able (is that a word??). I won't be able to pay off my credit card in full this month, and won't be able to next month, either.

I've spent roughly $6k on plane tickets in the past 6 months. So, ok, I technically have $5K in USD to pay off the balance of my credit cards, however, I'm not going to do it. I want/need to keep most of that money as my 'in case of emergency' or rather, in case I want/need to move back to the US in a hurry. My dad told me tonight that the doctor told him that if my dad caught a bad cold, he'd die. That's pretty scary, and I may need to come home to help my mom sooner rather than later. (and only makes me want to move home NOW so I can spend time with him...)

I have $10K as my EF in New Zealand Dollars. I'd rather keep that stocked in full than use it (plus the NZD is worth only about half of what a USD is, so I'd have to wipe out almost the entire EF to pay off my US cc bill). I may look at using $2K of it to help, but no more than that.

I'm not getting paid for half of the vacation time I'm taking (due to immigration concerns, I didn't find that out til I'd already booked my flights...urgh), so that rules out using my second December paycheck for my cc (the first is being used for rent).

So...how bad is the damage? Roughly $4500 USD. I'll be lucky if the NZD doesn't drop further, and I can pay about US$500 on it a month--using $1000 NZD/mo. Wow, it added up really fast. And, horribly, I'm going to have to tell my parents that I just can't afford to come home more than once a year. :(

This was just bad planning. Moving is expensive, and moving far away from home only makes it worse. I could have seen this coming from a mile away (8585 air miles away, actually). The real kicker is that for my career, and what I love doing, I HAVE to live far from home--my home state doesn't have any of what is my career's specialty.

So, let's kick this, PF stylee:

1) When you find yourself in debt, list ALL your balances, and the interest rates:
Capital One: $3020, expecting this to go up when my Permanent Residency application
goes through ($1400 NZD), 13.90% APR

Chase: $500, 11.99% APR

Whew, ok, I feel better already, but daunted by the balances, a little panicky--but better that I am taking control. So what am I going to do next?

I'm going to call the credit card companies tomorrow and try to get my interest rates lowered.

If that doesn't produce any changes, should I pay the smaller amount off first for psychological reasons, or pay off the higher APR balance?

For me, I'd rather have less bills, so I'm going to knock out the Chase balance first. The differences in the APR's aren't that bad, anyway--but we'll see what will be done tomorrow after my phone calls. My FICO scores are STELLAR and interest rates are going down, so I should be able to knock a point or two off of each of those. (Does anyone know: do cc companies lower and raise their interest rates with the Fed?) Hmm, interesting thought. no pun intended...

2) Look at your budget--how much money do you have left over to pay this off?
According to my spreadsheet, I've budgeted to reasonably live off of about 62% of my income, or roughly $1850/mo. This leaves me with about $1100 NZD to put towards my debt every month. It seems like alot, but it's not--that's about $550 USD.

So, at that rate, it will take me about 8 months to pay off my balances, not including interest payments. Yuck. Just in time to do it all over again next December. I'll never save anything for retirement at this rate!!

3) Evaluate the time period over which you are paying debt. Does this fit in with your goals? 8 months will never do--it's starting a cycle that I don't know if I will be able to get out of while I live overseas. I'll never be able to save up for the next trip if I keep paying off debt during the rest of the year!

4) If not, do one or both of two things: increase income and pare down expenses.

My expenses are about as low as they are going to get for the next 6 months. I can rent my garage space when I get back to NZ, freeing up about $50/mo USD, and I can eat out even less than I already do and cut out all entertainment and allowances, but I already run a pretty tight ship financially.

I'll have to get a part-time job or something to figure this out. Increase income! I've been ChaCha-ing alot while at home so far, we'll see how much I can earn through them.

The Heat is On

Because it's coooold here! I don't love being cold, but I so love bundling up in my sweatshirt, hoodie, and a blanket, and hanging out inside reading or Wii-ing (yup, that's right, 'Wii' had an early Christmas a few nights ago. Thanks for all who had suggestions for Wii games for my family! We are having a blast Wii Fit-ting and Legend of Zelda-ing it up!)!



I don't think my mom likes the 'Zack and Wiki's hunt for barbaro's treasure' game much, but she has been using the Wii Fit a lot instead of her normal workout, which was a sole aerobics tape over and over and over again every day (can you say Bo-Ring?)! She is a small lady, and doesn't LOOK overweight at all, but her BMI was just over normal, so I think that kicked her butt into gear even more. Also, my sister and dad are now diabetic, so when we tested our blood as a family the other night (we're a weird family), and my mom's blood sugar tested just as high as my sister's--well, we all started worrying a bit, I think.

In other news, my dad has lost weight, and is attempting to cut down on his smoking--yay! my sister is in debt...again...and hung up on a creditor tonight right in front of my face! boo. she also is newly diabetic, severely obese according to Wii Fit, and is having alot of emotional issues that are really making it difficult for her to relate to 'normal' people. She's not hallucinating or anything like that...so her medicine is working, however, it's almost like her old-self and non-medicated self personalities have merged into this hybrid medicated personality where she has no clue what to say or do or how to feel or when to be offended, when to laugh, when to be paranoid, etc. She's just not going to make it on her own. I've just recently accepted that, begrudgingly--I don't do that lightly, as I feel like I'm giving up on her or something. But the facts are facts--she needs to be in the group home like she is, have someone take care of her money, medication, life.

It's hard, though, because I look at all the other people in the home, how they act, and I think, My sister IS NOT like them. Like my love alone can make her better than they are. But--she is like them. She IS. It's really difficult for me to separate who she used to be (my best friend, healthy, happy, laughing, always outgoing and the first to have a good time or crack a joke) from who she is now (insecure, paranoid, unhappy/emotionless, very unhealthy, unsure of herself, incapable of making good decisions for herself). She is knowingly KILLING HERSELF with food and bad choices with guys, and destroying her future by spending money she doesn't have. She isn't eating like a diabetic should at ALL. She also knows she is in debt, but when she found $16 in her pocket the other day, she spent it immediately on a notebook, some bubble bath, cheetos, and a soda. And when we gently present other options that are healthier and more frugal, she gets offended and feels like we're attacking her. Essentially, we are--we are attacking her denial that she has a problem that she isn't doing anything about.

OK, I've grumbled about my sister for many, many posts now. I know my struggles with this are incredibly tiny compared to her struggles, and I feel slightly guilty even daring to complain given all that I have been blessed with from nearly the exact same genes as she has.

In financial news, I spent about $200 at Target (I. LOVE. TARGET. It is my #1 most missed non-family US thing!) the other night, getting items I can't get in NZ, or can't get cheaply in NZ. I just hope it all fits in my suitcase going back! My dad gave me $112 worth of scratch-off lotto tix (poor man's tax) to redeem, and he gave me the money. But I can't, in good conscience, take it. I'm 30, way too old to be taking money from the 'rents, and they need it more than I do. I'm sneaking it in my mom's purse tomorrow--she will actually SAVE it instead of blowing it on cigarettes or more scratchers. :) Ha, fooled him--he gets to feel like he's spoiling me, and I get to help mom. Perfect.

In boy news, we hadn't talked or had any contact since I left last week--this is the longest we've not talked in the past 2 years. It's starting to get bad; I really miss him! He must feel the same way--he emailed me today to see how I was. I'll write back something short, but there are SO many things I want to tell him about. Anyway, I know this is probably for the best, so I need to start getting over him PDQ. I have plans (or will be making plans soon) with a bunch of people from my high school, so that should keep my mind off of things. And I always have Zelda... :)

Fun at Home

After church tomorrow, we as a family are off to Home Depot to sell our souls for some new tiles and paint for the house. I LOVE watching HGTV, so to have all these projects going on in my own parent's house is AWESOME! I actually can't wait to pick out some colors and learn how to tile a bathroom.

Today, I woke up at 6 pm, had dinner with the fam, and played Scrabble for about 4 hours while watching Quantum Leap. I loved every second. this feeling won't last very long, but I'm enjoying it while it does.

So, obviously, no money was spent in the past few days (i've been sleeping through most of it!). Stupid jet lag.

I'm loving the free stuff

It doesn't really make the flight worth it, but I had a bunch of mail waiting for me when I got here to VA. To the victor go the spoils:

Two (2) rewards checks for $50 each from my credit card company
One (1) rewards gift card for $50 to Old Navy, GAP, or Banana Republic--from another (different) rewards cc
Two (2) checks for $3 each from Pinecone Research
and
One (1) huge tube of face wash for a product review for Pinecone Research

yay! $106 cash, $50 of free shopping, and a tube of something i forgot in NZ.

Jet Lagged

My flight from Blah-ckland to VA was utter HELL. And I have to do it all over again in a month.

I got to the airport Thursday at 4 pm (yay for the Airbus Express!! round trip to the airport and back, only $22, AND one of the bus stops is only 5 minutes walking away from my new apartment!). My flight left at 7:30 pm. It got into San Francisco at about 10:30 am their time (7:30 am NZ time...12 hour flight, whoa). The flight was horrible just because I CANNOT sleep on planes. I even had an empty seat beside me to 'stretch' out on. Seriously, if I could change one thing about myself, well, first it would be to make every guy that I want fall instantly in love with me forever (holla Chace Crawford), but you can be darn sure that the next one up on my list would be the ability to sleep in contorted, cramped positions without losing feeling in any of my extremities. It would save me so much time.

I don't know what that is about--it may be part psychological, part physical. maybe the fact that several hundred people are beside me and can watch me sleep if they want? that they could rob me blind and I would never know? Or is it that my body cannot physically relax unless every part of me is fully supported and similarly elevated? I sleep on my side, so maybe if I practice sleeping on my back, it would be easier for me? No clue what would help--my best friend is a doctor and loves him some Ambien. If I take a prescription drug, I just end up dazed, exhausted, screaming for sleep in my head, but no actual zzz's--i go into a dream-like state while i'm awake, the worst of both worlds. Short of anesthesia, I am NOT going to ever sleep on a plane. It's a major flaw.

anyway, the next flight went from SFO to Dulles. that bad boy left at 1 pm SFO time (still 10:30 am NZ time, and I got into DC about 5 hours later (if you are counting, this would be the 23rd hour of airport and planes). I then had another hour of layover and another short flight, and then an hour-long drive to my parent's house on top of everything. In total, it took me about 25 hours to get to VA...getting home at about 1 am. Boy, I must love my family!

I got home last night not knowing what to do first: sleep, eat, or bathe. I ended up scarfing some white cheddar popcorn and pizza (my fave American foods), jumping in the shower, and then...nothing. I couldn't fall asleep for another few hours! When I did, it was 4 am and I slept til 11 am, foraged around for some food like a soon-to-be hibernating bear, and then went back to bed until 7 pm. Good Lord, what have I become?

Anyway, I'm glad to be here, although the house is a WRECK. My parents are working on their 2 bathrooms, the attic, the kitchen, and the garage simultaneously. There is crap EVERYWHERE. No room even to put up the Christmas tree! :( I guess I'm glad to be here to help them, though.

Good news, and bad news...

The internet was set up early, I now have high-speed access at my new apartment. However, I don't much feel like blogging, as BF has suggested that we not see each other for a while, and I don't want to whine on here more than I absolutely have to. I don't know how that's going to work out with the whole living together situation, but i'm off next Thursday to the East Coast for a month, so I guess we'll work that out when I get back. ?

Hope your Turkey days and Black Friday deals were wonderful!

Offline Awhile...

BF and I just moved down the street, but internet hookup is gonna take 2 weeks. Just in time for me to leave and go on Christmas vacation to the East Coast...so i don't know when i'll be back.

In the meantime, enjoy the view below. A coworker and I just went to check out Piha Beach today. it was BEAUTIFUL!!

Lovely day

Today's weather couldn't have been more gorgeous and perfect. My cousin and I hiked up Rangitoto Volcano and explored the lava caves there, while my aunt and uncle took the guided tour by tractor-pull (i know, right?) around the island and up the volcano.

We then spontaneously got off the ferry at Devonport, one stop before Auckland. We found a pub to get a pint at and a cute little Italian restaurant to eat afterwards. I freaking love my family! it's so nice to see them, and I am just sorry i couldn't take the whole week off to spend with them!! I didn't know they were coming til last week, though.

There were alot of good things that came out of today, one of which is that my cousin and I got some alone-time to chat and compare notes on our lives now. She's 23 and just out of college, traveling around Australia, working for human rights with diplomats and Congresspeople for free, working retail jobs to support herself by day, and partying at her hostel by night. She has a year long work visa, and she's really taking every opportunity she can to experience Australia.

She admitted that she hadn't paid her credit card bill in full this month--money was too tight. She was choosing food and hostel fees over paying her cc bill in full. I don't get the feeling that her balance is that high, but interest certainly won't help.

Anyway, part of me thinks that this is one of those things that is worth it--just carrying a small balance on the credit card and paying later, when she's done with her year of fun. she's meeting people that are key to her field in human rights, that she wouldn't get a chance to meet or work with in the US. She's working for them for free right now so she can work for money later.

Some debt like this, investments towards your dream, are justifiable and reasonable to me. She's so young, and getting such a great start on her career. What's your take?

Making Money From Home

This isn't a sponsored post--it's a true story (mine).

I think alot of people want to find a way to make a little extra income while hanging out at home, surfing the net. Esp. now that people are getting laid off--what better way to spend the downtime between resume tweaking, interviewing, and job searching than to make a few extra bucks?

I stumbled onto the idea of ChaCha a while ago, while still unemployed after moving to New Zealand. I've held off writing about it here because I wanted to try it out first, and make sure it was legit and recommendation-worthy.

ChaCha is like google from your cell phone--you text a question, and a live person texts back the answer (from a computer). Of course, with so many cell phones with internet access, this service may become moot in the near future, but for now, it's gaining popularity. I think that people like corresponding with a real person, too.

ChaCha's pay scale system is still a little confusing to me, I have to admit. When I started, they were paying 20 cents a text, but I think it's dropped to 10 c in the past few months. However, they also started something with teams--you make 10% of what your team makes!

That's no small amount, if you gather up a large enough team. the last time I checked, I had about $45 just from my team!

I make about $20 a month doing it for about an hour every so often. It really adds up. Plus, it's fun! My favorite is when someone (probably a teenager) just keeps texting for no reason, other than they are bored. It's kind of entertaining. The worst it gets is when someone asks for a racist joke; i hate those and end up deflecting it by sending them a joke ABOUT racist people. :)

If you'd like to join ChaCha, there are a few hoops to jump through--you have to take a few timed tests to make sure you can handle the quick responses, and then you're hired on a trial basis. You are essentially a freelancer, so you do have to pay taxes later. See here for more information.

I just checked--currently they are not accepting new guides, but this changes every few days that I've noticed. If you see that they are hiring, and you want to join my team, use sensetodollars@yahoo.com as your referral when you sign up! Thank you!

My New Apartment

I went over to my new apartment after work today, just to grab an extra set of keys, see the furniture that was left, etc. It was a glorious sunny evening, and can I just say I LOVE MY NEW APARTMENT? good...'cause I just did. The sun was streaming in the 16 ft high windowed walls, the furniture was worn but comfy, and our landlords left enough stuff that it's like inheriting a whole household, ready-made.

In other news, my cousin, uncle, and aunt are in town this week, but I have to work. So I had dinner with them last night (Thanks Uncle C!)--BF and I took them to a really yummy thai restaurant (pricey but they were paying. :)) My aunt had two drinks and was getting drunk. We don't normally drink in my family (my grandparents were staunchly against it), so we were particularly chatty. They went to Rotorua on a day trip today. Color me jealous. I hope to take Thursday off to spend with them, maybe hiking up Rangitoto?



We move this Saturday...no idea when I'm going to be able to make up the day if I take off Thursday. Oh well.

Ode to My Red Shirt

This past couple of weeks, I've had quite a few work functions that I was expected to work at, but also look professional, polished, and together. I didn't need to look TOO professional and overdressed, like in a suit, but I needed to look a bit more fancy than I usually do (in my jeans or khakis and a polo or cotton T-shirt) at these functions. It was a conundrum--I was expected to get on the floor to set up displays and posters, run around like crazy lifting furniture and moving chairs, make sure the caterers were doing their job, etc., but I was also expected to be in photos at the event as part of the team, and schmooze with big-wigs.

The answer to my conundrum? My fail-safe go-to: my sleeveless, rich-red, boatneck shirt. It's pure magic.




Actually I don't know how much I paid for my deep red blouse, but my cost-per-wear has to be about half a cent by now. I do know that I probably bought it late college or in grad school--when I was VERY poor--at Marshalls or Ross or TJ Maxx, so I didn't pay more than about $10-$15. It is at least 5 years old--and still looks brand new.

It's been with me out clubbing, on dates, on interviews, at church, during my master's defense, my grandma's funeral (her favorite color was red--she wore it every chance she got), and most recently, twice in the past two weeks, at a project launch and at a conference. It is a rare piece of clothing that is so incredibly versatile. I mean, out clubbing AND at church? That's just crazy.

It provides a great punch of color to any outfit. Also, it's made of polyester, so it can go in the washer and dryer, no problems. Actually, I usually don't stick it in the dryer, since it dries so quickly. To top off it's amazingness, IT NEVER WRINKLES.

It is a LIFESAVER. I wish I could tell which clothes would be as useful as this item! Even though it was cheap, it was definitely an investment piece--I've gotten more use out of it than I could've ever imagined. Plus, it has saved me many a shopping trip and some major cash when something has come up and i've wailed, 'But what should I WEAR??'

Do you have a fail-safe go-to item like this?

Half of My Income

I really really want to live off of half of my income, and save the other half. It would be great, esp. since I'm not saving any money in retirement vehicles after the end of this year (I'm not allowed, since I'm only earning NZ Dollars). and, since NZD are worth roughly half that USD are.

Yes--that would be great. But I think that's just below my comfort level. After careful consideration, I've decided that 55% of my income is probably the most do-able--but I'll start at 60-40 just to be sure.

Really, the line between 'comfortable' and 'deprived' for me comes down to a few hundred dollars. That's not very much in the grand scheme of things--a couple thousand dollars every year to be happy? DEAL.

It's really odd to think about though--$1492/month (half) feels hard, but $1800/month (60%) seems terribly extravagant! Behold:




The only real change from one to the next is the 'Misc' category--this serves as my 'fun' money, allowance money, overflow from other categories (food), and extraneous household and random purchases of necessary items.

The rent category is high, but it could drop to $740 if we rent out our garage space--I really want to do that but BF wants to keep it open in case he buys a campervan. I told him he had 2 weeks to figure it out and let me know before I start advertising the spot.

Dropping the rent by $100 MAY make this whole thing do-able. However, still unknown are our electricity, internet, and food costs--that will be figured out after the move this weekend.

The previous tenant said that their electricity costs were $140/month!! that's a huge increase over our $30-$40 bill every month in our current apartment.

Groceries may also increase--i won't be within walking distance of a grocery store anymore, so I may get them delivered (an extra $15 each week if we do it that way--which we really need to do for produce...but hopefully there's a corner market nearby where we can stock up on perishables every week, and drop the grocery deliveries to every other week?). We also may eat out less now that we have an actual refrigerator/oven/cooktop/etc.--so it may even out!

Internet should drop by a little bit, but we still haven't figured that out, either. It shouldn't be more than $50 for each of us, though.

Ok, this is a way boring post, but i've been away for a few weeks and I need to re-establish my goals to myself! Repetition is the name of my game.

I'm baa-acck

Of course...my adapter arrived the day I left for my conference.

To put a financial spin on things, my food was all provided this week. On the other hand, I probably spent all my grocery money on alcohol. I don't think I went to bed before 1 am every night, and had a 7 am start every day--and it we didn't return to the hotel until we were done for the night.

needless to say, it was an AWESOME time. and only re-emphasizes to me that all I'm really missing here in NZ are people to do things with.

more later...i'm wiped. thanks for all the comments on my last post. :) it makes a happy day even happier.

So Sad...

Wow, since i've moved to NZ, it seems like loved ones back home have started passing away, one by one. My uncle died in August, and about a month later my friend from high school died in a horrible car wreck.

I talked to my mom and dad yesterday, and my dog of 16 years, Buddy, was killed by a school bus this past week. He was old and showing his age, but had a few good years left in him...it's too bad--if only he had just made it a few weeks longer, I would have gotten to play with him and give him a good scratch behind the ears, just how he likes it, again. In addition, my Sunday school teacher of 4 years and my beloved fourth grade teacher died in a fire and of natural causes, respectively.

Wow. The loss is overwhelming. What is God/the Universe trying to teach me with all of this horribleness?


In other news, I have a conference this week in Taupo, so I will be offline unless I get to keep my work laptop. My adapter is still MIA.

Oh What a Hard and Exciting Week

This week has been incredibly interesting, difficult, inspiring, and busy. highlights include: renting an apartment in less than 24 hours, 2 huge work events, and best of all--OBAMA!

Last Saturday BF and I saw 3 apartments. The first was terrible, awful, tiny, and incredibly generic. I felt like a hen in one of those horrible henhouses when I was there--couldn't wait to get out.

The second was much better, but very expensive and didn't even have half the things on our list (parking, and furniture).

The third was awesome! still very expensive--the high end of our budget at $450 per week, and still no parking. But it had everything else, and we were about to sign on it, and pay the RIP OFF of a 'letting fee' of 3 weeks rent (yeah--that's $1350, just for SHOWING US AN APARTMENT FOR 10 MINUTES). Letting fees are insanity. I thought they were some kind of security deposit, but noooo...

Sunday we spent the night at a coworker/friends house that has a room for rent. He really pulled out all the stops to get us to rent from him--cooked us dinner, showed us around, and made all sorts of promises of what he'd help us with. It was very sweet and nice. We probably would have ended up there, but his house is over an hour away from work by car-train-walk commute. doing that twice a day, 5 times a week? Not cool, and we don't have a car that would be necessary to get to the train session, grocery store, ANYWHERE. Plus, it only had one bathroom, and I would have had to share it with 3 guys. Also not really that awesome. The views and house were AMAZING, though.

BF was all for it. But I got back on Trademe and kept looking, made a long list of places to call. On Monday at about 1:30 I visited a place about 10 minutes walk from work. It looked crappy from the outside, but I've come to learn that appearances are very deceiving in cases like this. This place had EVERYTHING! Secured, 1 car garage, two very good-sized bedrooms, lots of light and sun, balcony, furnished with absolutely everything (except for a dryer, hmmm), cool owners (i love renting from owners instead of management companies), no letting fee, and best of all, close enough to work to walk! It is $420 per week, unfortunately, but we can rent the one car garage for $50 a week, decreasing the rent to a much more budget-friendly $370 pw (or, $185 pw for each of us). Oh Happy Day!

I told BF about it and he was just like, let's do it. Let's get it. We went back the next day at 11 AM and signed a lease! Hurrah!

I had the second half of a first aid course on Wednesday at work--and I was way too distracted--at all the tea breaks and lunch I was checking on Obama's progress. I wouldn't want me around in an emergency... :) I went to an election party Wed. night to celebrate. There's a small band of Americans in my work place that came over to a co-workers place to listen to Obama's INCREDIBLY inspiring acceptance speech online, and talk about America's future. It was also Guy Fawke's day, so there were lots of fireworks--how appropriate! It felt like Fourth of July--a new birth for America. I went totally white trash and drank the cheapest cider i could find from a 1 liter plastic bottle. (in my mind, that is very 'American')

New Zealand also has an election this week (it ends tomorrow). I happened to catch one of their debates, and the differences were illuminating. They used America as an example of what NOT to do on virtually every issue.

Every single person I've met in New Zealand (from ALL over the world--Kenya, South America, England, NZ, US, etc.) was for Obama and against Bush. That is a very telling fact.

I got a new officemate this week--he's really cool, and nice. It's awesome to have someone to talk to during the day about random things when I need a breather from work, just like I did in grad school. I heart it, and wish he didn't have to go away in a month!

Anyway, the past two days at work were incredibly hectic. Since I started, I've been planning two large events, one Thursday night and another during the day today. There were lots of 'big-wigs' in the meetings and functions that are very important in my field, and I got to meet them. I think it all went well; my supervisor said, in front of everyone, that I was "rapidly becoming indispensible." Good yeah?

More on that later, but I just needed to share. Lots of news!

excitement!

a quick note: my adapter to my personal laptop broke a few weeks ago. I immediately bought a new one on trademe (like ebay and craigslist, combined), but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm typing this on a work laptop, against my good judgment...it may be a while before I post again. :(

just wanted to say: I'm in love with America for voting in Barack Obama! Hurrah! (everyone in New Zealand is celebrating, too!)

No Spend Days

Sorry for the lack of posting, but I'm swamped at work. Plus, I haven't been spending much moneyy--The past three days have been Zero Dollar Days.

I'm sad that interest rates in NZ are going down--this means my savings accounts will be accruing interest at a lower rate. 6.6% at kiwibank, in fact--a whole 1% drop!

In life news, BF and I are gearing up to move--we're checking out an apartment during this long weekend (monday is Labour Day in NZ!). I have gathered or requested all of the paperwork I need for my PR application, now it's just about waiting. Sis has asked me not to call her; she's in one of her 'I hate you' phases that she goes through every year when she's ill. I hate not being able to talk to my best friend...

The Status of My Accounts

I have so many bank accounts right now I can't name them all. Ok, I CAN but it takes more than a minute, and I'm uncomfortable with that! I'm not sure what to do about it, though.

So, without further ado, behold the mess:

US BANK ACCOUNTS:
BoA checking: $3943.16
BoA savings (some rediculously low interest rate, just keep it around for free checking--I transfer the same $25 back and forth every month): $25

ING savings (2.75%; transfer the same $ back and forth to my BoA checking account to satisfy 'direct deposit' for free checking): $1.01
HSBC savings (3.25%): $4970.97

T. Rowe Price Roth IRA: $3079.98
Vanguard Traditional IRA: $4352.57

NZ BANK ACCOUNTS:
Westpac checking: $0

Kiwibank checking: $569.28
Kiwibank savings (7.60%): $5005.70

Raboplus savings (7.75%): $2500 or so


Not even going there with the net worth calculations, it will just freak me out. I AM excited that my NZ emergency savings has grown to $7500 so far. That's about 4 months worth of expenses. It's been growing so fast 'cause I've been paying my cc bills with my US $avings--I'm stopping that now, and I'm gonna figure out how to turn my NZ $ to USD to pay for my monthly NZ bills. I want to keep my US savings at about $5K for some odd reason. Just picked that number at random...

So, the growth in the NZ account will decrease dramatically in the next few months; I'll grow the NZ EF to about $12K and then figure out what to save up for.

More and more spending

Oh, emotions. They make me so carefree and footloose with my wallet.

Thursday: no spend day (i think...)

Friday: 11 $2 stamps $22
10 $1.50 stamps $15
Thai food $44

I found out today from my Mom that my sister has been released from the hospital, and is staying at a group home. [I should interject here and say that this has happened every other time she's been sick; her illness isn't severe enough at first to justify her staying in the hospital to the insurance companies, so the hospitals release her. She then gets worse, and the cycle repeats itself a few times til she's admitted to the hospital and stays there continuously for a few months. so this is nothing new.] Since her disability $ pays for the group home (medicaid insurance pays for the hospital), that money is not available to pay her rent on her apartment. My mom and dad now have to clean out her (very messy, very cluttered) place. I'm so frustrated I could scream--the whole point of getting an apartment through the State was that she didn't lose it when she was sick (supposedly).

Also, it IS NOT my mom and dad's responsibility to move her furniture out, etc. My dad is ill and there's no way that my little, 5 foot 2, 59-year old mom is going too be able to move everything herself. What if someone doesn't have family around? Who would clean out the apartment in that case?

The situation is kind of similar to throwing good money after bad. In my sister's case, helping her start her life over and over and over again is completely fruitless. I'm turning over her care to the state. If I were my mom, i'd tell the case manager to deal with it. It sucks, but I can't help her fix her life. Nothing I can do or say would help (but I'd totally do it if it would). I officially give up trying to control the outcome of her life.

Not only that stuff, but I'm annoyed because my mom had been planning a beach trip for the last few months. Most of her 'vacation' time is used to shuttle my dad to and from doctor's appointments, or, in the past few years, attend the funerals of her parents and other beloved relatives. She totally deserved a break.

My sister was originally supposed to go with her--she got sick a few weeks ago. My dad then decided he would go--a rare treat. They made all the plans, got a boarding kennel for the dogs, and made all the arrangements. My mom says that my dad pulled out of the trip about a half hour before they were supposed to leave, him citing that 'all his stuff' was at home. I'm mad at my father for letting my mom go on a 6 day trip all by herself. He pulls this all the time, but this was pretty important to my mom.

I know that being alone is sometimes a good thing, but my poor mom doesn't have anyone anymore. My dad's mom, my grandma, was her best friend. She also had her parents to talk to on the phone every week. But now they are all gone. I call every week, but I can't replace the caring and love that comes from parents and best friends. My mom is stuck working her butt off so my dad can have health insurance (disability/medicaid DOES NOT cover a tenth of his monthly and outstanding medical bills), and fixing my sister's messes. She loves reading, and escapes into books every night, while my dad sleeps for 3 days straight sometimes. I'm so sad for her. and I feel really guilty that I'm not there helping.

Another reason her life scares me is because I can totally see my life turning out that way--with no one around that understands me.

Lucky Lucky Spending

Spending today:

$310 NZD for immigration physical + blood test + X-ray. Cheapest out there after calling around. Went to CityMed at 8 Albert St. if you happen to be googling this.

On the way home TWO notable things happened, and both were fortunate (in their own ways):

I happened to walk past the Auckland police station on my way to work from my physical, and went in to check on fingerprinting for my FBI background check. Not only was it FREE!, but there is a 6 week waiting list, and their 12:30 pm appointment happened to cancel while I was there. It was 12:29 when I walked in. How lucky am I??

I was waiting at a corner waiting for the little woodpecker to start chirping (this is for the blind people, obvi) so I could cross the street, and as soon as it did, this guy started to speed walk past me across the intersection. I, VERY UNCHARACTERISTICALLY, was paying attention and noticed that a huge SUV was still barreling towards the intersection, and grabbed the guy before he got smushed. The drivers of the SUV, traveling at a high rate of speed, just ran the red light without even realizing that they were supposed to stop!! Wow, that was WAY too close! And, what's up with me? I never pay attention! It was so knee-jerk, and the strength with which I pulled the guy back surprised even me. How lucky is that guy??

EDITED TO ADD: and I happened upon this post at Fabulously Broke and ended up donating $25. So, more spending...but it's worth it to me.

Guess what? I'm famous!

Thanks go to Single Ma for featuring one of my comments in her article on small luxuries. Check it out!

For Cupcake's Sake

OK, not that I make a secret of it on here or anything, but I'm going to show my hand a little bit and promote what I think is a good cause. Not all agree with me on this, I know, but well...it's my blog, right?

Two of my very closest friends in the entire world are gay men, and one is from California. He sent me an email today about Prop 8, the gay marriage ban proposition. If it were enacted, his hedgehog Cupcake (name changed to protect the innocent) would then belong to a broken family, his two daddies torn apart. This is an actual REAL photo of Cupcake:




Isn't he a cutie??

Today I donated $50 (my charity budget for this month) to Love, Honor, Cherish, a non-profit organization formed against Prop 8 in California. Gays and lesbians JUST got the right to marry in CA, and now the vote is up again to ban it. It's very sad that our country hasn't caught up to the times. The thought that keeps popping up in my head is that one day, this frenzy against gay/lesbian marriage will be similar to how we view the time when women weren't allowed to vote--just ludicrous.

I wish I could go to their fundraiser in WeHo. Also, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that the gay'borhood in LA is called 'WeHo.' It's the best thing ever.

Anyway, I find it ridiculous that it's even an issue in this day and age. Though I make jokes about hedgehogs in this post, I feel VERY strongly about this. If I were allowed to vote in CA, obviously I'd vote against it (I feel that my Presidential vote is more aptly used in my home state on the East Coast, which is teetering on the edge of being a swing state). Since I can't do that, I CAN get the word out there to my homies in CA through my blog.

Nothing Weekend

BF is always too busy to do anything on the weekends, and I'm always too tired from the workweek. That means that I usually feel like I've wasted two days of the week...and these are adding up, so I'm starting to feel like I'm wasting my life. What good is it to be in a foreign country if I'm too ill to experience it?? I might as well be at home in VA!

Anyway, more updates: I went back to the student health clinic and asked for yet ANOTHER appointment. This time I wasn't taking no for an answer. The doc agreed to let me take the thyroid test, plus some followup thyroid blood tests, in a few weeks instead of in 3 months. This means that the second blood test is being taking only one month after the first one.

Geez. I'm at the point where I HOPE the tests are way off, just so I can try some treatment for it!!

At least the doc visits (and probably the blood tests) are free. I'm STILL getting bills for the blood drawn back in May for my work permit physical. Another $84.94 is due. Sheesh.

As part of my PR application, I have to go through the physical ALL OVER AGAIN. I'm really hoping that it is much cheaper in NZ.

I've been spending money like crazy lately...at least, it feels that way. $1700 for rent (BF was behind), $80 for work clothes, $282 for Christmas presents, and another $25 today for stocking stuffers--fun NZ eats like scroggin, musk sticks, lamb-and-mint flavored potato chips, bacon and cheese balls, honey soy chicken flavored chips, and burger rings! :) My little cousins will get a KICK out of those things.

Oh, and in the coming months, I will be spending approx. $3K on a plane ticket back to NZ from my Christmas break. Part of my vacation will be unpaid, since I haven't worked at my company for a year. Oy. Also, I will be spending $1400 NZD on my Permanent Resident application. Wow!

It feels like I'm working SO HARD to minimize my day-to-day expenses, but it's hard to save with so many large bills coming at me at once. they aren't even super-duper fun expenses like vacations--i don't consider going home a vacation, believe me, my family is WORK. and I hate airplanes and long flights, so I know I'm screwing myself over by living in NZ. Ah well. Hopefully one day I'll look back and it'll all be worth it.

September Budget Roundup

I spent about $75 on groceries tonight. I'm hoping they lasts me a little while...but i've already spent almost half of my monthly budgeted amount. :(

In September, I budgeted $250 and spent $286 on groceries. Not bad considering that I spent almost $500 in August. (!)

I spent almost $80 on eating out, $155 on misc. stuff, $20 on medical, $70 on my cell phone/calls to the US, and only $10 on charity in September. I mostly stayed within my budget. The misc. spending was comprised of a $50 fee for joining Air NZ's miles program, $24 on renting videos, about $35 on laundry, a flashlight, and household cleaning supplies, and nearly $40 on postcards, postage, and stuff that BF wanted while out shopping (but he pays for stuff for me all the time too, we sort of take turns).

The $70 on cell phones/phone cards/Skype isn't actually as bad as it sounds, 'cause alot of that will carry over into this month (so spending should be less in October).

I opened up a Raboplus bank account thanks to Tasha. I didn't end up using her code for a free $30 to open up the account because I found one for $50 if you opened it up with an initial $2500 deposit! $50 should be credited to my account on October 10, we'll see if it worked. I was thinking of opening up an account with them anyway--they consistently have the highest interest rate.

So anyway, I saved around $2500 in September. I only made $2900 or so, but the trick is that I'm spending down my US dollars by putting everything on my credit card and paying it with my USD Emergency Fund. It's probably not the smartest way to do things, but it works til I can think of a better method.

Eventually I'll have to start converting NZD to USD to keep up...here's hoping the NZD gets stronger! (because I really don't want the USD to get any weaker...)

In the meantime, I'm building a pretty good NZD emergency fund. I have $4500 (plus some random interest) already!

Work Trip

My trip to Taupo yesterday went well, but meant that I put in nearly a 16 hour workday. Needless to say, I took the morning off today (because I feel really tired when I work an 8 hour day).

Anyway, the meeting lasted all day long and was very productive. My part only lasted about 15 minutes, so I was sitting in a room watching 3 other people talk for the rest of the time...they were mostly going over budgets--even for ME, who can spend 3 hours poring over my own budget with glee, it was not so fun. But I guess it's good to see what goes on behind science projects.

So the place the meeting was held was actually one of the headquarters for one of the agencies I applied to work for when I got to NZ. It was very interesting to see what Could Have Been (and may still be, in the future!). I met a lot of important people that I will work with in the future (hopefully closely if my plan goes well).

One in particular is one of the Greats in my field, and has received MANY achievement awards. He was a guest for a few days; he didn't actually work there, and people were bending over backwards to cater to him and make sure he had a good time while visiting. He pioneered several breakthrough methods that have saved alot of lives and that people use today as a basis for new models predicting hazards. Anyway, it was very very nice to meet him--despite what happened later, he is definitely a nice guy, and I'd love to work with him.

But of course, because I'm uber-sensitive lately, I'm a little upset because something bad happened.

While I was being introduced around to these people I really wanted to make a good impression upon, and work with later, my supervisor said where I went to grad school and who I worked with (one of my grad school profs is from NZ, so he knows all these people). Somehow when getting introduced to the Great, award winning guy, she didn't mention the school/NZ prof connection. Later, in front of the entire group of people I wanted to impress, the conversation naturally turns to my grad school and NZ prof. The Great guy immediately starts talking about how my grad school and the grad program that I went through didn't attract good or exceptional students, or turn out solid people. He went on to specify the students that worked with this NZ professor.

Oh. Crap.

I am one of those students, as are my highly intelligent, wonderful best friends.

My face turned bright red, and no one dared to look at me. I couldn't embarrass this Great guy in front of his colleagues, and what would I say, anyway? "Oh, well, when I went there and worked with this guy, the students were good!" Right. Meanwhile everyone I wanted to impress now thinks that I went to a sh1tty school.

Oy. All I can do is hope that everyone temporarily forgot that I went there and worked with this guy...kind of unlikely as I talked to each of them for several minutes about it. Hopefully my work performance was good enough to dissuade them from making the sweeping generalization that all students going through that program working with that prof are horrible.

!

So this was pretty embarrassing, right? I mean, I'm not over-reacting here?

They Just Don't Understand

Why don't doctors treat patients and not numbers? I'm telling her that I FEEL LIKE CRAP and HAVE ALL THE SYMPTOMS and she says, Well, your blah blah blah TSH number is high but still in the normal range (the very upper limit, as in if it were 0.00001 higher, it would be out of range). So we're going to do nothing.

It's like, until I'm bedridden and dying, they aren't going to do anything. and even then, if my numbers are in range, they'll just give me an anti-depressant and tell me to walk it off. Hrmph.

Yeah, so I went to the doctor today, and she basically told me to exercise more. WHEN I DO I FEEL WORSE. Now what? She just says that is how it is. I have to live with it.

Oh, and she said that I'm only 30 and shouldn't feel so tired. DUH. THAT IS WHY I'M HERE.

I just kept asking her over and over, what are you going to do about my symptoms? and she just kept saying, nothing. over and over.

I printed out a bunch of research from the Internets (God knows how reliable it is, but it validates my feeling that there is something wrong), and she didn't even LOOK at it. I had a checklist with all the symptoms of Hypo and filled it out so she could see what I was dealing with, and nothing. All the research, just brushed aside. I know I'm not a doctor, but hello? at least look like you are taking me seriously!

Oh, and I was prescribed some iron pills last time, because my ferritin was low (but i was still in the normal range)--I said I wasn't feeling much better and this doctor said that it was a low dosage and that therefore, i shouldn't feel better. I gave her a 'WTF?' look and asked her why I was taking them, then? She just said that they had a placebo effect for some people and it did work sometimes. Not for all, and she wouldn't expect them to work in MY case, but for some people, it helped. Wow. So I'm taking a pill that I don't really have to, that shouldn't work in theory. Great.

OK rant over. But really. I'm almost to the point where I'm thinking I'm really crazy for feeling this way. and totally lazy. I'm actually going to try to do what she suggests, and work out harder. I'm desperate. I don't know what else to do. I am scared to try holistic methods, 'cause they just seem like bunk to me, and scams, and I'm afraid that trying some non-tested alternative medicine or pill will make me worse somehow.

I've made another appointment, to see another doctor at Student Health, to see if anyone actually will try to help what I think are my symptoms. What do I have to lose? It's free.

I have to go back for blood tests in December for the whole iron-thyroid monitoring thing, as part of the results from the first tests, but I was really hoping that I could get a doctor to look more closely at my situation and DO something before then. Every time I think of making it through another 3 months feeling this way, I cry. And even after 3 months, there's no guarantee that the results will be bad enough for them to treat me.

So what do I do in the meantime? Cry. Whine. Get in the best shape I possibly can. Eat better. Learn what my triggers are. Research more. Keep complaining to doctors. Visit a mental health counselor to make REALLY SURE it's not in my head. Make my life's focus on my health. Those are the only things I can think of--some more constructive than others.

On a Jet Plane...

Tomorrow I will be waking up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am to catch a flight to another city in NZ with my supervisor. We're meeting some other women that are the heads of this project I'm working on, to talk about progress and where we want to see the project go next. I'm kind of nervous actually, because the people I'm meeting tomorrow play key roles in the next phase of my career plan (insert evil laugh). Plus, if I stay in my industry, they are major players--not just in NZ, but worldwide. I NEED them to like me.

It's such a nice turn of events that WOMEN are 100% in control of my project...in science, that is an extremely rare occurrence. I wonder how much it would differ if men were in the mix?

Like Water

Its like the floodgates have opened! I spent $80 on clothes today, and last night I bought my Christmas presents for my family-- it came to about $300. My limit is $100 for each person (mom, dad, sis) so I didn't go over too badly, but it's a little crazy to spend that much in one fell swoop. And my dad doesn't really play games, so...the spending on him is not equal to what my mom and sis will get.

My mom bought the Wii for us for Xmas, and here's what I got:

Dance Dance Revolution Party Bundle for Wii $48.99 w/ shipping
Wii Fit w/ board $142.47
Fishing Master for Wii $32.48
Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure for Wii $21.97
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii $35.99

They all have rave reviews on Amazon (well, not DDR but I desperately wanted to try it). My mom will love the Wii Fit for her daily workouts, and will also probably like Zack and Wiki since it has a lot of puzzles in it. My dad will love the fishing game (hopefully!), and my sis will fall in love with Zelda games b/c it's an adventure-Dungeons and Dragons type game. Hopefully she'll also love the DDR game and it will make it easier for her to work out more.

anyway, I will probably pick up smaller items for each of them at some point, and my Dad will probably go in on the Wii Fit for my mom, keeping me in my Christmas budget nicely.

As far as other spending goes, I was part of a class-action lawsuit against Creative Technologies (I bought one of their MP3 players back in '05), and they gave me a 20% coupon as part of my settlement. It seems to work out quite nicely for Creative--either they give me 20% and gain 80% of my money for the item, or I don't use the coupon at all and it costs them nothing. I'm thinking of buying a new MP3 player with more memory (my 30 GB is almost full, thanks to having a DJ roommate for a year) and with a screen to watch movies and pictures! So exciting...

Oh, and it was my turn to pay rent, but BF somehow became behind on the rent (in NZ, they charge by the week--$300 every Monday to be exact--instead of monthly like in the US), so I ended up paying $1700 instead of $1200 for the absolute pleasure (NOT) of renting this craphole until November 4.

All that means is that October's budget is COMPLETELY BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER. I just can't seem to stop myself...

Exclamation Points!

My supervisor, who I have a total girl crush on, uses exclamation points like crazy in her emails. I find it fun and brings an energy to writing, but I also find it concerning that I seem to have adopted the habit...

Have you noticed my writing getting more exclamation-y? If so, that's why...keep on the lookout for it and let me know if the pattern increases (!).

(oh crap now I CAN'T use exclamation points for fear that I'm overusing them.)

No Energy to Price Compare!

Well, I've been feeling like crap lately, even with the iron pills the doc prescribed to me a couple of weeks ago. I do feel a little stronger, but I'm still really tired, cranky, moody, etc. And now my wrist randomly gets shooting pains--my carpal tunnel is getting worse, which apparently is another sign of hypothyroidism. I made another doc appointment for Tuesday. Here's hoping I can actually muster up the courage, without crying, for the doctor to do some more tests and actually care that my symptoms don't match my 'normal' blood tests!

(Sorry to focus so much on my illness lately, but it's really getting out of control...I can't live like this! to make it finance-related, my doc appts are free so that is a huge blessing, and I don't have any excuses NOT to go to the doc anymore. The insurance co. has already refunded the costs of my first round of blood tests, too!)

The downside to this is that I don't have any energy to keep shopping to get a better deal on the clothes I need for work. I went ahead today and bought the black blazer for $37.49 and two white collared shirts for $22.49 and $18.74 from Farmer's! I also bought a white tank top to wear underneath 'cause white button downs are terribly see-through.

Luckily I already have two pair of black pants to wear at the conference. Thank God, I don't know if I had the ambition to look for black pants as well!

All in all, I spent much less than my goal of $50 for each piece, $88.71 in total. Not horrible considering, but I am the girl who shops twice a year and gets an entire 6 month wardrobe for $150 or under! i usuallly get many more pieces of clothing for 90 bucks...

The whole thing really annoys me because I know EXACTLY where my black jacket is...on the East Coast. At home. across the world. And shipping it here would cost the same or more than the $40 I spent on the black jacket today. Argh.

Auckland Shopping

Thanks to my fellow NZ-ers Muirie and Tasha, I was able to have some idea where to go near my apartment for that blasted black blazer and the white collared shirts I need for work in November. Otherwise, I would have had NO clue where to start. I wandered in and out of shops in the mall today, and on Queen St.--black jackets were almost always $200 to $350!!! FOR JUST THE JACKET. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS! It blew my mind.

After the 'mall' on Queen St didn't serve up any options, I checked out Glassons, couldn't find Shanton, and ended up at Farmers. While they were all cheaper than $200, most of the jackets I saw were at least $80. Still out of my budget. I was, however, able to find a black blazer for $50, with 25% off at Farmer's. That is in my budget, however, they don't allow refunds, so I'm going to continue to look. If I don't find anything by the time the sale ends on the 12th, I'll go back to Farmer's and purchase that jacket (they had plenty in my size).

It was also a blow to suddenly go from size 2 in the US to size 8 or 10 in NZ!! I mean, it's all relative, but my mind doesn't like to think that I'm now a size 10 after always being a 2 or 4 my whole adult life. Ah well.

I still want to check out some of the thrift shops in case they have anything, but I honestly don't think I'm going to find anything decent that's cheaper than $38.50 at Farmers. (Thanks for the rec, Tasha!)

I also stumbled upon the Number 1 Shoe Warehouse on Elliot St. in Auckland. Note to myself: it's through the Strand Arcade from 233-237 Queen St. Cute shoes, cheap prices, lots to choose from...good stuff.

Off to Shop!

The moment I've been dreading is here...I should shop today for a blazer and white shirts I mentioned a few days ago. Thanks for all the suggestions! I will try each one of them (unless i find what I need at the first few shops, of course!).

I took BF to dinner last night to celebrate his scholarship...$48.50 for both of us! That was pretty great, but it helped that all I wanted was their yummy Thai soup, a great yellow curry puff appetizer, and water to drink. I wasn't trying to be frugal, but I find myself migrating to more and more frugal choices naturally, like I've trained my brain to WANT frugal things. That's pretty awesome...

Anyway, that gives me more $$ to spend on his present (a jade necklace). he still has to pick out which jade figurine he wants as a charm on the necklace (he's picking based on the meanings and 'manliness' of the charm).

Oh, and I found out where my sister was and was allowed to talk with her this morning. She hung up on me, which is par for the course, but at least she's safe in a hospital. Small blessings, sometimes.

Interim Report

At first glance, I didn't do too badly this past month (September), budget-wise. I'm starting to get a handle on my groceries.

(but i have a secret, i went to a dinner tonight that was over $200 for 4 people! BF paid and it was yummy--we picked our own hand-crafted French cheeses, wines, breads, ciders, etc. to include in our dinner menu--but still... Shhhh!)


Other news, bad first: My sister is suffering a mental breakdown. Again. She was fine over the weekend, and then WHAM two nights ago she called me, crying, and drove to the hospital--she knew what was coming. They didn't have a bed for her that night, so last night my Mom drove her back and we still don't know what happened or where she is right now. The hospital told my mom she had to leave around midnight last night, and my sister would go whereever there was a bed available next. Sigh. She was doing so well, mentally (but making really bad decisions and letting people take advantage of her, mostly guys, ISH). It always breaks my heart, and throws my life and mood out of whack when she's sick like this. No matter how many times it happens. and I just don't know how to HELP.

--I bought $2,000 worth of my two index funds during the crash yesterday for my Roth. That brings my contributions this year up to about $2900. We won't talk about how much they are actually worth...

--BF found out today he got an amazing scholarship, tax free--so he can stop working so darn much and actually hang out! For me, this means: 1) he won't be in as bad a mood he's been in (for a few days) 2) I need to spring for an amazing dinner out and gift I promised him if he got it. I'll spend no more than $250 total on this present + dinner. (the dinner tonight was a pre-planned dinner with some people, and I HAD NO IDEA it was so expensive, otherwise I may not have gone.)

--I received my invitation to apply packet in the mail from Immigration. My life in the next few months will be TAKEN OVER with chasing paper. UGH. Not looking forward to it. However, free healthcare! and the opportunity to live in such a well-balanced, REASONABLE society is an incentive that I just can't argue with. The more I compare the NZ govt w/ US's, the more I heart New Zealand. I'm all for American pride--I really am, but people, we have Problems. Capital P. and I don't see anyone fixing it anytime soon.

Need to Spend Money!

Ok, I need some suggestions from anyone that knows NZ shopping. I need a black jacket (think blazer) and white collared shirts for an upcoming work function--by November. The shirts should be wrinkle-free and easy to care for, and free of too much decoration, and def. not too see-through! They should also be less than ~$50 each. Any ideas where to go??

I've checked the Warehouse for cheapie shirts, but no avail. I also want to check the Salvation Army store around here. Are there any other thrift shops to check?

It's a Better Day

So I ended up miraculously getting a 'decision successful' on my EOI (Expression of Interest, the first step in applying for New Zealand residency), after all! The next step is to receive my 'Invitation to Apply' for NZ residency--that should be coming by courier soon.

They weren't going to count my job offer, which meant that I may not have enough points to qualify, and even if I did have enough, I would have to undergo an interview during the application process. Not a big deal, but one more thing that could go wrong, you know?

It hasn't been confirmed, but I think I've provided enough info to count it now. To count my job offer, the work has to be 40 hours a week (check), the contract has to specify that the work is for 12 months with an option to continue (check, but my offer letter specifically says, 'dependent upon funding'), AND it has to include "all the mandatory employment conditions such as leave, redundancy, disciplinary procedures, etc."

What I initially sent my case officer was just my offer letter, which doesn't list out the third and last requirement--that was in a separate document. Since I didn't know she needed that, I didn't send it to her. Argh.

Anyway, now that that $400 portion is over, I can start the really expensive and hard process--actually applying for PR! One step closer...with the way that the banks are failing in the U.S., well, it feels good that I may have a backup (or a Plan A?) plan in place.

Tomorrow I actually have plans! with people! in NZ! This is a first. Unfortunately, they are people BF and I work with, and we're just tagging along on a field trip, but it will be good to see another part of Auckland--the beach! I'm excited.

Also, things at work are really shaping up--I'm using my background to consult on a project. If you remember, I left my last consulting job because I hated it. I was not sure if I wanted to go back into it at my new company, but in this case, I think I will like it.

At my new company, I will be representing the landowner, the people who were wronged, instead of the company that spoiled the land in the first place. I will get to actually clean up the land as much as possible, which was my initial intention going into consultancy anyway. This didn't happen at my last job because money was the goal--for the client and for my company. In this project, actually cleaning up the Maori land (restoring the 'mauri' or spirit) for the Maori people is the goal. It sounds like it will be vastly more rewarding! I kind of can't wait to help out and lend my expertise as much as possible. It feels really good that all of my hard work and training at my miserable last job isn't going to waste.

When my supervisor heard of this new project, she was happy because she wanted to get me away from the 'Admin' stuff at my company, anyway. If you recall, half of my job is science, and the other half is supposed to be as a 'receptionist.' (The science project didn't have enough funding to hire me full-time, so the company picked up the tab for the rest of my salary.) Anyway, I'm happy that my supervisor wants me to move up and actually use my brain a bit...is it weird if I say that I love her?? Seriously, she asked me to water her plant the other day when she was out and I leapt at the chance to help her! I am her bi-atch, totally and completely.

Back to Square One

So my test results don't explain why I'm tired exactly. I'm still borderline hypothyroid (4.0 out of a normal range of 0.4-4.0)--they don't treat this, I need to go back in 12 weeks. My iron levels are normal, but slightly lower than average, so the doc still gave me some iron pills to take.

Um, ok. none of this helps explain why I'm so insanely tired all the time and why it started after getting mono 5 years ago. More and more my symptoms lead me to think I need to get tested for chronic fatigue or chronic epstein barr virus. My cytomegalovirus antibody levels are over 100 units/ml when normal is 0-14--this virus causes mono, and the antibodies stay in your blood forever after infection, but aren't normally as high as mine. That seems awfully suspicious, but the doc doesn't take it seriously and is not following up on it.

Also, immigration decided that my job doesn't count as real because of how my contract is written (funny how it feels real for 10 hours a day), and so I don't qualify to apply for PR.

Sad day. I feel disheartened, but I'm doggedly determined to resolve both of these issues--I need to go back to a different doctor, until one of them tests me or diagnosis me with something that explains my symptoms. I'm also going to talk to my bosses to see if they are willing to change my contract wording.

Cooking Update

No sign of my test results for the blood drawn last tuesday to determine whether I'm just crazy and lazy, or if something really is wrong with me. Results should be in by Monday (tomorrow).

Anyway, this week has been very different from most, in that I got sick and tired of cooking one meal over the weekend and making it last through the week--ie, eating the same thing every day. For the past two months, I've been chopping up veggies and chicken, making a sauce, cooking a pound of pasta, and then just eating on that for the next five days or so. BF long ago decided he didn't want to go the same route, so I stopped cooking for him. But this past week I made all of the food, and when I sat down to eat it, I found I just...couldn't. My body was repulsed with the lack of options and the same taste over and over again. So, what is a girl to do? BF was more than happy to indulge and eat takeout or go to a restaurant every other night (I still ate leftovers from the day before the second day). I'm still not sure what to do about it--it doesn't help that we don't have a freezer or oven, so freezing a bunch of meals isn't an option, and we have a dorm fridge only, so there's limited storage space. One meal a week is about all we can fit in the fridge, and that's with packing it tight.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought some more, varied meal options: steak strips and bell peppers for stir fry, a whole cooked chicken, lots of veggies. Just something different from pasta...ugh. Does anyone have any other suggestions for cheap, yummy food?

$103.40 groceries

So today I guess I will have to actually cook the food, my least favorite part. I swear, sometimes I think if getting fed intravenously was an option, I'd go for it. What to eat, how to eat it and cook it, how to make it healthy, and when to eat all seem to be an annoying timesuck for me!

Readers Recommend: Wii Games!

Ok, people, time to comment. All of you with Wii experience, please make some game suggestions!

Here's the story--My mom is trying to lose weight, and she's been using the same tired old video for the past few months. Tres boring, after a while, I'm thinking. So, I decided to get her a Wii Fit for Christmas. Only, we (wii, haha) don't HAVE a wii yet.

So I asked my mom to split the cost of a Wii game system for the family for Christmas. She thought that was a fantastic idea, and today she excitedly informed me that she had indeed found one recently, after a month of searching (I can't really look 'cause I'm out of the country...and I have a feeling there's going to be an increasing frenzy as we near Dec. 25). So, Mom gets a Wii Fit game and possibly some sort of brain teaser puzzle game...but what does everyone else get?

Here's some background:

My dad was an avid hunter and fisher before he got sick. Now, he can barely leave the house, and has trouble breathing or moving around too much. He's not computer-literate at all, and is def. not a gamer-type. I want something easy for him to understand, and maybe something related to outdoor redneck sports he can no longer partake in.

My sister is overweight, but isn't physically disabled like my dad, so anything moving around and fun would be great! for her. Maybe a DDR game? She also likes dungeons and dragons, and those kind of role playing games...she wants to be Wiccan as well (not sure how that ties into Wii but i thought i'd throw that out there just in case).

And, well, for ME, in addition to any of the above games, I'd like an adventure type game like Kingdom Hearts or Jack and Daxter...

So, shoot, what should I get?

I Have Faith

I have faith that the economy will get better. Not in the near future, of course, but in the next 30 years? Definitely. I'm not even sure why I'm so confident about it, except that it always has gotten better in the past. All my money is in index funds...

Anyway, this new gov't bailout of AIG...is it really helping or is it just delaying the inevitable? I'm not well-versed enough in economics to take a guess at what 'delaying the inevitable' means, but it's what all the pessimist (or realist, however you're looking at it) economists are saying. What do you think?

A part of me (a sick, sad, twisted part of me, I fully acknowledge this) would like to see exactly how bad it could get without government help. I think it's part of my 'devil that I know' attitude. If I know how bad it can get, and can plan for it, I will be prepared for anything. Muahahah.

In the meantime, I'm saving up my NZD for a Wii and Wii Fit for my Mom and family for Christmas. Yay!

Whoa Meltdown

The Americans in my office are a-buzz with the downfall of the Lehman Bros. and all the other rumors going around in the financial world. It's impacting the NZ financials, as well--the thing about being a superpower is, when you have troubles, everyone is worried. I guess it's like when you were little and looked up to your Mom--if she was crying or majorly upset, you knew something was terribly, terribly wrong. and you felt it, too.

Ok, maybe that's a horrible analogy. But this kind of thing is what we all sort of felt was coming--a major disaster has been looming for a while. The gov't has, so far, jumped in and saved us not once, but twice in the past year. That's just crazy. To continue with the parent analogy, their behavior is similar to parents who just can't stop giving their kids money, keeping them from learning on their own. It has to stop. Let it shake down! Let the effects of our past actions be felt and known! My feeling is, that is the only way it. will. end.

The state of America right now...for shame. My head hangs and all I can do is shake my head in despair when a Kiwi asks me how I feel about everything going on. So much of what is going on directly conflicts with my personal beliefs. I feel for everyone still over there, but I am relieved that I'm not there, honestly.

On a different note, after the election, I hope the US starts looking towards more socialist countries like NZ as a model. I talked to a Kiwi co-worker today that was completely flabbergasted when I told him about 401(k)'s (the gov't gives them each $1K to start their kiwisaver), student loans and interest (their student loans are interest free for life), how the healthcare system works ("but what do you do when you get sick??" he asked), and how someone can walk into your house, trip over something, and sue you. It's all so interesting to realize the various perspectives!

The hardest part was explaining the healthcare system, and how you can't just pay $40 for a broken leg and receive all the care and checkups you need ($40 is crazy cheap!). In the US, you probably have to get a ride in an ambulance if you break your leg, and get charged maybe $300, which your insurance may or may not cover. If you have a deductible, you most likely have to pay that out first. It is tied with your employer in most cases. All of these things were just mind-blowing and he asked the same questions a couple of times out of disbelief. I don't blame him.

On this note, my Expression of Interest (the first step to become a Permanent Resident of NZ) was selected. That means that they'll check my EoI and make sure I'm telling the truth and have enough points to apply for PR, and then they will send me an Invitation to Apply (ITA). You'll be seeing these acronyms alot in the future here at StD... :)

The Best Interest Rate Ever

I forgot to mention that I opened up an 'online call' savings account at Kiwibank last week. If you have more than $2000 in the account (which I do thanks to back-pay for August), the interest rate is 8.1% p.a., which includes a 0.5% monthly bonus if you don't withdraw any money from the account during the month. As that is insanely better than my stock portfolio has done in the past year, I think that's pretty rockin'.

Yeah, it's ok to be jealous of me. :)

Sorry

for the lack of posting. I'm feeling neglected and tired, and I guess my blog is getting the brunt of it. Over the weekend, BF and I visited a little town across the harbor by ferry, and we did alot of walking around. As soon as I sat down for lunch I got incredibly dizzy and came really close to passing out--I was definitely fighting to stay conscious, which is very scary. It was definitely not blood-sugar related, as I had eaten breakfast and I know what a dip in my blood sugar feels like by this point in my life. The dizziness passed after a little while, and I felt better after climbing and exploring one of the local volcanic hills.

Luckily, I had made a doctor's appointment for today last week, in order to try and fix whatever my problem is. She was great, and ordered a whole bunch of blood tests, after confirming that I wasn't pregnant...twice. Yeah, as if that was a possibility, after the way my relationship has been going... :/

I don't know how confident I am that they will find anything notable. I mean, I half hope that they don't, and on the other hand, I want to know the reason why I've been so tired and achy and moody for the last couple of years (I have gone to the doctor about this before, but they all said it was in my head...I figured since it's getting worse, it's time to go back!).

It all lines up with hypothyroidism, which I (barely) tested positive for last May, but the doc here said that they don't even prescribe medicine until a certain hormone goes above/below a certain threshold. So they are doing one test for thyroid, alot more to test some vitamin levels, anemia, kidney/liver functions, and a whole host of other possibilities--12 tests altogether. I also specially asked to test my EBV/CBV levels (these are the viruses that cause mono, and I haven't really felt 'right' since I had mono 4 years ago...).

All of those tests are going to cost $187--and the clinic people said that I just need to grab a claim form and my insurance should cover it. In contrast, I'm STILL paying for the blood tests I had done back in May for my Immigration physical. Insane--it's cost me over $500 now. and that was also with insurance. The ladies that calculated up my total for the tests today laughed when I asked how likely the student insurance was to pay for the whole thing--they said it was unheard of for insurance to NOT pay for the whole amount. Was this statement weird for an American to hear? Definitely.

My visit with the doctor today was ...wait for it... FREE! Mostly due to my partnership status with a student, but a little bit because I'm in the glorious land of New Zealand, where they actually want to help people without bankrupting them. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to not really have to worry about costs. I can just...get better!