Ready for the Next Phase

As 2009 comes to a close, I am sitting here thinking about all I've experienced in the past year... And beyond that the past decade. I am beginning 2010 with a wonderful support system of family and friends, a new job, a new apartment, a stronger love relationship, and a new lease on life! I hesitate to call 2009 a challenge... It was more like a lesson in life and having faith in God.

There have been so many blessings in my life, both expected and unexpected, that have led me to a place I never would have imagined myself being in... A place of peace and purpose. A place of goal setting and achieving. A place of love and appreciation.

I am looking forward to everything that 2010 has to offer me!!!

Life Sabbatical

I am currently “between" jobs” (literally) so I’m thinking of this time period as a sort of unofficial personal sabbatical. Unfortunately, the “spare” time everything but free. I have sooo much to do. In preparation for 2010 I am really changing my life style. REALLY. (Yeah, I know I said that every fall but this time I’m DEAD SERIOUS).

2009 was FUN. Soooo much fun! I went to well over a dozen different cities, some more than once, hung out with all of my girl friends and experienced a fun summer in the city I live in and love! (Chicago, for my new blog friends). Unfortunately, all this fun left one of my biggest goals for 2009 on the back burner – saving money. My plan was to sacrifice 2009 as my hard-core year of saving and laying low, and live it up in 2010… except I did it backwards. So what happens now? I have to do the extreme opposite for 2010 in order to make up for it.

• No girlfriend trips. NONE. Family trips are ok and I need to take some time to vacation with “Bobby” since we didn’t get to do much this year, but my friends have to wait until 2011! They are not taking that well, since there is a 30th Birthday celebration planned in Miami this coming March (that I was attempting to count as my birthday celebration too).
  
• Move into a less expensive apartment – I was living the HIGH life here in Chicago and despite early attempts to justify the costs, reality set in that I was living beyond my means. Time to find a cheaper place.
  
• SAVE SAVE SAVE – stop eating out as much. And not just eating out…. I mean the expensive dinner+drink events  go on with my girlfriends regularly. You have to treat yourself, but I need to get back to the point where its actually a “treat” and not the norm!
  
• Take the BIG TEST – Engineers can earn the designation of ”PE” by passing a specialized exam that demonstrates their knowledge of the industry. I WILL take that test. The version I want to take is offered in April and while 2010 is very close, 2011 is VERY realistic. I have developed a detailed outline for my study prep to ace pass the exam in 16 months. Its daunting but I WILL do it!!

So these last 28 days will be enjoyed responsibly, but January 1 will bring a whole new light to my life. It should be very interesting! A year with limited travel??? What on earth will I do with myself?? I need to find a good birthday gift that will keep me entertained throughout the year and prevent me from daydreaming too hard about leaving town… any suggestions? A Wii? A new purse? A new Blackberry? Should I order cable/satellite? A gym membership? An all-in-one printer, scanner, copier so i can scan all these pics in? VHS-DVD extracting and converting software/hardware? So many options…


As for the Item of the Day, I got a message a while back about the Burberry sale going on. I am a huge fan of the classic Burberry trench coats, but didn’t pay much attention to the handbags… until now. There are some AWESOME items on sale! Maybe these Powerball numbers will hit in time for me to grab a few nice gifts for myself and my friends :-)





HAPPY HOLIDAY SHOPPING!!!