It's been a little over a month, and I have no legitimate excuse for why I failed to blog even a sentence in the past 4 weeks, but to say that I've never had this much fun in my life.
Since my last entry, I've gone on two separate snow trips, with two different small groups of people, went on a weekend trip to Las Vegas, for the first time since 2-3 years ago, taken up an increasing amount of responsibilities at work, due to Susan's decision to leave Schwab, just all in all a very good time.
With all the madness at work and at home, the last couple of months, I found very little time actually being able to read a good novel. I have a row of some thirty odd books, all purchased with the intent of being read at some point in my life, and sadly, have not had a chance to lift a single page of any of the novels. Along with that is my juggling a full time boyfriend, who lives about two hours away... constant chatting, and feeling in a sense obligated to entertain and to keep entertained should he fall out of intrigue with me. Though it's been said (contrary to my beliefs) that it would be hard to become bored with someone so full of energy, mystery, spontaneity, randomness, and overall "spunk".
Thankfully after so many months, my SO has become increasingly caring, and more willing to drive to see me, every week, of course to the dismay of his mother. Least to say, he never visited home much, or often, so knowing that he comes to see me as much as he does... makes it extremely hard for a mother. I understand.
A couple more things to glaze over, the spring season and lastly being physically and financially fit.
So with spring just around the corner, there's an increasing desire to be more fit than I had been in a bikini last year. Of course with all my weight lifting and jogging last year, I'm in much better shape than I had been a year ago, today; however, despite that, I'm in worse shape than I had been at the beginning of November, before the holiday season. I just started going back to the gym, on Friday, and made occasional trips to the gym once or twice every two weeks or so. Not frequent enough for my abs to take shape, or to lose any amount of weight. Last June, I had found myself in a car accident, and ended up opting for a personal trainer, because my chiropractor told me I shouldn't run anymore. I got into relatively good shape, with a slight definition in the abdominal area, since then I've gained around the midsection, and my waist seems to have gotten a bit wider than my hips, so I almost look pear shaped, or something like it. Hopefully the weather doesn't get too cold, and I'll be okay with all the excercising back at the gym.
So to brush on this next subject, since I started working in a financial firm, I've become more aware of my future, forty to fifty years down the line. Though I'm probably not as informed as I'd like to be, I've become aware of a lot of aspects of the business. I've taken a more active role in my retirement planning, checking on how my investments are doing, etc. Of course the egg is still harvesting, and is decent sized for how old I am, I'd like it to be much, much larger. So a couple of days ago, I increased my contributions to about 26%, with 20 going into a roth, and 6 going into a regular... I think I'd like to reach 35% to max out the limit... but I think I'm going to hold off a bit until my raise comes in another month. Hopefully it'll be enough of an increase for the contribution to not seem to take a toll on my supposed "spending" habit. Though I think I save much, much more than most people... it just seems that with all that I am able to purchase.. I could potentially be saving a LOT more... but what of life, and happiness... if I'm constantly hoarding, there'd be no $$ left to make myself enjoy what is life! So hopefully the raise will be a sizable one, though from what I've heard, the raises are so small, that around the time that people find out about their raises... or reviews, most people leave the company in search of better financial possibilities. I'm hoping that won't be the case for me.
With much of the responsibilities that I will be taking over come Monday morning, I'd hope that my superiors, team lead, manager, director will see what a big role I will be taking this coming year. If they want to lose yet another employee, then they can go ahead with the small increases. Those stingy scrooges, and they talk about OneSchwab, and Schwab values... I'd think employee retention and low turnarounds would be a high priority...
Here's to almost a year in the job!
