Rain

I stumbledupon this wonderful image today - Girl with frog umbrella in rain on top of van. It really spoke to me and made me happy for some reason.

I have been listening to rainymood.com alllll day long. It's actually helped me be more productive today. I was productive at school work listening to it as well.

There's just something about the rain that relaxes, calms, and contents me.

$50 for Two Week Challenge - half way

Update on $16.77 groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits - half gone

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines - 1/4 gone

- small loaf of bread - gone

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken - 1/2 gone

- cottage cheese - 1/2 gone

- bag of cheese - 1/2 gone

- 4 yoplait yogurts- all gone

Spent $20 on gas, and maybe something else so I have exactly $12 and some change left.

I've been eating a lot of beans. I made a whole bag of beans on Monday and have had them for at least 4 meals. Not too bad for like $1.

I'm about to go out tonight, so I may spend all $12 tonight. Ick. The poor diet doesn't quite work though because I end up being hungry and insecure about food so end up eating more, and more of bad things like pizza...

Current Musical Moods

These are the folks that I seem to be hearing a lot of recently:
- Jill Scott
- Lily Allen
- Nicki Minaj
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Ke$ha
- Pitbull
- Lil Wayne
- Jazmine Sullivan
- Kid Cudi
- Alicia Keyes
- India Arie
- The Pierces
- The Duhks
- Beyonce
- Bjork
- Enya

Plans (A, B, C, and D)

"It's never too late - in fiction of in life - to revise."

Nancy Thayer

I'm revising my life plans this weekend. Some of these inter-relate; it's hard to separate areas of your life.

These are the areas that I will focus on:

- Career

- Health - nutrition and exercise

- Happiness Plan

- Finances

- Volunteering

- Social Life

I'm excited to see what areas of improvement and goals I come up with.

$50 for two week challenge

Faced with yet another paycheck to paycheck month, I have $50 to last the next two weeks after bills. So, can I live on $50 for food, gas, and everything else? We shall see. I'm approaching this as a challenge, a game - making it a choice and opportunity to learn.

So, today is Weds. So far this week, I have spent $16.57 on groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines

- small loaf of bread

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken

- cottage cheese

- bag of cheese

- 4 yoplait yogurts

More and Less

Things I need more of in my life:

- Connections

- Authenticity

- Fun

- Motivation

- Sunshine

- Exercise

- Good food

- Intellectual stimulation

- Fulfillment

- Creativity

Things I need less of:

- TV

- Alcohol

- Unproductive days at work

- Bad attitudes

- Moodiness

- Hermiting

- Junk food

- Soft addictions

- Caffeine

Flying to SWVA

The following is the overwhelming results of my research on flying to SWVA:

Timing:

• Cheapest : Saturday - Wednesday (or weekdays in general, Tuesday, and sometimes Monday).

Airports:

• Cheapest : GSO, CLT, RDU, LYH, AVL

Full list of major airports near SWVA:

(TRI) Blountville - 5 miles (AVL) Asheville/Hendersonville - 76 miles (TYS) Knoxville - 103 miles (BKW) Beckley - 111 miles (GSP) Greenville/Greer - 114 miles (CLT) Charlotte - 121 miles (INT) Winston Salem - 123 miles (HTS) Huntington/Ashland - 127 miles (CRW) Charleston - 134 miles (GSO) Greensboro - 139 miles (LWB) Lewisburg - 142 miles (ROA) Roanoke - 142 miles (LEX) Lexington - 160 miles (LYH) Lynchburg - 184 miles (AHN) Athens - 186 miles (CHA) Chattanooga - 189 miles (CAE) Columbia - 192 miles

Websites:

• Kayak - my fav, nice to show different airport options.
• Travelocity - Shows deals from airlines
• Priceline - Name your own price can save up to 40% but you can't pick arrival/departure time
• Cheapair.com - never used but looked ok
• Bing travel - interesting to show some options
• Last minute deals.com - recommended by friend's sister
• Expedia - ok

Airlines: Sometimes (though rarely) I find better deals directly from the airline's website:

• Air Tran, Delta, Us Airways, and United all fly to the area