Life
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Looking for the Good
I don’t know if I am a natural optimist or not. What I do know is I am not a born pessimist, and sometimes that’s the same as being an optimist. There have been some pretty stressful things happening in the lives of people I care about recently, and to help make it through, I have found myself looking for the good, even in the midst of the bad and the hard. Because being able to do that has been one of the keys to surviving the really awful. What does that look like? Well, here are three situations difficult situations my family has been dealing with lately and what…
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A New Direction For Me
I have been quiet here on the blog recently. I have had ideas for blog posts. I have even written things I meant to be blog posts, but for one reason or another, I have decided not to share/post those. Like with many people, I have spent a lot of time these last few months examining my life- where I am and where I want to go. For the most part, I am lucky. My job has been impacted by the pandemic, but not changed. I work from home right now, but I still do the same work. I am not concerned about losing my job. I did not get…
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In Defense of a Liberal Arts Education
I was recently in a Twitter conversation with someone who claimed that no way would his kids be going to college for some generic arts & sciences or business degree. That college just was not worth it. He would rather spend the money just setting them up in a business and let them learn that way. Now, I do not know this person, though I have the impression that his kids are not even school age yet, let alone anywhere near going to college, so there is a lot of time for his opinion to change regarding the value of a college education (based on either his experience as a…
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Pandemic Diary, Day 46
Random Bits One of the things I have found I am struggling with working from home is ever feeling like I am NOT at work. I have MS Teams on my tablet, which is what I use in the evening, so my team can reach me to ask questions when they are working. So even though I leave the home office and try not to go back in there, work finds me.One of the things I am doing to help with this is that I put on real shoes in the morning. I leave the shoes on the rest of the day. And then, at the end of the workday,…
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Pandemic Diary, Day 31
Today marks the end of the first month of the pandemic. My little world remains pretty stable. Within my wider circle of acquaintances, a few people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, but everyone seems to have somewhat mild symptoms and is recovering. This is good, and I hope it stays this way. I have been trying to write something here all day. I want to document this. I think that matters. But I also do not know what to say. So much of my life feels “normal”. I am working from home, but I am still working. Some of the issues I am dealing with are different, but not really. …
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Pandemic Diary, Day 26
5:40a – C “Are you actually sleeping?” Me “No, what do you need me to do for you?” C “I need to send an email to work to tell them I’m not coming in for 2 weeks.”And thus began my morning. C most likely does not have the virus. He is a smoker, who has been smoking more due to stress, and he is prone to sinus infections. But a cough woke him up in the middle of the night, and so, we are going with an abundance of caution. (Please note that up until a week ago, I got up at 5:30a every morning, so this was not all…
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Pandemic Diary, Day 25
Yesterday, I managed 4 walks. But I got the number of steps I wanted for the day in the end, so we are calling that a win. This morning, I did not get up in time to do the 6:40a walk before starting work. 7:45a – I may need to order a new keyboard. This one seems to upset Larry. He’s sleeping happily until I start typing a lot. And then he feels the need to be in my lap. I wonder if it sounds like a really bad storm to him? Next time I’m on Amazon, I may need to look for a quieter keyboard. (Or perhaps I should…
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Pandemic Diary, Day 24
This is the first entry in this series. February 29, 2020, the day Washington’s Governor Inslee declared a state of emergency, is Day 0, and all entries are dated from that point. I started working from home as my “new normal” on day 18. I expect to be working from home for roughly 3 months. In less than 48 hours, Washington will be under a “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order, which should have us all mostly sitting around our houses for at least two weeks. I am lucky in that my job can be done from home, and while my employer, the University of Washington, may be closing down physical…
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Calculated Risks
Let me start by telling you a bit about myself that likely has not come up on this blog before– I am a confident, independent woman in my early 40s. I travel on my own. As an undergrad, I would walk across campus, after dark, by myself. Occasionally, I would walk home at night through an unlit park. When I worked swing shift, getting off work at 2am, I would walk home or to my friends’ house, by myself. I have walked a mile from a bar back to a hotel, after dark, in a city in a different country. I have always done what I want, and not allowed…
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Let’s Talk About Emergency Funds (part 2)
This is a continuation of the post began on Wednesday about the importance of Emergency funds, and how much you need to have in one. But what about those who say you should have 3-6 months worth of living expenses set aside? This is an emergency fund for people who are further along in their financial journey. They are not living paycheck to paycheck, and their debt is low interest and easily manageable. And the 3-6 months living expenses is on the theory that if you lose your job, you will have plenty of time to find a new one. This is not a bad idea, but this forgets that…
