Jenna's House of Idiosyncrasies Version 10.0 [Focus.]

My joke about my life now is the kind that is funny because it is painful. Right about the time I was going to graduate from high school, lo these many years ago, there were two things I was certain of: I hadn't chosen a career yet, but I knew there was no way it would involve websites. I also knew that no matter what, once I moved out of Winder, I would never, ever move back.

This, Internet, should teach you a small but important lesson about hubris.

Not only have I been building an entire business out of websites for almost three years, but about 8 weeks ago, experiencing financial hardship, I moved back to Winder. I now split my time between my parents' home and a housesitting gig for a family friend. I actually commute to my gym in Athens to work out with my trainer once a week, so great is my commitment to my muscles. Outside of that, however, the move has proved to be fairly isolating. I was pretty much decimated fiscally when I decided to make the move back, so at the present I have no money to buy gas or go get a beer with my friends, and worse, I have no cell phone.

This is the longest I have been without a phone since I was 17, and while I understand that there was a world before cell phones, I have to tell you that these days, the world is set up for mobile but connected people. So great is my longing for a new phone that I have dreamed of the one I am saving up for multiple times. Editorially I have always vowed to stay far away from gadgetry as a topic of my writing, but Internet, that should simply highlight how important this has become.

Pretty much all of my internal dialog is consumed by financial planning now, trying to figure out which bill to pay off when and how does that effect when and what I eat — and eventually, when I'll be able to move home to Athens — and while it is important to me, it hardly makes for compelling prose, so until I get obsessed with a man again, or get really depressed, or have some great news to announce, I have a feeling I am going to be quite humdrum for awhile. I hope, Internet, that you'll stick with me all the same.

I do this every year, (or, at least, every year since 2003) and it is absolutely compulsory.

As in years past, I must preface this with a warning to not proceed if you have delicate sensibilities. I would say, though, that overall, I've been especially good this year. Read More »

So I've moved. Half a block down the street. My entire apartment is the same size as some people's living rooms, but it is a perfect amount of space for me, and I'm very close to having it organized and painfully cute.

The only thing that is missing from there right now is internet access. Blah.

living and loving life, realizing how much stuff I own, moving, thinking about moving, talking about moving, being organized, lots and lots of driving

I have found that, out of pure laziness, my blue flip flops (my first-ever pair of flip flops, mind you) go with everything, even when they don't go with everything. This enables me to avoid the whole tying/velcro/fastening that comes with all my other shoes, which is so tiresome.

The new job is going well. I have noticed that in my office, going full time is a feeling not unlike finally being let in on some private joke. I'm not sure what the joke is, exactly, but I feel like I know the punchline.

Because I fucked around so much last year school-wise (long story short, I failed more classes than I passed), I am no longer eligible for financial aid. I therefore have no freakin’ clue how I am going to pay for my tuition. I am contemplating starting a Dropcash campaign. We at the House are not above begging.

Despite my best efforts, all I talk about now is interest rates, debt, investing, and how stressed out my current financial situation is making me. I just need to remember that if I can get through the next six months, it is all downhill from there.

I am moving July 31st. Across the street. I am way excited, even though I will have no real furniture for awhile due to the while tuition fiasco. However, I will be living alone. I firmly believe that a lack of roommates is a sure sign of adulthood. Even if you manage the whole being-an-adult thing quite poorly, like myself.

Friends, romans, countrymen: if you would like to help me move, I am offering lunch and/or dinner and/or beer and/or something more scandalous. All you have to do is save the date; I really don't own that much stuff so it shouldn't be tons of work. Very minimal amount of marching across the street with heavy objects. Do get in touch, lovelys.

Starting next week I will be working from 11 AM to 8 PM. So when you call me at 7:30 and I tell you I'm still at work, please do not be surprised. It'll be totally status quo.

Whew. I am way boring lately.

thinking about pimping out the new apartment; impressing my coworkers; my bonding time with CB on fake lunches (we clock out but neither of us eat); party promoting; melodramatic music in various incarnations; watching the cops tear down the MTV reality show casting call flyers off of all the lamp posts in town, hoping they'll fine MTV; productivity/gtd porn; counting the days

When I started my job at my current place of work, my part time position was called, no joke, ‘Junior Web Author’. I always resented the ‘Junior’ and routinely trimmed it out of conversations and correspondence. Eventually this title was changed to the more respectable ‘Associate Web Developer’, but by that time the connotation had stuck. Some kind of intern. However, I have made the most of it, pushing for more hours and more challenging work, innovating processes, and turning myself into an important asset.

This has paid off.

Last week one of my managers called me into his office to deliver some good news: my move up to the full time position that I had been fighting for was official, and would take effect on Monday, May 16th. The move is contingent on me continuing to go to school and eventually finishing, which means, starting in the fall, I'll be working a 40 hour work week (the late shift for West coast support, 11 AM to 8 PM) plus taking 2 to 3 classes in the morning (including 8 AMs, I'm sure). Because I have not taken school at all seriously for the last year and a half, it will take me another 3 to 4 years to graduate. The whole 12-hour day thing is going to kick my ass, and crazy me, I'm excited by the prospect! I think this is how it feels to have goals. And it feels really good.

Continuing the theme of ‘Bigness in the Life of Jenna’ I signed a new lease last week, for a studio apartment about half a block from where I live now. While the new place isn't a swank as the place I currently share with five others, it will be entirely mine. No longer sharing a bedroom with another person (even if that person is the fair red headed friend) is going to be a plus, even if it's just so I can set 4 different alarms without waking up anyone but myself.

For the first time in a long time, things are going really well. So well, in fact, that aside from the initial shock of nearly ending up in the hospital, the car accident I was in over the weekend presented itself as a minor inconvenience. This is preferable to allowing it to induce panic over how can I possibly deal with one more bad thing, which would have been my reaction just a short time ago. Read More »

apartment hunting, getting drunk on tequila on Cinco de Mayo with my boyz, mentally inventorying and organizing most of my stuff to prepare for moving (even though it not for at least two months, I just get off on being organized), I should go spend it all on bitches and crack. Who's with me?!, Don't get me wrong: I loves me some cleavage, fact checking is for suckers, He changed our diapers while wearing a hazmat suit., being allowed to use the word ‘crunk’ any damn time I want to, Sam (who, by the way, is simply jealous that he will never even on a good day be as crunk as me!) Link me up when you take a screenshot, kiddo.