mercuriosity, posts by tag: $ - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
Things I did today:
Put down a deposit on a 2-bedroom apartment that I cannot afford to live in by myself.
Turned down an English-teaching job.
Somehow, some way, these actions together make some sort of sense. It is the kind of sense you will probably not understand if you are not me at this very moment. Stay tuned for news of my IMPENDING POVERTY.
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07 August 2008 @ 12:27 am
The good part: Tomorrow is pay day.
The bad part: One week of unpaid vacation + two typhoon days in July = brokenessssss
Tags: $
Holy crap am I going to be broke this month. February is an awful, awful month: a whole week of not working during CNY, and I had to take two sick days.
*brief panic*
...on closer inspection, it might not be so bad? It'll be doable. But I foresee a lot of cup noodles for dinner.
Day 6 of 7, by the way. Assuming successful completion, I may decide to extend this daily thing for another week!
Current Mood: no house, no
I signed up for Chinese classes this morning. The potential mood boost from taking action and making some kind of progress in my life here was tempered by the anxiety-inducing feeling of handing over ALL MY MONEY. Seriously; I'd managed to hold onto a fair portion of my last paycheck and was looking forward to ending this month on a less impoverished note than the last, a hope which quietly poofed away in the seconds it took me to sign my name and receive a bill for a month's tuition. At least it's a worthy cause? But broke is broke; I may just have signed up for something I can't really afford. So that's causing me some anxiety right now.
(I guess I could lighten my class schedule next month if money's really an issue. At least I got my foot in the door; let's just hope the door doesn't swing shut on it.)
PS. I'm already bad at anything even approaching an intimate relationship, and then I have to go and throw a language barrier into the mix? Oh, way to go, me.
30 January 2008 @ 11:51 pm
The internet guys came to my apartment on Monday. I must have subconsciously been expecting some musty, middle-aged nerd or something? Because I was a little surprised when a young, modestly cute guy knocked on my door. This only added to the embarrassment of not speaking or understanding enough Chinese to be useful and standing around like an idiot. Communication was managed, with much awkward laughter on both sides; the end result being that I finally have my very own internet connection and no longer have to rely on a patchwork solution of hundred-year-old communal computers and borrowed gadgetry. HELLO, INTERNETS. Let's never be separated again!
I'm meeting with the resident Chinese teacher tomorrow to talk about taking classes and so she can see how little I've retained from two years of college classes. I'm sort of wearily resigned to the fact that I'm going to embarrass myself, but the prospect of studying again is cheering. (Language-related shame and guilt issues to be discussed in another post, if ever.) Wish me...luck? A sudden burst of language ability and/or confidence? Cheat sheets? Whatever it takes to make it through an interview without wanting to crawl into a dark hole and never come out.
Current Mood: lethargic
Huh. My Visa bill this month is a big one--though not the biggest I've ever had--but when I subtract the things I'll be reimbursed for (ridiculously expensive phone for my brother, groceries, $200 plane ticket to Philadelphia), it's the smallest bill I've had in a while by a significant margin. That's kind of...nice.
Of course, this should in no way be taken as a sign of fiscal responsibility on my part. I don't actually know how good the average college student is with money--you hear horror stories about 20-somethings racking up thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and that's not me, but I'm not as responsible or restrained as I'd like to be either. As evidenced by the fact that I just ordered two pairs of
gorgeous, irresistible
shoes. *cough*
(Oh god, I hope I get reimbursed for my plane ticket. I'm a little worried that the paperwork won't get there on time, and that would just be the icing on the cake, wouldn't it? *fret*)