You Live for the Fight When That's All That You've Got

So that song's been in my head for a couple of days now for completely unrelated but incredibly awesome reasons.  But it's a pretty good description of how we've been living around here the last couple of years.

Less so the last couple of months.

We haven't really mentioned it to a lot of people because there were so many potential ways things could go wrong and I got a little . . . superstitious, I guess is the best word.  But now, today, on Thanksgiving . . . it's too exciting a secret to keep.

 So apparently at Convergys they have this policy where if you're talking to someone and the calls drops for some reason you're supposed to call them back.  Except sometimes the policy is you're not supposed to call them back.  And it, like, goes back and forth.  Because that makes sense, right?

Anyway.

Back at the end of July Luke go this call from this lady whose internet for her business wasn't working.  And she was . . . rather unhappy about it.  And trying to do several things at once so she kept dropping her phone.  In fact, she'd previously been talking to someone else Luke worked with, and then after that call dropped she called back and got Luke.  And was not pleasant.  And the call dropped again.  And Luke didn't know what the policy about calling back was at that particular time, but he decided to call her back since he knew the situation and then no one else would have to get yelled at.

Long story short, he couldn't fix the problem but he was able to get the lady calmed down - to the point that she actually offered him a job working for her because she liked how well he handled things so much.  Which at first seemed to both of us a little To Good To Be True (tm) but the website she gave him was (and is) quite legit and the money she quoted was so good as to qualify for ridiculous, so in the end we thought, why not?  Worst case scenario, it's a total scam and we waste some time.

Long story shorter, it wasn't a scam.  Luke has been working part time for C Three since August, he left Convergys last week, and goes full time at C Three on Monday.  And that is what we're dedicating our feast to today.

I have no idea what exactly he does now.  It involves energy . . . and analytics . . . and stuff.  It makes sense when Luke explains it, but not quite enough for me to turn around and explain it to someone else.  So, you know, he's a transponster.  Or something. 

Anyway . . . we're kind of over the moon.  Like I mentioned back in April we've made a few changes to the way we money around here and a few other things too, and we're pretty sure this is the cosmic, spiritual, good-karmic result.  Honestly, this is the best year we've had since we've known each other.  Everything is falling into place, and thankful doesn't even begin to cover it.


Anyway.

so I'll just say that we've had these moments

and these moments

and there will probably be more . . . but for now we're just thankful to feel more secure, and like we really can move forward with all the plans we've been making for the last six years.  Because we're coming up on the six year anniversary of when we got engaged - which is almost as trippy as the part where high school was *cough*way-too-long-ago-and-we'll-not-mention-numbers-again*cough* . . . oy.

 And then there's the part where this is the first Thanksgiving we've ever had where neither one of us has to work.  That's pretty awesome.  (dude, we haven't even had Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day most years . . . )



Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  (or Thanksgivukkuh if you're Eric)



P. ost  S. cript
Such a tragedy that somehow we missed this one when I was a kid.  But we'll be watching it tonight while we eat our pie.  Someone decided we needed four.  For the two of us. (hint: it wasn't me)  On the plus side, at least we'll still have plenty of dessert if the orange-brownies-from-pinterest experiment I decided to go with this year flops.

Do Not Adjust Your Television Set

So I know this is totally going to sound like I've been hacked, and I suppose I can't really prove I haven't been . . . but I'll start by saying I haven't.  And move on to sounding like an infomercial hosted by a Nigerian prince who wants to help you enhance your . . . "stamina" . . .

Anyway.  You may have noticed a new little box over there >>>>>>>>>

Keep going.  It's about halfway down.

There you go.  Yeah.  That one.

It leads to this kind of brilliant little site I discovered back in January through pinterest.  And clearly I need to go through and actually read some of the other money saving pins I've repinned without actually reading.

Anyway.  You sign up.  You do surveys and crap.  You get paid.  Actual money.  I'll be getting a check in the mail in a week or two and that will bring the total amount of money they've sent me to $120 . . . which is not a lot - but is $120 more than we would have had otherwise.

I KNOW.  IT TOTALLY SOUNDS LIKE A SCAM.  IT'S NOT!

In fact, I set up an email account just to sign up for it just in case it was a scam (and I would recommend doing that anyway since there is a bit of spam involved . . . a worth it amount, but this way it's easier to keep track of what's what).  But it's actual checks that we took to our actual banking institution and got actual money deposited in our actual account and there has actually been no bouncing.  It's kind of awesome . . . actually.

So what do you do?

You get emails with a link at the bottom that acknowledges you read it.  You click the link and you get 2 cents credit, which is not a lot but totally adds up.

You take surveys and get paid for it - usually under a dollar but sometimes up to four bucks.

You use their search engine and get credit for it, and if you use it consistently you get a ten cent bonus that week.  And unless you're using an internet connection like the one my parents had up until, like, two minutes ago, you lose no time in doing that first and then doing the same search on google if the results aren't what you were looking for.

You watch short video ads (I use the term watch a little loosely here) and get paid a few cents for each.

You print off coupons which save money on groceries and on top of that get a ten cent credit when you use them.

And you tell everybody you know about it so you get a bonus when they sign up and then more bonuses every time they do a survey.

Oh yeah . . . did I mention I was posting this entirely for mercenary reasons out of the goodness of my heart?  ;-)

Anyway . . . yeah.  I know all y'all are just as broke as us (well, maybe not that broke) so I'm passing it on, now that I've done the "proving it's a real thing" thing.  And now we can all celebrate together.

*this is probably the part where I should mention I didn't get paid to post this. like I said my motives were purely mercenary.  well, somewhat mercenary.*


P. ost  S. cript
So maybe there are only seven plots that keep getting recycled over and over, but here we have more proof that only one song has ever been written in the history of ever.  (side note: Katie - remember the mash-up version of "Friday" and "Baby" a certain someone sang a few years ago?  It still weirds me out to hear "Friday" sung to its actual tune!)

Seasons of Joy

So I recently read this book and I may be a bit of a word nerd, but it was pretty fascinating.  Among all the other bits if trivia about how English is the biggest hodgepodge of borrowings from every other language known to man was the part where English has lots more synonyms than most other languages.  And the great part about that is the part where you literally have a specific word for almost every possibility.

For instance, sometimes "happy" just doesn't cover it.  Sometimes the only word for what you're feeling is JOY.

And that definitely applies today because WE JUST PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, in this case there AREN'T enough words to describe how excited Luke and I are feeling today.  So I'll have to express myself this way:  (in no particular order . . . well, alphabetical order because I just went down the list of gifs I've been saving up just for this blog post)

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . I'm assuming your computer is now running like you're using dial-up circa 1992. And I probably should apologize for that, but I'm going to be honest instead.

Because seriously.  I could go on.

But honestly, today is by far the happiest day of MY LIFE.  Better than getting married, getting engaged, even the day I graduated from college.  Because on every single one of those days I had this stupid student loan hanging over my head.  Even if it wasn't something I consciously thought about, it was always there in the background.

In fact, to go back to the last time I felt so uninhibitedly happy would have to be high school graduation . . . and we all know how long ago that was.  Because that was one of the last days when I still believed I'd get a grant instead of a loan.  Well, actually the last day for that was when Ashli applied for her financial aid.  I mean, let's be real here - in what world is it logical for a family to add a college student to their roster and then the original college student not only doesn't finally get a grant then but gets their loan amount cut?!?!?!  I suppose I shouldn't complain too much, at least my loan was still subsidized - Ashli's wasn't - but seriously.  I have yet to meet anyone to whom that makes sense.

But I shan't get into my financial aid rant today because I am just too happy.  There is such a weight off our shoulders . . . it feels like we might actually be able to make a living someday.  Assuming I ever get a full time job, which I'm thinking is not going to happen as long as we're living in this town.  But in the meantime where we can take a few things off the back burner and start actually moving forward.  And it.  Feels.  Awesome.  This is seriously exciting and the only thing keeping me from celebrating in Vegas or something is the part where I don't get paid time off.  :-)

The best part is this time a year ago we thought we still had two or three years left before we finally kicked this thing to the curb.  But along about five or six months ago the numbers started looking do-ably small.  So we crunched some numbers and it turned out that with a few financial changes and ramping up the bare bones-ness from Def-con 4 to Def-con 3 we managed to pull it off.  And now it's over.  And that still feels a little surreal.  In fact, I almost don't know what to do . . . maybe we should go buy a house . . . on the moon.

In a word -

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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There are not many things that could make today even better.  Underwater kitty mews are one of them.  :-)