Keeping The Reins Tight….

After a week plus away, it’s nice to be home. Not that I enjoy being back in the wicked humidity of the South; but more so, I like being at my apartment and not living from a suitcase.

California was absolutely wonderful. The training was extremely beneficial, the weather was perfect, the people were my kind of people, and the availability of free things (trails, beaches, frisbee, and open spaces) were the very things I enjoy in life. Could a possible move be in my future?

Maybe, I need to look into loan repayment programs as I got offered positions at four different high schools (if I ever move out that way). The job security of being a high school math teacher is pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, I won’t make nearly as much from my per diem as I thought I would. I ate breakfast every morning in my room to cut down on costs, this let me pocket about $100. The rest of the time, I wasn’t nearly as fiscally responsible. Whether it be drinks, good food, gas money, or renting equipment (kayak’s and scuba gear), I made the most of my time out west. I did however make sure I never spent a penny of my own money.

It would have been nice to pocket more of my per diem; but, that would have involved sitting in my hotel room in the evenings and not being social.

I’m not willing to sacrifice living life for a few extra bucks.

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Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

In addition to serving some much deserved jail time, Michael Vick now owes the Royal Bank of Canada more money.

The order Wednesday from U.S. Magistrate F. Bradford Stillman requires Vick to pay $2.4 million, plus $499 in interest per day, starting Sept. 19, 2007, and the bank’s attorneys’ fees and costs of $11,950 plus interest.

Source: ESPN

Since I haven’t had the need to calculate interest on a 2.4 million dollar loan, $499 a day in interest seems astronomical. Vick has 17 months remaining on his sentence; during this time, he’ll accumulate $228,990 in additional interest. A fiscally responsible Vick would use his prisoner salary (~$5 / day) to make payments towards the principal.

Will this happen? Probably not.

As my mother says, ‘what goes around, comes around.’

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Thanks to an Egg and Cheese Breakfast Sandwich from Panera; I spent Friday and Saturday afternoons in the emergency room. During my little ordeal, I was pumped full of intravenous fluids, given a multiple shots in the bum for nausea and had a few prescriptions filled.

The cost for my weekend of excitement?

$20.00 Co-Payment
$12.00 For 3 Prescriptions
$05.21 for a Breakfast Sandwich(it came back up)

Of course, this doesn’t factor in the 35.43 taken out of every paycheck. I chose one of the more costly insurance options based upon my history of broken bones and freak accidents. The idea was to play it safe for the first two years, evaluate which of the five options available would have been cheapest, and then switch.

In my groggy drugged up state, I’m extremely happy that the weekend only lowered my checking account by $22.00.

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Four weekends of being in on the road speaking, consulting, and attending conferences has been rough.

I love the travel aspect but I’m doing these presentations / conferences / speaking engagements on top of teaching during the week. The last month has made me a miserable fool as I’ve had all of five hours to myself. I am eagerly awaiting next weekend when I can sleep in, relax, and have ZERO commitments.

My bank accounts / credit card balances are a mess as I had the brilliant idea of using a specific card / account for each organization that I can expense air fare, hotels, food, and registrations to. At some point in Salt Lake City, I started putting charges on the wrong card so my receipts, statements and expense reports have become a mess.

The last time I updated my budget spreadsheet?

March 15th.

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For an average hourly cost of less than 2 dollars, you too can experience the following:

1. A 33.4 mile, 5+ hour fun run through the forest
2. At least 3,350 calories burned.
3. Multiple blisters on your toes and heels.
4. A mouthful of dirt when your quads give out going down hill.
5. Item 4 repeated multiple times.
6. All sorts of awesome battle scars from steps 4 and 5.
7. Sliding through the mud because you forgot to pack your trail shoes for a trail run.
8. Massive amounts of swelling in your lower appendages.
9. Chafing in all sorts of places you don’t want to chafe.
10. Griting it out and making it to the finish line, all the time knowing any sane person would have pulled them self out of the race a long, long time ago.

Another ultra marathon in the books; this race was rough as I’m still jet lagged from flying across the country and the course was deceptively hard.

For another $10, I get to do it all again in May!

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