So I couldn’t wait until this Friday to make my final car payment.
Tuesday I went and emptied my checking account and made the final payment. Knowing that I was only five days away from having the thing paid off was just eating away at me.
It is so liberating to know that I have one less monthly bill and that I’m that much closer to having my debts completely paid off. At the same time, its WEIRD knowing that the car is completely paid off an I never have to make another payment on it again.

This week has been kicking my butt though. This is the busiest month of the year at my work - especially this week. Last Saturday I went in for 4 hours, and I’ve averaged 2 hours of overtime every night this week. We are treated well for all of our hard work this month. In addition to the overtime I’ve been earning, I’ve also been given an additional 2 hours off paid to use at my discretion in the future. YAY! I love the additional paid time off. In the department I used to work in, there was overtime at this time of year as well. However, it was expected that you had to work that overtime - and that was it, you got the overtime pay and a couple of times the management would buy pizza for the department, but other than that there was no perks to working the overtime. You most definitely did not get additional paid time off.
The weeks been so busy, I haven’t even been able to knit or crochet a single stitch. Not.A.Single.Stitch. And not for lack of desire, or lack of projects to do. I’ve just been so damn busy!
I am designing my own first knit project though. My mothers birthday is coming up, March 1st, and I’m making her a shawl. Nothing fancy, just a couple of stitches that I learned in all of the scarves that I made for Christmas. Really only two stitches. A seed stitch on the edges and an open work stitch inbetween. The yarn is a wool & acrylic blend by Plymouth Yarn Company and I think my mom will love the colors - blues, greens and purples. My original plan was to do a take on one of the scarves in the Knit Scarves book - its done entirely in seed stitch and has wired ribbon flowers on the ends. I was going to do a larger sized version in this blue/green/purple colorway and make the wired ribbon flowers in the shape of waterlilies - end effect being that it would bear some sort of a resemblance to Monet’s Waterlilies. Or, at least it would in my mind. Then after rows and rows and rows of the seed stitch, okay - only 30, I decided to encorporate an open stitch. I’m not sure if I like it so much now. I am fairly close to finishing though, so I’ll post pictures as soon as its completed. I’m just not sure when I’ll find the time to complete it because.....
I’m going to my first hockey game this Saturday night. A minor league ice rink of some sort has opened in Stockton and the pub I frequent has hired a charter bus to take us to game Saturday night. For $35 the pub is providing us with BBQ at the pub before hand, the bus ride, tickets to the game and ALL.THE.BEER.YOU.CAN.DRINK. At the bbq and on the bus, all the beer I want. There will be photos. I don’t know that I’ll be able to guarantee the quality of the photos after ALL.THE.BEER.I.CAN.DRINK.
Not being a hockey fan, initially I wasn’t going to join the group. However, a couple of my friends at the pub talked me into, saying that it would be worth it for the party on the bus alone. Plus, after the busy week at work, I think this will be a great stress reliever.
I have this itch to get out of town lately, and I know that a hockey game in Stockton it not going to satisfy it. I'm considering a weekend trip to L.A. next weekend. possibly get off work a couple of hours early Friday, drive down that night and enjoy the warmer weather for the weekend.
This is very sad to admit, but I have never spent much time in L.A. despite living in Northern CA for almost my entire life. When I was a child my grandparents went to southern CA at least once a year to visit family and they would take my cousin Erin and myself with them, but we spent most of the time in Oxnard and Ventura. We would always include a day trip to Disneyland, but that was it. When I lived in Boston I did go to LA to visit Erin while she was at UCLA. Both of us being broke college students, we didnt do too much other than hang out around the neighborhood she lived in, went to Santa Monica Pier one afternoon, and eat In-N-Out.
I've never been to the Farmers Market, The Getty Museum, Griffith Observatory. Considering I live less than 6 hours away from LA, I find this to be pretty sad.