Hello darlings and Merry Christmas! I know it’s been a while, as you can imagine things got crazy last week as I was preparing for the holidays. Please, please forgive me. The following post was written on the weekend of the 13th. I will follow up with a more updated post. Promise, but enjoy this weekend mashup, which will be followed up by a larger than life mashup! 
Sorry my dears, I know I’ve missed about two nights; of course, this will be another Mashup (and the crowd goes wild). 
Enough of that, I know it’s all exciting but we most move on. I’m currently sitting at Big O Tires in Berkeley, let’s just say I’m not really a happy camper right now. I’m exhausted, worked until midnight at my Happy job last night, and I’ve been here since 8:40 this morning. I was originally told I would only be here for two hours max, well that was about an hour ago. As per the last update, it’s going to be another ninety minutes.
To add more pain to my misery I’m freezing, it’s insanely cold in this shop. I’m on one cup of coffee, and the one they have here is not hot or strong enough for my personal 
taste. Plus, I’m hungry as heck! I didn’t bother to make my juice this morning, because I was only told two hours. I didn’t bring snacks like I usually do because I was told only two hours.
On top of that they found something else wrong with my car, which added to the final cost. So I’m looking at about $2000 in maintenance right now. Wow! Good thing I already bought my Christmas presents, because I really do feel a “bohumbug” making it’s way out of my mouth right about now.
So, now that I got everything that is wrong with this situation out of my system. Let’s focus on the positive:
- I woke up this morning in a warm house, in a nice comfortable bed
- I have a car and the means to get it taken care of. Wait this one needs to be tweaked a bit, I have the credit to get maintenance that my poor baby needs. Luckily for me they offer financing.
- I have the means to buy food and have food at home, I’m just choosing not to eat out. Or was ill prepared because I was told two hours.
- After this my car will have four brand new tires, will be aligned and some other thingamajig that will keep my tires from wearing out before they’re ready.
- Plus, I have you to keep me company!
Now that’s better, I think Julie Andrew’s would be proud of me, don’t you?
Now let’s start with the Mashup:
Day #11
Oh yes, how can I forget this day! A Christmas Miracle took place on this day. Yes, indeed! This is the day that my fabulous Physical Therapist Christopher told me I could get off my boot! I told you all that the new year would not find me in a boot, see how I don’t lie? I’ve never felt so happy before in my life (I’m sure I have, but just feel the joy here). I was already planning on walking out of there with two shoes on, not just one, T-W-O! I prayed and meditated on it that morning and since I believe in vision work, I took left shoe with me in a bag in my purse. I was on a mission.
He started laughing at me when I looked at my boot and said “DEUCES” as I was taking off the sexy velcro straps. While we were working on stretches and whatnot there was a moment when I thought he was going to say: “on second thought…” As I was busting a move or as I was stretching, I shouted in pain, he immediately made me stop and sit down. He checked out the area that made me scream and luckily it was nothing major it just hurt due to lack of flexibility in the foot, I just need to stretch it out some. Enter sigh of relief here.
I will be able to start exercising. By this I mean, doing some walking up and down my usual running route but walking instead of running. No running until February, which for me is good, as long as I get out there. I do have to wear a brace for about a month. I’m okay with that, a brace is nothing compared to a boot, I might also need to use a slip-on brace for my runs now. But I think that’s just for prevention of future flare-ups. 
Apparently, I have to work to strength my back, my sciatic to be precise as he believes it is all connected. He also recommended pilates versus yoga. Which was odd because the first time I tried Pilates, I hurt my back. But Christopher is confident that it could be of benefit to me, he just recommended I speak with the instructor first and fill them in on my back problems. However, I will still be doing yoga, ten classes to be precise. I bought a coupon on Groupon, so yea I must get those in. Christopher is just worried that the stretching might be too strenuous on my back, but some of the exercises we did in PT for my back came from yoga. So I don’t know. The only thing I know is that I’m going to get better. I can’t be going through back problems every year.
My plan is to try out a few classes and see how it feels. I’ll let you know if I survive or not.
Day #12
Nothing major happened this day, it was a busy day though. I ended up working from home, I was only going to work a half day anyways so it just made sense to stay home.I got my oil changed. Yes, I’m on a whole let’s get this car in top shape before I make my drive down to LA.
While shopping for tires and car “things” I noticed that my shopping habits have changed drastically. Let’s say for instance, I was in the market for tires. I always went to Sears, I had an account there, I walked in and walked out. Didn’t shop around or anything, whatever they were charging me that’s what I went for. This time around though, my friend Nelson recommended a few places for tires and he said he always shops around first before buying. I cringed and just said: “I don’t have time for all of that!” Well, I ate my words because I did just that. I called a few places before agreeing to purchase anything, I also went online to see what discounts/coupons I could find. 
Yup, I’m officially a coupon lady. Saved me $15 on my oil change and $50 on my tires.
You might think that’s not much, but after being a starving student for two and a half years, that is a lot. If all I could save is fifty cents, I will go for it and declare it a win. I’ve come a long way my dears. I don’t splurge on big ticket items anymore and I don’t go for brand names either, I was never really a label person anyway. I have clothes that my friends give me, I shop at the dollar store, clearance or sale racks, thrift stores (best finds ever sometimes), and I go by the “do I really need this or do I really want this?” rule. 
I know I’m no longer a student, but I will be soon (crossing fingers). But I promised myself I would never go through what I did when I was in school. Things were insanely rough. I worked the entire time I was in school, I don’t know what it is like to not work. It’s not easy. You can’t really get a full time job when you’re an undergrad, because your classes change from semester to semester. In my case I was doing two majors, so I had an incredible academic school load. My last semester especially was pretty tough, I lived off of food donations from friends, credit cards, and my fun job and financial help from some friends.
I will never go through this again. That’s my promise to myself and I am sticking to it. I’m on a mission to save as much as possible. I am going to treat myself from time to time, but I’ll do it wisely. I have some friends that just amaze me, they have found a way to save enough money to last them a semester if not more. How in the world….? I had to use up my 401k to make the move up here for school. I’ve never been able to have more than $400 in my savings account. Sad? I know.
But I’m determined to start saving. Especially for and when situations like car 
maintenance, medical or any other situations come up. I’m planning on traveling in 2014, I better start saving for that. I need to pay off my credit cards not charge more. I’m hoping I stay true to this plan. I need to, I’m getting older and I’m starting to get into the nesting phase. I want to buy me a nice car, but I want a house of my own even more. A nice house in Berkeley would be nice, with a lawn and extra rooms for my books and my momma. Yup, I want my mother to live with me. I want to be able to take care of her. She loves Berkeley and I know she wouldn’t fight me too much on it.
Since, I believe in visioning, I’m planning on visiting open houses in 2014. The secret to visioning is not only about seeing what you want, but feeling as if it’s already yours. Whatever it is: health, a new car (go for a test drive in your dream car), a new job (see yourself already hired or go to the place where you would like to see yourself. Be smart about this one, don’t just walk in to an office and sit at a desk.), you want to travel buy books of the places where you want to go cut pictures and keep it present. It works, seriously.
Example: When I made my first vision board, I had a picture of UCLA. That was my dream school since I was a kid and when I went back to school that’s where I wanted to transfer to. But you went to CAL? Yup, I know but I got accepted at UCLA and every other school I applied to. Since, I like to update my vision boards I worked on another one. I added traveling: first class flying and I even put Costa Rica on there. Well, you guessed it. I traveled first class last year from NYC to Colorado, I got a free upgrade and I studied abroad last summer in Costa Rica. Furthermore, while I was in NYC I went to the UN offices. I went there specifically to do some vision work, I wanted to see myself there. Well, I was able to travel to Costa Rica because I got accepted to the UPEACE program, which is the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. How do you like ‘em apples? It works people, seriously.
Well there you go two days worth of interesting facts.
I have to go now, my friend Sandra is picking me up before she goes home to LA. I’m starving and craving pupusas. My car will not be ready for another forty minutes.
They said two hours!!!
Voz y Vida™ 