My first few days of freedom have been pretty darn good. Nothing super dramatic or exciting like jet setting to exotic islands or lounging on the beach in the South Pacific, but I’ve definitely been enjoying that feeling of having time. It’s so weird but whenever I’m working, I just get into this crazy zone where I dunno, so many aspects of my life just fall to the wayside. Now, it’s so refreshing to NOT be all about work all the damn time! I’m only a few days in, and although my quality of sleep has not yet improved (Marty is digging frantically in his bed again at night– it sounds like someone is scratching to get out of a coffin!), just being able to sleep in definitely gives my body some needed rest the morning after.

This week, my main focus has been tackling home organization. Our garage cabinets from Bay Area Home and Window got installed while my dad was here earlier this month, and I followed the suggestion of the professional home organizer to get uniform storage containers: big clear bins from Costco and then small and large clear shoe boxes from The Container Store (TCS). In the past, I really hated that overpriced yuppie store, but as it turns out, if you buy the shoe boxes in cases, it’s actually more affordable. That and well, I guess Bubs and I are yuppies now. Lately, John has been saying over and over that he needs to start living his “best life” now, and part of that means he wants his home to be nice. Admittedly, I definitely run on the cheap/low standards end for “nice”– maybe I never outgrew my college makeshift furniture mode– but I am trying to get on board with Bubbey. So, TCS is having their big elfa closet sale right now. Last weekend, we went into the store with our closet measurements and met with the designer. She was really fast and responsive, so we’re going to give this elfa thing a try in our bedroom closets. Of course, I had to go about a very specific way of purchasing, to maximize my Bubbey Bucks.

You see, I learned about Upromise two years ago from that job networking group in Sunnyvale. Basically, it’s a program where you earn cash back for online purchases by going through a referral website rather than going directly to the store website. Sure, the money takes a while to deposit into your account, and some transactions (like via mobile tablet or phone) don’t get logged at all (buggy). My friend K tried Upromise a few months ago and HATED it. She prefers Ebates, which processes the transactions almost immediately. But Upromise has higher cash back percentages, so you know that’s where I go! Recently, I earned $150 back from T-mobile for activating two new devices; plus, I scored some decent bucks with 5% back on hotel bookings (for my work and John’s work) and other larger ticket items like car tires. The day-to-day stuff doesn’t earn that much but still, at 5-10% cash back (like for TCS or for clothing stores), it adds up. So far, I’ve earned over $400! LMK if you’re interested, and I can hook you up with a referral, and then we both score $20!

In other news, I ran a gabillion errands the other day: seriously, I am amazed how much more I can get done when no one else is at the fucking stores. I went to the regular supermarket, the vet office, Costco, then the gas station. Incidentally, I decided to empty out the contents of my cute car trash bin. Well I had forgotten that I was weighing the bin down with a ton of pennies to keep it from tipping over. So all of those damn pennies went rattling through the gas station garbage bin. And yes, I tried to re-collect them. Now before you start judging me, let me share a story about my father.

He called me the other day to ask if Dulles Airport is open 24/7. The reason? He doesn’t want to inconvenience his friend who is giving him a ride to the airport. Dad’s flight is at 6 am, so his plan is to have his friend drop him off at Dulles at 10p (a reasonable hour). Then, he will just sleep at the airport until his flight that morning. Uh, dad, why don’t you just take a cab or a SuperShuttle? You can take SuperShuttle from your friend’s house (about 30 min to the airport compared 60 min to his home), and it’s $30. “No, this is fine.” When I told Bubbey my story about the pennies, he warned me about nipping that shit in the bud, bc I am very well on that path to being my father sleeping at the airport for seven hours. The fruit don’t fall far from the tree.

What else. So yeah, I have been organizing my shit big time. Damn, even just packing up my office crap and bringing that home… I had a ton of junk. With the elfa closet makeover, I am going through my clothes and purses and bags… purging and making more room. I also started deep cleaning the house. Fuck man, I busted out my vacuum attachments for the first time ever. Sucked up all the damn crud that fell between the couch cushions and along the baseboards. Jesus Christ, John and I are fucking slobs!!

I’ve been pretty productive these last few days. John has been telling me to chill the fuck out and not be so goddamn task oriented. I can’t help myself though. Today I sat in on a webinar about an online web development boot camp. Right now, the following career possibilities are on the table: web dev/UX/product management, real estate, project management (PMP certification), Salesforce certification, freelance social media/digital comm work. I’m not gonna lie, but I fantasize about running my own gig with flex hours and lots of remote work. Those options seem to allow for that…

I’m currently reading a book recommended by my student intern. It’s called Undecided, and it’s basically about women on this unending search for career fulfillment, partly bc they have too much choice these days (compared to the previous generation). I’m early in the book, so it’s too soon to tell…

Tomorrow I’m getting back on the yoga bandwagon. Sure, I started that hip hop class last Monday, but it’s only 4 classes total, and given how fucking sore I am after the first class, I have a long ways to go before I get back to my old days of glory. So yup, I bought a few Groupons and it’s back to sweating my brains out. After all, the big 4-0 is like that heat coming around the corner!! Get busy livin’ or get busy dying!!