Think Outside The Piggy Bank

tax time

  

I tried paying my taxes with a smile. They wanted money. --MAXINE

Snort. So, done yours yet? I always do mine early (as soon as the slips come in), and received my refund back in March already. Now they say you should be sensible and reinvest what you get back instead of spending it, but I put mine towards paying last month's rent on my new apartment. Which in a way is a good investment itself!

earth day

Happy Earth Day! Did you see the cool new badge? Click on it and find out how you too can contribute to one million acts of green.

My local grocery store finally got in the act today and from now on will charge five cents for every plastic bag given out. A good idea for those who don't already use their own cloth bags and maybe it will inspire less use of plastic overall. A ban on certain pesticide products is in effect here in Ontario as of today as well, and that's another step forward. Hey, have you heard about the new Disney film called earth? I really want to go see it, but I don't think it's showing at a theatre I can get to. Pity.

So I decided to post this entry on each of my blogs, as it's relevant to all three. Being environmentally friendly can be cost effective in many ways; not only can it help your wallet in the short run, in the end, the less damage we do to this planet the less we'll have to spend to clean and fix it up. Making sure our habitat becomes safer is good for all the species our earth has to support, and veganism's emphasis on compassion for all ties in neatly with environmental concern. Again, Happy Earth Day however you decide to celebrate, and think green all the way!

update: school

I mentioned in a December post that I was thinking of going back to school come September, and my plan had been to see if I could gradually finish my fourth year of an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology. Now that particular plan is going to be put on hold seeing that I'll be moving because I think transportation would be too much of an issue given that I don't drive. But another option has recently occurred to me that I'm seriously considering. My local community college offers a multidisciplinary certificate in Gerontology, which I can very conveniently take on-line. Ah the beauty of the Internet! Again I would be doing it one course at a time, and the courses themselves look quite interesting (e.g. Mental Health Aspects of Aging, Legal and Ethical Issues Related to Aging, Assessment and Planning). It would fit in quite nicely with both my previous education and work experience, and I figure that any schooling dealing with seniors won't be wasted given our aging population. Besides, this way yours truly can make sure the old noggin doesn't get too rusty. Snort.

update: apartment

Yes, I got an apartment! Admittedly, I didn't look at any others, but I couldn't resist the location of this one. It is, drum roll please, right across the street from where my parents live! Can't get any closer than that, eh? In fact, two of my windows look right out on their retirement unit. It'll be perfect if I want (or need) to pop by every day. Those windows I mentioned were another selling point for me because even though the apartment is much smaller than what I have now, it still has five windows on three sides. So, lots of natural light, lots of sun puddles for KJ, and some not-too-bad views as I'm on the second floor. The limited space I'll have to adjust to, but by being creative and organized (lots of shelving for example) I'm hoping I can maximize space enough to be able to bring my favourite pieces of furniture and art. As for clothes, did you know that most people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time? It's true! So time for weeding out what I wear least (or not at all) in order to save on closet and dresser space. And time to sell off whatever I don't want to bring on eBay. Look for pics soon on Flickr of both my stuff AND new place. :)

update: work

Remember how I said a couple of posts ago that I would be leaving my job at the end of April? Well, I lied, snort. Okay, not really, but as it turns out the apartment I found is not available until the middle of June, and even though I'm so ready to give up the 12-hour shifts NOW already, I decided to be pragmatic and see if I could extend my stay. Luckily my employer was able to accommodate me, thus I'll be working until the end of May instead. So, seven more weekends to go, woohoo! And to be honest work hasn't been so bad since I announced that I was leaving. Maybe it relieved the pressure, or perhaps having the end in sight makes the difference as well. Last weekend some of the residents even said they were really glad I was staying a bit longer after all, so that made me feel good too. I will definitely miss some of them, but at least I can always call them on the resident line to see how they're doing. I learned more than I thought I would in this job, but it's time to move on!