Idaho? No, you da ho!

Not sure if that joke will ever get old.

I finally got my retro pay today, as my boss and I had agreed.  I had to remind him twice to do it but it got done and now all my bills are up to date, my credit cards are all below the limit and most importantly, as I promised myself and the ether I would if I should get a raise and/or a year end bonus, I just wrote several donation checks.  I've never had a lot to donate, being as I am in beaucoup debt and having gone through a few bouts of unemployment over the past 15 years, but ever since I took my current job and started getting a bonus I have donated at least something even if it is five bucks. 

Given everything that I've gone through with the pups, Oregon Humane and Cat Adoption Team -- the latter being the folks who put on the CATnip Friday 5K -- were at the top of my list.  My friend S works with food banks so in the past few years I've also tried to donate to the Oregon Food Bank.  Kind of a there but for the grace go I sort of thing.  Lastly, in the same vein, I make at least one annual donation (more if I can, I try for Thanksgiving and Christmas/cold weather) to the Portland Rescue Mission. 

And on top of all of that, I booked my ticket to visit my grandparents and dad at the beginning of March.  Since I couldn't go last week like I had hoped because of work deadlines, I had already told my boss that I would reschedule for March and take one extra day off for my trip.  It also turned out that I worked so many hours last week Wednesday through Saturday that instead of arranging to get overtime for the time that I put in on the weekend I swapped out my vacation day instead.  So between my New Year's comp day and this comp day I ended up taking no actual vacation days last week.  Yay!

I also arranged to run Bloomsday in Spokane.  Lilacs are my second favorite flower and I've always wanted to go to Bloomsday; in recent years, I've wanted to run Bloomsday.  It took me about 45 minutes but I finally found a hotel reasonably close to the start and finish of the race that had rooms available and at a decent rate.  I haven't been to Spokane in about 15 years at least, probably longer, so I'm really looking forward to spending a smidge of time there before I need to head back down to my mom's for my vacation. 

Money has been sooo tight for so long, it's nice to have some breathing room.  I'm still due to get my 2011 bonus at the end of this month; with that I hope to pay off my car and a few other things, which in turn should let me finally start making a dent in my debt rather than always adding to it. 

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl