Startin' School Off Right

This past Monday, some 17,000 students started school at SUNY Albany. One of the 4,500 grad students in attendance was none other than Ryan. As a surprise, I did a little running around to start his school year on the right foot.

I knew I wanted to get him pencils and snacks. Which meant, I needed to come up with something cute, so I wrote a poem. 

I ended up including more stuff, like the beer and batteries, to make the poem longer. As a result, I had to use my very little (alone) free time running around like a crazy person. Because if I want to run out and go to the store, Ryan perks up and we end up going together. Completely foiling my plans on secretly buying stuff. 

Thankfully I had a hair appointment and some time between work and that to speed around and search for the elusive .5mm pencils, Reese's peanut butter cups, Walmart's honey roasted peanuts (yes, he's specific), and beer. I ended up getting the beer a different day due to the stars just not aligning. And I think he would break down and cry if I ever bought him not craft. (I mentioned he's specific right?)

I gathered my supplies (I found the prettiest rock candy!) and made cute tags for them. 

Then I put them into this tomato can turned adorable pail thanks to jute, hot glue, and some of my skin that was burnt off. 

On Monday morning he woke up to find this stash, asked why I did it, and then ate eight Reese's. EIGHT. He may have has a problem. 

I think with these goodies, his year is off to a great start. 

What are you doing for your students (kids or adults) heading back to school?

In Real Life

Sometimes it's hard to remember that bloggers have jobs out in the real world. Especially for blogs that focus on crafts, music, food, or fun stuff. But alas, it happens. For me it's pretty much because Ryan's a full-time student and although he brings home a good salary (for a grad student) it's not enough for me to just lounge around and be a full-time stay at home wife. A girl can dream though.

So during that day, I stare at a computer. Looking at spreadsheets. Upon spreadsheets. Upon spreadsheets. It's weird. Sometimes I'll create these huge, magnificent, elaborate spreadsheets and I'd take a step back and think, "Damn, that's sexy." Seriously, I feel like I need my head examined.

I am lucky though. I was fortunate to get my foot in the door at a major company. Even more fortunate to move to a "smaller" although still large global company right down the road. I count my blessings that I moved into a new role in June, just one year after joining the company, and get to work with our plants around the world consolidating the financials for our operations function. 

In my new role, I've been fortunate to experience more of the "what we do" and "if this then this" side versus the controllership side. Yesterday, one of my awesome coworkers took the time to teach a handful of us our process from rock to sticky stuff.

That's random if you don't know where I work. I work at a silicone and advanced material business, where our materials are in everything. Beauty products, car paint, medical tubing? We're in that. Materials in every single manned US space flight? We're in that. The sole of the boot that first graced the moon? We're in that.

we start with this (silicon metal)...

My company doesn't have many direct to consumer products but we do have one very visible one. You've probably even used it. We made caulk. The stuff that goes around pretty much everything. We make it. I've seen it being put into the tubes. THAT is a pretty cool process. Very much like a bottling line at a soda or beer company. 

...and end up with this.

The group of people I get to work with a first class and I can't wait to see how the next few years will turn out for the business. Here's hoping!

Are you ever proud of weird work-related accomplishments? What makes you proud to work where you work?

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, Down the Ditch We Go

At the beginning of the summer, Ryan and I set a goal to hit 1,000 miles of cycling by November 1st. We're making good progress, with a little more than 730 miles under our belts, including today's ride. Which ended a little bumpy.

You can see our route here:

You see that climb right around mile 30? I think that's what just about did us in...

Our goal today was to hit 41 miles, which would be our longest ride to date. Ever. We started off really strong with our best pace yet going up the hills in miles 2-3. Most of the pauses in the beginning are due to us getting stuck at lights. Although after the initial hills, we did take a break. 

We took plenty of water and a few snacks. One of which I'll be sharing sometime soon. I can't wait to share it, because lordy is it good. After reaching Route 40, we took a break and had our snack, which may have also been the problem...

Anyway, 40 has rolling hills which are tough after huge hills right before it. And as you can see, we had been riding for nearly three hours already. In reality, we'd been on the road much longer (probably about three and a half hours because of stops and lights. 

Just after mile 36, Ryan was tired and struggling on the last of the hills on 40 until we hit the downhills that led the way home. We were coasting down a hill after going up the other side. Rye turned around to see where I was, because I normally pull up the rear, and he always, ALWAYS, goes right when he does it. Well, he turned right and jumped off the pavement onto the grass just off the road. Trying to over correct, he turned right (like you would do before swinging back left) and his right turn was down a 10' deep ditch. Well, he was about 3' down the hill before he ditched his bike and did a somersault down the rest of it.

Scary? Sure. He get hurt? A little bit. He okay? Thankfully, yes. And I thank the Big Guy, my parents live right down the road (like two miles from where we were) and just happen to have a bike rack. 

My dad graciously picked us up and brought us the five miles home. Ryan's gotten babied since he got home, with multiple concerned calls from my family, quad rubs from me, and icy hot on his shoulder and neck - which got the brunt of the somersault. 

We finished our day with pizza. Because after earning 1,800 calories, why not?

What are you doing this weekend? Is fitness on your to-do list?

In case you were wondering, here's my splits for the ride. Even though I'm really slow on hills, I'm proud of them because I freakin' did thirty-six miles today and didn't give up. 

This is my life?

Sometimes I sit back and wonder when my life changed. Maybe while I was busy sleeping...but right now, it's pretty damn good. 

My mom turned fifty-one today and we're going for pedicures tomorrow.

Ryan and I biked ten and a half miles then "ran" two, the beginning of our training for a duathlon and eventual triathlons. 

And then tonight, standing in the kitchen eating a snack after all that, he randomly bursted into song. I joined in and we sang the entire Spongebob Squarepants theme song. 

Sometimes I can only look back, smile, and feel so incredibly blessed.

And just like that we're back...

This month's printable comes from one of my favorite poets, Tyler Knott Gregson. I like his work so much I pre-ordered his book which comes out September 2^nd in hardcover! Let it be known that this is the first physical book I'm buying in quite the amount of time. The Kindle ruined me. Best present ever though.

Anyway, I follow him on instagram and one night he posted this picture...

...along with the words featured in today's printable. I love them. Even wrote 'em to the hubbs for our anniversary (3 years!). In honor of the brilliant photo and touching words, I had to put it into a printable so I could read them every day.

TKG Vanilla Sky

The printable is formatted to fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper and features the following fonts: KG Hard Candy Solid. KG Tangled Up In You 2. KG Two is Better Than One. KG Eyes Wide Open. KG Flavor and Frames.

It Must've Been My Lucky Day

I should've played the lottery, because I was batting 1,000 yesterday.

I hope you read that with as much sarcasm as you have in you. Yesterday was mean and cruel. But it definitely could've been worse, so thank God it wasn't.

It started with a headache from lack of sleep, coupled with a stomach ache. Recovering with some breakfast, I made it into work on time.

Only to find that my boss's computer had shit the bed. Blue screen of death. The kicker? IT was backlogged and my boss is less than cordial, so they brushed him off all day. I smile a little because he deserved it. Hearing him say, "I'm sitting here at ZERO productivity," was hilarious. Mostly because he's at 10% productivity otherwise.

I frown because I then had to make a presentation for him. One that I had to sit down with him to complete (even though I could've done it myself) but he wanted to see how I compiled it. HE DIDN'T EVEN WATCH. And of course, this presentation was part of a larger one, so while he was on his lunch break I brought it together (recreated one chart) and made it look better than his original one.

Sitting here, I was going to type, "after a day of doing my boss's job..." but then I do that anyway, it's not new. Sigh.

After I finally get home, Ryan and I get ready for our bike ride. Instead of packing it up on the car to ride along the Corning Preserve, we decide to head up Route 4 / 32. The day was finally turning around. Great pace, flying through Waterford. We get to 6 miles and turn around. Less than a mile up the road, a bird shits on my leg. Sigh. Yep, it got better and better. 

Me, not knowing that it was bird poop, thinking it was a bug, flipped out and tried to wipe it off my leg. Now my hand has bird poop on it.

Ryan wanted to stop and put air in our tires at the gas station on our way home. I was not stopping, I had a date with a chlorox wipe. 

On our way back we had some serious headwind and I was getting tired and hungry. EIGHT BLOCKS FROM HOME, there's a traffic light to go to the local Burger King and Price Chopper. It was red. I down shifted. Checked out the cars at the light, no signal lights, great. Light turns green. I shift up and keep pedaling through the light. The first car goes, puts on signal light, turns. INTO ME. 

Thankfully, she realized that she was starting to RUN OVER A PERSON and stopped her minivan. 

I couldn't. I just couldn't. She stopped and rolled down her window to ask if I was alright. My quick reply of "Fine, thanks," was probably not enough but I was more than ready to go home and I was truly physically okay.

When I finally arrived home, Ryan told me that she had put on her signal light after she started to go and turn. At least I wasn't blind. He also mentioned he yelled, "Watch out!" Which I didn't hear.

Today, I'm glad to have that behind me. Because one, I don't have to get shit on by another bird for another twenty-six and a half years, and two I'll be sticking to bike trails now. Any run-ins I can avoid with cars is going to be wonderful. 

Student Loans 301: Fun Facts about Repaying Loans

When you start to repay your loans, I have one suggestion. Sign up for automatic payments. You can never forget and your lender will give you a quarter of a percentage off your interest rate. It may not seem like a lot, I save about $100 over the first year of my loans, but it can add up. $100 is a fifth of my monthly payment. I'll take that and add it right back into my payments, kthanksbye.

Which brings me to another point. You can ALWAYS pay extra towards your loans at any time without penalty. This goes for federal or private loans. By law, your extra payment first pays off any outstanding interest on the loan. If there is any remaining balance of your payment it goes directly towards the principal of your loan. Moreso, it goes towards the balance under the highest interest rate. If you have multiple loans in a grouping with the same interest rate, it'll go to the highest balance. 

So let's get personal. When I graduated from graduate school in 2011, I had $51,958.00 in student loan debt. That's not counting my outstanding accrued interest on unsubsidized loans. When loans came due in September I wanted to weep. My monthly payments were, and still are, $630.85. That payment? It's more than my rent. Over the nearly three years I've been paying on my loans, my principal is down to $43,500.93. I've paid $4,490.60 in interest, which is over 50% of the principal I've paid down. 

But that's just me, I have my better half and his loans to top it off. Last year we spent his paychecks, as a doctoral candidate he earns a stipend, on paying off his unsubsidized loans that weren't currently due but had the highest interest rate.

This upcoming year, I tend to think of years in school years, Ryan's paycheck goes to my loans. We're trying to strategically attack our loans and mine just happen to have the next highest interest rates that are accruing interest. Happy that we've paid off those unsubsidized loans collecting interest, we just applied his last check to one of my loans. Can I just say how exciting that is? It may not seem like a lot, but when you layer on an extra payment to your monthly payment, your principal takes a nose dive! I love it! 

How are your student loans? Do you have any? Does it feel like there's ever an end?