LivingDeadGirl

Monday's Battle Log 3/6/2017 Diet Breakfast: 2 peanut butter oatmeal bites, 1 cup coffee Lunch: Snacks: Dinner: TGIFriday's parmesan crusted chicken with a side salad and 1/2 mac and cheese, 1 strawberry daiquiri Fitness Exercise: None Life Stevie Nicks concert!!!! Cosplay None Tuesday's Battle Log 3/7/2017 Diet Breakfast: 1 peanut butter oatmeal bite, 1 cup milk Lunch: bacon and cheeseburger without bread, 1/2 fries, 3 onion rings, sweet tea Snacks: lemonade Dinner: 2 chochos, 4 cheese wontons, 1 milk tea Fitness Exercise: None Life None Cosplay Cut out and hemmed the hole for Kate Bishop's shoulder

Friday's Battle Log 3/3/2017 Diet Breakfast: cinnamon roll, 1 cup coffee, 1 cup milk Lunch: baked fish, 2 cups KoolAid Snacks: peanut butter and jelly on a single tortilla Dinner: Beef taco salad, 2 cups milk Fitness Exercise: None Life None Cosplay None Saturday's Battle Log 3/4/2017 Diet Breakfast: sausage biscuit with cheese, small mocha frappe Lunch: 1 slice of pepperoni pizza from Quick Trip, water Snacks: Dinner: 2 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, water with lemon Fitness Exercise: None Life None Cosplay Attended the DCM League movie release event for Logan! Sunday's Battle Log 3/5/2017 Diet Breakfast: None Lunch: McDonald's Cheeseburger without bread, 1/2 small fry, sweet tea Snacks: Dinner: meatballs and mozzerella cheese, 2 cups milk Fitness Exercise: None Life None Cosplay None

FOUR WEEK CHALLENGE: Week Three Diet Drink one glass of water a day ✓ NO SODA ✓ Reduce sweets/carbs consumption by 50% ✓ Fitness 2 hour hike once a week X Strength training once a week X 30 minute gym exercise 3 times a week ✓ Life Wake up early. Must be out of bed by 7:00 AM ✓ Whiten teeth with extra flossing and whitening toothpaste. (No more whitening strips!) ✓ Study Spanish (via Duolingo) for 20 minutes a day whenever in the office. X Have a family meal once a week ✓ Put away $15 every paycheck into London savings X Cosplay Finish Kate Bishop Finish Codex X Attend one DCM League Event ✓ Update instagram once a day! ✓ This week has been a little bit better. Stressful, but I stuck to 90% of my goals. My workplace has corporate level reps on site and they are seriously throwing everything into disarray. Every single day at work raises my stress levels through the roof. I've had to stay after work over an hour almost every single day. I was able to keep up with the gym, but unable to take my weekend hike due to having to work through the weekend. Somehow I managed to squeeze in a DCMLeague Event. I worked the movie release of Logan as Rogue, and will have a second DCMLeague Event this weekend. Work shorted my paycheck by $200, so not only was I unable to put savings aside, but I had to borrow money from family just to buy groceries. Nothing makes me feel more like a failure than admitting that I can't feed my household. I know already that there's no way Codex will be done in time, due to both a lack of finance and time. I've barely been able to squeeze in my Spanish lessons. I worry about the rest of this challenge, simply because I didn't expect the overwhelming turn of events taking place at work. I'll do my best, because that's all I can do.

Thanks for the encouragement. It definitely helps to know that people take an interest, no matter how small, and are cheering me on to do my best. <3 <3 <3

Thursday's Battle Log 3/2/2017 Diet Breakfast: cinnamon roll, protein milk, 1 cup coffee Lunch: 2 eggs, fajita chicken meat Snacks: Dinner: Fitness Exercise: 45 minutes elliptical Life 40 minutes of Spanish Cosplay None End Result: Work is increasingly stressful. Boyfriend's hiring process is delayed by 2 weeks because his ex boss/ex mother in law refuses to verify his employment there and he now has to order copies of his W-2's to prove that he was employed there for 4 years. That means basically another month that he won't have a paycheck. His family did send some money, but neither our bank nor theirs can verify where/when the payment will arrive. It could be today, tomorrow, next week. Here's to hoping that I don't run out of gas before then. ;~; Last night I was so stressed and upset, that I went from work to gym to bath to bed.

Wednesday's Battle Log 3/1/2017 Diet Breakfast: Vanilla Bean Frappe, cheese danish Lunch: beef fajita meat, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk Snacks: 1 cup tea, 3 peanut butter cookies Dinner: 2 eggs, bacon, breakfast sausage Fitness Exercise: 40 minutes elliptical, 1 hour walking property and up/down stairs Life None Cosplay None End Result: Work is super stressful. I'm trying to make good choices, but feeling exhausted and frantic at work has me snatching up sugary coffees and snacks to make it through the day. I'm currently $11 in my bank account until I get paid in the next week. Being an adult is so fun. ;~;

Tuesday's Battle Log 2/28/2017 Diet Breakfast: croissant with bottle of chocolate milk, 1 cup coffee Lunch: beef and green bean stir fry, koolaid Snacks: 2 oreos, glass of milk, water Dinner: lettuce wrapped hamburger, side of baked chips Fitness Exercise: 40 minutes elliptical Life None Cosplay None End Result: Work sucks. Stressful as hell. No time for my Spanish studies. So fed up with my workplace. They made some kind of accounting error (nothing new) and so I wasn't given the bonus check I expected. This means that phone gets shut off tomorrow, no money for the Logan movie showing that I'm supposed to work, had to tear off my acrylic nails because I simply can no longer afford them, and I'll be short on my rent money. Next paycheck will have to cover late fees and more fucking bills. The worst part is that my corporate office and the regional manager show no sympathy. Not even a single apology. I've pretty much lost all faith in this business. They don't care about anything but their own bottom line.

Monday's Battle Log 2/27/2017 Diet Breakfast: apple slices with peanut butter, 1.5 cup coffee Lunch: beef taco salad, 1 cup tea Snacks: 1 oatmeal peanut butter bite Dinner: 2 eggs, bacon, 2 cups milk Fitness Exercise: Life Cosplay Sewed on the collar snap for Kate Bishop End Result: Ahahaha. Scratch what I said last post. The pizza/milkshake combo is definitely showing. It looks like all my hard earned progress was lost in a single weekend. I'm personally hoping that I'm just bloated because shark week, but I also want to cry because I was doing so good and looking so much better. To make up for it, I'm going to try and double my time at the gym this week. I'm supposed to be wearing spandex this weekend for a movie release. ;~;

FOUR WEEK CHALLENGE: Week Two Diet Drink one glass of water a day ✓ NO SODA ✓ Reduce sweets/carbs consumption by 50% ✓ Fitness 2 hour hike once a week X Strength training once a week X 30 minute gym exercise 3 times a week X Life Wake up early. Must be out of bed by 7:00 AM X Whiten teeth with extra flossing and whitening toothpaste. (No more whitening strips!) ✓ Study Spanish (via Duolingo) for 20 minutes a day whenever in the office. X Have a family meal once a week ✓ Put away $15 every paycheck into London savings X Cosplay Finish Kate Bishop Finish Codex Attend one DCM League Event Update instagram once a day! ✓ There's more details in my daily challenge thread, but this week kicked my ass. Hit the gym Tuesday, pulled a muscle in my back Wednesday, started shark week on Thursday, drowned myself in comfort and pizza, and spent about 50 hours in bed to recoup from muscle pain. FML. Being out of the office kept me from fulfilling my Spanish goals and waking up early goals... but on the days that I have actually gotten out of bed, I have hit a 7:05 AM mark. Doing better there. Also because work is out to ruin my life (hahakiddingbutnotreally) they messed up our paychecks and shorted everyone on our commissions. Not only do I not have money to set away into savings, but I don't even have money to cover my phone bill. After my rent, car payment, and groceries are bought... I'll be negative in my account. ._.; Trying to be positive, the boyfriend landed his final job interview and is now officially hired by Verizon Wireless. They have to finish processing his hire and should start this week or next. In the mean time, he's hitting up his family to see if they will send him money. It's embarrassing, but kind of vital at this moment. There's no money to cover his phone bill payment, or gas, or any unexpected expenses should they hit. Being an adult is rough. On another positive note, I'm on schedule to complete Kate Bishop. I'll be working 2 DCM League events, one this weekend and another next weekend. I'll be working a movie release of Logan as well as appearing as a guest cosplay judge at a mini con. In addition to these appearances, I was promoted to Admin and tasked with two amazing projects that give me something inspiring and fulfilling to do. Between now and September, I'll be producing a Comic Book Hero themed calendar for Cancer Awareness. It will feature various cosplayers in the local community, some of which are cancer survivors. A portion of the sales will go to cancer awareness, and my goal is to raise a minimum of $500. The second project will be teaching acting classes to our cosplayers that visit and interact with hospitals and schools. I keep telling myself that things may be rough right now, but they are going to get better.

Saturday's Battle Log 2/25/2017 Diet Breakfast: Lunch: 1/2 peanut butter milkshake, garlic bacon burger from Steak N Shake Snacks: 3/4 chocolate milkshake Dinner: 2 double decker tacos from taco bell Fitness Exercise: Life Promoted to admin of the charity group DCM League!! Cosplay Fixed hems on Kate Bishop Sunday's Battle Log 2/26/2017 Diet Breakfast: Lunch: 2 eggs and maple bacon Snacks: 1 cup koolaid, 1 cup milk, 1 single oreo Dinner: beef taco salad Fitness Exercise: Life Cosplay Fixed several issues with Kate Bishop's fitting. Almost done! End Result: Still felt like warmed over death, so skipped hiking. To make up for that loss, I devoted several hours to Kate Bishop's costume and reworked the seams that I was unhappy with and WOW. Looks so much better! The photo attached was the end of Saturday's progress, and was before I resized it a bit and finished sewing in the zipper. All that is left to do is to cut out the holes, hem those seams, and sew in some snaps on the collar to keep it perfectly in shape. Despite indulging in pizza and ice cream, I can see a definite difference in my body shape (finally getting back that hourglass curve!) It's time to get back on track and keep moving forward.

Wednesday's Battle Log 2/22/2017 Diet Breakfast: 3 peanut butter oatmeal bites, 1 cup coffee Lunch: Snacks: 1 cup Koolaid, vanilla wafers Dinner: chicken and green beans stir fry Fitness Exercise: Major lifting. Life Did some major cleaning to our maintenance tool shop and pulled a muscle in my back. D: Cosplay None Thursday's Battle Log 2/23/2017 Diet Breakfast: 3 peanut butter oatmeal bites, 1 cup coffee Lunch: 1 cup lemonade, beef and green bean stir fry Snacks: Dinner: baked salmon, 1 cup lemonade, water Fitness Exercise: Life Cosplay None Friday's Battle Log 2/24/2017 Diet Breakfast: Lunch: 3.5 slices of pizza Snacks: 4 slices of cookie, 5 cups milk Dinner: Fitness Exercise: Life Cosplay None End Result: So yeah... I fell off the band wagon. There's a lot of commotion going on at work, and so I stepped outside of the office to "help" clean up our maintenance team's supply shop. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The whole place was an absolute disaster and required EIGHT HOURS of hard core cleaning and trash out. EIGHT HOURS and I still wasn't finished. I did everything but move the appliances, which I was unable to do myself and had no help. But my efforts did make a huge difference and now it's a functioning space for the guys. Because I worked the entire time, I skipped lunch. My back was killing me by the time it was all done, and everything hurt so bad that I didn't realized I had pulled a muscle until the next day. Whoops. I went into work Thursday morning with all intentions of taking it easy through the day and hitting up the gym afterwards, but muscle pain paired up with menstrual pain really did kick my ass. I went home sick and spent most of the weekend with a heat pad on my aching muscles. I typically have hormone meds to keep me from having shark week, but I have an outstanding bill with them and cannot afford it. Yay Murica. So yeah. Lots of pain. Lots of hormones. Lots of chocolate and pizza. ahahahafailure.

Tuesday's Battle Log 2/21/2017 Diet Breakfast: cinnamon roll, bottle of milk Lunch: whopper, strawberry frappe Snacks: lots of water Dinner: 2 eggs, chicken Fitness Exercise: 25 minutes elliptical Life Studied Spanish - up to Level 7 on Duolingo! Cosplay None End Result: Spent some extra time on Duolingo to make up for missing on Monday. Went to the gym with the boyfriend, but he accidentally broke my headphones. I didn't realize how necessary headphones are to really get the ideal workout. All I could hear was these obnoxious tweens making a racket behind me. Isn't there supposed to be an age limit at the gym???

Sunday's Battle Log 2/19/2017 Diet Breakfast: Lunch: Sausage McGriddle, 1/2 frappe Snacks: 1 cup milk, 2 small pieces of fish Dinner: taco salad, 2 cups lemonade Fitness Exercise: 1.5 hour hike Life None Cosplay None End Result: Went hiking per usual, although we had a late start due to technical hours. By the time we got there, a light rain had already passed leaving everything over heated and humid, so it wasn't enjoyable. The boyfriend and I also invited some friends to join us, so the usual workout turned more into a scenic hike... not as effective. Better luck next time. Monday's Battle Log 2/20/2017 Diet Breakfast: Lunch: 2 eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, 2 breakfast sausage pattys, 1 cup lemonade Snacks: 1 cup orange Koolaid, mostly water Dinner: chicken parmesan, water Fitness Exercise: Life None Cosplay Small tweaking to Codex. Will have to wait until I have more money to redo the back of the dress. End Result: Cosplay progress hasn't been as productive as I would hope. The pattern I used wasn't long enough for my torso, and so I've tried to piece together seams to make it fit... which in turn makes it look terrible in quality. I finally decided that I wasn't satisfied with frankensteining pieces, and will have to wait for my paycheck to buy an extra yard of fabric to fix the back half of the dress. Because of that, I can't really move forward with the embellishments and trim. In other news, I have a new app on my phone that reminds me to drink water. It's super cute, called Plant Nanny. Every time I drink some water, the plant gets some water. If I don't drink, it'll die I guess? Not sure.

Friday's Battle Log 2/17/2017 Diet Breakfast: Venti cinnamon dolce frappe from Starbuck's, sausage and cheese sandwhich w/o bread Lunch: beef and green bean stir fry, 1 cup lemonade Snacks: 1 small chocolate bar (120 calories), 1 cup sweet tea Dinner: 2 slices of pepperoni pizza, 2 cups lemonade Fitness Exercise: 40 mins elliptical Life None Cosplay None End Result: Free pizza. Can't turn down free food when you're broke. Saturday's Battle Log 2/18/2017 Diet Breakfast: none Lunch: 4 small pieces of baked fish, water Snacks: 1 cup milk Dinner: whopper burger and fries from Burger King, 1 sweet tea Fitness Exercise: light walking Life Participated in a murder mystery Cosplay Adjusted sewing form, minimal progress on Codex dress End Result:

FOUR WEEK CHALLENGE: Week One Diet Drink one glass of water a day ✓ NO SODA ✓ Reduce sweets/carbs consumption by 50% ✓ Fitness 2 hour hike once a week ✓ Strength training once a week X 30 minute gym exercise 3 times a week ✓ Life Wake up early. Must be out of bed by 7:00 AM X Whiten teeth with extra flossing and whitening toothpaste. (No more whitening strips!) ✓ Study Spanish (via Duolingo) for 20 minutes a day whenever in the office. ✓ Have a family meal once a week X Put away $15 every paycheck into London savings NA Cosplay Finish Kate Bishop Finish Codex Attend one DCM League Event Update instagram once a day! ✓ For one week, I did pretty well. Strength training didn't happen, but it was more timing than anything. It was shoved out of the way for Valentine's Day, then the next day was dealing with a resident's passing away and uncle passing away... so life happens. I haven't met my goal of waking up at 7:00AM, but I've been getting up earlier... from my normal 7:20 to 7:10. Family meal hasn't happened because of tangled schedules, though I have managed dinner with both the boyfriend and roommate separately. No savings yet since I haven't been paid. My cosplay work is falling behind, mostly because my weekends are now split between cosplay, personal errands, housekeeping, and hiking. I'll be lucky to even have one done, much less both. I'm scheduled to attend the DCM event for the movie premiere of Logan, which is March 3, I think? Instagram is on point. Here's to week two!

Thursday's Battle Log 2/16/2017 Diet Breakfast: 1 cup coffee, 1 cinnamon roll Lunch: chicken and green bean stir fry Snacks: 1 cup milk, 1 bottle water, handful of potato chips, 3 cups lemonade Dinner: 1 cup milk, 1 slice pizza Fitness Exercise: 35 minutes elliptical Life None Cosplay None End Result: Despite my unhealthy choices, I did stay within my calorie intake for the day. This was just a horrible day from start to finish. From night terrors to bad hair day, followed by one of my residents found dead in their home to spending hours on the phone with police, EMSA, funeral homes, and fighting with my workplace for difference of opinions (more like morals) and then to find out my boyfriend didn't get the job that we thought was a sure thing, and finally my credit card debt has been sent off to collections since I've been unable to keep up with the payments. (Mind you, the card was only taken out after I had been robbed and needed a quick resolution to keep my bills paid.) Fuck this day.

Wednesday's Battle Log 2/15/2017 Diet Breakfast: 1 cup coffee, 4 squares of baked oatmeal Lunch: tuna salad, 2 cups tea Snacks: 1.5 cups milk, 1 bottle water Dinner: 2 eggs, bacon Fitness Exercise: 35 minutes elliptical Life 20 minutes of Spanish Cosplay Donated supplies to a local costuming workshop End Result: After three weeks of the chiropractor and only feeling worse, I brought my concerns to my manager. (I had previously spoken with a regional manager who seemed disinterested and more or less shut out my concerns.) However, my immediate manager was more considerate to my increasing pain levels and the fact that I've had to leave work early to make my chiropractor appointments... and allowed my request to order a new office chair. I found one on sale, received it the next day, and already I notice a difference in my lower back pain. The chair has padding in it for lumbar support, which has made a drastic difference in comfort. The chair it high back, so it also helps for my upper back... though I still am dealing with some pain in my upper vertebrae. I hope that things continue to improve between a better chair and repeated trips to the gym.

Tuesday's Battle Log 2/14/2017 Diet Breakfast: cheese danish, 1/2 venti chocolate frappe Lunch: tuna salad Snacks: none Dinner: baked chicken parm with side salad, 1/4 portion of mac and cheese Fitness Exercise: none Life 40 minutes of Spanish Cosplay None End Result: Valentine's Day! I was suckered into my one true weakness (cappuccinos!) but ultimately felt guilty about drinking the calories so I threw half of it away. I went out to dinner with the boyfriend to celebrate, and had my favorite meal there. I tried to squeeze in some extra Spanish to make up for having missed the last couple of days. The good: I realize that drinking the super sugary drink leaves me feeling so much hungrier and desperate to snack than a proper breakfast. It deters me from wanting to do so again, so that's personal (mental) progress. The better: After feeling guilty for the few snacks that I've indulged in, I stepped on the scale to see how far I backslid... to find that somewhere in all this progress I went from 232lbs to 218! HOW? SERIOUSLY HOW? Admittedly I haven't weighed in every day or even every week basis... but since I started this journey, I went from 230 to 232 (thus my reason for ignoring the scale) and now I'm at 218. I'm over the moon with progress. So ready to hit the gym tonight!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday's Battle Log 2/13/2017 Diet Breakfast: 1 cup coffee Lunch: 5 keto sausage balls Snacks: small handful of jerkey Dinner: beef taco salad, cup of water! Fitness Exercise: 15 minutes walking property & stairs Life Visited Chiropractor Cosplay None End Result: Getting back on board with good eating decisions. I visited the chiropractor and explained how my pain was increasing since visiting his office. I completely understand that there is a process to healing and that he has to work out the tension in my back and muscles, but doing so leaves me feeling near incapacitated for the next day - doing so is keeping me from my gym workout. Hitting the gym doesn't stress my pain levels like his visits do, and so I want to reduce my visits. We agreed to once a week, although my boyfriend is begging for me to not return since even the lightest of touches on my back would leave me doubled over in pain. He said that it's not normal for me to hurt so badly. Can anyone else tell me if this sounds right or not? Also want to point out that I drank a cup of water yesterday. I hate water. Loathe the taste of it. But I suffered through it as part of my 4-Week Challenge.

When I had a photography studio, my name was Shades of Gray (my last name is Gray) but then a certain book/movie series came along and ruined that for me. Dx My hike was ok. I accomplished what I set out to do, though I was emotionally drained after an exhausting week. I'm proud that I followed through when it was all too easy to stay curled up in bed.

Week One | Day One Diet | More Water ✓ No Soda ✓ Reduce sweets/carbs ✓ Fitness | 2 Hour Hike ✓ Life | Wake Up Early X Whiten Teeth ✓ Cosplay | Bishop Progress ✓ Codex progress ✓ Instagram ✓

Japanese is probably the second language I want to learn after Spanish, although it would be more difficult in that there's less people to practice with and that there's little motivation for doing so. It would be more for personal funsies than for bolstering my resume. Coming up with a cosplay name is way harder than you'd think it is. I've gone through several over the years, and settled on my current one because it's a play of words on my name. Miss Demi Noir, pronounced misdemeanor. I doubt anyone gets it at first, but it's amusing to me.

I haven't thought of it that way, so I'll try to see it that way. What has kept pushing me so far is the guilt I feel when posting to this site, but also the fact that I can look at myself in the mirror and know that nothing is going to change if I don't change it. Too often I hear people complain that they are unhappy and will do nothing to fix it. I have no right to complain if I don't try to make it better.

I'm definitely going to look into those articles. An old therapist recommended lots of reading for me to better orient my train of thought, and it does work for a while... but my mood is definitely a reflection of how things are going in my life. While I may be a cynic at heart, I really do give it my all and try to be optimistic and find the silver lining in all things. My roots of stress would be my job, my finances, my relationship. Job - I work in real estate and my day can be fantastic or horrific depending on who walks in my office that day. While I do love my work, it is a people-oriented environment and I'm currently working at a lower class property with low income (well near poverty level) families. Previously, I felt as though my company was making great efforts to better their quality of life and offer them good homes and really go the extra mile to help. More recently, new policies are put into place that is raising fees that I personally do not find justified. It's spinning my moral compass between standing up for what's right and leaving my job, or toughing it out because my clientele need people that care about them. To try and fix this, I sent my resume to a couple properties that were hiring. One wrote back the same day to inform me that the position had been filled. I haven't heard from the other, but I am aware that my particular position does not come along often and is high in demand. Finding a better environment will be quite a while in the making. I don't necessarily want to leave my career, but instead find a more professional (better living area and nicer quality) community. Finances - I was robbed 2 years ago. Took out a credit card to make ends meet. Currently have a maxed out credit card on top of all my regular finances. My boyfriend lost his job right before Christmas and now I'm paying for two. While I can baaaaaaaaaaarely make ends meet, it's frustrating to work 40+ hours a week at a decent wage and still have $40 sitting in my bank account after my bills/groceries/gas is paid for. It's miserable right now, but I know this is temporary. Boyfriend already has a job lined up for this week, but his UK citizenship has proved more difficult than ever imagined when it comes to finding work. Even this place that offered him the job says that it depends on them proving that he has college experience in the UK. (Shouldn't be too difficult, but it seems crazy that they must contact his college from 10 years ago for a copy of transcripts that he has in hand.) Once he does work again, that will take quite a burden from my shoulders. Further down the road, approx 3 years from now, my car will be paid off and that will be an extra $300/month in my account to pay off any debts that I have. So again, I know it's temporary, but I feel bitter and resentful that I work as hard as I do to be as broke as I am. (I can't help but wonder if it isn't because I was raised in a country where everyone feels entitled to an easy life?) Relationship - This one is tricky. Relationship with the boyfriend is rocky because of the finances and his being without a job. He's fallen into a pit of depression for being without work, and invests all his time into video games as a distraction. Multiple times I explain that he could put his time to better use, but I can't do anymore to help him than I already am. I suspect that once he gets back to work and becomes self dependent again, his attitude will turn around. If it doesn't, then that tells me he's out of excuses for his poor attitude and we can go our separate ways and I will know that I at least did the right thing and gave it my all. I kinda explained this above, but I do have a college education. I went for visual media (a mix of photography, video, advertising, business, etc) and while my current career is not exactly what I intended... I find that it suits me quite well. The business is versatile and allows me to make use of all my talents, while also providing a set schedule and paycheck. ( When working in art, no work means no money and that's a risk I can't take.) My current career is enjoyable (when a better environment) and makes plenty of time for my true passion: cosplay/photography, charity. I feel that as long as I can do a job that keeps me happy and paid, then I'm okay because it can provide for what I truly want to do in life. While it's too soon to say that I want to do this line of work forever, I can definitely see myself following the many doors that it does open up (whether it be selling houses or moving over to advertising versus management.) Alternatively, I have thought about looking into interior design as a career... but it might be more of a side project before it could be large scale enough to bring in the money. Perhaps once my car is paid off, I may take some classes on that? Thank you so much for these articles. I definitely intend to read them and see how I can apply them to my game plan. That last goal, oh yeah. I've already been complaining to work about the pain that it puts me in and will see what it may take to get a better option. I'm unsure that they will accommodate me, but at least I can make my voice heard.