Catching up, part 3: The Domme.

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Catching up, part 2: Debt Free

I'm taking advice from someone who was calling himself SkinnyCock at the last show. His nickname is Peacock. He's recently lost a lot of weight, and is skinny. When he arrived on site, many people were amazed at how he looked, and he asked the girls, what, you don't like SkinnyCock? They both answered well, we like you, but skinny cock is bad. That reminds of something a female friend once told me- "Long and thin will get it in, but short and Fat is where it's at." I guess they were going with that theory. But I digress.

We were sitting at dinner one night and the subject of his boat came up. He mentioned that he hasn't put it in the water yet this year because he and his wife are working on getting out of debt. Someone else at the table asked if he was doing the Total Money Makeover and he said yes. He said he and his family were on the last baby step. The fourth person at the table said oh yeah, I'm on Baby Step number 2. I looked around and I wasn't in an alternate universe. Keep in mind that these three people only work this show together every year. One lives in Alabama, one lives in St. Louis, the other lives in Florida. I had no idea what these people were talking about.

Skinnycock began to tell me about Dave Ramsey and the Total Money Makeover. Google it. Ramsey has some great ideas. I'm trying my hardest to do the TMM now. Why you ask?

My first job out of college, I was making $65,000 a year. I could buy anything I wanted. $65,000 is more than the average family in America makes in a year now. 14 years ago that was TWICE what the median family income was in the country. I was barely 21 years old and living the high life. I was paying my bills, bought a condo, everything was great. I had a 401K from a fortune 500 company, I was making contributions to an IRA, and able to get anything that I wanted. I wasn't really saving. I had no budget. I was living paycheck to paycheck, but never realized it.

Fast forward 14 years. Last year I made over $220k. I'm still paying into a 401k, still making contributions, I've paid off the condo I bought, I have that condo as a rental property adding $2k/month to my income and guess what? I still have virtually no accessible savings. No emergency fund. I'm still essentially living paycheck to paycheck. Making over $220k. That's embarrassing. I never really realized until that dinner with Skinnycock.

I googled Dave Ramsey. I bought his books for my kindle on Amazon. He has some radical ideas. First- Get rid of your credit cards. If you can't pay cash for it, you don't deserve to have it. Second- get out of debt. Third- Don't loan anyone money. Fourth- have a well funded emergency fund. Fifth- when you're able to, give money to those who are less fortunate or to charitable organizations.

My debts aren't that large. I haven't totaled it up yet (Something you have to do in baby step 2), but they're under $10,000. By not free spending for a month, I can probably pay them off. Next will be to build up a nice size emergency fund. He suggest for someone in my situation 6 months worth of expenses.

Like I said. Google Dave Ramsey. Read about his ideas. Read other peoples take on his ideas. I bet you won't do it. I bet that I won't have the discipline to jump in both feet. (I already did buy a new bicycle this month, with cash.) Although now that I'm typing this, I'm making a pledge to myself that beginning July 1st, 2010 I will start my Total Money Makeover. Want to join me?

Catching up, part 1: Diabetes

I have so many things I want to write, but I just haven't had the time to do it. Hopefully over the next few days (or hours) I'll be able to get my thoughts together and get them written. In trying to keep this neat and organized, it'll be grouped by topic as best I can.

First, the diabetes update. After coming home from Pebble Beach, I went to the doctor for a follow up. I emailed my numbers to the doctor the night before so he would have them when I got there. When he saw me walk into the waiting room he came up and shook my hand. He was thrilled with the numbers, and said pending the results of an A1C test that he would do that day, he would start taking me off the Metformin. The A1C is basically a three month picture of what your blood sugar has been doing.

He got the results of the A1C the next day and called me with the good news. It came back as a 5.3 Remember on April 29th when it was done, it was 9.4. Ideally, you want to be 6 or below. A 5.3 equates to an average glucose reading of a 90. The 9.4 equaled a 234. That's a huge drop in under 2 months.

I'm also below 250lbs for the first time in a long time. I'm getting weened off the medicine now, with the hope of being totally off medicine by Labor Day. He wants to make sure that my numbers do stay down as the dosage goes down -- basically making sure I'm going to keep up the lifestyle changes that I've made.

As far as I'm concerned, if I made it through the US Open show without drinking a coke, I'm going to make it. I was tempted many times between working consecutive 20 hour days and how good it goes with the peanut butter sandwiches I was having, but I managed to avoid it.

A preview

Some pictures of fireworks from the Gay Pride celebration tonight in NYC. I like that they happen because it allows me to practice taking pictures of fireworks before the big show next week. Since they've moved the Macy's fireworks to the Hudson, this is a true preview for next week.

I'm gettig too old

I've been working a series of 15-21 hour days and it's really taking it's toll on me. I haven't been able to go to the gym in a week. My energy level has dropped tremendously. My numbers have been very good for the most part. My 14 day average blood sugar is 92. That's very good. I haven't gotten on a scale lately, and I probably won't until I get home on Tuesday evening. I have lots of things to update on, just no energy to put together something witty.

Milestone passed

I've had really good numbers for the past two weeks until today. I was a little higher than I wanted to be blood sugar wise (181) after eating today. I then realized that I haven't gone to the gym in two days since I was visiting my parents. I immediately went to the gym and did my work out. Regardless I do have good news. For the first time since I stepped on my scale, my body fat % was in the 20's. That's a big accomplishment, and there's only more to go. The next two weeks will be my toughest, working several 20 hour days.

Airport rant

I'm flying home today after being on the road the greater part of the past 5 months and I think things are finally starting to get to me. I'm flying out of a small airport that pretends they are a big airport. MHT is trying to steal business away from BOS and have been for years. During the big dig, MHT was a great alternative. Getting in and out of Logan was a nightmare. Now, MHT is just another small airport.

It all started at the rental return. At least it is right across from the terminal, something you won't find at most large airports. I arrived at the airport at 8:30for a 9:50 flight. Avis hadn't opened its outside return facility yet. I had to note the fuel level and mileage and go inside to the counter. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance.

Going through the checkin counter wasn't bad actually, but it always amazes me how uninformed people are (but that could happen anywhere -- large or small) at airline proceedures. Using a self serve kiosk isn't that hard now is it? When you're at a small airport, there is typically only one agent at the counter, and if they are showing someone how to u se the kiosk, they cant be checking your bag. I wonder if these are the same people who need to be shown how to use a seat belt. (No disrespect intended towards flight attendants- I think most do an outstanding job at something i could never do. I've said it before, I hate dealing with stupid people, i could never do it all day long.)

I started writing this almost a week ago and no longer am frustrated I've lost my steam. Sorry. I'm sure it will come back to me eventually. I did have a lovely 15 hour travel day to pebble beach today.