family health insurance
Try looking for a family health insurance policy on your own and you will realize just how hard it is to find a good insurance policy that provides good coverage at a reasonable cost, with a low premium. Unfortunately it is just not out there. Many people wonder why the cost of insurance is so high. The reason is that our government refuses to put caps on the rates that medical doctors and hospitals are charging patients. In this society, the average person can not afford to lay out $150.00 to see a doctor. Do you realize that this is more than an attorney would charge you? A doctor on average spends less than 10 minutes in a room with any one patient. Think about that. He is making about $900.00 per hour. Now is that obscene or what. I am just talking about a regular family practitioner, not a specialist or anything like that. I don't go to the doctor very often, I usually only go when I find that something is really wrong, and honestly many times when I go I don't really get the answer I was looking for. If you think about it, why doesn't our government put a cap on how much these doctors can charge. Everyone tried to make the insurance companies out to be the bad guys, but actually they fight for our rights and they cap how much your doctor's and hospitals can charge you for services. If you are private pay, then you have to pay everything that a doctor or hospital charges and then some. When you are private pay, there are no reasonable and customary limits put on the charges, and believe me the cost is about 3 times as much.
I just think that we should try to revamp this system before it is too late. Regulating how much doctors and hospitals can charge for the same services across the board seems to me to be a logical solution to this overwhelming problem. When people can't afford health care, they just don't go, even when they need to. Where did the doctor or the past go the Hippocratic Oath that doctors take? The following is an excerpt from that oath:
Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
Just remember it is the benefit of the sick, and not the benefit of myself.
family health insurance
I worked for a Company for over eight years, made good money and had excellent family health insurance. I have had back problems on and off for years and this manufacturing job was slowly taking it's toll. I worked out regularly and this helped with the pain. One time at work I pulled a muscle and they let me do light duty for two weeks. When I felt better I went back to my regular job and although a lot of people complained, I knew I had it pretty good. It was then announced that a new company was buying us out and everyone thought it was going to get a lot better in there. When the buyout was complete the trouble started, slowly at first. A layoff, the first I had seen in eight years. Then they started charging us more for our family health insurance followed by another layoff. Now we had one third of the staff doing the same job. Where as before I would spend an hour doing hard labor, mostly lifting before being relieved had now turned into six straight hours. I woke up the day after a hard day at work and could not move, but went to work anyway. Halfway thru the day I reported this to my supervisor and then found myself up in human resources with the new big shots. I told them what had happened and was told because I woke up with this it was not Workers comp but that I should take the rest of the day off and would be receiving a warning for missed time and to be back at work on Monday. Six of those in a year or five twice in a year was a termination. I had three missed days in the year and figured I could afford one more since I had two more coming off soon. So I left that Friday knowing I did not have to be back in until Monday. Well Monday came and still in serious pain went to work my twelve hour shift and then all of Tuesday. I ended up in bed for over three months and still in serious pain stayed out on short term disabilities. I received about one hundred and fifty a week and with four children that is nothing. I contacted several attorney's, even met with some of them, but because I admitted to waking up in pain instead of laying on the floor at work I could not get workers comp and lost my job after six months. So much for family health insurance!
promotional pens
When running a business it can be difficult when the holiday time comes around. Everyone needs to be acknowledged for the ways that they have helped you grow your business during the year, but it can be difficult to come up with different ideas on how to acknowledge everyone without breaking the bank. Well, I just recently read an article about such a subject and one of the suggestions that they made in the article was using promotional items as corporate gifts and business gifts. They even suggested doing such for your employees as well. This is not only a great way to acknowledge everyone who has helped your business grow, but also a great advertising dollar as well.
There are thousands of custom printed products to choose from ranging from low cost promotional pens, key rings, coffee mugs, shirts, caps, mouse pads, calculators, mobile phone holders and even promotional umbrellas to executive business corporate merchandise. They offer clothing items and carry bags, even laptop and notebook cases. The hardest decision will be what items to order. They even offer eco friendly items and with a very quick turn around your merchandise will be in your hands before you know it. Right now, prices on this merchandise seem to be at an all time low, so it is a good time to jump in and give it a test run today. The holidays will be here before you know it, so be sure to find yourself a good company whose merchandise you have already sampled prior to placing that big order.
With over 5000+ promotional items to choose from you will probably have to look over the items before landing on which ones best suit your finances and your business. Try to think of something different that you can do, something that has rarely been done before for your biggies, but be sure to include everyone with your promotional gifts. For instance you can give promotional umbrellas or nice promotional pens to the mail man or how about promotional golf gifts to some of your suppliers. Keep those advertisements flowing. I know it may seem like an expensive way, but the truth is buying employees, customers and supplier's gifts will cost you anyway, so why not be able to dedicate your dollars to serve a double purpose, happy customers and employees plus more business for you and your suppliers. Promotional items the gifts that just keep giving.
smart lipo
I was recently sitting in the doctor's office awaiting my appointment. Normally, I bring some type of magazine or something to read, but in my hurry to leave the house I wasn't able to bring anything to do. I began leafing through one of the medical magazines that rested on a table, and found an article on liposuction. Now, I'm not obese or even moderately overweight, so the article didn't apply to me. But out of curiosity, I read the article.
It turns out that liposuction isn't exactly the procedure I had thought it would be, and I was even more surprised to find that there were multiple variances of the general term "liposuction". I learned that liposuction was invented in the late 1960s, early 1970s in Europe. The first technique used was a "dry" technique, which didn't involve the injection of any fluids into the fat. This procedure was dangerous, however, because it led to blood loss and shock.
The improvement on the dry technique is the "wet" technique, which involves some injection of a small amount of fluid (usually less than the volume of fat being removed). The fat is then suctioned out. A variation of this, the tumescent technique, injects a large amount of fluid into the fat which reduces blood loss and makes it easier to remove the fat. But the article focused more on a new technology: smart lipo. At first, I wasn't sure if any liposuction is ever smart but then I realized that it was just a brand name. SmartLipo is a type of liposuction that involves using a laser to loosen fat then suctioning it out, versus the other methods of using liquid or even ultrasound to loosen the fat. According to the article, not only does smart lipo cost less than traditional liposuction, but it is more accurate, safer, and quicker than more traditional methods.
I couldn't help but wonder how could smartlipo cost less when a person obviously got so much more than they get with traditional liposuction. For example, it's called the "Lunchtime Lipo" because people require little to no recovery time after the procedure. It doesn't even have to be performed in a hospital! And according to the article, a person only requires local anesthesia in lieu of general anesthesia. Apparently smart lipo cost is not bad.
Of course, there are stipulations. It said that likely candidates had to be within a certain percentage of their ideal body weight and had to be in good health. Obviously, smartlipo is no cure-all for obesity and is really more of a method of cosmetic surgery (in fact, it fits under the category of cosmetic surgery) rather than one of weight loss. In fact, a person does not lose much weight with the procedure but will lose inches off their waistline.
I left my doctor's appointment that day feeling quite informed about this alternative to liposuction. If I needed or wanted a procedure like that, I may have actually considered doing it. But for now I'll just thank my lucky stars that I don't need it and wait for the next interesting new medical discovery to come up.
Bethesda chiropractor
After my car accident, I had low back pain like you wouldn't believe. I had sought treatment by many chiropractors to no avail. Then my husband was transferred to Maryland for his job, and I continued to seek out help from natural healers, acupuncturists, medical doctors, orthopedists, physical therapists, etc still with no positive results on my low back pain.
While thumbing through the yellow pages in search of a Bethesda chiropractor to cure my back pain, I came across an ad about Lordex technique and I since I had never heard of this before, I thought I should look into it further.
It turns out that through researching it I found out that Lordex was a technique specifically created as an alternative to surgery. I wondered if this could be what I was looking for. I made an appointment the next day and packed up my x-rays, which at this point in my life, I have my own set of, and set off hoping and praying that this would be the answer to getting my life back. I went in and met with the doctor. I brought my doctor's reports and told him all that I had been through, as well as my diagnosis and prognosis. He said that I was a perfect candidate for this technique and that problems like mine were exactly what this technique was created for. He said that he had several patients 2 of which were actually in worse shape than I was, and all had gotten excellent results from this treatment. He offered me the names and numbers of the patients that had been significantly helped using Lordex and I thanked him and went home to call these patients. Well, the stories I heard nearly brought me to tears. At one point I think that I was sobbing but so was the man on the other end of the phone, who told me his story and about how he thought he would never be able to play with his kids again after a work injury. Then he went to this chiropractic office. He said that it took a few months to get things back to normal and he still has some pain, but he spoke about these results as if they had been a miracle.
I couldn't wait to begin my treatment and started the following day. I am already feeling the results and I will tell anyone who will listen my success story.
chocolates
After a recent decision to go on a diet, I threw out basically everything in my fridge and cabinets and went to the local grocery store (this particular store is known more for its health food) to stock up on healthier foods. When I got to the store, I started to pick out fruit and vegetables to put into my cart and just browse up and down the aisle for anything that I thought looked gross (assuming it would probably be healthy then). After the first few aisles, I ran across an entire aisle devoted to chocolates. I was amazed. Knowing the healthy reputation for this grocery store, I just assumed I wouldn't come across anything besides maybe fruit that I thought was tolerable to eat. And there I was standing in heaven. Both sides of the aisles were covered in chocolates. There were chocolate covered fruits, and different flavored chocolate candy bars. I seriously could not believe my eyes. Now I know why people come here. They're pretending to be eating healthy but underneath all of the health food in their carts in a mound of chocolates. I had never seen so much chocolate in one place in my whole life. There were lava cakes and s'more desserts. Then I saw the sign above saying that it was made differently and that the chocolates were good for you. Could that be possible? It seriously had to be some kind of a joke. There is no way that I could walk out of this health food store with a ton of chocolate. So I went back to the fruit aisle and as I was walking I noticed more now than before that there seemed to be more people in the chocolate aisle than everywhere else in the store combined. Or maybe it was just me fixating on it. This diet thing is going to be really hard. It had only been 20 minutes into it and I had already been tempted to give up. So I went around the store, avoiding the chocolate aisle and filled my cart up with more fruits and vegetables and light drinks, a ton of bottles water (I had recently given up coke) and snacks like peanuts and wheat thins. Finally as I was about to get into the checkout line, I decided to go back to chocolate heaven. I looked around and picked out a few small treats. I figured I could use these to reward myself at the end of the week for staying on track with my diet. And anyways, if its chocolate covered strawberries, isn't it like eating fruit?
glow necklaces
My friend recently had one of the best parties I have ever been to. This is going to sound really wacky but she had a skating party. Yes, she had a skating party… in her house. She saw the idea online and thought she really could pull this off. She has a big house with all wood floors, which desperately needed to be redone anyway, so she figured this would be a great idea for a party and boy was she right. She went to the local skate rink and took a look around; she put tape on the floors for lines and got a cotton candy machine and a popcorn machine from the local rental place.
Then she picked up some little toys and tickets and used these as party favors (you know just like the little junky toys that you can pick up at the skate rink). She had lots of glow sticks that you could wear around your neck and also some of those skinny glow necklaces. She said it was really easy picking out the party supplies. As for the food she made little pizzas and sodas and hot dogs. She also got a snow cone machine and let everyone make their own snow cones. It was just a real blast. She played a lot of that really old disco music and even had everyone do the bunny hop on their skates. She also had everyone skate around to the YMCA song doing the gestures above their heads. When things quieted down a bit, she got out the broom and had everyone give the limbo a shot. We laughed our way through the whole thing, although I am not sure that alcohol and a skating party mix, especially in people that have not been skating in quite a few years.
Well, there was only one injury at the party which I thought was pretty good. Apparently, a friend thought he was a professional speed skater and went seriously barreling into one of her walls. Fortunately the guy just got a few bumps and bruises, but the wall needed a patch job. We fixed it with the help of a few friends the next morning, and all was as good as new. She said that she will be redoing her floors next month, but it is a shame because I think that everyone would love to give that party theme one more go round.
sql injection
My work study this summer is an internship with the campus computer network. I basically get to help out with anything they may need in terms of busy work and they will show me how the whole system works from a code perspective. I think that I will gain a lot of experience from this summer because they are running a system that is constantly updated and actually develops new technologies.
I finished my first week yesterday and it was pretty darn interesting. They were installing and formatting a new security scanner program because last year there had been a lot of security breaches. The mode that had been used the most was something called an sql injection which was basically invading the system every single time a handful of students would log in to their personal web space. The hackers then went in to the system and changed a bunch of programs. That is why we had all of those random days where the whole network would be totally shut down and the university would come to a halt. They also used their access to send out a bunch of e-mails that opened doors for them to come easier.
We spent this whole week trying to load and scan the entire system. Every day we would go through a different area of the network and do a very picky scan. Every single piece of information inside the system that ws not put there by the web masters was immediately deleted. So every student who comes back in the fall is going to have a rude awakening when they find that all of their e-mail and course files saved online have been erased. I don't feel too bad about having to do it though because it would have been just as evident to me today how much damage there had been done even without three years of school. It was actually sort of comedic to see how much they had taken over. At the peak of the problem they had actually sucked in about three thousand students in to their little network of destruction within our network of instruction. Sort of funny when I put it that why right?
gift baskets
I had a teacher this semester in one of my business courses that really changed the way that I look at business. His influence on me was so strong that when I began my summer job as a salesman for a private student venture I used his advice from the beginning. He had this whole mentality that no matter how much business changes and how much faster technology becomes, there will never be a replacement for simple human contact. Even in the business world where people like things to be as automated as possible to increase productivity, without a human sensibility and voice at the call centers then there is nothing for the consumer to grasp when searching for what will make them happy.
His theories of business where really no different than nay of the other common methods that people use today. The big difference though that set him apart was the fact that he had not belief in the idea of a totally automated business world. He saw that commerce, business, and trade are all based upon the fact that people are trying to make themselves happier in some way. When you pull out the humanity within a company and simply try to make it a means to an end and not a means to guide people along in life, then you are missing the mark in terms of your customer service. He would always talk about how when he does his business trip he always takes along corporate gift baskets. He has found that over the years the idea of a corporate gift basket and the statistical relationship to a sale thereafter is enough for him. So he is not throwing the rule book out the window for the gift baskets but he is not simply a numbers and stats kind of guy.
I hope that I can develop the type of insight that he has gotten from his business experience. I think that it takes a certain type of person to look at the very established system of business and think that you know better. I think it takes and even more special person to be able to actually make those changes you want to see.
Chicago cub tickets
I was very proud of my husband's picks for presents for the fathers this year. We have had trouble in the past making a decision on what to get our fathers and when I was buying the gifts he would always complain about my choices, so a few years ago I put him in charge of buying the Father's Day gifts, and I was relieved to have unloaded a job and he felt like he was in charge. It was a good trade off for both of us.
In the past he has gotten them some really good gifts, but this year's gifts topped all the years past. Both of our fathers love baseball, and so my husband in his infinite wisdom decided that he would by his father Boston Red Sox tickets, not just any Boston Redsox tickets, but season box seats. And so when he told me this, I asked, almost afraid to hear the answer, "so honey, what did you get my father?" Then he answered "a shirt!" and my jaw dropped. He must have known by the look on my face that I was about 10 seconds from dropping to floor, when he told me that he had gotten my father Chicago cubs tickets. I said well, did my father get the good Chicago cub tickets like your father, and he answered of course, I wouldn't do for one dad and not the other.
Well, needless to say, both of our fathers were floored at the incredible gift, they have even since spoken on the phone to each other and are making arrangements to go to a few of the different games together. They have only met a few times, but I think that this whole ticket thing has them both running around acting like little kids in a candy shop.
It is nice that Bob was able to get them each something that they would love and on top of that something that could bring both families together. It is nice to be able to give a nice gift to our fathers on Father's Day. I am really glad that we can afford to do such a wonderful thing for our fathers to let them know how much we appreciate all they have done for us through the years. I know that this will be a gift that they won't forget for a long, long time.
debt consolidation
So you say you have pinched that penny until it squealed? You have developed carpal tunnel syndrome from clipping those coupons. And to top that a little more, you have even given up those pricey, yet ever so trendy and yummy coffee drinks on the way to work and most days you don't even miss them. But here you are in dire financial straits. Here you are in that unspeakable pit of despair where you cannot keep up with your credit card debt AND pay anyone else regularly.
Have you considered consulting with a credit counselor and checking into how debt consolidators work? If you have not and you are becoming weary just worrying about it, then it is time to get off the couch and get on the phone. Instead of finding some nasty collector on the other end of the line, you will find a person out there that knows exactly where you are coming from -- in the financial sense. Credit counselors are not just out there to shake their finger in your face and reprimand you about your situation. They are there to provide a service to everyone out there that finds themselves in a situation similar to yours.
It doesn't really matter how you got to where you are now. Not everyone facing a mountain of debt is just irresponsible or stupid. There are often things beyond one's control that have left them with tremendous debt. Debt consolidation may not be the only option out there for you, but it is a good place to start.
Finding a good agency out there that can explain the pros and cons of www.eliminatedebt.org to you is not all that difficult. And if it appears to be a viable option for you, along with eliminating those harassing phone calls, it may wind up reducing your overall interest rate and excusing those late fees. It will definitely help to keep you on a livable budget and give you the confidence to keep going until that crappy financial situation is turned into a reasonable financial situation or better yet, a pretty darned good financial situation.
Remember, you are not alone. With the economic woes of the world today, you are just another person caught up in the mess. Remember, you don't have to take any steps that you are not reasonably comfortable with, you just have to take some kind of step forward to find a resolution to the problem. Doing nothing gets you nothing. You cannot ignore it and hope it will go away. It won't. It will only continue to grow until it devours you. Take that step...one small step for mankind, one great leap for you!
credit report
In high school, at least at the high school that I attended, we we're required to take a class in economics. We learned about credit and debt and credit repair after you (like a lot of Americans) end up in debt. Then in college, again most people take one, two or even three economics courses before leaving that particular college or university. Again you learn about everything from taxes to a credit report to buying milk at the store. It amazes me that so many people end up in debt after so much information about the subject is given to them.
A lot of my friends from high school and from around where I live seem to be pretty educated and have a head start on building good credit. We know that its important to establish credit so not having a bill in your name or a credit card that you pay off in a timely fashion doesn't help you, it hurts you. When I am away at school I always meet two kinds of people. Either they don't have any credit established (thinking that's a good thing) or they have so many credit cards that they can't shut their wallet. It amazes me to see this. It makes me think back to those classes I took in economics and pick out the people that slept through it most of the time. It just doesn't make sense to me. We are taught about finances and so on in high school and college like we were taught the alphabet in grade school, and I don't see very many people forgetting where the letter P comes in that line up. So why are people completely disregarding information that was put there to help them build a future?
I know that there are cases where families need credit in order to survive. Like groceries or other necessities. But there are other people who just spend money because they have a credit card to do it on. If they didn't have the card, they wouldn't be buying those extra tops at the mall or other frivolous things. And then they don't take advantage of the tools that are right in front of them, like free credit reports. These are there to help people and instead these people are hurting themselves.
So why are we wasting our time and money on classes to inform people when they are just disregarding all the information that is being given to them? Should we continue to waste these resources?
Texas SEO
My website marketing class is going to be exactly the sort of thing I want to learn. I already know quite a bit from my last job working for a web designer, so I should ace the class. But we get to really dive into a certain subtopic for our final project, which we will do in teams of 4. The subtopics are Graphic Design and the client experience, Search Engine Optimization, pay per click advertising, Email marketing, shopping cart issues abandonment.
We choose 2 topics, I put search engine optimization or email marketing. I got SEO, which I wanted, and the 3 others on my team are pretty interesting. What I like the most about this project is that each topic has a company mentoring for the topic. So in addition to our online research, we have sources at a particular company to interview, and they will even share some data with us. We also get to spend a ½ day in their office picking their brains, it is quite an opportunity. So for our topic, there is a Texas SEO company that we will be able to work with. Our school is far from Dallas, so a Dallas SEO firm will be an overnight trip. And there is a nice looking smart guy on my team, so this could be fun.
Dallas-Deep Ellum is a fun area, and we already talked about going out that night to some bars. Luckily we will be in the office during the later part of the day, and then can stay over. Maybe we will hit it off with some of the staff and they will go out with us. That would be an excellent networking opportunity, plus we could learn even more. People that work in internet marketing tend to be young and creative, and the office environments I have heard are relaxed and progressive. And small. I am really very eager to check this out.
The crux of our project will be to take one of the team member's uncle's website and give it an SEO makeover. We won't have time to really see the results, but we will be able to show what changes we made and why. Results would be much better, I hope our project is not considered weak because of that. I am pretty sure the focus is on research and learning/reporting on a topic more than performing an experiment.
promotional gifts
Being in college is great. Being a college student on campus brings you back to being a kid in a candy store. Everywhere you turn people are pointing out things you want. At my school we have "the scramble light" which is basically a corner where people stand to get your attention about anything from a concert their band is putting on to a free pizza to different theatrical acts going on about new stores opening up or classes. They give out promotional gifts like pens for different banks that want students to sign up for checking accounts or piggy banks. You get promotional items like coupons for free pizza with your school ID. You could feed yourself for a week sometimes with all the promotions going on at the scramble light. Between a free medium pizza coupon and a two dollars off coupon for a 3 dollar sub there is no reason you shouldn't have money to go out on the weekends. The promotional products are meant to keep students coming back for more but in some cases like a pizza hut coupon, you can get scammed and be turned off to coming back or stay far from the scramble light. One coupon that my roommate and I fell for was a free medium pizza with your school ID. We brought our coupon with our ID's and were told to wait in a line that lasted almost 40 minutes. Only to be told that if you want the pizza you had to sign up for a credit card and be approved. Some students stayed, only to find out that half of them were denied and the other half of the students left for fear of identity theft.
Although that was a bad experience, there are many that really do help students out. Some bookstores promote savings cards which help you earn points for your books throughout the years which can really add up for students. Companies know what students need and are promoting the right way to meet both the students and companies needs. Whether you get a t-shirt from the bookstore for buying eight hundred dollars in books (yay another school t-shirt, just what we need) or a pencil from the library telling you to read more, you'll find as you're packing your stuff to go home for the summer that these items really do creep up on you.
SD cards
What has the world come to? When I used to work at my old job at a dentistry, I would clean out some of the stuff in the basement (you'd be surprised at what treasures you can find in the basement of a dentistry). My boss treasured antique things and didn't really like throwing things away, much like my mother. So I wasn't surprised when I came across a gem of a find: a floppy disk! Now see there, most people in my generation think of the small, square, hard black disks that were used in computers circa 1998. I'm not talking about that type of disk. I'm talking about the old disks that were actually floppy and that were almost as big as some of today's laptop computers. It was almost difficult to fathom first how old the disk itself was and second how long it had been lurking in the shadows of the dentistry.
My boss let me take the keepsake home because she saw how entranced I was by it. I was looking at it recently and realized just how obsolete this technology really was. My boss was probably tickled pink at my naïve fascination with it, much like an antiques collector would be mesmerized by the first model camera or the first cell phone (let me tell you, those are mesmerizing too).
I started thinking about all my memory storage devices for my new technology. My cell phone uses one of those SD cards which are almost smaller than a thumbnail. My digital camera uses a memory stick, which looks like one of those memory cards in other cameras so I still haven't quite figured out what the difference is.
How did we somehow move from a world of floppy disks and CDs to jump drives and SD cards? How was the technology developed to transform phones from the weighty, bulky, unsightly laptop sized bricks that they were to the lightweight information powerhouses that they are today? I remember the time before a phone had a camera, when you were lucky to get more than 9 factory ring tones and when you couldn't see who was calling on the front screen before answering (some phones, sadly, are still in this state). I remember when portable tape players were the new thing and then CD players and now MP3 players, which, might I add, aren't even the same as they used to be because now they broadcast photos and videos and store notes and all kinds of cool things. I'm not saying that the advances in technology are bad, because they aren't. I am a fan of making things easier for me, and if you want to make me a phone that will store my favorite music, surf the internet, take pictures and streaming video, AND has a slide out keyboard for when I want to instant message or text my friends, go right ahead. I'll probably buy it. If you want to make me the newest, sleekest digital camera, go ahead. I like my camera now so I can't promise I'll buy that but I'd consider it. If you want to make it much easier and convenient to carry files around with me (and easier to lose them, might I add), then go ahead. I'll buy tons of those because they just make life easier. And isn't that one of the main goals of technology: making people's lives easier?
debt consolidation
For someone who had never bought a car before, I really wished that someone would have come out and told me what not to do more than what to do. As I was looking around for cars and comparing prices and plans I thought that II was considering every option. I wanted a car to use to get to class and also something that could be used in the bad weather we often have around here. I didn't want something that was just a piece of junk either because I wanted it to work all the way through at least my first year of work. Unfortunately I did not get any advice and I made a bad decision.
About six months ago I went out and bought this used SUV that I thought would be a great car. Even with the low gas mileage it would still be great for my relatively short commute to class every day. I bought the car with a long term payment plan so I could also keep paying my tuition interest payments. I have always been really concerned with my personal debt consolidation and have laid out my college years in terms of being able to pay everything off quick. So I was in to this plan and making the payments and about two months after I got the car it broke down the first time. I got it fixed and then went back out on the road. About a month later it broke down again with a different, but equally debilitating problem. So I had this problem fixed as well and tried again. One day about three weeks ago I went out and suddenly I heard a load banging sound and the whole car began to shake. When the mechanic looked at it later he said that I had ruined the engine and now it needed a whole new one.
This is how I have gotten in to my current situation in which trying to eliminate debt and bike riding rule my life. I still have the payments on the car but I am not putting any more money in to it until I graduate and have a job to do so. For now I am just focusing on the way to consolidate debts of the bills I already have so I don't create any new ones.
Online dating
Online dating has become the best way to meet new people and narrow down the dating pool a little. With so many people out there looking for that someone special, it can be a hard road finding that special person that is right for you.
An online dating service helps you narrow down your search for someone by compiling your person information and their's to help you find someone in the right age range, with common interests and goals, and helps you find a person that is potentially compatible to what you are looking for. This makes dating a little simpler. Instead of having to date all of the frogs until you find your prince, you can just go straight to the potential prince's and then pick the one that is right for you.
Many people think that it is an unsafe way to meet someone, but if you think about it, dating anyone for the first time can leave you feeling a bit uneasy. You must always exhibit good common sense when going out on a first date. You should meet in a public place and not have the person come to your home or anything like that. Also, always try to give a person your cell number instead of your home number; this will insure that they can't find out your address without your knowledge. It is a safer way than giving out your home number.
Be sure that you use the online tools available to get to know the person online before meeting with them in person. Get a feel for the person and their likes and dislikes, and be sure to tell them about yourself as well. When using this type of service it is best to be honest and forth right about what you are looking for and what you want. If you can't do that online without upsetting someone, then there is no way they are the right person for you. The more honest you are and the more honest they are the better chance that you will be able to make a true match.
Many people have been able to find their soul mate by using an online dating service. Many have not only found love but have gotten married to people that they have met online. It is really a very good way to find that someone special. They are out there waiting and maybe today will be the day that you will make that one of a kind match.
murder mystery
My daughter is going to be having a party over the summer and we have been looking to do it with a really different twist. Some parties, or so she tells me, are too boring. They leave her and her friends with very little to do but hang out and eat chips and listen to music. Well, she wants it to be really different, but she isn't sure what to do. She has now thrown the ball in my court to try and figure out an incredible party theme with a limited budget. As I started looking into theme parties online, I discovered a lot of the popular ones that the college campuses are throwing, and thought that would make her feel more grown up. Many of them had a drinking theme or a boy meets girl theme that I thought would probably be way over her head.
Then I really thought about what I love best and that would be a good murder mystery. I love the whodunits and the thrill of trying to figure it all out. When I first suggested to her a murder mystery party, I really wasn't sure how we would do it. I first came up with the invitations and thought back about my favorite murder mystery movies. The theme I came up with was the Ten Little Indians, April Fool's Day theme. In case you now have no idea what I am talking about there was a movie that I believe was called Ten Little Indians it was either that or And Then There Were None, by the infamous Alfred Hitchcock. Later, in the 80's I think this same plot was used in a more modern version of the same concept and that movie was called April Fool's Day. Well, in any case, I know that none of these kids will have any idea about the plots for these 2 movies, so I think this will be just the perfect murder mystery plot to use. Basically, we can make this a 2 day, overnighter, and scare the pants off all of them. Invite them to a party, and then make the party guests disappear one by one. What a wacky lady I am! Anyway, now I have told my daughter that I can't tell her anymore about the party, or it won't work, and my husband and I are working tirelessly to try and mimic the Hitchcock moves in our more realistic setting.
Florists
When I was driving to the gas station for milk I drove by a flower store. I could see the florist standing in the window so on my way back from the gas station I decided to stop and get my wife some flowers. When I got there I was shocked to see all of the beautiful arrangements. I got my wife a mix of roses and daffodils in a blue vase, it was really nice looking. When I went up to pay I saw a bunch of florists in the back setting up flower stands.
As I was walking to my car I was nearly hit by a truck coming by like a bullet. On my way home I was thinking about the truck that nearly hit me and nearly got sick thinking about if it had hit me. When I got home I found a letter from my wife that said she had gone to the store to get some things so I went to the fridge got a beer sat on the couch and watched football. A few minutes later my wife came home and began talking about how long the line was at the store. Before she could say another word I handed her the flowers and said I love you.
Just then the doorbell rang. My wife said that she would get it so I sat down and watched the rest of the game. In bed that night I asked my wife about who was at the door and she told me the mailman had a late delivery to us and that he apologized. The next morning I decided to get up and make pancakes for myself. After eating my pancakes I had fallen back asleep on the couch. When I woke up, my wife was in the front yard talking to the neighbor that lived across the street. I saw the flowers that I got my wife in the blue glass vase on the counter and I headed up stairs to take a shower. After my shower I realized that my wife was still out side talking to the neighbor. She seemed to be ignoring me a lot more then she used to but I didn't care because she still loved me in her heart. That night as my wife and I laid in bed I told her how much I loved her and she told me that she had something to tell me but she told me that she would tell me in the morning.
Only there wasn't another morning for her. The next morning I found her dead and I never got to hear what she was going to say.