Twins Reunite

my twin arrives tomorrow and will be staying with me for about a month and this will be the first time that just the two of us will be in such close proximity with each other for an extended period of time without the buffer of james. i always tell people that we are polar opposites in everyway imaginable and that if you were to put our two personalities together, you would cover all eight traits of the myers briggs test. that is until i actually went to a myers briggs session and had my twin take the same test and we both came out to be extroverts which was a little surprising to me.

but im starting to get excited for his arrival and letting him stay with me isnt without its rewards i must say. he already started shipping some of his amazon orders to me which began arriving last week and in one of them was the boston celtics championship dvd which i cant wait to watch and have patiently set aside for this weekend. he even gave me his account info to netflix and ive just spent the morning picking out which movies i want and moving them to the top of his queue. sorry jon your gossip girl will just have to wait.

i started off picking sicko and blood diamond but then discovered the foreign film genre selections and thats when it started getting fun. i love watching asian movies and so far ive picked up chungking express, jet li's fearless (i have to have a jet li film), harakiri and yojimbo (starring samurais! im obsessed with them for some reason) and infernal affairs for good measure. i even emailed my two favorite fobs for some recommendations on other movies i should get but i have to be selective since i only have a couple weeks to watch all this and want to make sure i can get through them all.

i even took the liberty of rearranging some of his selections in the order i want and right now theres about ten movies in total that i really want to watch. im hoping to get through as many as i can before the end of the month since i recently decided to go for the cpa exam again (yes again but ill blog about that in another posting) so my window to goof off and watch movies all day long is pretty short.

this all fits in great with my trying to save mode and i even have two movie theatres down the street from me so we can get real popcorn instead of the microwave kind! i cant wait but i hope this doesnt mean im going to want to get my own account once he leaves. it will just be another fixed monthly expense and could potentially bring my net worth down to below zero if it hasnt reached that point already.

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

i just spent the past hour setting up a mint account, a free personal finance website that my friend recently told me about and being bored at work, i decided to take the plunge and see just how good this site is. now i should divulge that i am an accountant and that i already have the habit of logging in all my expenses to an excel spreadsheet (by category no less) so i have a pretty good idea of where my money goes each month but this site is supposed to help you find ways to "save" which piqued my interest.

after i set up my bank and credit card accounts, it calculated that my net worth is at a whopping $112. and no i didnt leave off any zeros in case you were wondering. and this was before i even put in my fixed monthly expenses. but herein lies the problem, the net worth calculation doesnt really mean anything since it doesnt take into account your incoming paychecks so its really just a timing issue. and net worth shouldnt be based on a point in time. it should be based on your net worth overall.

and on top of that, i couldnt figure out where to put in my salary info or add in my expenses that i paid for in cash or where my rent and cable go. and the alerts that are supposed to be oh so helpful are pretty useless too. all it says for example is you have spent $600 on home improvements whereas you usually spend $100. um ok? how does that help me? and right now it shows that my monthly budget should be $800 which isnt very realistic i dont think.

finally the feature that i probably find the most annoying but was the most excited to see was how they suggest you save money. its basically one big ad space for you to sign up for a new credit with a lower APR or one that is giving rebates on gas and groceries. anyone can do that on their own if they wanted to but it just isnt practical. everyone knows that its not the best idea to just sign up for credits cards nilly willy (or is it willy nilly) like that. its horrible for your credit score.

i think this is why ive always tended to stay away from these type of personal finance sites. when people find out that i record everything manually they always want to get me to start using MS money or get a pda but ive always been very opposed to it. it sounds lame i know but i like the act of writing down my expenses in my planner and then entering it into my excel spreadsheet. its comforting in a way and while i wouldnt really call it a "budget" since i always overspend, i at least know what im spending on and thats the most important.

so for the time being, i think ill stick to my trusty planner and excel spreadsheet thank you very much although my friends have been raving about this so i should probably give it another chance and play around with it some more.

Never Forget D.Y.

it was my dad's seven year anniversay yesterday and what was i doing? having brunch with a friend, figuring out how to cook bok choy at home and going house dancing at night. not exactly what one would expect on a day of mourning. i dont know why but i always feel as if on his anniversay i should be staying home, alone and reminiscing on past memories and then when i dont, i always end up feeling guilty about it. i feel guilty that somehow im being a bad daughter and because for the other 364 days of the year, i dont really think about it or it doesnt really play a big part of my daily life and that for just one day, just 24 hours, i should pay my proper respects. i feel guilty because as the years go by, i can tell that my memories are getting more fuzzy and it scares me because i dont want to ever forget but inevitably that is what is happening and i dont know what to do about it.

each year, i have a friend who will without fail text me "Never Forget D.Y." and this year, when i received it i had to pause a little as i wasnt even aware that it was the anniversary date. how sad is that right? that i needed someone else to remind me of the date. i even went with a co-worker to church last week to light a candle in memory of her mom and not once did it ever cross my mind that my dad's anniversary date was coming up.

the thing is i know that i havent really dealt with it even after all this time and the truth is that im scared. im pretty good about keeping my emotions in check and i dont know if im ready to just completely let go of my feelings like that. i was cleaning out my closet the other day and i happened to come across the death certificate, the funeral program and the "tape". the tape that ive kept hidden away all these years and for a brief second, i thought about watching it but ultimately i put it back for another time. when that time is i dont know but im thinking about getting my twin to dig up some old family videos from our family ski trips or christmas parties and to bring them up with him because ultimately my friend is right, never forget DY.

Yes We Can!

i voted for the first time in my life yesterday and it felt wonderful. ive never been very interested in politics or really bothered to pay attention since i never thought it affected my life too much but with the recent downfall of the economy, war in iraq and federal deficit, im beginning to realize just how important it is to make your voice heard. for a lot of californians, it may seem that our vote doesnt matter too much since its pretty much a sure thing that our state will be blue but just to be a part of the process and filling out my ballot gave me a sense of empowerment that i was taking part in having a say in the direction of our country. it probably didnt hurt that this was or is one of the most exciting political times in history and it was pretty near impossible to not get swept up in the movement.

i didnt always start out as an obama supporter. in fact, i was desperately hoping for hillary to win the nomination but when that didnt happen, i was undecided for a while and even considered voting for mccain. that is until he made sarah palin his running mate for vice president and while i did feel bad for her last night seeing her tear up while watching mccain give his concession speech, i have to remind myself that she would of been one step away from being our president and that was just too scary of a thought for everyone. seriously, she makes me seem qualified to run for office and i cringed everytime she spoke during her debate although i did come out of that a fervent supporter of biden.

and it all culminated last night when i attended an election party and just being around so many obama supporters when it was announced that he had won was a moment i will never forget. everyone was clapping, cheering, even crying that one couldnt help being moved. watching his victory speech gave me goosebumps and filled me with a sense of hope for the future that maybe just maybe he will be able to turn things around for the better. how can you possibly not be inspired? yes we can! out on the streets people were celebrating everywhere, cars honking left and right, firecrackers were going off and i even walked into a hailstorm of confetti although i think the girl may just have been sweeping the roof but who cares really.

the only downside to all this was that prop 8 passed which i was extremely disappointed with and yet the majority of the people had no problem with voting for more fair treatment of chickens? whats wrong with this picture? most of the other propositions went the way i had voted and it was so exciting to actually know what they were for as i spent some time reading up on them and trying to be informed. all in all it was a great night yesterday and im grateful that i was able to a part of it.