Do I have to grow up? in Adventures in paradise

Today is somewhat of a mini milestone, for me personally at least. I paid off my credit card! I don't think I've ever had an amount on it for as long as I did over the past however many months. I know that my laptop and my phone went on it, as well as a few grocery shops here and there, and it just added up for around $1500 at one point, which is scary for me as usually I am pretty good with my finances. Today, I FINALLY got it down to a big, fat, ZERO! Phew. No more pesky interest payments.

I did do a bit of messing around whilst on the banking site. I went into their home-loan calculator just to see how much borrowing power I have. I have expecting it to say, "Bzzzzt, as if mate" or "BAHAHAHA!", but I typed in a few details and it actually gave me a number! According to my bank at least, I could borrow up to $109,000. LOL. I realise that'd give me buckley's chance of buying a house here, but it'd get me one in Tassie! Haha. One day I hope to own a house. I've been renting for well over a decade now and renting into my early 30's probably starts to look a bit sad, let alone if I reach my 40's! Haha. Of course, I'll have to get another job if I'm even going to consider a mortgage, but it was kind of a peaceful thought today thinking about how I would decorate my own house and what pets I'd have and what I'd put in the vegie-patch out the back. I guess I do dream of the great Aussie dream somewhere in the back of my mind :)

I actually said to my boss tonight, "You know, because of all the extra hours I've been working lately, I managed to pay off my credit card today!" He almost had an embarrassed look on his face, only because he is a very respectful manager and he doesn't like calling people in unless he has to. I've always said that I am happy to help out if he needs me to, which I am. Anyway, he replied, "You're welcome." Haha. He's doing well considering how screwed our department is, or seems like it is. Two of our staff are leaving, and I find out today that our grocery manager is leaving also, so my manager will be down 100 hours per week until he can hire more staff, which the store manager won't do because it's coming up to tax-time. It's driving him crazy. So I don't mind doing more hours. I'm starting to think it's probably a better idea if I keep doing what I'm doing with my current hours, as I'm in a very happy place, it's a great cruisey job with great people, and I can decide on what I want to do with my time during the day, if I am ever going to achieve that dream of mine. I know it's going to involve a lot of sacrifices, mostly including my sleep, which I dread. It's pretty amazing never having had to wake up to an alarm clock over the past two years. I really worked out a perfect work/life balance, although with me it's moreso a life/work balance and probably on a 4:1 ratio most weeks. The extra hours lately have just helped me out and also helped my manager out, and if I stay what I'm doing, I'm free to help him out when he needs me. I live in the same suburb as my work. I walk to and from work every day. It's easy enough to do. I know things in life will always change and he won't always be my manager, but right now things are pretty cruisey. I just need to find something I'll genuinely enjoy. It's not like I haven't been keeping my eye out either. I certainly have, on various job sites over the months. I don't really have a preference on whether I'd want to work a full-time job as well as my part-time one, but the problem with that is flexibility. Most work-places, at least retail ones, expect the employee to be flexible, rather than themselves, but I tend to not want to compromise on that. It should seem simple enough though - to find a job that allows me to finish by 6pm on the days I work, yet a late-enough start so that I can actually get time to sleep at night. Because if I apply for a job with early-morning starts, with me finishing work anywhere between midnight and 2am, I know that's not going to end well for me. So I figure, an IDEAL position would be one where I'd start around 10am and finish at 6pm, so I could do both jobs, but let's face it, this isn't fantasy-land haha. So if I see a job advertised that is something like that, which also appeals to me and doesn't seem dodgy (I've been there before!), then I'd definitely be inclined to apply for an interview and check it out. But hey, it isn't a big deal. I just know I have to grow up some time. The idea of paying 50% tax on a second job is a bit of a debbie-downer also haha.

Sorry for the boring-ass entry. Clearly I'm not exciting all the time. Just jotting down a few thoughts. I guess the whole point of this entry was to announce that the credit card is zilch and my next mini-goal is to save up enough for that gym membership so I can rejoin. It's a pretty exciting goal to aim for, as I really do miss it, and working out at home (as fun as it is to be able to work out in my underwear in my room) just isn't the same. I've still maintained my weight and haven't dropped any since January, so that's a pretty good sign, but I'm really missing the heavy weights. Lugging my groceries all the way home today felt like a workout in itself. I bought a few too many heavier items this week.

Tonight is dinner with Vish, James, Carly and maybe my housemate and Angelo. Apparently Vish's oven has broken so he's asked if he can cook here instead. I have to ask my housemate (as it's the polite thing to do) but it looks like it'll probably be here now. I'm hoping to finally get my haircut tomorrow, and maybe I should pick up a bit of booze for the dinner. That could be interesting if Carly gets drunk, and if either Angelo or I get drunk, well that could also be interesting and Vish has been trying to hook us up for ages. I'm predicting it'll probably be a normal night though, with hopefully a lot of laughs.