Sick sick sick

I've been insanely sick the last few days-- my weekend consisted of laying in bed all day and growing a spectacular collection of lumps on my neck. For one second I was kind of hoping it was the plague, because who could ever have a better story than "So, did I ever tell you about the time that I had the bubonic plague?" But, never fear, it's apparently mono. Who the heck knows where it came from, since I don't know anyone who has mono right now, but whatever. I only know two things-- mono sucks, and cortisone pills are amazing. For real, they make me feel 150% better. I'm still trying to rest though, because that's just an illusion and I know I'm not really better at all yet.

I seriously lucked out though, getting the worst bit of it this week, because this week is not super busy for me. Taking some time off from classes is not really gonna hurt me too much right now. And one good thing I guess is that if I'm not really supposed to be out and about, I can't spend money! Haha, gotta look for the silver lining somewhere...

Lowering Expenses, One Day at a Time!

I just got two bits of good news that will both help me save more of my hard-earned money for Italy! First of all, over spring break the boy wanted to go down to Georgia to visit his sister, but (as mean as this sounds) I didn't really want to go. She is way older than us (like seriously-- only 3 years younger than my parents) and lives in a small town, not to mention he hasn't even seen her in 10 years. So what the heck would we do around there for a whole week? I didn't really want to spend all the money to go there if it would be boring. But anyway, those plans fell through, so that right there saved me about $200-$300 bucks!

Also, I got accepted to go to Milwaukee in April for a conference! Our department gives us $350 to spend at conferences, which is good except it's for everything-- flights, hotels, food, etc. But I seriously lucked out because our two professors are renting a van to drive us there, and they offered to pay for all the van and gas costs! Which means, I probably won't have to spend a dime of my own money to go there! That in itself is bitchin' enough, but also let's take a moment to appreciate how awkward/fun/crazy a 10 hour road trip with our professors is going to be... I can't wait!

I kicked the snow's ass AND got my tax return!

Snowpocalypse (I have to use this name as much as possible because it amuses me immensely) will not keep me down! I kind of missed the memo that a snowstorm was coming, because apparently I live under a rock, and woke up with no food in my apartment. So today I traipsed through 15 inches of mostly unplowed, unshoveled snow to get some groceries (only $14 for all next week, not bad!), and returned home the conquering hero.

And when I finally did make it back home, it was like Christmas all over again! I got a package that I had bought from Ebay, an American Eagle gift card that I got from my credit card rewards, and $1,322 in my bank account from Uncle Sam. Again... Christmas! Unfortunately, that money is not sticking around for very long at all. I am using $1,000 of it to pay for the program deposit for Italy, $137 of it for stupid medical bills that my insurance didn't cover, and putting the rest in my EF. But you know what, I didn't have to take out of savings to cover any of that stuff, and that in itself deserves a little happy dance. That and the fact that I now have food.

Happy February!

I am so excited that it is February already. Only one more nasty nasty winter month to get through, and then it should lessen up a bit before spring comes!!!! :-)

In the spirit of saving money for my Italy trip, the boy and I had a fun, cheap weekend this time around. We went to Wegman's on Saturday for this free Food and Beer Pairing festival thinger. You didn't have to pay anything and they gave you all kinds of food samples and some beer to go with it. Most of the food was really great, even if the beer was a bit questionable at times. My favorite was this artichoke & asiago cheese dip-- amazing! And we got a free lunch out of the deal. Fri and Sat night we stayed in, cooked dinner and watched movies. It has been a nice long time since I had such a relaxing weekend-- usually I have so much work to do. But this time around there wasn't much at all!