No Taxation...

Taxes = DONE! Heck yeah.

Unfortunately, I had to file in two states due to the fact that I spent one month in North Carolina in 2006. Oh well, they are done, so I'm happy. I'm pretty neurotic about having things finished before a deadline --- that, and the fact that I'll be traveling so much in the next two months really lit a fire under me to get this task marked off the list.

I like that the government can get all up in your business. It (it = government) needs to know where you were and where you are now. When you file in two states, you have to send the tax forms from the other state to prove yourself. Among additional information, it knows how much you earn, your marital status and if you have kids. Nosy bastard. And if you try to pull one over its eyes, it has your address and isn't afraid to use it.

The questions get pretty interesting too -one on the North Carolina form says, "Are you a registered farmer or fisherman?" It's kind of like when I had to re-take the written part of the drivers test to switch my license from South Carolina to North Carolina. Most of the questions dealt with tractors and alcohol. Don't mix the two. That's the bottom line.

Along with all this tax business, I was thinking about finances in general and how much we can learn from those around us. My parents, for example, taught me some great habits - one of them being ALWAYS pay off your credit card in full and on time (and more specifically, always pay all of your bills in full and on time, too). Of course there's that pesky interest that will get you the longer you put off paying the credit card bill, but it can also negatively affect one's credit score. Lenders use that score to evaluate the risk of giving someone a loan. When I buy a house, I would like to be deemed worthy of a decent loan.

In college, I had a friend who held about 3K in credit card debt. Her parents cut her credit card and then made her get a job to pay it off. It's scary to think about how that will hurt her in the future. My friend expressed to me how she got out of hand - with a credit card, it was so easy for her to charge and not give it a second thought since you don't see an actual statement until the end of the billing cycle (if at all - since her parents were paying her credit card bill). So, you can charge with reckless abandon and a few charges can add up to a lot. I think this experience made me pay a lot more attention to the details of what and how much goes on the credit card. Dad's simple solution to this situation is, "If you can't afford it, don't buy it. Period." He always says that the money you have in the bank should be able to back up what you charge on the credit card. Its such a logical and simple idea, yet for some, so difficult to do as I found with my friend's situation.

Investing for retirement is something else I've gotten myself into. I can't believe I'm thinking about retirement at the age of 26 (actually, I started at 23), but I guess there's no harm in planning for the future.

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I'm channeling my inner Suze Orman today.

Dear Girlie

Dear Girlie,

Uggs, tights and a baby t-shirt in 30 degree weather does not equal cool.

Here's to your warmth and avoiding hypothermia,
MKP

Tag, I'm it

Got tagged by MA and Priya, so here goes nothin':

Three things that scare me:
1. Clowns
2. Walking alone at night
3. Gnomes

Three people who make me laugh:
1. Ranjit
2. Mom
3. Perez Hilton

Three things I love:
1. Family
2. NC (boyfriend, not to be interpreted as North Carolina)
3. Dark Chocolate

Three things I hate:
1. People who park in handicapped spaces when they aren't handicapped (they just use the tag)
2. Seeing someone hit their kid
3. Orange Line on the Metro

Three things I don't understand:
1. Blind faith
2. Consultant Language (how much can you actually "leverage" something?)
3. Why periodically there will be bubbles that come from the bottom of my washing machine - the maintenance guy can't explain it either (but it's TONS of fun to play in)

Three things on my desk:
1. Blackberry
2. Television
3. Framed photos

Three things I'm doing right now:
1. Working on a communications plan
2. Fidgeting
3. Thinking about food

Three things I want to do before I die:
1. Raise kids
2. See Africa
3. Run a 10K

Three things I can do:
1. Mutli-task
2. Bake
3. Write

Three things you should listen to:
1. Your mother
2. Your gut
3. Music that inspires you

Three things you should never listen to:
1. Drunk people
2. The cry of a newborn baby that is addicted to crack (b/c the mom used crack while pregnant)
3. The Weather-person

Three things I'd like to learn:
1. Ballroom Dancing - all types
2. How to cross country ski
3. How to speak Hindi

Three favorite foods:
1. Mom's Konkani Cooking
2. Thai - Drunken Noodles and Penang, especially
3. Italian

Three beverages I drink regularly:
1. Water
2. Tea
3. White Wine

Three TV shows/Books I watched/read as a kid:
1. Sesame Street
2. The Berenstain Bears
3. Mister Rodgers' Neighborhood

Three people I am tagging...
I think most everyone I know has been tagged already, but if Arches hasn't, I'd like to see her responses.

Black and Blue

She woke up groggy...the day before had been really productive with an early morning yoga class, apartment hunting, condo shopping and various other errands. But, it was time to arise, give thanks for another day on Earth and prepare for the hours ahead.

Never in her life did she think winter sports would actually be something she WANTED to do. After a bad experience at age 11, it was understandable that any snow related activity was blacklisted. She thought about this as she put on her fourth layer of mismatched clothing realizing with the frigid temperatures that you don't dress for style, you dress for functionality.

The most daunting aspect of snowboarding has to be the chairlifts. Though she managed to do the chairlift successfully on many occasions, it was always a crapshoot. One step off balance and then thud to the groud you go, and usually it has the bowling pin effect, if one pin goes down, likely others go down too.

As she strapped her boots in the bindings, she looked down the mountain and thought, "well, at least I got off the chairlift ok." The mountain was a beast. It looked impossible. And this is labeled a blue/green mountain? Where's the easy party? How was anyone supposed to get down a near vertical slope? Must be why they can call snowboarding an extreme sport. One deep breath and she tipped the board and started gliding down. Of course nothing is that easy, there were definite obstacles in the way - namely all the fallen soldiers who were also trying to tame the beast. Big, thick beams supporting the chairlift all the way down didn't help the situation.

She slowly made large "S" shaped patterns in the snow while going down the mountain and did it with little anxiety. She also spared her bones by not hurling her body into the snow (which was never intentional before, but always managed to happen). She came to the end of the mountain with the smell of victory in the air, took the board off, looked back at the ugly beast and thought "Next up, the black diamonds. Hell yes."


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Ok, so she=me - I know you get that. NC and I went snowboarding on Sunday, but I wanted to express my feelings about it instead of summing it up in one sentence. It truly is an exciting sport. Don't worry Mom, I'm not going to attempt the black diamonds just yet, I need to get really good on the blues first. I'm most certainly not that cocky - the fact that I can fall and bust my arse at any time keeps me humble.

Material Girl

While on the metro yesterday, I heard this song blaring from someone's iPod. I had to laugh for several reasons:

1) Why can I hear your music? Seriously. That's loud.
2) I heart 80's Madonna.
3) It made me think about how ridiculously productive I was over the weekend.

It was time for a spring...er...winter cleaning in my apartment. It was also a good time to do it since it was all of 10 degrees, so I wasn't missing anything outside.

Long story short, I threw away a bunch of unnecessary belongings. I had to cut the clutter - I don't like to be a pack-rat, but I have that quality about me. I keep a lot of things that I don't need for "sentimental reasons." I guess it's time to get rid of it when you can't even remember the "sentiment" behind it. It also reminded me of a great conversation I had with my Ajja when I was in Nashville. He was discussing his non-attachment to material possessions. It was enlightening to say the least. That's what spurred this inital clean-up.

This purging of the stuff was completely practical. For starters, I am trying to decide whether or not to purchase a home. I learned the all-important lesson when I was moving up from North Carolina -- the less stuff you have, the easier it is to move it. Logical enough. Regardless, less stuff, better "chi." I'm down with that.

Speaking of buying a home (which admittedly is a material possession, but you've got to have a place to live), NC and I went to a home buying seminar last night. Holy goodness, there's so much to think about...location, cost and one day school districts will matter! ACK! Anyway, there are so many pros and cons, but the one thing that I love most is also the one thing I hate most - the place would be mine. That's a good thing because it would be my very own home to do with what I pleased and a bad thing because it would be my responsibility to get all the maintenance done. That's the nice thing about living in an apartment. If something goes wrong, I fill out an online form and within 24 hours, the problem has been fixed.

There's a definite upside. I've been doing quite well with managing my finances, so affordability isn't as much of an issue as I imagined it would be in the places that I would like to live. And, as described by the realtor last night, people who buy houses get ridiculous tax breaks since the government likes it when you purchase (helps the economy). I've always been the type to want a house - I enjoy the nesting process immensely. But for now, I think I'm just going to continue getting rid of stuff in my apartment and try to be the un-material girl.

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Anuzi's blog makes me hungry.

The Whirlwind in the Thorntree

Johnny Cash anyone? no? Ok.

This past week was amazing. Off to Ft. Lauderdale we went with GPS in hand for the rental car - which was upgraded from a Geo Metro to a convertible PT Cruiser. Heck yeah! From Ft. Lauderdale, we drove down to the Florida Keys. I'm not going to lie - that's one amazing drive down there. The water is so blue and with the top down, it was perfection!

Key West is an interesting place. It's got a lot of personality and I would encourage anyone to go there at least once. There's one main drag (Duval Street) - we stayed on that street in the Crowne Plaza hotel - right in the middle of all the action. The nighttime was abuzz with tourists, especially those from cruiseboats. Anyway, on Saturday night, we went to a restaurant called Mangoes. Since NC has gotten off red meat and into fish, this was definitely the right restaurant to go to. The meal was exquisite to say the least. Later that evening, we went to the bar on the dock, drank "hurr-o-caines" (cranberry, orange, pineaple juices, vodka and other stuff) and just watched the water. The next day (Sunday) we were out and about on Duval Street again, eating at La-te-da for lunch and taking a walk to the opposite end of the Key. In the afternoon, we went jet skiing which was a first for both of us. No one else was out there, since the water was so choppy, but man, oh man was a great experience. I would do that again in a heartbeat. We had NC's birthday dinner at Latitudes Restaurant. We had to take a boat to get there as it was on a small island. Again, amazing food and ambiance to die for. Monday we took off for Miami but stopped off at a little hole in the wall restaurant called Flamingoes before we left the Keys.

Miami was exactly how I pictured in my mind, except for the fact that they were preparing for the Super Bowl so ESPN was everywhere, litterally, on the beach, on the sidewalk, everywhere you turn, there was a camera or stage. At any rate, we hit the highlights, beach, food, shopping and clubby bars. It was fantastic. If I had been 20, it would have been even better (as an old person, I have trouble hanging out as late as I used to).

On Tuesday, we flew back up to DC, then drove to NJ - crazy, I know, but we got to see NC's dad on his birthday and the next day was NC's b-day, so it worked out well. We spent Wednesday with his family and then came back to DC. I'm glad to have a break before I travel again, but I wouldn't exchange this trip for the world.

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Happy B-day, NC! Here's to 799 more. ;)