First July Post

I'm in sort of a strange mindset at the moment. I have a few hours left in the day, and I feel a bit at a loss... what should I do with myself? There's always something to clean, but I've done a bunch of house cleaning already today. I got some exercise earlier. I've even worked on the quilt a bit. I could watch TV but even that doesn't really appeal to me at the moment. Sigh.

I don't really know why I'm feeling discombobulated. Maybe I am subconsciously dreading working 36 hours in the next 3 days. It's not like a feeling of loneliness, per se... I've had some really good talks with friends lately and am not really lonely. Hm. Maybe it's just that feeling you get when you reach the end of some time off and you're looking ahead towards the workweek. It could be because I had an absolutely amazingly wonderful weekend and the reality of daily life just doesn't compare! :)

Today I walked around Green Lake and went to Starbucks with Sarah, and it was wonderful to spend some time with her and catch up. Of course, here I wanted to hear all about her time abroad and I spent much of the time talking her ear off! We never did get to talk about the UK. But we did have some really good discussions about stuff. Definitely something I needed. Making friends is not something I've ever been very good at, so I particularly appreciate it when I have that kind of good experience!

One of the things we talked about was priorities, and Sarah managed to ask me some really tough (but helpful) questions about my job. She pointed out that I was talking about dropping down my hours back before she went to England, and yet several months later, I am still full-time, and it is still stressing me out. I guess I have been talking about it for a while! With no action. So that's my goal for this week. I've been praying a lot about it lately. Mostly because I was trying to figure out if it was something I could do financially, and if not, what I needed to do in order to make it happen. Because honestly, my mental sanity is far more valuable than money in the bank. :)

After thinking and praying about it all weekend, discussing it with some friends over the weekend, and then talking to Sarah today, I came home and happened to log in to check something on my student loans from nursing school. And discovered that the interest rate on my rather substantial loans has dropped. And not just a little. Seriously, the rate is now half what it was 2 years ago, and dropped nearly 2% since just a few weeks ago. I realized right then and there that I was going to take that as a sign that things were falling into place so that I CAN afford to work less. I was on the fence about whether being part-time was something I could afford, and then I've had a few things happen lately that really have been encouraging me to go ahead and do it.

Anyway, this is a pretty boring blog. Seriously. Interest rates? Yikes. I am hitting the bottom here. :)