Low Key Valentine's Day

Because Valentine's day was on a Saturday, we opted out and celebrated during the instead. C treated me to a nice dinner, and we went to a book reading/signing of an author we both really like (free!).

Since we'd celebrated earlier in the week, Valentine's day itself was a pretty quiet and relaxing affair. I spent the morning cleaning my apartment, which took forever since I was away last weekend and the place was just gross, but it felt so good to be in a clean space again when I was done. C came over in the afternoon, and we went out to lunch at one of our favourite local places (yum, Pho!). I paid, since C had paid for our dinner earlier in the week. We exchanged gifts which was fun, since we both bought each other inexpensive used books: I bought him T.C. Boyle's Greasy Lake, and he bought me Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes. We rented Tropic Thunder from RedBox and made a cheap dinner at home. Tropic Thunder was truly terrible and unfunny, which was disappointing. Even so, it was a nice day.

What Should I Do with Birthday Money?

About a month ago, I turned 26. This weekend, I received some belated birthday gifts from my godfather and my grandparents: my grandparents gave me $50, and my godfather gave me a check for $100. My godfather and aunt also gave me a $100 giftcard to Lord & Taylor.

Normally, I'd throw the money into my savings. However, January is one of the two months this year in which I receive an "extra" paycheck from the inn (my full-time job pays semi-monthly. bah). So, I'm already over-contributing to my savings this month.

I could use it to further pay down my student loan debt -- in fact, that's what I did with some of my "extra paycheck" money earlier this month. This is still a possibility.

I could use the money to buy something for myself, but there really isn't anything I need right now. And, I have the Lord & Taylor giftcard to spend as well, so I'd rather not spend all of money on STUFF.

I think I'll put an extra $50 towards my federal loan next month. I'll also put $25 extra into my downpayment fund and emergency fund, and put the other $50 into my fun fund. I'm going on vacation at the end of Februrary (more about that later), so I can use that money for any outings or the many outlet shopping trips I'm panning.

I'm so glad it's Christmas vacation!

Due to the fact that my company doesn't allow us to roll over unused personal/vacation time, I usually wind up taking off time at the end of the year. This year, because of Christmas and New Year's falling mid-week, I only have to use six days to get the last two weeks of the year off, so here I am with two weeks off. :)

I spent my first day off (today) finishing up some last minute shopping. The sales at the Gap were insane! I can only imagine that their post-Christmas sale will be even better. I wanted to buy everything in sight (for me and for C), but I resisted and just bought a couple of small gifts.

The rest of the day was spent wrapping C's gifts, and baking peppermint bark chocolate chip cookies. I've never actually baked anything from scratch before, but it was amazingly simple. I baked one sheet of cookies to make sure they came out well, and froze the rest of the dough. I'm going to bake the rest next weekend and give them as stocking stuffers for my fellow innkeepers at our holiday party next Sunday.

C is coming over tonight for dinner and to eat some of my test cookies, and we're going to enjoy some wine and watch Christmas Vacation. We're treating ourselves to pizza, too. We haven't gone out to eat in weeks and neither of us feels particularly like cooking tonight, especially me since I've been baking all day and have a sink full of dishes to wash before C gets here.