I’m eating a bagel and avoiding my taxes.
It didn’t start off that way. I originally came to this coffee shop (which I got around my self imposed coffee shop slow down) to focus and get my taxes finished up then look at job stuff. When I sat down I remembered it’s Monday and I want to be musing. I told myself I’d finish my taxes, then write, then look at jobs if I had time. So far, I’ve done my Chinese homework, made my goals for the week, and now I’m writing this. Not doing so well.
In my defense, I forgot I was locked out of my tax software because I need to get a text to sign in. My phone that it needs to text is at home because it’s broken, so I’ve arrived at an impasse. Even more in my defense is the fact that I shouldn’t even have to do my taxes. They’re hard, and I’m not an accountant, so who told the government to allow me to do this?
Cheers for the freakend weekend
I had a wonderful and busy weekend this past weekend. It was filled with things I love: books, comedy, and people. I mentioned last week that I’ve been going to improv comedy workshops, and I was able to start off the weekend with one this Saturday. I had book club after improv and then that evening I went to an improv show!
On Sunday, I had another book club, the first meeting of the group, and it was great! It was a smaller meeting, but it was a nice meet up and discussion. I’m excited to do it again.
In the evening, I almost went live on YouTube, but I didn’t. I feel as though I’ve been neglecting YouTube quite a bit, but it feels like there’s always something else I can do, or maybe I’m just great at keeping myself busy.
Looking ahead
I’m excited about the next couple of weeks. This weekend, I’m planning to go to the beach with a friend, and we’re going to try and see something called the blue wave or flame. Apparently it shows up this time of year, and I hope we catch it.
There’s another improv show I want to go to. In Shenzhen, there’s three improv groups that I know about. I’ve been to two: ZIP Improv which does short form and Domesticated Humans, a long form group. The third, Couch Potatoes, does playback theater, something I’d never heard of before hearing about their group. I haven’t gone because I didn’t really know what that was and their shows were always more expensive and farther from me, but as I’ve been more active in the “improv community” I’ve wanted to try to soak it all up. I’ll try my best to go this weekend.
I’m feeling worried about…
Money has been a worrisome topic for me recently. I’m committed to getting out of debt, so I’ve been sending all my excess funds towards my debt. Recently, I’ve been nervous that I’m sending so much to debt that I don’t have a buffer for anything. I almost got a personal loan last month to lower my required payments, but it ended up falling through due to my bank statements being in Chinese. I left it alone.
Last week, I tried again through a different company and got approved. I should’ve taken a little longer to think about it because I’ve been kicking myself about it. The loan had origination fees which eat into the amount I receive. I didn’t want to borrow a lot more than I needed so I just did a bit over to make up for the origination fees, knowing the amount I received wouldn’t cover every last bit. In retrospect, I should’ve just taken what I needed because I read in the loan docs that if I pay off early (which I plan to), I can get any excess of 5% of the loan in origination fees back. UGH! So now I still feel a little squeezed, but I’m hoping I do right by myself.
One last thing
My 30-day challenge for the month of April is to build some habits. Earlier this month, I re-signed (and then re-signed up again yesterday) for James Clear’s habit course where you get email tips to build habits, so I plan on reading through that. I also found a habit tracker I really like. You can add the habits you like and get coins for the habits you accomplish (you can also set it up to take away coins). Then, you use those coins to buy incentives. I think it will help me track and build habits and also hopefully help me curb my rampant coffee shop visits.
All my love,
Briana
P.S. Okay so I guess this means there were two last things. The place that I’m doing my writing keeps playing the same three or four songs on a loop, and I think most of the people in the coffee shop don’t realize because they’re in English, but I REALIZE.