I’m only 27 years old. This means if I got my learner’s permit at 15, I’ve only been driving for 12 years. The number of cars I have had in that time is ridiculous. The reason I’ve had so many? Well, there are stories for all of them. Let’s take a look at my history of vehicle ownership.

1. Purchased for a whopping $150, my first vehcile was a 1981 Plymouth Reliant. What a beauty! This car was as old as I was. I had to manually work the blinkers, and the brakes sqealed so badly that after 1 day of driving, I went home crying to my Mom because kids at school laughed at me. She didn’t make me drive it again.
   
   
   
   
2. After Reliantgate, Mom gave me her car. I drove this 1990 Geo Prizm LSI throughout high school and until my sophomore year of college. I gave it back to Mom after I decided my income was steady enough to start making my own car payments. Believe it or not, I drove this car around like it was a Corvette. I loved it. It was missing hubcaps and the paint was chipping, but I drove it with pride. Probably because the only car I knew before it was the Reliant.
   
   
   
   
3. There was a brief time that I drove a 1990 Nissan Maxima. It was the first car I got bank financing for. My first bank loan was for $4100 at the age of 16. I was quite proud.  However, about 3 months after getting it, I rear ended someone and the car was totaled out. This car is my reasoning for saying parents should never give kids ridiculously wonderful first cars. I was a pretty responsible kid, and I wrecked mine. Imagine what the irreponsible kids would do.
   
   
   
   
4. After driving the Geo, I found my next car in the paper and purchased it from a nice couple in Benton. This 1997 Honda Del Sol was a standard, and I didn’t know how to drive it when I bought it, but it was too cute to pass up. I think it was $7800 and I think it had something like 42,000 miles on it, but I really don’t remember. I ended up selling this one after a lady stopped me in a Wendy’s parking lot and asked me if I would be willing to sell. After several meetings and letting her 16-year-old son basically learn how to drive a manual in my car, she decided she didn’t want to buy it anymore. I had already purchased my next car based on her assurance that she wanted to buy the Del Sol, so I had to put it in the paper. I ended up selling it quickly and for the price I offered to the lady anyway.
   
   
   
   
5. The car I bought to replace the Del Sol was the first car I had with leather interior. I bought the 2001 Chevy Monte Carlo from my Dad’s lot in Missouri. It had 70,000 miles on it and was $11,200. It had black leather, heated seats, and a sunroof amongst other perks. I liked it, but didn’t love it. I mostly bought it because my boyfriend at the time was crazy about it. He and I broke up shortly after the purchase, and I decided I wanted something else since I wasn’t inlove with it. That brought me to my next car.
   
   
   
   
6. The Mercedes was purchased off ebay with 72,000 miles on it. I figured why not get a more luxurious car with the same amount of miles for around the same price as the Monte Carlo? I still have this car, but it has quite a few miles. That’s why I purchased my latest car.
   
   
   
   
   
7. The 2005 Lincoln LS. My most recent vehicle purchase.
   
   
   
   

Seriously, nobody who has been driving as short a time as I have should have this many vehicles under their belt. If I had to give any advice it would be to buy a car with low miles and certified used. Buy something you are proud of and that has a sort of classic look, not something trendy, that’ll make you drive it longer.

We could kill two birds with one stone; America’s obesity problem and our fuel shortage!

However, according to the article, even America’s fat ass isn’t enough to accommodate our fuel needs. Bummer, it might’ve shut a lot of people up. Although, I wonder what it would have smelled like? People who are currently using cooking oils complain of smelling like french fries when they get out of their cars. Since french fries are cooked in oil, and babies are made in females, would we smell like a newborn? (kidding)

Read the full story here.

I think the holidays are crazy for everyone. School is finally over for the semester (after a delay of 3 days due to the ice) and I’ve been using this time off as one big holiday. I am literally trying to squeeze as much as I can into this break as I can since I have no life outside of casebooks and outlines while school is in session. This is also why I haven’t written in so long. So, I thought I’d give a brief update.

1. I did end up purchasing the Lincoln. I am still trying to sell the Mercedes, so please, if you know anyone that needs a car, send them my way. The “ebay” purchase for this vehicle did not go as smoothly as the Mercedes. The most I want to say about that right now is that there is a court date set for February. I’ll try to give all the details after that. This has been a huge burden and has eaten away a lot of time and effort. Like I said, more details after February.
   
2. I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can with friends and family. Again, it’s like there’s just not enough time for anything while I’m in school. Didn’t even have any time to put up my awesome Christmas tree or wreath this year.  So far I’ve spent the majority of my free time with this cat.
   
3. I swear over the holidays I’ve had to have gained about 10 pounds! Thanksgiving was brutal. This is when we start to begin hard core studying, so my workouts were cut from 6 days a week to 2 and for 2 weeks in a row, zero! Then, starts Christmas parties after finals and I went in with the mentality of “treating myself” for working so hard throughout the semester, which ended up going straight to my thighs I started back at Jim Dailey Fitness last week.
   
4. We traveled up to Missouri to visit with my brother and his 3 kids and got home last night. Sometimes I don’t even know why I have a camera. I didn’t take one picture the whole time we were there On the way home, we stopped in Branson to hit up some of the outlet shops and after 4 hours of shopping ended up with a pair of socks and a sweatshirt. There were amazing deals, especially in Banana Republic where the entire store was 50% off, but after spending so much money on Xmas gifts for everyone, I just wasn’t up for spending more. I haven’t been shopping for myself in so long. I probably don’t even know what’s hip anymore. Probably not using the word “hip”…
5. We won’t get our grades until about 3 weeks into the start of next semester. I feel like things went well, but right now, it’s just a waiting game.
   
6. I was invited to a dinner party last week by my old roommate Jason and his wife, Jessica. We went to Acadia in the Heights. On Monday and Tuesday they offer a 3 course meal for $23.50 and you can choose from the entire menu, not just a few select items. If you get an opportunity, I highly recommend this. And, the duck was amazing!
   
7. Apparently more than half of the “gaming” world thinks their only option for selling their old games is to go to Game Xchange. This is not the case. For those gamers out there, Wes has sold his Xbox 360 games on Amazon.com for upwards of $40 each. I believe the best that Game Xchange will do is something crazy like $20. For some extra cash sell your games, books, dvds, and CDs on Amazon.
   
8. Have to get all my annual check-ups in while I’m on break. This includes my annual eye exam. However, I think I might get Lasik with some of the money I get when I sell the Mercedes. Haven’t decided 100% yet, but in the long run, I’ll be better off.
9. My sister is getting married  to Wes Jacobs in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in April 2009. It’s going to be beautiful. We’ve rented a house on the beach and already have our flights booked.
   
10. Not sure if it’s because of the economy or what, but the bank I have my mortgage through sent me a letter telling my monthly mortgage payment was going to decrease by nearly $200/month starting in February. This is GREAT news since last year it was increased by the same amount.
11. Work is slow and December is always our worst month of the year. Nobody works in December it seems like. If we can just make it through until mid January, we should be ok. But, like I said, it’s slow.
12. If you write a blog and you don’t have text-link-ads set up yet, DO IT! This is where I generate the bulk of my earnings from my blog. While Christmas online shopping, it was great to to pay with money that was sitting in my paypal account from my blog that I really didn’t have to work that hard for to earn. Trust me, it’ll be worth the set up.

I think overall, that’s about it. I’ve only been out of class since the 17th and most of the break has been spent with family for Christmas, so I’m trying to cram as much into my schedule as possible since we start back on Jan. 12. I’m not 100% sure of New Year’s plans yet, so if anyone is throwing a fabulous party, let me know.

I’ve renegged on some things before. As a matter of fact, I tried to do it with my new car (another post for another day), and in a day and age where buyer’s remorse laws protect most all transactions, one that is usually non-negotiable is that of children.

Ok, ok, I’m not talking about truly buying and returning of kids, but that of giving birth to and abandoning them. Every state has a safe haven law that protects distruaght parents who feel their child is in imminent danger to leave the child at a local hospital without the fear of abandoment charges. These laws were mostly meant to protect infants and all the smart states went ahead and put an age limit on their safe haven law. Nebraska (the last state in the country to pass such a law) , however,  is a different story. Nebraska law makers did not put an age limit in the writing, which means any parent can take their kid at any age to a hospital and leave him/her there for almost any reason. Here’s the most depressing fact, over 30 children have been left in Nebraska hospitals since the law was first written.  Read the story here.

People are coming in from all over the country to drop kids off before today’s special legislative session to add an age limit to the law. Here are a few facts:

• All but 6 of the children left are over the age of 10
• 20 of the children are white; eight are black
• 22 children had a parent with a history of incarceration
• 28 children come from single parent homes

I bet all parents have had bad days, and I know times are especially tough in terms of the economy, but you talk about the ultimate bailout! The decision to leave your child can’t be easy and I hope for the kid’s sake that it was LONG deliberated. But I’m going to go ahead and say I think this is the most cowardly act I have ever heard of and even though things get hard, there is NO excuse for purposely dumping a kid on the state.

If you read the story, one mother says, ” “Do not judge me as a parent. I love my son and my son knows that…”

I’m not sure how I’m NOT supposed to judge her as a parent. YOU LEFT YOUR KID, LADY!! Kids are always going to think their parents love them. That fact doesn’t make them good parents. I’d be willing to bet this lady will get pregnant again within the next 2 years. Shameful.

Don’t know if it was a good idea or not, but I did end up buying a new car. It’s a Lincoln LS. I’m excited about it, but I’m not excited about having a car payment again. Basically, it came down to, before I get so many miles on the Mercedes that nobody would want it, I’d better sell it.

Besides the payments, I’m sort of freaking out because I talked to a buddy this morning who said the model of Mercedes that I have is the same model in Germany that is used for taxis. He said I could probably get 500K miles on it and it’d still run fine. The whole reason for getting a new car was I thought mine was getting too old. To hear that it probably could have gone on for 4 times as long is concerning.

There are perks to the new car though. Fewer miles, newer model, in dash navigation, and a multi-disk changer in the front of the car instead of in the trunk. Really, a new car is enough to get anyone excited. It’s the whole idea of did I NEED a car right now that I’m struggling with. Money is tight for everyone and according to analysts, it’s not going to get better very quickly. Should I have just stuck it out? Who knows.

This purchase is interesting because I bought it of Ebay. I have not driven it or seen it in person. I’m not even picking it up to test it out. It is being delivered to me next week sometime. While these things make me nervous, I think the anxiety I have over it sort of adds to the excitement.

So, now the hard part. I need to sell the Mercedes. I think it’d be a great car for a new driver. It’s in great shape. It’s safe, dependable, and what kid wouldn’t love a Mercedes to be his first car?

Here is some info on it:

1999 Mercedes-Benz E-320
152K miles
Multi-disk CD changer
Sun roof
Leather interior
Power seats, window, doors, and mirrors
Wood trim
Dual memory seats
Tinted windows
Keyless entry
Dual climate control
Power rear window blind
Telescoping wheel
I’m asking $7,800 for it. But I’m open to negotiations.

If anyone knows someone looking for a dependable, sharp looking car, please let them know about this one. I only have 30 days to sell it before I have to purchase insurance on both cars.

My car is old and it has a lot of miles on it, but it still drives good and doesn’t really have much wrong with it. With its age though, I’m afraid it will soon. I’ve been looking at cars for a couple of months. I’m not the type that has to stick to a particular make, but I do like luxury cars, i.e. leather, sun roof, electric doors/windows, etc. I found a great fit for the kind of car I want 2 days ago. I made an offer on it yesterday. It was accepted. And today…I’m totally getting cold feet about having a car payment. I haven’t had one for over a year now, and it’s been such a relief. Mortgages are high enough on a single income; I do all I can to keep any monthly payments to a minimum. I haven’t called the car owner back today at all. Going back and forth in my head about whether or not I want one, I don’t think I can call and tell them anything other than, “I still don’t know.”

Today’s interest rate cut  throws another wrench in all of this. Rates are low. Now, they could get lower, yes, but they could also go back up. Should I buy with these low rates? Do I wait it out until my car is not drivable? With over 150k miles on the car, I’m not sure if I’d get anything for it if I wait too much longer. Man, another monthly commitment is a killer though. AHHHHH! I’m right where I started.

I have no idea how I finished because I forgot to look a the time clock when I ran passed the finish line, but I’ll figure it out when the results are posted. I ran the Rollin on the River 5k for Easter Seals this past weekend. I talked 2 buddies into running it with me. It was their first race as well. I’d say it went ok. What you don’t realize as a first time racer is that there is relatively little time to catch up to faster runners. So, especially if there are a lot of runners and you can keep a steady pace, you really want to start toward the front because once they say go, it’s sort of a sprint off the line. As the race goes on and people can’t keep a good pace, they’ll fall back.

Another thing I didn’t take into consideration was that I needed to do more than just run. I needed to really run harder and faster than I do in my regular training sessions. I pretty much ran like I was only trying to finish, not like it was a race. When I finished, I realized I really should have tried to go a lot faster rather than just do what I do every day and it really pissed me off that this didn’t occur to me sooner.


Overall, it went fine. Next time I’ll know to run harder and start closer to the front. I don’t know when I’ll run another, but the guys are already sending the emails back and forth about when it’ll be…so probably soon.

I’m thinking about running my first 5K.

I’ve been running consistently for 2 months now just for exercise and I got the idea yesterday to try to see if I’m any type of competitive runner. Not knowing how much I was actually running per session, I went online to see if there was any sort of tracking system. Of course, there was. And some pretty darn neat ones too.

The one I’m using is from mapmyrun.com. This web app gives you a google map to pinpoint your run route. Because my neighborhood is new, the roads were not listed properly in the map view, but on the hybrid view, I got to see exactly which roads I run on (even if the map doesn’t show them paved yet Click on the image below to see my route on the hybrid map.

The site  also gives you code so you can put your map viewed route on your blog, obviously. I’m hoping this is accurate enough that I’ll be able to tell if I’ll absolutely die running my first 5K or not. Currently, I run this route 3 times per session. So, it looks like I’ll be alright. If any of you have ever run a 5K, let me know about your experience. I think I’ll look to run mine in mid-October, but that is only a strong ‘maybe.’

Since school started, I’ve been using the UALR gym. There are aerobics classes, but none of them are at a time that I can take one. The pool isn’t open until 11:00 am (also not fitting into my schedule) and they are seriously lacking in free weights. BUT, as early as I go, there’s hardly anybody in there and I basically get run of the place…so that’s good. When I was going to Jim Dailey (a part of Arkansas Parks and Recreation, meaning it’s state funded) it was generally busy. I never really had to wait around for machines or anything, but there were usually a good amount of people in there. They also had enough money to have actual trainers and people walking around to keep an eye on equipment or tell patrons when they were f’ing some exercise up.

The UALR gym doesn’t have the luxury of proper “supervision.” The workers are generally students who’s only job is to sit at the front door to swipe your card and make sure you’re a student. At Jim Dailey, if a machine broke, there would be someone from the manufacturer out to fix it within a day or two. At the UALR gym, they don’t really care if things break. They put a sign on it and it stays broken for the rest of the semester.

But, you say, “They’re both state funded. UALR has money to do good things with their gym.” Actually, they do not. I’m thinking parks and recreation have a good sized budget, plus with the monthly (or dailey, whichever you choose to do) memberships, they consistently have money coming in. UALR doesn’t focus on fitness/health. It’s a place for upper level education. True, there is a fee wrapped in with your tuition for the student center, but from the looks of things, it used to pay for all the new restaurants in the DSC.

It makes me happy to see the state promoting health in so much that they allocate money directly to a quality gym.  …is the Jim Dailey Fitness and Aquatic Center paying me to promote them so much??? No, no they’re not.

The concept of losing weight is pretty simple. Burn more calories than you put in. The problem with the simplicity of this, is that most people really don’t know exactly how much their taking in…so, we guess. “Sandwich; that doesn’t seem so bad, I’m going to say 250 calories.”

Caloriecount.about.com has become my new site of choice for weight loss. You think you have an idea of how many calories you eat in a day, but until you really log everything you eat, you have no clue! This site is incredible. The database of food in amazing. Here’s how it works:

1. Your initial profile questions asks you how tall you are, what you weigh, what kind of lifestyle you have (as far as exercise and movement),  and what goals you have.
2. The site will calculate how long it will take you to reach your goal, as well as tell you the amount of calories a person with your same stats should be eating in order to lose weight in a healthy manner.
3. It figures in your lifestyle into your “outgoing” calories. If you do any other exercise during a particular day, you enter it in your log.
4. Every day, you enter what you eat and it will log your calories in vs. your calories out. Your goal is to stay at the amount of calories recommended in order to meet your weight loss goal.

Again, the concept of keeping track of what goes in seems easy. And with this site, it really is. You HAVE to be dedicated in entering your food though and you have to get servings correct. These are crucial for accurate numbers.

Along with tracking your calories, there are forums and a buddy system so you can have some online motivation and use the site with friends and family.  Try it for just one week, it will change your eating habits and you’ll be glad when it does.