Musings of an Ex-Expat

This... is honestly how I’ve been feeling as of late. I’m in a situation where my fiance makes A LOT more money than I do... and normally , that really wouldn’t bother me except that... I’m hardly able to make dents in my own debt let alone start helping him save for our wedding and future house. Also, his current job won’t last forever and in a handful of years we’ll likely be in the same boat.  When I lived abroad, I was making roughly 31k a year. Not a whole lot but more than enough to feel like I had no troubles. For whatever reason though, I never saved money. I was spending it as fast as I was earning it. And damn do I regret that now.  In the 2 years that I’ve been back in the states, I’ve moved in with my Ex in a state I wasn’t native to, was confronted with the issue of “experience not equaling a Masters”, broke up with said Ex and moved back to my home state, started the job hunt yet again, and found new love.  Now the jobs that I have now (3 of them) I actually quite enjoy. I work part-part time at two libraries and work unboxing freight at a store in the mornings before going to the libraries. If I went full time into the unboxing job, I’d probably make enough to do more than take tiny chips out of my debt. But here’s the rub. I. LOVE. WORKING. AT. THE. LIBRARY. <3

I’m a bit of an information hoarder.  When I get an idea in my brain, instead of jumping into the unknown and hoping for the best, I research. And research.  And think it over... and research some more.  I could practically teach a mini crash course in whatever it is that I’d wanted to do by the time I’m done.... With one major exception: I’ve never *actually* done any of it.  I can give you all kinds of tips on eating right, the best types of exercises for the kind of body you want, turning your hobby into a business, going after a dream, sales, early literacy, acquiring a second language, .... reaching a goal.....  But I’ve done very few of these myself.  And I KNOW I’m  not the only one.  I KNOW that there are others out there JUST. LIKE. ME.

I’m reading a book called “Ditch Your Average Job, Start an Epic Business, and Score the Life You Want” by Daniel Dipiazza (founder of rich20something.com) When you read self-help books (much like when you read your horoscope) it’s easy to draw connections to things and be like “OMG That’s soooo me!” But this book is really resonating with me so far. There have been a lot of times where I thought I could do something as either a full business or as a side hustle and.... I always seem to come up short... despite feeling like I’d put in maximum effort. 

Isn’t it funny how there always seems to be someone in your house that’s unaware that there is a shit-ton of stuff to be done before Xmas and instead sits around/suggests going out and doing something Xmas Eve? We were supposed to see the Star Wars movie but decided to wait until *after* Xmas so that we could go as a family. Two days later, on the 24th:

Mom: (rushing around to get baking finished and clean for Xmas) What are you doing today?

Dad: I didn’t know last night, so same answer.

Mom: Well, your son is back so I didn’t know if that changed your answer.

Dad: Not really.... We thought that if Uncle J and Aunt T weren’t interested in the movie we might go see it today.

Mom: *insert above gif* You can’t be serious....

So I’m on my way home for the holidays.... it’s a little bitter-sweet. My boy was supposed to come with me and we were going to drive.... but at the last moment, he backed out and we went through some stuff. Long story short, we worked it out and now I’m flying. 

The shitty part is that, I accidentally booked my flight home for the wrong day..... soooo I had to shell out an extra $167 for a ticket and now also $50 to check a bag so that I can take and get gifts home. But I’m not bitter... really I’m not..... Maybe a little lol. More than anything, I still wish he was coming with me. I was really looking forward to him spending the holidays with us. 

Because I didn’t want to pay another $200 on top of everything, I’m flying out of Chicago..... I was supposed to leave yesterday (sunday) but switched it to monday so that I’d arrive 15 minutes after my brother (planning win!!!) It’s about a 2 hour drive to Chicago and my flight left at 3 so we wanted to leave plenty of time for horrible Chicago traffic as well as the inevitable security line that I’d have to stand in. 

We made great time and I arrived just before 1, said good-bye to my L-Bear and ..... was greeted with practically NO line. I was checked in, had my bags taken, and through security in 18 minutes. 

I think that this time of year, everyone is looking for a little bit of extra cash to make the holidays a little less... well... daunting. When I came back from Japan, I was temporarily living with the parentals for a few months before I moved on to Wisconsin, and I didn’t want to apply to a job that I’d just have to leave shortly after getting trained. I’ve been looking A LOT at work from home jobs and, while they seem like they could work, I’ve yet to go through with any of them. 

I did start one of those silly survey things, but as to be expected, I don’t qualify for half the surveys and, in order to get the tokens I need to get gift cards and get “paid”, you have to *complete* the survey all the way through. So.... yeah, probably gonna stop that one pretty soon

Not marriage.... sadly. But finally getting one of these Tumbler pages. So many of my friends have one and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get sucked into this world.... but here I am. 

I felt the urge to start up some kind of blog... but the last blog I had was my LiveJournal account (gosh that really dates me, huh?) I wanted something that would be fun as well as be somewhere that people might stumble upon it. Not gonna lie, I like to hear myself talk haha so, while I often keep a journal for myself, it’d be nice to have someone else read it too. 

So just in case, a little about me.  I’m PinkJulip and I currently live in Wisconsin. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA and I’ve spent the last 4 years working and living abroad in Kawasaki, Japan. BEST 4 years of my life, by far!! I’m sure I’ll write about Japan a lot on here haha. Anyway, since moving back, work has been scarce and I’m back to waitressing as well as doing some work with Early Literacy at my local library. My hope is to go back for my MA in TESL so that I can continue the work that I was doing in Japan, here in the US. As far as things that I love to do, I love food!! and I love crafting. I’m big into crochet and I’ve just started cross-stitching. Next is polymer clay!! I also love reading, exercise (though that’s been a little lax recently), and anything to do with Japan. 

soooo, yeah.