#obad

Your favorite charitable organization

Hands down, KIVA! You should try it!

I joined the KIVA Tumblr team in 2008 or 2009, and have made over 170 microloans through them since then. These are small loans to folks who would never get financing from a bank but need a hand up to grow their business. Loans are crowdsources - each loan portion of a loan is $25. With the exception of war, poverty or a financial downswing, these borrowers almost never default on the loan. Over the years I’ve had a couple of loans default, but I’d been already repaid about $20+ bucks of my $25 investment - so not a real loss. The most you can lose for any loan is your $25 investment.

These are the most rewarding investments I’ve ever made.

Here’s how it works:

Choose a loan ( loans are crowdsources - each person pays in $25)

Pay $25 + a couple of extra bucks to KIVA to offset their operating costs

See if the loan funds — generally they do

Watch repayments come in, a few dollars at a time

When the loan is repaid in full, you’ll have $25 to reinvest

Choose another loan, and recycle the money to finance the next loan

See the person you're backing flourish

Tumblr is where I usually vent but I didn’t want to share it. I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want to have to comfort anyone.  I didn’t want to voice anything because making it a reality in a public post was not something I felt I could deal with. So I kept it inside for the most part. It ate at me though.  

I think Unfriendly’s family might be offended or something in that realm because of it.  We didn’t tell them right away. They don’t quite get or understand that he and I are our own unit and that they don’t get to be privy to everything. It’s odd for them because his other siblings basically make everything known. He’s not like that and we’re not like that as a couple. Our business is our own and it’s not meant to be secretive but I can see how it can be interpreted that way.

20. Favorite ways to relax

1. hammock and tea

2. hammock and wine

3. naps

4. any hip opening yoga

5. crossword puzzles

In what ways are you an expert?

There's a gag that was going around when I was in college. It started out, "The more I know, the more I realize I don't know..." I hesitate to say I am an expert at anything because the deeper I get into the subject, the more I discover there is to learn.

I like to think I am "expert enough" in some things that, although there may be things I don't know and certainly there are people who know the subject better, I am still proficient enough that I can call myself an expert at it.

So with that in mind I would say...

I am expert at my job at the hotel. After almost 20 years of this job I figure I'd better have picked up a little about how to do it.

I am expert a certain obsolete computer applications. I think it stymies everyone at my job when I get on MS-DOS to do anything on our system, or get into WordPerfect or LOTUS 123. I use them because they work for me and I have seen no need to pick up the newfangled crap that the young whippersnappers use now. (When my old laptop dies on me, though, I'm gonna be SOL because the newer systems won't even run those programs.)

But maybe most of all, I think I am expert on what is right for me at this point in my life. Not that I'm arrogant about it; I'm open to suggestion and I'll consider what anyone suggests to me. The only thing is, I have very little tolerance for anyone who decides he or she is such an authority on how I should live my life that they are going to dictate to me how to live it. Or for that matter, that they are going to "help" me make the decisions they have decided I need to make. It sounds stupid, but I have run into a lot of people of whom I have thought, "If they spent as much time tending to their own business as they spend tending to everyone else's, they would REALLY have their act together now!"

Sleep

I love sleep. Like love, love sleep. But I struggle with falling asleep and then staying asleep. So I either have “assistance” and sleep like a Rock after falling asleep mid scroll through whatever I’m looking at or I toss and turn and get two hours of sleep a night. It’s a never ending cycle.

This is my bed setup. It’s black, red and white. It ain’t much but I ain’t fancy either. Also, pretty sure that’s the only time all of those pillows were ever stacked neatly like that. I don’t make my bed daily like my mom taught me. Yes, she’s disappointed but she still loves me.

Yes!

I can sleep just about anywhere and at anytime (oldest of 7 kids, father of 5 and long road trip survivor). Just like Joey in Friends, don’t ask me to be navigator on road trips: if I’m not driving, I’m sleeping. Turn on the planes engines, I’m out until wheels hit the tarmac. Had many years of practice of sleeping on couch/floor as marriage fell apart. Working from home, I usually get in a mid-day power nap. Anything more than 30 minutes and I’m wired for hours at night. As IT manager, I can have weird shifts and breaks in sleeping patterns as well. I can fall asleep in about 5 minutes which would drive the ex- insane back in the day.

Currently have queen size bed, but still get squeezed out at times to dog and cat (they can be quite the bed hogs); prefer firmer mattresses. Two pillows - one firm, one a feather pillow. Usually use firm pillow, but after some workouts, the feather pillow is more comfortable. Two light blankets on bed - warmer months, I sleep on top of both. I prefer to feel “cool” rather than “warm” when I’m l sleeping so I usually have a leg or more sticking out of covers, even at coldest of times. Always sleep in shorts and t-shirt; the few times I’ve gone shirtless or au natural my body super-heats and I wake up roasting and in a sweat. 

How do you sleep? (How many pillows, do you have a set sleeping schedule, etc..)

I sleep with a CPAP which has been a life saver for me the past 2 years. I have horrible sleep apnea and was always feeling tired and down. I sleep with 2 pillows, can’t do 1, can’t do 3. 2 is my sweet spot for proper height and comfort. I try to have a sleep schedule, but work, dog and stress have wrecked my set schedule. If I had my way, I’d be in bed by 10pm and up by 6. Now most days I’m in bed between 11pm and midnight and get up between 6am and 7am.