I guess I could update, huh?
I had a good birthday last week. I posted some photos here. I did not go skydiving like I was planning; the combination of neck injury and sprained ankle and occasional death wish was an catastrophe in the making. At least I know this! Right? Right. I was stationed on my ass for a couple weeks waiting for the ankle to be functional again. I started walking a little last week, and have done almost 15 miles since Saturday, with no sign of a problem. I can’t twist my foot at all, but I think it’s safe to go back to the gym. I am madly in love with Iaido. We’re working on the first (‘universal’) kata. It’s so focused and intense. I go through the moves over and over in my head, since I can’t get in the stance with my foot in its fucked-up state. I have also recalled how to count in Japanese, because we do a whole hell of a lot of it there. I saw Kore last week as well to complete a tattoo project. I could gush on and on about how amazing she is, but I don’t think I can explain well enough. The work only took half an hour or so, but we sat and talked for two and then she bandaged me and sent me to samurai class. She’s my hero. Scotty and I have been working and talking a lot about investments and future planning and getting everything in order for whatever comes next. I’m now totally debt-free, which is shocking and still hasn’t sunk in. I tried not to revel too much in the spare cash, and instead committed it right away. I started an SEP-IRA, a small-business retirement account which allows me to contribute way more than the personal one (also, the personal one isn’t deductible at a certain income level, which really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense given the current administration). Then I set up an emergency fund, that reserved 3-6 months of income that I was pretty sure was a myth and nobody actually has. My goal is to get $10k in there by the end of the year. That’s fairly unrealistic, but I’d be nowhere if it weren’t for my fairly unrealistic goals. I read personal finance news like porn, and I drool over performance graphs. It’s perverse, and probably not in a good way. Work has been, well, work. There have been lots of changes. I’d really like some help on my project, but things are starting to look up. At no point in my life did I set out with the purpose of amassing a collection of failed relationships, but it seems to be happening. This recent two-month-long breakup has been damaging for everyone. I’ve ended up rethinking a lot of life goals. I have the feeling that some of those things most people do aren’t in the cards for me. Which is fine, I guess; I’ve never been much for the things most people do. The one really appealing thing about being that reputed cold-and-emotionless girl is that she didn’t get hurt much. She didn’t ever give people the chance. Jenni