Ah…the seasons have changed.

I’m waking up in a cool room with the breeze blowing, the flies are disappearing, the windows are staying open, and fall has once again come to greet me here. How I’ve missed it!

Like seasonal transitions, so to does my life continue to change. While I constantly joke about how ‘old’ I am, I do understand that sometimes you’ve got to take the first step forward in your own changes.

So what lies around the corner for this young chap in the month of October:

Finances: I’m getting ready to drop over $1000 on student loans; tomorrow. Obviously that’s going to sting like you wouldn’t believe and make the following two weeks rather challenging. However, that means that loan that I’m paying on, is finally caught up. It’s taken months, my credit score barely even exists, and I’ve taken some serious hits, but when October hits; we will be caught up. That’s worth two weeks of no Starbucks in my book. Aside from that, we’re aiming to knock out my credit card debt towards the end of the month, hit another student loan halfway through [not $1000 thankfully], and get on a schedule. Remember, originally October was the month of getting back on track. November was about getting ahead. So far, so good.

Health: While the pounds continue to drop [you can read more about that here], and I continue to somewhat actively workout. My diet has taken a serious hit. Not from eating the wrong food [though that has happened], but from not eating at all. Between the money spent to eat out somewhere [Subway], and just not being around the house during the day, and trying not to eat all of my parents food, I’ve been below 1000 calories on several days [not to mention that stint up north where I was working with no money to my name and raided a pantry in a hotel one night]. While ensuring that my finances are taken care of this month, I believe that my health needs to have a closer look. Yesterday I wound up at the optometrist because my right eye was all messed up. $80 later I had eye drops…and contacts…so, towards the end of October I’m going to be looking at a check-up, eye exam, and…possibly even a trip to the dentist. Furthermore, because of what the temperatures do here when it starts to head south for the year, because of my running I will be looking into UnderArmor cold weather gear. That will be a hefty purchase I probably won’t touch until November, but the research will be this month.

Soccer: Yes, because at the moment it is a rather large part of my life. Naturally, I’ll keep writing my thoughts over at WSU. Also, I’m halfway through my season with the U-8 ‘Peeps’ that I’ve been coaching, so I’ll wrap that up in October. Additionally, I’m playing with an indoor league in Kansas City, and that will continue on Friday nights. Because of the amount of running I’m doing, with work, with soccer it is wise that I pay close, close attention to my body. While I’d hate to not be able to play, or be able to run, not being able to work would devastate me. There is also rumors that I will be looking into a competitive indoor team near here during the winter months as well. More on that later.

Work: September was a good month for me. I was able to hit all my stores, knocked out all 42 of them, covered four more for a co-worker, and still got my end of the month bonus. I was rather disorganized to be honest. There is a lot of  ’after hours’ paperwork that has be taken care of, and I wasn’t sure on the right way to approach it. Thankfully with my mad Microsoft Excel skills I have created a chart that outlines not only my tasks each day for the month of October in regards to work, but I’ve also started to keep a financial portfolio on each store as the months change, to see if they’re growing and dropping in sales. All of that will make my day-to-day life a lot easier in between stores. On top of this, I’ll also be traveling down south next week for a meeting with the head boss [DA of the territory]. We will be enjoying BBQ, horseback riding, and a nice all-day-long meeting the next day. Regardless though, the hotel and food are taken care of, and the breakfast at the hotel I’m at…has yogurt! So, no complaints from me. We’ll see what else I can do while I’m down south as well.

Repacking: Obviously the question is begged about the why the title of this ‘X’ entry to was entitle Repacking. While I’m blessed to have parents like MC and Jim, like all other children, you’ve got to leave the nest. I had made the note in October, last month, that I would start researching ideal places to move to within the area. As in going out on my own for good. Last night, along with today, and the rest of my end of the month vacation; I came across this. I’m going to send off a request for information today. It’s only a few miles inside North KC, and places me near all main highways to get to my stores. Of course the only fear is that with most apartments in today’s world, your credit score needs to be decent. Well, I’ll be the first to say that as of the past six months, how I even have a credit score is unknown to me. It’s been destroyed. I’m hoping that since my record with paying rent is flawless, some exceptions can be made. The rent here is $500 a month, and looks ideal. Saying a prayer for this would not hurt.

As for right now: It’s 1:30pm and I still haven’t gotten out of bed. I’m on ‘vacation’, which means that since I’m done with all of my stores for September, and won’t be back until October 5th due to the staff meeting, I’ve got several days to do whatever I want; including catching up on this.

More coming later today [maybe next entry].

In case any are curious, I was served my ex parte, I cannot be in contact with my ex-wife at all [which won't be a problem on this end], and I think we can finally say, with a sigh of relief…

…it’s all over.

-D-