So, it’s late on Thursday evening, and I just filled out my timecard for today’s work. As of this moment, I am currently sitting at 72 hours of work this week. That doesn’t include tomorrow’s normal workday. Thank goodness for overtime. (Also, thank goodness for the big fat paycheck that will be coming two weeks from tomorrow. Another drop in the bucket on my never-ending quest to save up enough to buy a house.)
I will NOT be doing any work from home this weekend. I don’t care if the Xbox Live and Zune video marketplaces suddenly develop into a sentient being, infiltrate the world’s computer networks, and try to take over the world by forcing everyone on the internet to watch episode after episode of A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila and The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (motto: “Inside every woman is a Pussycat Doll”–man I wish I was making that up). I don’t care if the building in which I normally work is burning down. I don’t care if the company was descended upon a aliens, and the only way I could save the human race would be to come into the office and publish an episode of One Tree Hill. I would let everyone I have ever known or loved be devoured by little green men before I set foot in that office.
But fortunately, I don’t think it will come to that.
Instead, I’m going to have my very first guitar lesson ever. That’s right, for the first time since I was 16 years old, I am voluntarily taking music lesson for which I will not get graded or receive class credit. I’m paying for them with my own money instead of Stafford Loans. I figured it was finally time. I’m stuck on the same five or six pages in the third guitar theory book (you know, the ones that I keep saying I’m going to complete before the end of the year?) and I have been for several weeks now. So now, every weekend, I get to go to the mall with my guitar and take lessons. I hope the teacher is actually good, and not some 20-year-old punk rocker named “Digger” who things that because he knows how to play a few power chords that he also knows how to teach.
Why the mall, you ask? Two reasons: the music store from which I purchased both of my guitars is in the mall, and it’s a great music store, so I like to bring them my patronage. It’s the kind of store where they actually remember your name, where the folks are knowledgeable, and they go out of their way to help. The other reason is that I am completely addicted to Red Mango frozen yogurt, and the closest Red Mango is in the mall. Seeing as how I have been at the mall every single weekend since the beginning of the year to get my regular weekend treat (Red mango, and a single Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie), I figured I might as well do something productive while I was there.
In completely unrelated news, I very recently began playing the stock market. I have a 401k through my work, which is invested conservatively and for the long haul. But my recent business school training got me excited about the possibility of using my money to make me even more money, so I have done that. And, I have to say, I have done AMAZINGLY well thus far. In fact, I have made an 87% return on my investment in less than six weeks. I know, right? Unfortunately, my investment was only $400, but still. An 87% return in this economy? I’m just a little proud of myself right now. I’ve discovered that investing is just as much about understanding group psychology as it is about reading a business’ quarterly reports. A share of a company is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and in this market, the prices people are willing to pay have less to do with what the company is really worth and more to do with what people are afraid of. So, I’ve been finding stocks which are fundamentally pretty strong, but which people are afraid of, and I buy those. So far it has worked.
I’m surprised how much fun investing is. I thought it would be torture, but it’s actually quite enjoyable. Of course, having significant returns has got to be helping that sensation. I imagine if I had lost 87% of my money, I wouldn’t be feeling quite as giddy…
So this weekend, it’s homework, a little website design for a project that I’ve been alluding to lately, and sleep. And a guitar lesson. And maybe a stock purchase or two.
Goodness, I have the strangest way of relaxing.
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