Sample Overload

I have become buried under an avalanche of unused samples.  Like everyone I know, I have succumbed to the phenomena of subscription sample boxes.  I have received eight different boxes so far, although I am not subscribed to one of those any more.  Today, I want to talk about the four beauty boxes I have experienced.  I am receiving samples faster than I can try, and I have become overwhelmed by all the products I have lying around.  The obvious solution is to cancel some subscription boxes, and I am going to keep only one going forward.

Beauty Box 5:  http://www.beautybox5.com/

-  $12 a month, discounts if prepaid for a quarter or year

-  Most common brand:  Hard Candy, Nanococo

-  Most common product:  Eyeshadow

-  Favorite product received:  Nanococo Lip Gloss in Call Me Babe

I received this one as a Christmas gift for four months.  Each box contained five products.  It was a mixture of drug store brands and unknown brands, though most seemed affordable.  There is a shop attached to the site where I assume I can buy the products I received in the box but I never looked into it.  I never got anything that I was really excited to try out.  Plus, most of the things would be cheap enough to buy at the store if I did want to try it.  I never bought a subscription myself once my gift ran out, and I do not plan to subscribe to it again in the future.

Walmart Beauty Box:  https://beautybox.walmart.com/

-  $5 a quarter

-  Most common brand:  Dove, Nivea, Jergens

-  Most common product:  Shampoo & Conditioner, Hand/Body Creams

-  Favorite product received:  Cover Girl Lip Gloss in Candilicious

I have been subscribed for one year, receiving four boxes, one for each season.  There are not a consistent number of samples in them, but usually a number of travel-sized products and one-use samples.  This box tended more toward skincare and toiletries than makeup.  All the products are available at Walmart and other drugstores.  There are no additional perks to the subscription.  I never was particularly excited about anything I received.  Again, I can pick these up affordably if I did want to try something.  I intend to cancel my subscription.  However, it definitely is the most affordable option if someone can only afford a very small splurge.

Ipsy:  https://www.ipsy.com/

-  $10 a month, discounts if prepaid a year

-  Most common brand:  Nyx

-  Most common product:  Eyeshadow

-  Favorite product received:  Pixi Eyeshadow Duo in Apricot Glow

This is my longest running subscription at nineteen months.  Each month I receive five products in a unique makeup bag.  The products lean more heavily to makeup, but there are skincare and haircare items included occasionally.  This does have a good mix of known and unknown brands, high-end and drugstore prices.  The products are usually full-size or deluxe sample sizes.  After receiving the bag, I can go review the products for points.  Then, those points can be used to “purchase” an extra item for the next month from the available products in the rewards section (usually three to eight items available at different redeeming values).  However, I have had trouble accumulating the amount of points needed to buy anything before they start expiring (one year from receiving), and even when I do get enough points there is nothing available that I even remotely want to get.  I did enjoy this subscription for a while, but I think it is time to give it a break.  I do not get that excited about my bags any more.  Plus how many makeup bags do I really need?

Birchbox:  https://www.birchbox.com/

-  $10 a month (+tax), discounts if prepaid for a year

-  Most common brand:  Marcelle, Harvey Prince

-  Most common product:  Moisturizer

-  Favorite product received:  LAQA & Co Lip Lube in Honeypot, Air Repair Moisturizer

I have had this subscription for a year.  Each month there are five products in a unique patterned cardboard box (some of the boxes I keep and some I throw away).  Each month, there is one item that I can select from a group of four or five if I want, and the rest are random choices by the company.  I would say I get more skincare than anything else, but there is always at least one makeup item and a random array of haircare, bath products, and perfumes over time.  The products are usually travel-size or deluxe samples.  Many of the brands are unknown to me, but most seem to be mid- to high-end price ranges.  All the products are available from the Birchbox store to purchase.  After receiving the box, I can earn points by reviewing the products.  The points accumulate and once I reach one hundred they can be traded for $10 off anything in the store.  Points are also earned with each purchase based on the amount spent.  This is the box I intend to keep.  Most of these products are too expensive for me to just try randomly, but I have received several products that I have really enjoyed.  I have already purchased one product based on a sample, and I have a few more on my wish list.

What about you?  Have you fallen victim to subscription fever?  Are you overwhelmed by product samples?  What are your favorite boxes?

See you next week!

New Kitties!

Only a few more days, and the quarter close should be over.

This weekend we welcomed two new members into our family.  We adopted two kitties though a friend of my husband.  The cats are a brother and sister duo, a year and a half old, and all black.  They did originally come with the names Blackie & Jackie, but we have renamed them to make them are own.  My husband dubbed the boy, Zelenka.  I am certain that my husband thinks of himself as McKay, and just wants the opportunity to blame Zelenka for things that go wrong around the house.  I decided to stick with the Stargate Atlantis theme, and named the girl Keller.

The new kitties are adapting fairly well to their new home.  We have limited the amount of rooms they can explore for now, just to make it easier for us to find them each day.  I have gotten the basic equipment needed:  food bowls, food, litter box, litter, pooper scooper, etc.  I still have a list of things that I need to buy yet:  cat scratcher, carrier, collars, ID tags, grooming kit, etc.  I have gotten into the routine of feeding them each morning when I get up and each evening when I get home from work.  I am a little worried that Zelenka is eating Keller’s share of food though.  I clean the litter box daily in the morning and am thankful they are already litter-trained.  After work each day, I spend some time cuddling and playing with the kitties.  I am thrilled that they both come running into the room for attention when I get home.

My husband is not adapting to the cats as well as they are adapting to us.  The cats seem to like him, particularly Zelenka.  He says he is indifferent to the cats, but I think he is miserable.  His allergies have hit him hard since they arrived.  His eyes are really red and puffy.  He breaks out into little tiny hives if one of the cats rubs against him.  He claims that he will get used to them in a month or so, and that Benadryl will work for now.  He says that my being happy is more important to him than the adjustment period.  Part of me feels like he should have told me no when I said I wanted cats.  Part of me thinks we should get rid of them now before they have become ensconced in our home.  Part of me wants to just wait and see what happens, because I really want cats.

What do you think?  Enjoy the new kitties or call the adoption lady to take them back because it is not fair to my husband?

See you next week!

I Hate Quarter Close

It is another short blog week.  I cannot help it; it is the quarter close.

Accounting is a routine job.  Every month, I have a schedule of tasks that I complete in a specific order so that our financial statements are correct.  I have two weeks of reconciliations and journal entries to make sure all the accounts are accurate for the month.  Next, I have one week of management reporting to highlight specific account activity for the executives.  Finally, I have one week (maybe a bit more until the end of the month) where I review things that other accountants have completed, process certain types of business transactions, and work on special projects.  My monthly schedule is quite full, and although I have slower days, I never have completely free time.

Every three months, my routine is expanded from the normal busy month.  I am still responsible for everything that needs to be done on a monthly basis.  Then, there are extra reconciliations and journal entries that are only done on a quarterly basis.  All of them still must be done in the same two week time period.  There are a few additional reports that are completed for management.  Plus, there are schedules that must be prepared for the filings with the SEC and requests from the auditors that are due during the same week as the management reporting.  The last week is spent on the normal array of tasks but with more stuff to review because all the other accountants did extra journal entries and reconciliations as well.  As the review is happening by both our team and the auditors, everybody hopes that nobody finds anything that was done incorrectly.  When we do, it causes a landslide of journal entries to correct and reports to fix that must be done immediately because the SEC deadline is non-negotiable.  I work extra hours at night and on the weekend every quarter, and I still never feel like I have put in the appropriate amount of time to make sure things are done accurately.

I will not even go into the fiscal year end, and the extra work that requires.  It is still six months away, and I am not ready to think about it yet.

My brain is completely fried from the additional work, the long hours, and the intense mental energy I dedicate to the quarter close.  Although my goal is to always write real blogs, I have a feeling I will continue to fall back on short “quarter closes suck” type blogs at least once during those periods.  I just do not have the time and brainpower left to dedicate to the blog.  Work has taken it all.

See you next week!

The Death Bell Tolls

Almost three months ago, I wrote a blog about the helplessness that I felt when my husband and my friend were dealing with loved ones in the hospital.  Now, my friend’s mother has passed away, and the helplessness has only increased.  I just spent a very stressful and emotional weekend in Pennsylvania, going to her funeral and helping my friend’s family cope.  Although I know they appreciated my efforts, I still feel utterly helpless in the situation because I just cannot make it all better.

My friend’s mother has had poor health for many years now, and there have been several serious situations.  It has always seemed a possibility that she could go at any time.  Regardless, it came as a shock to me when I got the news last Thursday.  She had been in the hospital again with ailments related to the previous stay.  She went through surgery successfully and had been moved to a nursing home for further recovery before going home.  Every bit of news I had received from my friend had been positive.  Her mother was doing well and it seemed she would once again fight her way home for a while longer.  Indeed, my friend’s father said he had spoken to her not even a half hour prior to her death and all was well.  Unfortunately, there was a sudden turn for the worse and she was gone before they could do anything for her.  When the text came from my friend, I had to read it several times before I could believe what it had said.  All through the evening and the next day, I just kept rereading it, trying to convince myself that I had misinterpreted her words.

Although my initial response was to get into my car and drive to PA immediately, my husband’s cooler head prevailed.  Even if I packed swiftly, I still would have been 8:00 or later leaving the house.  The six hour drive would have gotten me to PA at 2:00 in the morning with no hotel room, no one knowing I was there, no one awake to contact, and nothing to do to help anyone.  Plus, I was due at work the next morning.  Friday was weird as I tried to concentrate on my duties and not think about what had happened so that I did not break down at my desk.  At the same time, I was paying close attention to my phone, waiting for any kind of message from my friend.  Eventually, I got news that the funeral would be Sunday evening.  I made the arrangements to take Monday off work, against my vacation time because my employer thinks that this was not a close enough person to warrant bereavement leave (why is it based on blood instead of importance?).  I headed up there Saturday to spend a couple of days with my friend, her father, and the rest of her family.

The three days of the trip went by in a blur.  Although I was physically present, there was not much that I could do to help anyone.  The funeral arrangements were already made.  Their immediate family surrounded them.  Another friend was staying at the house to help out already.  I do not say this to complain, but just to emphasize the fact that my presence, while valued, was not really needed.  My friend was bearing up under the pressure a little too well.  She was focused on the details of arranging the funeral, switching her mother’s accounts to her and her father, and cleaning the house.  She did not cry, and I fear that she will probably break in the future once we all have drifted back to our own homes and lives.  I will not be there, but hopefully she knows that I will listen if and when she is ready.  The Sunday viewing was a chaos of family members, few of whom I knew well.  I stuck to those I knew and tried to stay out of the way.  The funeral itself was short, though amusingly punctuated by another friend’s three and half year old boy.  My friend’s mother would have loved it, and I know my friend and her father enjoyed his innocent interjections into the preacher’s words.

Now that it is over, we move on with our lives but we remember the wonderful woman who has gone before us.  This weekend was punctuated with the many people sharing the memories of the woman we all gathered to honor one final time.  I remember a woman who sat in her kitchen and directed those around her.  She was not very mobile, especially at the end, but she knew everything that everyone else was doing.  I remember a woman who loved to cook and entertain, and who appreciated that I was a non-picky eater.  She could always count on me to eat whatever she wanted to make.  I remember a woman who baked hundreds of Christmas cookies every year.  Some were sold to people in town, and some were in the house to share with those who came to visit.  My favorites were thumbprints with icing.  A few years ago she gave me the recipe, so now I can make them for many Christmases to come while I remember her each time I pull it out.  I remember a woman who was always kind to me, who always made me feel welcome and at home.  I will miss her.

Here’s to Ginny!  See you next week!

Making Friends Is Hard To Do

This past weekend I spent in Pennsylvania, hanging out with two of my best friends from college.  Now I feel more refreshed and happier than I have in quite a while.  It really struck me how important having good friends is to my mental well-being.  Although I am actually more social now than I used to be, I do not have the kind of social contacts that matter.  Even if I am physically with people more often, I am not really bonding with them on that deeper level that gives my spirits a lift.  I have always had some trouble making and maintaining friendships, and I have not found that this has gotten any easier with age.

In high school, I was the smart, quiet girl.  I went to a fairly small high school and knew just about everybody in my school.  While I think I was generally liked by my classmates, I had very few of them that I would name as actual friends.  I mostly hung out with three girls from my grade.  One of these is my cousin, so it would be hard for me to lose that contact.  She and I actually get along even better as adults (that high school competition aspect is gone from our relationship), but we live in different areas of the country and do not see each other more than a half dozen times a year.  The other two girls are no longer in my life except as Facebook friends.  The four of us had a huge blowout toward the end of senior year over class rankings (too many smart girls in the room I guess), and my friendships with them never recovered.  I did try to reconnect with one of them after graduation because we had been friends since elementary school but it did not work out.

I was much better at socializing with my fellow students in college.  I lived on campus, so finding new acquaintances was as easy as walking down the hall, any hall.  Over the years my friends changed as we mixed up dating relationships, living arrangements, extra-curricular activities, and classes.  My initial friends were mainly made through close proximity in the dorms.  Then, I branched out as I bonded through parties, shared activities, and class projects.  Though there were several people I would have called friends while I was there, I have found it much, much harder to keep them now that we no longer live on the same campus.  Most have fizzled to nothing but a connection on Facebook.  I do have a few that I see once or so a year, but even enjoying their company at those events does not translate into any contact the rest of the year.  I have one former roommate that I have not seen much since college but who recently moved close to me.  We have put some effort into resurrecting our relationship.  Surprisingly, the two best friends I just saw did not become such until after college although I knew both while there.  One became a better friend after we discovered we were in the same town right after college.  The other was around when I needed help, and I discovered how much I sincerely liked him through all our conversations.  Neither lives near me now, and I have had to put in extra effort to maintain the contact with them.  I know they are true friends though, because no matter how long it has been, we pick up right where we left off.

As an adult, I have found it very hard to make friends on a more than superficial level.  I only meet people through work and my husband.   While I seem to generally get along with the people I know, I seem to be out of sync with where most people are in their lives.  I am too old and too uncomfortable with the evening bar scene to connect with half of them.  I am too young and not family-oriented enough to connect with the other half.  I have maintained one friendship with a former coworker, but it is a tenuous thread at best and we have dinner maybe twice a year.  I like her, but we just do not seem to connect in a way that makes us want to see each other more often than that.  Most of the people I see on a regular basis are friends through my very social husband.  Honestly, I think the connections would fall away if my husband was not there to hold them together.  Again it is just a matter of not being on the same wavelength as them as they get together at bars and log their beer choices into the Untapped app.

Sometimes I worry that I am doomed to a lonely life with very little meaningful human interaction.  It is not that I do not want to make friends.  I feel I am an open-minded person who is willing to give superficial interactions a chance to develop into something more.  However, I find that very few people seem to consider me good friend material.  I get very few invitations to do anything with other people, except those that have obviously been flung to the masses.  When I make the gesture to invite others to do something with me, I receive what I call the back burner treatment.  If they do not find something better to do, they might consider my invitation but no one ever really seems enthused about whatever I have suggested.  It becomes depressing to constantly put effort into people that have little interest into giving anything back.

This weekend has proved that I really need to work on strengthening those relationships that I do have.  I am sad that my best friends are so far away, but I think I need to work on getting more face-to-face time with them anyways.  My mental health depends on it.  I will also try to keep connecting with the college friend who moved within a reasonable driving distance.  Maybe it will grow into something better than it is now.  Of course, I will continue to try to make friends with other adults in my area.  I suppose the best answer would be to find ways of exposing myself to new groups of people, but work, family demands, and lack of motivation use up a lot of my free time.

What about you?  Have you kept up friendships from school?  Have you made many friends as an adult?  How do you do it?

See you next week!

What Time Is It!?!

I make plans to be productive just about every weekend.  Somehow, I never seem to accomplish much on my To Do List.  The problem is not only lack of motivation (although that definitely plays a part, see the 7/1/2015 blog), but that the day ends before I am ready for it to end.  Time seems to slip away from me and I end up in the evening hours with no idea what I did with all the time that passed since I got up that morning.  So I examined my life, and I have come up with four things that suck a lot of time out of my day.

The number one thing that steals my time is the internet.  I get on with the intention to check my email, and before I know it hours have past.  Email itself does not actually take that long to read, unless I have a Buzzfeed Books newsletter in there (those have lots of links to click).  But when I am done with the email, I do not get off the computer.  Instead, I go to Facebook where I check for actual messages to me, but end up staying to scroll through the newsfeed.  I keep unfollowing people that I really do not need to see their daily updates, but it seems like Facebook keeps adding what kind of things I see in my newsfeed so it never gets any shorter.  Then, I cannot help but click on all the quizzes.  I know these are not real and they give laughable results, but somehow that is part of the addiction.  Apparently, I really do need to know which Avenger I would be (I must have hidden anger issues because I keep getting The Hulk).  From there, I go to Youtube where one ten minute video turns into several ten to twenty minute videos.  Finally, I stop at the msn homepage to read multiple news stories, mostly in the Money and Lifestyle sections.  None of it is that important, but somehow I cannot stop consuming more unnecessary internet information.

The second thing that steals my time is other people.  I swear my family has a sixth sense to know when I am busy and do not really want to talk to them.  I do screen my phone calls, but often I answer even if I do not really feel like it.  Part of this is guilt because I live so far away from my family, and part of it is fear that something is wrong at home, especially if it is my sister calling.  We are all talkers, so any phone call lasts for at least an hour while we exchange all the news that happened since the last time we talked, even if it was only a few days ago.  In addition to my family in PA, my husband and stepson waste a lot of my time.  I know spending time with the family is part of having one, but I am not complaining about the time that is spent doing something together.  I can plan around making and eating dinner together, or watching a movie together.  It is more the minutes that fly by because one of them has decided to talk to me about something I am not interested in hearing.  My husband is forever cornering me to talk about his future plans (that will never happen) or trying to lure me into political debates because he enjoys them.  My stepson talks non-stop whenever anyone is around.  He talks about his friends at school, he describes all the episodes of whatever TV shows he enjoys, and he asks more questions than I know how to answer.  Maybe I should be more assertive about saying I do not have time to talk right now, but I just feel so guilty when they seem so disappointed at the shutdown.

Sleeping seems to take up a lot of my time on the weekends.  I have the intention to keep to a similar schedule as on the weekdays, but I usually end up sleeping later and taking naps more often than not.  I am always so worn out on the weekends that I have a hard time getting up in the mornings.  On the weekdays, I drag myself out of bed before six because otherwise I will not make it to work on time.  On the weekends, my intention is to get up around seven, but it often ends up being eight or sometimes even nine before I can get myself started for the day.  Then, I have to take a nap mid-afternoon.  I will go upstairs thinking to close my eyes for twenty minutes, but that turns into two hours on a regular basis.  Even if I set my alarm, I just end up resetting it to get more sleep.  I must need the sleep though because I am still ready for bed at my normal ten o’clock bedtime.

Finally, I underestimate how long it takes me to do things.  Even when I am productive on my weekends, I tend not to do everything on my To Do List because I just cannot make it through all the items.  I know how long it takes me to do routine tasks.  It takes approximately half an hour to wash the dishes, fifteen minutes to fold a basket of clothes, five minutes to separate a bag of snacks into smaller baggies for lunches, etc.  When it comes to projects or non-routine chores though, I have no idea how long they take me to do and I always seem to underestimate them even when I try to pad the time.  I will put five things on my list, but when I actually start working on them I find hours have passed and I am still working on the first task.  The more physical tasks are the worst because I am much more out of shape than I would like to admit.  My perfectionism hinders my progress as well.  I do not just want to complete the task; I want to complete it correctly.  So I should probably work on doing things more efficiently, whether that means becoming more practiced at doing the tasks or learning to be satisfied with “good enough”.

What about you?  Are you good about sticking to a schedule and getting things done?  Do you lose time in your day?  What are some of the things you find suck up your time without your realizing it?

See you next week!

Black and Gold….And Purple?

Last week marked one of the most uncomfortable parts of my marriage, the beginning of football season.

For starters, I am a Steelers fan.  I grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, and I bleed black and gold.  My grandmother would disown me if I ever strayed from my roots.  (I also am a Penguins fan, but that is another post.)  I did not grow up watching a lot of Sunday football because neither of my parents did.  However, once I left home and got more exposure to the world, I actually found that football was good entertainment.  The Steelers games are not broadcast in northern Virginia much unless they are one of the evening games, but when I get the chance I like to tune into them.  Getting together with friends and family to cheer on the home team is great fun, regardless of whether they win or not.

My husband is a Baltimore Ravens fan.  For all that he talks about how much he hates Steeler bandwagon fans (I am grudgingly allowed to be a Steelers fan because of where I was born), he is a bandwagon Ravens fan.  He grew up in the Washington Redskins territory.  His father is a Washington Redskins fan.  He was a Washington Redskins fan until just a few years ago.  Then, he became tired of watching the Redskins lose season after season, and he became a Ravens fan.  He says they made the game fun again, but to me that translates into he wants to root for a team that wins consistently.  Therefore, he is a bandwagon fan.  My guess is if the Ravens start playing like the Redskins, he will change his mind again.

Of course, we have known from the start that we were rivalries when it came to football, but it was not an issue for the first year or so we were together.  We enjoyed watching games together in general.  Plus, we had an agreement that as long as we were not playing each other, we would support the other’s team.  We even watched the Steelers/Ravens games together in good spirit and friendly rivalry.  This has slowly changed over the years.  It started with the inability to watch the Steelers/Ravens games together.  My husband would get angry if the Steelers won and rage about how biased the referees were during the game.  If the Ravens won, he would gloat and go into lectures about why the Ravens are so much better than the Steelers.  Now the tension has spread to all of the games.  I can no longer watch any Steelers or Ravens game with him, regardless of who the other team is.  Even when they are not playing each other, I have to hear about how great the Ravens are and what a quality quarterback Flacco is.  (Just for the record, I do not think Flacco is much of a quarterback.  He usually gets the job done, but I do not find his performance that inspiring and do not think he will ever be considered elite.)

This season, I found out that all boundaries on our treaty have been violated.  Thursday was the first game of the regular season, Steelers vs. Patriots.  My husband had some friends over to watch the game together.  At one point, I overheard them, my husband included, talking about how much they hate the Steelers and how much they hate Steelers fans.  I gave them a piece of my mind, and then later when everyone had gone home, I gave my husband another piece.  Not only was he not supporting the Steelers when they were not playing the Ravens (that was our agreement remember), but he was talking trash about Steelers fans.  That means he was talking trash about me, his wife.  It was the final straw, and my husband has officially sucked all the fun out of football season in our house.

Of course, this is only one small piece of our marriage.  Not being able to enjoy football season together is a bummer, but it should not be the end of us as a couple.  It does however make me wonder what other things are in store for me now that the honeymoon stage of marriage is over and we are effectively stuck with each other.  It also adds to a list of growing signs that my husband does not have much respect for where I grew up and the people that come from there, which makes me question our long term happiness together.  For now though, I guess the solution is to stay away from each other during football games and work on the rest of our marriage to hopefully be happy with one another in the big picture.

Also, it might finally be time for me to find a good Steelers bar in the area.  Anyone have any recommendations?

Go Steelers!  See you next week!