Expanding the Scope and Range of this Blog...

Ever since I got into school I’ve been thinking a bit more about expanding the scope of what I write about here on Bookish Budget. When I first started blogging, the spirit of undertaking it was all about learning – learning how to be more responsible and principled about my finances, yes, but also learning how to be more worldly and thoughtful about everything that I do. I

I will always be Bookish, looks like for sure I’ll always be On a Budget (of some kind), but there are other areas and places where I would also like to expand myself – especially as I’m now planning on going back to business school!

Some avenues I’m interested in exploring initially:
Learning about potential career paths
Clean tech / green energy / etc.
How to be more ecologically savvy?
Entrepreneurship

And I'm sure many other bits of trivia will find it's way in, as usual... but from now on, I'm hoping to expand this into almost a personal research tool. And then, when I actually get closer to school, I may either alter the content or hit the delete and begin again at another site. Somehow I'm guessing my student debt may not be as interesting to talk about on a weekly basis, so we'll see. :)

Writing my Financial Commandments

So my brother is graduating from college next year, and I’m hoping to give him a nice bound journal of advice… mostly financial, since that’s the only advice you’re really looking for at that point in your life. I’m planning to write it all out by hand, so it’s more sentimental and heart-felt, and I have a lot of different categories that I’ve started to brain-dump ideas in. But I also want to kick it off with a Financial Top-Ten List, sort of an exercise in Financial Commandments. Here’s what I have so far… any disagreements, anything to add?

1. Automatic Deductions – You’ll never miss it!
2. Be hyper-conscious of spending
3. Use the Sub-Accounts for Saving with ING (you can reward yourself – save for things you want, not just things you need.)
4. Max out a Roth IRA!
5. Dental care is expensive. Invest in a Sonicare toothbrush.
6. Learn to cook a few easy dishes you love. It’ll save you $1000’s in expensive takeout.
7. Pay off your credit card balances immediately.
8. Judge yourself against your own standards, not the groups you happen to identify with.
9. Plan ahead.
10. Know what you value.

Indulge Me On This

I’ve been disappointed in the quality of the articles in the Sunday Styles in the past year. Often the writing itself is still stand-out, but the articles and actual topics chosen have seemed almost purposefully out-of-touch, like some editor’s pet interests are being indulged, week after week after “really? A brand of napkins sold only in the Hamptons?” week. The topic of this past Sunday’s headline - Indulge Me On This - struck me as no different. But some of the writing itself didn’t disappoint, and as Dave Eggers has famously said, got right to the business of “speaking eloquently about what it’s like to be alive right now.” The indulgences – the beach, the Nutcracker, the right Scotch, a culinary treat, nice cardstock for greetings, the right pacifier of diet coke – were appropriate for the paper’s readership.

For my own readership and indulgence, I would say my own indulgences this Christmas Eve are really good wine, splurges on family and friends, an excess of ‘wasting time’ pleasure reading.

What Writing Means in My Life

A certain grad school that I applied to asks a notoriously difficult and probing question about what you deem “matters” – what you hold most dearly in your life. I (quite obviously) wrestled with this question for a long time, and I decided in the end that my writing does mean most to me. I don’t explicitly acknowledge my writing enough on this blog, and how much it means to me, and I haven't yet heard about my admission to this school... am getting quite anxious, and so I thought it would be purgative to post an excerpt from my response to that question here:

I love figuring people out. My moment of self-actualization came after reading a book about a middle-aged dentist. A novella with pastel, eighties-style graphics on its cover. The story details how said dentist met his wife and the subtle difficulties of their marriage, sharing a dental practice. That is all that happens. But as I read, I wept, because I recognized myself. I immediately fell for him. And for the author’s power to communicate the fullness of this man’s “mundane” experiences – being a father, touching strangers’ mouths. Through my own writing, I’ve found meaning in illustrating these kinds of details – being able to dimensionalize my own and others’ experiences and translate them into something universal. Through writing, I’ve developed a habit of meticulous empathy for the seemingly ordinary things that make people who they are.
Last year, I finished a novel I love. For now, it lives in one-hundred-page stacks on my coffee table, but with luck, will live on a used bookshelf with an outdated Millennium-style cover someday. Not what I have written, but the practice of writing – the solitary hours of empathy, spent imagining myself as someone else – is what matters most to me.
Fiction matters because it moves people to see themselves, and to see what they share with others. It helps explain the world and diminishes our confusion when the world doesn’t operate the way we would like. Ultimately, I find writing important because it helps me understand why people are who they are and why they do what they do.

Happy Hanukkah all... May you treasure what "matters" as well! With affection, Suzy.

Next Round o' Submissions

I tend to submit my stories to online magazines and literary journals in one big “round” of energy and optimism. Then I sit back for a few weeks (months) until I can muster up the courage and enough stamps to do it again. It’s been almost three months since my last round of submissions. Last time I submitted to 14 publications, got 3 rejection letters, and 11 no-answers. Makes it hard to go back in for another round. I think what I really need is to establish a more persistent routine for submissions, and impose some deadlines on myself. Right now it’s definitely a “when I get around to it” kind of thing. So I am now amending my April goals to add in this one: devote significant time each weekend to actually preparing another story for submission. The goal is to have something ready by summer!

Crepes and Canvases

This morning instead of our usual overpriced weekend brunches, the Guy made the most amazing crepes I've had. Light and fluffy with little bits of powdered sugar, honey and cinnamon. Very nice cap to our evening last night... his condo had an open house and we made the acquaintance of all his neighbors, one of which was this really inspiring writer and author, Rick. I was absolutely entranced with his paintings - they felt important and poetic and deeply funny. He said he's sidelined on painting for awhile and is writing a lot now, which is nice. I could identify with these mid-forties Dilbert looking character; underneath, there was just a lot to say. Garrison Keillor once said that creating art is one of the most optimistic acts you can undertake.

Rick said he had even sold lots of his paintings, some for around $800. Which definitely inspired me. I don't know how I'd go about finding a market, I've never sold any of my paintings or my stories yet. I've at least tried a lot with my stories, but painting is still my "just for fun" hobby. Still, our conversation left me feeling very optimistic that it is possible, to enjoy your own work and fulfill yourself, and still make your own way financially (his condo was the best on the tour, with an incredible view of the Minneapolis skyline). Also met a former rowing coach and a woman who worked at Aveda, so many unique individuals that were truly invested and active in striving towards their "purpose," rather than their "career." Truly refreshing... might rejuvenate me enough to start painting again! OR at least mailing in a few more short story submissions.