Well, it’s spring break now. I finally got all of my final papers/projects/exams turned in, and I don’t have to be back in the classroom until March 27!!! However, I very much feel like this is a pause, and not a break. Why?

Well, for starters, I will be working most of the break. The few days I won’t be working are Thursday-Sunday, and that’s because the boy and I are going to Florida to visit my parents. I’m excited about that because I get to see my parents and I will get to be at MY church for Easter (I miss my church). However, it won’t be much of a break because I have THREE doctors appointments while I’m there.

When we get back, I still have a few days off from school left, but I’ll still have work, and I think that my rotation supervisor is going to make me come in to school even though we’re on break. Sigh.

So, I’m not really going to get a whole lot of breakin’ in. Just a pause in school. I can’t wait to be done with this. I’m not even sure if I’m going to get to do any spring cleaning or get my hair cut (like I DESPERATELY need).

Anyone got spring plans or projects?

OK, the lowdown on tipping . . .

This post was inspired by XBOX WIFE - her backwards WFMW was all these tipping questions that I have completely copy and pasted and answered below. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a professional on this, I can only share my personal experience (which is actually quite a lot - my family travels a considerable amount). For somewhat professional advice, consider the following:

* Wikipedia: Tip
* The Original Tipping Page
* Get Rich Slowly: Basic Tips on Tipping
* Emily Post: Holiday Tipping

And now, on to the questions! These are based on my personal experiences and opinions (and I inherited most of my tipping habits from my parents). Note that I am typically a big tipper (at a restaurant I consider around 20% to be standard, if not more). I will also leave less of a tip if my service was not that good. It is rare that I will not leave a tip at all, though I have done it once or twice for truly appalling service. But, like I said, I’m usually a very generous tipper.

* How much do you tip the security officer that brings a band-aid to your room? - I’d think a couple of dollars.

* How much do you tip the taxi driver that doesn’t answer any of your questions, or chooses to text message friends while he is driving? - Depends on the length of travel and such. For a $10 cab ride in NYC, I’d say $2 or so.

* How about the taxi driver that gives you great tips and good conversation? - Again, depends on the length and location. For a $10 cab ride in NYC, I’d probably give him $18ish total (but they were really great tips and some AWESOME conversation).

* Do you tip the doorman that greets you, the one that takes in your bags, AND the one that carries them to your room? - Are they 3 different people? If they are, then I typically only tip the one that carries them to my room (unless I have 15 bags . . . then I might consider the others). And usually it’s $1-2 plus $1 for each bag

* How much do you tip the doorman that hails a cab for you? - How hard was it to get the cab? If there was a cab in a line by the hotel, then $1. If he had to call or something, then $2-3.

* The concierge? - Did you use their services? If no, then no tip. If it was a quick question or two, then maybe $1. If they booked a tour for you and gave you 3 good restaurant recommendations, then $5 or so.

* Housekeeping? Do you tip housekeeping daily, or at the end of your trip? (I always worry that the person that has been cleaning our room all week will have the day off on the day we leave!) - If I’ve stayed at a nice hotel for a week or so and received excellent housekeeping service, then perhaps $10-20 at the end of the trip. But usually I don’t tip housekeeping. On a cruise though . . . definitely.

* Salon and spa services in your hotel? - Yes. Example: $50 massage - $10 tip

* And what about salon and spa services in your hometown ~ How much do you tip your hairstylist, the shampoo person, the manicurist, the esthetician? - Yes. I get a $120 haircut and color. The colorist usually gets $15-20, and the hair cutter gets $10. If they are the same person, then they get $20-25 total. And slip a $5 to the one who washes your hair and sweeps up the mess on the floor! Nails? If the manicure is $50, then give them $10-15 . . . and if you’re a regular, make sure to include ALL these kinds of people on your Christmas list (a small little gift, $10-20 gift certificate, homemade cookies . . . you get the idea, somewhere in there).

* The barber? - $15 harcut for the boys = $5-10 for the tip

* The shoeshine guy? - Do people still do this? I have no idea.

* Car wash attendants? - If they were super excellent, maybe $5. Typically though, no.

* Restaurants? How much? Do you determine the amount depending on the specific restaurant? How about the maitre d’? How about self-service places where someone buses your table? - I sort of addressed this already. Usually I go somewhere around 20% - regardless of how nice the restaurant is . . . those waitstaff are working just as hard at Ruby Tuesday as they are at Ruth’s Chris! At self-service places I usually leave a dollar on the table for the busboy. Unless the matre d’ has done you a special service, I usually don’t tip.

* Airports! How much do you tip the guy who unloads your car and the separate guy that checks your bags before you ever actually get into the airport? The parking attendants? The bus drivers for long-term parking? - Usually $1-2 plus $1 for each bag that you have. This goes for the shuttle driver and the skycap. The parking attendant in the little booth - no tip usually.

* Valet parking attendants? - $1-2 when you give them the car and another $1-2 when you get it back.

* Grocery store baggers and car loaders? - I usually forgo using them, so it’s been a LONG time since I’ve done this . . . I would imagine $5 is good if you’ve got a big carful of groceries.

And I’m gonna toss one in here for myself - TIP YOUR BARISTA! If you’ve had good service at Starbucks (or any other coffee shop for that matter), toss your change or a dollar into the tip jar, ESPECIALLY if you’re in the drive-thru . . . it’s factored into our pay like a waiter’s would be, and the drive-thru stores are notorious for getting awful tips, which is quite unfortunate because the work is harder. ::Steps off soap box::

Any other things you’re wondering about for tips? I’d love to keep going!!!

Thirteen New Year’s Resolutions

Sorry for the late posting. I don’t really have many specific New Year’s resolutions because I am working on my 101 in 1001 - and I’m more than 40% through it! I’m right on track with the amount of time I have left, so that is very exciting! However, I do have a few clarifications about some of the goals in my 101 in 1001 . . .

1. #5 on my list is to officially join the Episcopal Church. So far I haven’t done this because I’m never home at the time that they’re offering the courses. I’m going to make a serious effort to see if I can somehow work that out this year.

2. #50 is to sponsor a child. This was actually one of the first things I completed. However, I would like to become more involved, so a resolution of mine is to try and maintain regular written correspondence with my child.

3. #47 is to stop biting my fingernails. This is one of the things that is the hardest on my list . . . I’ve been biting my fingernails for 22 years! I had stopped at one point my freshman year, but then I started to date a guy who bit HIS nails, and that got me started back again, and it’s only gotten worse since. However, Mama recently told me about something that she heard on the radio. One guy said that biting your fingernails is an addiction just as bad as smoking (which I think is probably true - no chemical dependency, but mentally . . . geez). The way that HE stopped was one finger at a time. He was allowed to bite the nails on 9 fingers, but not the tenth. Then 8 fingers. 7. All the way until he was down to only being allowed to bite one nail. And he said it took him a loooong time to get off that finger, but when he did it he had completely kicked the habit.

I’m starting with my right thumb. Here’s hoping.

4. Since I haven’t made much headway on reading the books for #76 and #87, I’m going to try and keep a list of the books I’m reading this year here on my blog. Hopefully that will make me a little more accountable!

5. To aid in my reading the Bible for #4 I have just purchased the The One Year Bible Companion: Questions and Answers to Help You Make the Most of Your Daily Bible Reading. It leads you through reading the Bible in a year - every day a little New Testament, a little Old Testament, and some Proverbs and Psalms. And this version of the book has questions and things. I like it ;-)!

6. To go with SEVERAL of my health 101’s I am going to continue further implementation of FlyLady’s principles. While her main thing is cleaning, decluttering, and organizing, everything is built on routines, something that I have found is leading me to healthier eating and (gasp!) daily exercise!! Through the FlyLady way and through her book Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself I am going to work to have a healthier lifestyle. And if that gets in place, the weight will come off :-D!

7. #27 is to get a job. Now that I am no longer in grad school, this is priority numero uno for the new year!

8. As listed in #42, I want to begin creatively writing again. In the past month or so, I’ve actually felt like I think I can do this soon. I’m slowly working on ideas for a new book, and I’m excited that my little creative spark might be ready to go after a looong hiatus!

9. My books are out of control. I’ve got my closet cleaned, so it’s time for the next step! Not only will this help me declutter and make my room more pleasant, but it will help me through reading my books AND it will get me to the point where I can add them to a database (#56). Lots of goodies rolled into one.

10. I am revamping #61 a bit. Up until now it has said “Get Mama’s bead business online.” While I would still LOVE to do that, it appears as though my big resolution from last year is not going to be completed by the end of the year. However, I don’t consider this to be a complete failure. Mama isn’t ready to go online. However, I have helped her to figure out a system for keeping track of her records, which is just as valuable as getting the business online. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get her online, but I can help her get completely organized . . . taking inventory of probably somewhere near a million beads. This is just as big a task as getting her online, and it’s something that I have more control over. I don’t want to push her into going online if she’s not ready just so I can complete my list. So, the new #61 is “Get Mama’s beads inventoried and make the inventory something she can easily work with daily.”

11. If I plan on writing 1001 blog posts on this blog and Reading Red Letters in time, I need to get busy or #75 won’t happen!

12. Now that I am getting a little control over my life and I am establishing routines, I am cooking a lot more, so I am really hoping to get my “In the Kitchen” goals completed this year.

13. And one resolution that isn’t addressed in my 101 in 1001. When I was younger I had a little bit of an environmentalist in me, and I pushed that aside when I turned 13 because it made me “uncool” - yeah, such is middle school. Then when I was in high school and college I was so super busy that I didn’t even consider making time for caring about the earth. But as I’ve been out of school and have slowly started to become “a grownup” (like that will ever happen), I’m realizing that this is something that is a part of me. I am going to work on green living this year, and try to conserve and reuse whenever possible. I’m researching cleaning products and clothing lines, as well as how we can make up for energy expenditures. I’ll be posting more about these things throughout the year, and hopefully I will have started some great new habits by the time we get to next year’s resolutions!

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Before I get started, let me say that this was a massive undertaking, haha! What started out as a “I’ll get rid of some t-shirts and put things into plastic bins” turned into me getting rid of 2/3 of my wardrobe and a closet that is basically half empty now, LOL! It also led to me going through all my desk drawers, dresser drawers, and my smaller storage cabinet. I have gone through my entire room, and now I feel like I have minimal work to be done to get the entire room as organized as that dang closet! So, let the process begin!

After taking scary before pictures, I took the overflowing crate of textbooks and the foot and a half stack of binders and handouts and sorted through them. I’m not in school anymore, so I was able to get rid of all but one or two textbooks and I condensed all the papers and stuff into one binder - not bad, LOL! Next, I moved my bookcase (and all the stacks of books) out of the closet and into my room next to my other bookcase. As you can see, I know what my next project is going to be - the book situation is a problem, LOL!

Since I moved my bookcase out, I then had to do something with those boxes that were previously in the bookcase’s new home. The ones that are related to my business I moved into storage - it’s so nice not to have those sitting there everyday staring at me. Instead I get all my wonderful books. Yay!

The two boxes on the bottom, however, had to go into the closet where the bookcase was. One of them is work-related stuff to which I need regular access, and the other is a box of all my techno-stuff . . . the manuals, the software CDs, the spare cables, etc. This was a nightmare, and while it was a contained nightmare in its fun little box I knew that there was some serious organizing to be had:

More on this in a bit - first I needed to assess the closet situation as a whole.

When I moved the books out of the closet they had cobwebs all over them, so I knew that I needed to pull EVERYTHING out of the closet and give the closet itself some cleaning. There wasn’t enough room in my bedroom to pull everything out, so I had to put it all in the living room:

What a nightmare! Well, at least it made sorting through things easier - it was all pulled out, so I could actually see what I owned!

I sorted through my shoes and was able to get it down to one pair per cubbyhole, and I’m gonna go with the replacement theory on this one - from now on, if I want a pair of shoes, I have to get rid of a pair of shoes!

Then I went through my clothes. I didn’t do a huge overhaul at this time, I just pulled out things that I knew I would never wear - some knit tops, a few things that I know will never look good on me, regardless of weightloss, and several sorority t-shirts that I know I won’t wear anymore. I also sorted through all my sweaters, and quickly assessed that I would need a better system for keeping them organized. This rack seemed like a great organizing solution!

I sorted through my purses and was able to get rid of half! I took the remaining purses and put them in the crate that used to have all the textbooks in it. Not the most attractive storage container, but it was the right size, and I already owned it, LOL! No sense in spending money if I don’t need to! And it’s so nice to have them in a container since they are higher up - I don’t have to pull down 80 bazillion things to find what I’m looking for, I just take down the crate, pick out the purse I want, and put the crate back into its nice little home!

NOW I was able to get to that large box of techno-stuff! I carefully sorted things in to piles - cables, software, manuals, etc. I was amazed at how much had accumulated! I was able to get rid of over half of the cords (because honestly, we have cable internet, and we use a wireless router - I didn’t need all the telephone and ethernet cables that seem to come with every new computer product), some of the old software that I don’t use anymore, and some old telephones (we have Vonage now). There were also a ton of backup disks that are obsolete now that I have an external hard drive that does regular backups. Imagine my surprise when not only was I able to condense the tech stuff, but I was able to fit it all into a box that was HALF the size of the previous box!!!

Talk about gaining some space! I knew I’d have more room, but if you had told me that I would be able to put it all into that small box, I would have just laughed at you! In this case, yay for being wrong!

Now that the majority of the STUFF was organized it was time to get down and dirty with the clothes. About once a year I sort through my clothes and get rid of things, but it usually amounts to a few shirts, a pair of jeans, and a sweater or two. This time, as I pulled everything out and looked at each individual piece, I thought hard about when was the last time I wore it. How it looks when it’s on my body. If the color is a good color for me. I used the principles that I’ve learned from a recent discovery, MissusSmartyPants, LOL!

MissusSmartyPants is a clothing consultant - you send her a picture of yourself and she helps you figure out what clothes will fit you the best. I am amazed at how right she is. She has detailed directions for what are the essential wardrobe basics and on how to do a true, thorough closet purge. By using her methods I was able to get rid of almost 2/3 of the clothes in my closet . . . and still feel like I’m able to dress well every day! I came to realize that I only wear 1/3 to 1/2 of my clothes on a regular basis anyways . . . the rest are just sitting there reminding me of one particular occasion, or of a thinner weight. Her recommendations have also helped me to figure out what styles and cuts of clothing work the best for me, so I know that in the future when I go shopping I will be able to buy clothes that will fit me well, look great on me, and get worn on a regular basis! I let a couple of my friends sort through my clothes and take what they wanted, and the rest I am giving to our housekeeper (see #6). The rest of my giveaway things went in 2 carloads to Goodwill.

Yay for not only getting rid of all that unnecessary clothing, but having things organized in a way that I know I will use them! I also read on her website a tip from another client - I’ve taken all my clothes for this time of the year and grouped them together. Then I turned all the hangers around so that the hook is going the opposite direction on the rack. Then, as I wear things I will put the hook back the way it’s supposed to be. At the end of the season I’ll be able to see what I DIDN’T wear because the hook will still be backwards. If I know what I haven’t worn, then I know what I should consider getting rid of. Sounds brilliant to me!

With all the clothes weeded through, all the junk sorted through and organized (or in a different home) I was able to see the greatest asset of all - the closet itself. I have a huge closet. I always knew this, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I got the lightbulb changed so that I can see EVERYTHING (you’ll note the light is out in my before picture). I looked around and thought about my daily process to figure out what I wanted to change to make my life easier.

Now that I’ve been trying to exercise regularly, I realized it would be nice to have my workout clothes in my dresser that is in my room. It’s near my bed, and it would be so much easier to just pull something out of there. In order to do that though, I’d have to clear a drawer. As I looked, I realized that I had more than half a drawer dedicated to bathing suits! When I was living in Florida, that would have made sense, but here in North Carolina (in November, nonetheless) that seems like a waste of space. Since my closet was all cleared out, I was able to see that there was space higher up on the shelf where I could put the bathing suits. I bought a few small containers to use on that space - they’re small and lightweight, so they’re easy to pull down.

I got one for the bathing suits, one for my scarves and gloves, etc. Sooo much better than the “where is such and such . . .” organizational method I had going on before! And while the containers aren’t exactly the most attractive bins, they’re the right size, and I’m the only one going to be seeing them, so I don’t mind their color! Go Deacs!

And so, for the grand finale, the after pictures of my closet:

As you can see, the clothing is clearly organized according to type and color, as well as the occasion in which I would wear it. It is MUCH easier to see what I have, and since the floor is clear, I can walk in there and actually look at things. I’m actually using the double hanging rack now, so I can use the other hanging racks for things like the storage of sweaters. Ideally I would like to have a double clothes rack with the bottom rack being shorter so that I can hang the longer dresses and things with the other clothes, but since I’m in an apartment I can’t change the racks around This will work until I move next summer, and hopefully I’ll move into a place that will let me change the racks around to the way I like them.

I’ve used the shelf between the racks for my games since I don’t use them too much and I don’t need regular access. On the left side of the closet I’m only using half of the length of the closet for clothes, so on the other half of the shelf I have put those 2 boxes (work stuff and techno-stuff) and my spare pillows (boo for lack of linen closet), and on the floor I have put all my luggage. It’s all waaaaay more accessible than it was. You can see the spare sheets sitting next to the blue crate with my purses, and on the very top are my scarves, boots, etc. - things I don’t need to get to that often. I think using that high up space was key for me.

As far as the rest of the closet goes, it’s fairly empty except for my shoes. I was excited that I can put my exercise ball in there and it’s not in the way! The rest of the shelves are empty. When I am at my parents’ home for Christmas I plan to get all of the things out of my closet there and bring them back here, and those shelves will be used for storage. It will be much more helpful to my mom, because then she can use that closet at home instead of my things taking up all the good space when I am rarely there anymore anyways.

So the closet is clean, ridiculously functional, and ready for growth! All in all, I think I did pretty good :). Thanks for challenging me Laura!