4th of July Weekend

At the last minute I decided to fly out to Phoenix last weekend. I had been kind of lonely since Daniel was out of town and I was sick, and I didn't feel like spending another 2 days by myself. I had Monday off for the July 4th holiday anyways, so I could spend almost 3 whole days in Phoenix. My dad was so excited, he offered to pay for the flight. So on Friday I got home from work at about 5pm, and by 6pm I had a flight out of Denver at 9:15pm. Unfortunately, that 9:15pm rapidly turned into 10:45pm and eventually 11:30pm. My roommate drove me to the airport, and agreed to feed Jackson on Saturday. And my brother got the long weekend off too, so he was flying to Phoenix. I was so excited to spend some time with him, and see my parent's new puppy! Rocky is so adorable. He is the same breed as Spud and he's only 10 weeks old. Watching him made me miss Spud so much. Australian Shepherds are great dogs.

I was also happy to have something to do for the 4th. I had no plans in Denver, and it was doubtful that Daniel would be back in time since he was flying standby. But in Phoenix, I got to see some of my favorite people! We went over to the Bulkeley's house. Their house is up on a hill so we could see the fireworks at a nearby church really well. Even though I traveled over the weekend, I don't feel exhausted or anything. I still had plenty of time to relax and enjoy my day off of work. It's been a strange couple of weeks. I took 2 days off because I was sick, and then the holiday off, it feels like I've missed a lot of work lately! I'm feeling especially stressed out about money lately for no real reason. I'm making more now than I ever had since I'm working full time. But I also have a lot of expenses. Traveling is the biggest expense- though I can't turn down a trip to Chicago to see my sister for basically the cost of a flight. I also just bought a TV. Our current TV is leaving when Eric moves out on August 1. That was a huge deal for me. Spending $500 is just not easy at this point. Because all my basic living expenses are covered by Grandma and Grandpa, I feel guilty buying anything but the absolute bare necessities. The fact is, I'm making money now, and my family doesn't expect me to live on ramen noodles. I did a ton of research and found what I think is a great deal. Panasonic 42" plasma TV for $499. I couldn't find that price for a 42" anywhere online, so I jumped on it. My brother also went with me to look, and he said it was a great deal. I trust him because he sold TVs for a couple years at Circuit City. Then I remembered I had to buy a TV stand too. So that added another $100. I hate spending money. And our utilities will also go way up starting this month since our promotional first year with DirecTV is now over. But at least it will be split 5 ways once our new roommates move in.

Work is kind of slow for now, so I'm going to try to get out to Chicago in the next week or two. The ozone machine is still broken, and we don't know when it will be fixed. It's difficult to conduct an experiment on how ozone affects the immune system, when you don't have ozone. But I just can't bring myself to book the flight. It is going to cost close to $700 for both me and Daniel. That just kills me. But it will be totally worth it.

Daniel was absolutely amazing today. While I was at work, he cleaned the whole house, planned our meals for the week, went grocery shopping, exchanged my jeans for the right size, did research on where to buy TV stands, played with Jackson, and looked over my preliminary powerpoint presentation. I so appreciate what he does while I'm at work. It makes my life much easier that these little things are done when I get home. He is the best! :-)