by Claire
Work travel has been completely insane over the last three weeks. So many little hearings that I thought would cancel and in-person meetings that I thought would not be needed have indeed gone forward. I’ve been all over the map this go around. From SA to Corpus to South Texas back to SA to Austin back to Corpus with stops in tiny towns along the way. Due to scheduling issues some of that has been by car and other parts with my good friend Southwest Airlines.
On a financial note, these weeks are very good for my budget. My expenses are on the company’s dime. Any expenses that would not be covered by the company (outside shopping, outside dining, etc) aren’t happening b/c fatigue has me plopping into hotel beds and falling asleep. I HAVE been trying to maintain some exercise routine and have discovered running on a treadmill to be much more enjoyable than I ever would have thought. I used to believe that I would only run when being chased by someone…with a knife…a very big knife…who wouldn’t listen to my verbal persuasion to please stop the chase. I thought I hated it but I have found that with the work stress increasing–running is very relaxing! It’s an escape from all of the noise in my head and around me on a daily basis. No idea if I’ll stick with it but for road trips it is a good way to pass the time and avoid unnecessary spending. I used to randomly shop.
On a food note, these weeks are very bad. I did go through a phase of packing a lot of my food but these trips keep sneaking up on me because they are in limbo until the last minute. It is one tough task to eat well on the road.
I’ll be in Dallas and South Texas next week and anticipate the next few weeks being a tough schedule. My posts will likely be more infrequent in the short term but please know I continue to be financially thoughtful and reading a lot on what I have to look forward to in my post-debt life (various blogs and such).
Last thing–I like to respond to comments directly but time does not permit right now. Regarding Margot’s grammatical critique, I am pretty thick skinned by nature and even moreso since starting this blog so I did okay with the exchange. It also helps that Margot has been an online ogre of sorts (I mean that in a genuine, sarcastic, humorous way) that has often kept me from making bad financial decisions. She’s no nonsense and sometimes it is obnoxious but I figure it is a blog and that opens me up to all sorts of people and at least I am not giving an in person presentation and having to deal with her face to face! I might also envision her to look like Ursula from The Little Mermaid and that helps too. Gosh I hope she’s laughing!
I’m sure this post is full of errors and I have to let that go as part of my letting things go process. I run too fast and furious to allow grammatical errors to paralyze me from posting. Plus, what would Margot have to do? 😉
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
I think Margot also posts her internet spew at Crazy Aunt Purl. If she is the same one, she almost (if I remember correctly) stopped CAP from posting.
What a shame. Ignore the trolls.
I find that Middle Eastern food or anything from the Mediterranean is easy to find on the road and much healthier and satisfying than most fast food. I’m thinking hummus and baba ganoush and pita and a salad.
Emmi–thanks for this tip! It helped me last week as I googled Medierranean food in a town I don’t spend much time in and found a great pick!
Glad to hear that my comments are sometimes helpful to you. Surprised to see you reacting in a victim-like way where you assure others of your thick skin. If you recall, YOU previously opened up the theme of good writing and asked for feedback if you ever made typos or mistakes. I can’t recall if this was in a blog post or a comment. In response, another commentor and I made some grammatical/writing suggestions and corrections, and you thanked us for the input. So, I was surprised to see such a different tone this time. I’m also surprised that others would react so defensively on your behalf. I view constructive, well-intentioned criticism/feedback as a good thing. I’d be thankful for someone taking the time to make my writing better or fixing errors. Other commentors who are so sensitive to and defensive about constructive criticism might try to be just a little more open to it if they want to keep growing in work, life skills, relationship skills, and other areas of life.
Lmbo. Tone Margot. All about tone. We all learned that in school as well. There is a million different ways to say the same thing and they all will have different meanings. I’m sure if you go back in your post you will notice that your tone was extra shady. This post however had a friendlier tone. We appreciate that. Thank you.
Margot your comments are helpful and you are right, Claire did mention previously a proclivity for good grammar. Claire professes to have a thick skin, but in reality she does not. Hence, the passive- aggressive tone she adopted to call you out in this blog posting. It’s too bad she chose to do that as it diminishes this blog’s usefulness.
Margot–I do find your comments helpful and I’ve never said otherwise. However, I have never said I enjoy your delivery. In fact, I’ve been pretty consistent in saying your delivery is rough around the edges. So perhaps it is most accurate to say that I appreciate your content but do not care for your tone. My method of dealing with your tone is not at all passive-aggressive but instead the honest truth about how I approach your comments. A lot of people would completely discount your content because of your aggressive tone (and several readers have done just that). I choose to laugh about your extreme style, look past it and see the value in what you have to share.
Definition from Psychology Today:
Passive-aggressive
A defense mechanism that allows people who aren’t comfortable being openly aggressive get what they want under the guise of still trying to please others. They want their way, but they also want everyone to still like them.
The intent of the entire bottom quarter of your post was to “call-out” a commenter. Textbook passive-aggressive behavior. It appears that not only should you get your finances in order, but your character traits as well. Thick skin, right. Good luck with that.
What a petty, nasty comment. My intent was to explain how I personally deal with Margot’s comments. Nothing more.
Margot and Lori, I agree.
Keep up the good work Claire. I love your blog and always tell people about it.
Thanks Phaedra. Keep on keepin’ on.
Claire, hi again. Just wanted to clarify a few things.
1) I understand that you were critiquing my tone. I have no problem with that. It’s certainly something worth considering on my part. Feedback isn’t effective unless I can deliver it in a way that’s useful.
2) However, you were also unreasonably defensive (especially given your previously declaration of your interest in good writing and your request for corrections). So were many of your readers who seem to block out all/most constructive criticism (which is sad, because without it, we don’t grow and learn).
3) You were rather flippant about the core problem. When someone corrects my writing (and they are right), I make the edits. I don’t joke about the problem as if it’s a non-issue. I think good writing matters. You’ve said you think the same thing, too. (And one should not be a lawyer unless one cares about good writing.) That doesn’t mean perfect writing. We all need editors and we all make mistakes sometimes. But is it really necessary to passive-aggressively write about how you’re sure your next post is “full of errors” and that you “run too fast and furious to allow grammatical errors to paralyze me from posting”? Typos are made in accidental error. Most grammatical errors are made because people don’t know the proper approach. When someone points out an error that you’ve made, it might be best to learn from it and fix it (if you do care about good writing) rather than let that person get badgered and joke about them.
Thanks for being open to dialogue.
Thank you Margot. I did not go make the corrections only because I was on the road and had no internet connection for my laptop. Much of what I did over the last two weeks on the blog was from my phone. Hard to believe that Houston Hobby doesn’t have free internet and I don’t have any other way to access, but it is true. By the time I got to a place where I could sit down it was very rushed and frenzied. I always appreciate good editing. The tone is important in order to maintain my willingness to hear and so I appreciate your recognizing that reality. I will continue to look for your comments, take them as they are intended and work on my own approach as well. Thanks again.
Aw, that was very nice of you to take the time to write. It’s also nice that we don’t even know each other but we can have a constructive dialogue, including differences and misunderstandings. If only all the other defensive commentors didn’t get between us 🙂 I must say that the oddest part of this little internet drama for me was to see all of the attacking comments on my last post (granted, I never went back to read them all, because I don’t care that much, so there might be content I don’t know about) and to not have you acknowledge that I wasn’t a total freak just giving writing feedback out of the blue and that you did in fact request it.
Happy day!
I often forget that readers aren’t reading all the time and haven’t been with me since day one. I think I took my request for grammar input as a “known” and that was a mistake. I should have reiterated that I did ask for input.