Tomorrow will make exactly one month since my last day at Twitter! Wow - what a difference a few weeks makes. I've spent a lot of time this week focusing my energies on quite a few things. Here's the listicle of the top 10 things I did while 'adulting' this week:
1) Wrapping up all of my doctors visits so that I can take full advantage of the money I had left in my FSA account (almost $900). The good news is that I'm healthy (though there was a slight scare with one of my breasts, which turned out to be nothing) and now I have new glasses on the way soon! I will say the Cigna FSA process is a pain in the ar$e and very confusing.
2) I also finally transferred everything from my old Macbook Pro to my new one, wiped the old one and sent it to be sold for more money than I thought I'd ever get for it (I bought it in 2009). This involved 2 appointments at the Genius bar to get things all resolved, but it was worth it.
3) I finally ended my #SocialMediaDiet (though I haven't added any of the apps back on my iPhone or iPad yet), so far I'm just limiting myself to desktop access. One thing I recognize is that I will need to be cautious because honestly - I enjoyed the bubble of the past couple of weeks. My anxiety went down because I wasn't seeing all of the news stories that made me angry!
4) Ladies That UX LA hosted a financial seminar on budget and salary negotiation and I attended it (even though it meant schlepping all the way downtown). It was excellent and I realized that I need to re-frame financial planning as an extension of my creative process because of the talk by Claudia McGowan.
5) I had a referral from one of my former Twitter colleagues for a potential freelance project that I might pickup this week! It's for a company that really resonates with where my head is, which is philanthropy and making a positive impact on the world I'm living in, especially because everything seems so uncertain with our new President Elect making all sorts of diplomatic gaffes this week.
6) Paypal encouraged me to participate in #GivingTuesday (so I did)
7) I finally found chairs that should work well with the new counter height table I ordered for the little nook in my kitchen. I'm excited that the table will arrive tomorrow and the chairs should arrive by Tuesday!!!
8) I've finally found a group of women in tech that I can connect with here in Los Angeles. This week I reached out to a group that I'd been a member of for about a month and the reception was warm!
9) I bought some Affirmator cards on a whim at World Market and they've inspired me way more than I thought they would... the way they work is that you're supposed to shuffle the cards, spread them all out and ask (God, The Universe, whatever higher power you believe in) to help you choose the card you're supposed to read for that day. I pulled 'bonus' cards on Thursday (Abundance) and Friday (Perseverance) and the messages on them felt like just what I needed to see to keep me going!
10) I attended the Preserve LA meeting for the westside today to hear more about their Neighborhood Integrity Initiative. Essentially they are a collective that want to help pass laws that will help keep the developer and city council/planning relationships here in LA on the up and up.
This issue is important to me because I've noticed some seriously horrendous developments cropping up all over the city. Take for example this multi-unit apartment complex that has popped up on the corner of my street.
It looks NOTHING like the rest of the buildings on the block, though somehow it got a pass from the LA City Council and City Planning commission.
So this is 'adulting' for me now, which means actively being involved in my community both professionally and personally (I never did that at all in NYC), taking better care of my mental and physical health, plus focusing on becoming comfortable with the financial planning process for myself!
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and I'll do my best to write more often.
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
