Breaking Point

Our upstairs neighbors got Rock Band for Christmas. Jealous? Yes, maybe. But more pressing is the fact that I am about to go insane, march upstairs as soon as they leave and throw the drum set out the window. I guess it could be worse, they could have got DDR. Or BSU could play football every night. I hate apartment living. And the sad fact is that I know we are no where near the time in our lives when we will be done with apartment living. Why is it that actual instruments are banned, but fake ones that are just as noisy are ok?

And the other source of my mental breakdown? Our budget. We decided we needed to buckle down and become responsible. Well, at least we needed to learn to stick to our budget. So we took out our entire budget in cash and placed it in envelopes by spending category. If we run out of money, well, too bad for us, we will eat potatoes and beans for the rest of the month (don't worry Kennady will still get her full range of nutrition). Really, it shouldn't be a big deal. But I can't seem to find the perfect amount of caring/worry that lets us stick to our budget without me turning into a total miser/control freak about where every penny is going. Like when I freaked out because Ben got $3 notebooks instead of the $1 notebooks (who cares if the Jonas brothers are all over them?). It's kinda like why I don't diet, because I write down every single calorie and it becomes very stressful to eat anything.

Ben is back to school full time today. We mapped out his schedule for the semester. Luckily he still gets to come home for dinner every night. Other than that I get to see him for 4 hours on Saturday, and all day Sunday. I can do this for 14 weeks. 14 weeks really isn't a very long time. I think it's a little taste of what med school will be like, except that he won't be working during med school (most likely, because there are only a handful of schools that even allow it), so he'll be gone all week and we will make $0. Hopefully we'll move somewhere where babysitting is in high demand and well paid. Here people auction their children off to the lowest bidder. I pretty much refuse to watch someone's kid for less than $2 an hour. I think I'd do better digging through couches in the lounges of the single housing. Hmm, not a bad idea.

Well, it's back to productivity for me. Good thing I have an iPod to drown out the noise of the drums overhead. I just hope I'll be able to hear Kennady when she wakes up.