On Being Fabulous

I recently came across the blog of a fellow Vanderbilt alumna. She calls it "All Things Fabulous: A Daily Reminder of the Good Things in Life." It's a lovely title that made me smile and feel like my blog was comparatively depressing and decidedly unchic. But, I'm not going to let this worry me, as I've already launched a personal campaign to re-chic my life. Half of the effort is a workout group called "Fit As Shit." Starting this week, me, my roommate and some of our friends will embark on a strict training, sleeping and eating regimen designed to get us fit enough to run a 10K this spring and looking amazing in bathing suits by Memorial Day. The other half of the effort is designed to glam up my image. I'm tired of waking up in the morning, staring into my closet for 10 minutes, and then walking out of the house looking like a schlub.

Sometimes I go so far as to blow dry my hair or put mascara on, but most days I just look like a lazy stoner who can't dress herself. To combat the schlubbiness, creativity block and general fashion ennui, I took it upon myself to do some research. This has involved trolling through runway pictures on Style.com and flipping through many, many magazines at the gym. I even went so far as to pay $5.oo for a 500-page issue of InStyle.

I feel weird about knowing that the 70s are back, bright colors are in and the hemlines are all over the place this season but I am trying to embrace my girly side and look better without becoming a vapid slave to consumer culture. A visit Nordstrom Rack and four hours at the Leesburg Premium Outlets nearly killed me yesterday and reminded me why I don't typically go on epic shopping sprees. But, despite the exhaustion, disgust and the sick feeling I got in my stomach each time I swiped a credit card, I do feel better. Dressing for work is going to be easier and much more fun, and I can show up to work without feeling like I have to apologize to my boss for my appearance. Hurray!

money in the bank

So I read this article on money and then I found this and signed up for this. You can set up budgets for yourself and it texts you when you're about to go over budget. Brilliant! I can't believe this isn't as popular as textsfromlastnight.com. It oughta be.

My question, and something I want to look into further, is how did Ramit Sethi get to be so smart? His blog posts are awesome, i.e. How to get 150,000 people to read your blog in one week, or Travel full-time for less than $14,000 a year (that's just $2,000 less than I made after taxes last year but still, if I ever have money, I'd like to know how best to make it work for me)

And this guy Tim Ferriss doesn't seem too dumb either. The fact that these guys are out to help people make money, even if their advice ups their income, is suspicious but pretty great. It gives me more hope for my generation.

One of the blog links above roleplays how to get out of overdraft fees with a bank rep over the phone. Who knew people in the money-making world did roleplays? (We do them at work all the time.)