Oh reality, thou art heartless . . .

Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it.

--Jane Wagner

I didn't really know what "stuck between a rock and a hard place" meant until I started teaching. Ok, well there was one summer where I totally knew, but that's another story for another time . . . maybe. Maybe I'll keep it to myself.You know, just to watch you twitch with curiosity.
Or not.
Teaching is tricky because you have to keep not only your employers happy, but your students AND their parents. That's the trick, really, the parentals, and parentals, you must understand, are hard to keep completely happy all at once. You grow up, move out, and, in some form or another parenthood follows you around. You can not escape the grown-ups. Not ever. Not even when you are one . . . supposed to be one . . . or something.

All I know is I feel stressed, exhausted, anxious, and unmotivated all the time, now . . . which is probably why blog posts are more frequent. It just ends up feeling like no matter what I do, people aren't happy, so why bother? Why face it? Because it's my job, and life is bigger than stress and unhappy people. I can do this. At least until summer time. First year teaching is hell, anyways, that's what people tell me. You start out at the bottom of the ditch because then there's no where to go but up . . . I'm hoping.

Then there's finances. Money's bothered me from the time I was little.
No really. 
It's not that there are any problems, really, but we're trying to figure out how to pay off my student loans . . . which may put us behind on saving up for a house, and Chris's car is almost 14 years old. No real problems, yet, but that sucker could keel over any minute. I'm trying to find ways to save money, so if any of you have any tips, please let me know. I'm probably just borrowing trouble, but I like being financial prepared for impending doom.
Here are things we've already applied to save a little cash

• No cable or satellite television . . . or any television, really . . . we haven't bothered buying an antenna/receiver
• I buy only what I need for recipes that week and minimal snackage. 
•  Dinners out are a very special and rare event
• Movies in the theater are an extinct breed of evening
• The only luxury on our phones is unlimited texting because we realized it would be more expensive to pay the fees for over-texting.
• We bought used cars and paid for them up front so we don't have car payments.

Chris and I are debating having me quit my summer job . . . but I'm not sure we can. It's at a theme park, horrible hours, horrible drive, and the pay barely pays for the gas trip there and back. Still, it's a nice cushion in case we need summer cash.

Any-who . . . lesson plans, project planning, and paper grading continue. We are soldiers marching on to battle.

At least the cats are no longer relieving themselves on the carpet.  No really, that's a big deal. Cat poo is no fun. Not even a little bit.

Oh and we had a little pumpkin party. Pics soon :)

For now, I relieve stress by watching new online episodes of Futurama (because, ya know, my TV doesn't work, and the internet is my only remaining link to modern society). Oh the hysterical glory!

How about you? What do you do to save cash? Favorite de-stressing TV show?