Dear Facebook, It's not me, it's you... (A Breakup Letter)

Well, not you personally (although you have made quite a few changes that affect my privacy, but I digress) but more the environment you have created. When I first joined way back in 2004, only college students (or people with a .edu email address) were allowed to join. I loved having the opportunity to connect with other students. When you opened membership up to everyone, I wasn't too happy then I realized that I could connect with even more people. You brought people together, allowing me to feel involved in the lives of people who may have faded from my memory otherwise. 

Then things changed. 

I'm not sure if it's because we've been in a pretty steady relationship for the past 10 years (man, I'm old) but the thrill is gone. That thrill has been replaced with disgusting videos/pictures, judgemental posts, hateful comments and just a lack of the main thing that drew us together in the first place: connection. I honestly feel less connected than ever before.

With that said, I think our relationship is coming to an end. Not a complete, "I'm deactivating my account", end but more like an, "I won't be logging in as often end". Don't worry, I'll still come to visit (at least until I get out of the habit of logging in). With your millions of users, I'm sure I won't even be missed. 

So long for now Facebook! If you miss me, I'll be connecting in real life. 

A Lesson to be Learned

Aka "The time the Army kept most of our paycheck". 

I just checked our pay for next payday and I am surprised that I'm not curled up in a ball, crying after seeing such a low amount. We knew this was a big possibility in the back of our mind but overall, we could have prepared a lot better.

Pretty much, after Will came home on emergency leave and they decided that he did not need to return, the Army did not stop his deployment pay (even after multiple trips to Finance). After we finally got things worked out, they told us how much we owed and we set up payment arrangements. Well, let's just say that the Army decided not to use that arrangement and instead is taking all of the overpay this month. Yeah, not fun at all.

If this had been a couple months ago, I would be freaking out. I'm not sure if it's because we were semi-prepared for this or if I'm learning to deal with these hurdles (and controlling my anxiety better). Either way, I have learned a lesson in this situation. We definitely need to simplify our lives and start building our savings. We want to be more yah prepared if a situation like this were to happen again. 

Any tips on simplifying and/or building savings?