I need a piggy bank and sheep to count so I can sleep

This blog may move to the Carroll County Times' website soon. But I haven't updated it in a bit and I found out people actually do read and maybe even like this blog, so it's worth writing in.

I'm trying to fill up the my days the best I can. It seems like a lot of copy editors usually stay up late after work and then sleep till really late and head off to work. But since I have my days free, I really don't want to spend them sleeping. However, I guess because I don't wake up in the morning, run around to classes all day and then go to the Collegian until 1 a.m., I have not been able to fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow like I used to.

I went to bed at 3 a.m. Saturday night. Not good. I think I'll try reading before I go to sleep, because that usually makes me pretty tired. Any other tips to help me fall asleep?

But I have been trying to get up around 11. Then hit up the gym. And after that clean and take care of any chores. Some days I read and others I watch TV and scrapbook. I am also looking to volunteer somewhere in Carroll County, I just haven't decided where yet.

Also, on my "weekends" (Sunday and Monday) I want to explore. Last weekend I went to Towson and yesterday I took a trip into D.C. to visit my friend Phenola. The trip is wasn't awful with an hour drive to a metro stop and then a short 15 minute ride into Columbia Heights. It was cool to see a different part of the city and wonderful to see Phenola. I missed her.

But along with trips into the city and satisfying my scrapbooking requirements, things get expensive.

I also want to get a cat. And then there's costs like the gym, Netflix, health care, water, electricity, food, rent ... and on and on. Everything costs something. I've never had to balance my expenses so carefully as I do now. And while I can do it, and can be extremely frugal when the need calls, it's no much fun realizing there are things I want and need but can't currently afford.

And then there's prioritizing. A vacuum would probably be good to get (and my mom will be aghast I haven't purchased one yet) but I am running low on coffee for my Keurig, I have to pay my cable bill soon and there's a few more odds and ends I need to really get going on my scrapbook.

The carpet will just have to wait a few weeks ... or until after my rent for July is due on the 5th.

And the cat ... well he will just have to wait a few months as I save up my pennies and have enough to give him a comfortable lifestyle.

It's not all about the Benjamins

Lately I have heard a few people say that maybe I didn't pick the best profession to go into. Newspapers are hurting, the pay is bad and (as a copy editor) the hours worse.

And I've been giving non committal answers to those comments with "It'll be fine" or "This is what I want to do." But what I really need to say is NO, I did not choose the wrong profession -- I chose the one I've wanted since I was 15. In life a job shouldn't always have to be about the money, and maybe not always even the security, it should be about following one's passion.

When I try to imagine what else I could do after graduating, there's nothing but being in a newsroom. I love every aspect of newspaper work, but copy editing is where I found my niche. It's also what I am good at and what comes naturally, which is also very important. If you enjoy something, but are bad at it that doesn't make an easy career path and nor does being good at something but hating it. I've found the perfect formula of something I truly enjoy doing and also do well.

It would be amazing to be a doctor ... but that's not a possibility considering I cover my eyes at many of the surgery scenes in "Grey's Anatomy." I'm tone def, I can't act my way out of a paper bag and being a lawyer is out since I don't particularly enjoy arguing with people. So copy editing looks like a pretty good deal stacked up against that.

And the hours are late -- but that gives me sunny afternoons to read on the balcony of my apartment or volunteer at the library or local arts center. The pay isn't fabulous, but why does it have to be about the money? It's paper and metal! Why does it define our lives so much? I admit I have never had to worry too seriously about money -- so that may cloud my view of it -- but all the same I am willing to forgo some luxuries to have a job I love. In essence, to be happy.

Material things are wonderful, but I don't think it would do me any harm to cut back on what I spend my money on during the next few years. As long as I can afford to eat (and drink coffee), have gas in my car and pay rent and cable/Internet, then that's all I really need ... well, besides a library card and sunny days.