Grey Hair.

Just to add on to my previous post, I was sitting in class the other day minding my own business and I discovered a grey hair. In my head. I am fully horrified by this. I am only 17 years old, and I'm finding grey hairs already, this can't be good. I blame grade 12 for this very unfortunate event that has taken place on my head. I think I need to do some yoga, or meditation or something, because if this escalates any further, I will have wrinkles. I cannot let that happen.

Christmas Shopping/Stress

Just as an update, I've been working at Watch It now for about a month. I really enjoy it, at least compared to my other job. I've been having an abundance of hours lately, and as much as I like that because I'm making good money, I'm also extremely exausted. I have a lot on my plate right now, now that I think of it. On pay day (Dec 21st) I need to finish all my Christmas shopping. Which shouldn't be too difficult since I have a brief idea and budget for every person i'm buying for. But on the other hand, it's so close to Christmas I don't know if I'll be able to find everything I'm looking for. I have been putting off my university applications for some reason. I can't really explain exactly why, but I know it has something to do with reluctance to accept the fact that I'm growing up. High school is nearing its end. I'm picking up my graduation photos tomorrow, and they better turn out as great as I have imagined them my whole life. I personally believe that grad photos are single handedly the most important picture that one will take in their life. Some might argue and say that your wedding photos are more important. But I have to disagree and here's why: you only graduate high school once. You can get married as many times as you want. Therefore, grad pictures are highly important.

Next, I have a seriously important essay I need to write by the 21st that will ultimately determine my future. That's scary. If I do poorly on it, I do poorly in life because it will be the deciding factor of my English grade which will decide what kind of secondary education I will have which will decide what kind of career I'll have and disposable income. If my standard of living is high, I will be friends with other people who have a high standard of living, and therefore I will be in a more upper class society. If I'm in a upper class society, my children will go to a private school that will cost me a great deal of money but will provide a solid education for them and then my life will be passed on to them.

So with all that being said, I need to write an exceptional essay on a book I haven't quite read.

As you can imagine, I am experiencing an entirely more intense level of stress than I've ever seen in my life, so far.

 

First Pay-cheque

My first pay cheque was pretty small, only 60.00$. Which is obviously better than nothing, but still futile. My next one will be much bigger, for sure. I blew 60$ in less than 12 hours of getting it. It was black Friday, shopping needed to be done. I kind of skipped my whole afternoon of school to go do a little bit of Christmas shopping. Practically every store in the mall was offering 50% off everything in the store, that's crazy! I took advantage of this deal, of course. I'm a little sad now cause there's about 30 cents in my bank account. I spent my last 15$ on the movies last night, and lunch today. The movie was totally worth every penny, I went to go see Breaking Dawn part 2 with my friend Ashley. It was intense. The popcorn was over-priced though. As for my lunch, I kind of needed to make that purchase. Otherwise I'd starve all day and I'd be even grumpier than I already am. Yes, I am in a bad mood today. I don't know why. It's either because I got 4 hours of sleep last night, or because everyone is just being more annoying than usual, or because I'm hungry. Thank God I don't work today after school because I need a power nap followed by a good night's sleep.

On Friday my boyfriend came to Ottawa to go see Justin Bieber live with me. He isn't much of a JB fan, but he came for me nonetheless. What a good boyfriend! He even offered to buy me a souvenir, but I insisted he didn't. That type of stuff is way over-priced, for no reason. I have memories, I don't need a material souvenir.

Unfortunately he left the next day, around supper time. He usually leaves on Sunday evening, but he had some family-friend, Christmas dinner thing he needed to attend back in Montreal on Saturday night. Which in my opinion is stupid, because Christmas isn't for another month. They're jumping the gun a little bit I think on the whole Christmas dinner in November. It's a bit much. But I had to let him leave, as much as I protested. I might go to Montreal on December 7th to see him if I can afford it. If not, I'm making him come here instead. I love how he does whatever I tell him to. How lucky am I?

Today I picked up some envelope from student services that is going to help me apply for university. I'm starting to feel a little nervous. I mean, I'm excited to graduate and move away for university, but I'm scared at the same time to be on my own. I better get into McGill otherwise I'm gonna flip a desk :)

Personal Rewards

I'm receiving my report card today and believe it or not, I'm a little excited. I have a feeling my marks are going to be gorgeous. If they are, I might have to treat myself to a new shirt when I get paid or something. When I was younger my mom used to give me money for having good marks; I know that she can't exactly do that for me now, so I'm going to do it for myself kind of. Other than that, I'm saving every pay cheque between now and Christmas.

Also, with good grades and a good school record, I could run for valedictorian. My dream. Might be something to consider at the least. Being in competitions like that makes me nervous because I feel like not many people would vote for me, but I could try just for the hell of it.

My mom informed me this morning that she got a part-time job at Peoples Jewlers. I know it's only part-time, but it's better than nothing, so I am pleased about that. University applications are soon, I'm a little scared to be honest. Scared to ask my mom for 135$ to apply, that is.

Anyway, needless to say, I'm extremely eager for payday to come. It will feel nice to have more than 1.55$ in my bank account.

Long Distance Relationships= Financial Sacrifice

If there's one thing that really bothers me, it's being in someones debt. I hate borrowing money, or borrowing anything I can be held liable for in general. This is why I will never own a credit card. It weighs on my conscience too much.

However, with that being said; this weekend was a small exception. I wanted to go to Montreal to visit Greg, even though I just saw him last weekend, I figured I may as well go. I mean, seeing each other once a week is still kind of futile. But anyways, I decided to take the train because my mother deems is safer than the bus. Safer, and twice the price. I got my step-dad to buy my ticket for me and told him I would pay him back as soon as possible. I knew he would want most of his money back as soon as I returned from my trip, but there's no way I could find 100$ that quickly. Turns out I don't get my first pay cheque for another two weeks which is mildly depressing, but at least I'll be getting a lot of money on it.

I ended up getting family friend which I gave to my step dad right after he bought me the ticket, but clearly I still owe him.

I left Montreal really early this morning. Like, 6 hours earlier than I usually leave. So technically I paid more money for a shorter trip. But my step dad insisted I get back into Ottawa before 1PM so that he could pick me up at the train station on his way home from work. Lazy.

I couldn't ask my boyfriend for money either because to my surprise he barely had any. We used what he did have to go out for dinner at Baton Rouge, which was lovely. We had nice, deep conversation at the table.

In other news, my mom may have a job soon. She's  been getting a lot of interviews lately so we might be on to something. Which would be fantastic because I'm very excited for us to get our own apartment. For me it would only be for a short amount of time since I'm moving to Montreal most-likely for university. But for the time being, it would be nice.

Watch it!

Today I finished my second shift working at Watch it! It's really nice so far. My manager is 10x better than my old one, and the people I work with are so helpful. This other girl just got hired too and she seems like a really nice girl. At least I'm not the only new person, makes me feel a bit better. I sold my first watch today, I'm actually proud.

When I got home I decided I should start a load of laundry since I'm packing to go to Montreal for tomorrow. I know my boyfriend just came to visit me last weekend, and he's coming next weekend to go to the Justin Bieber concert with me, but I figured why not. I love seeing him, so I may as well take the opportunities that I can before December hits. I'm going to be extremely busy that month, probably working everyday over the holidays. Even though I'm still broke, I'm already thinking about what to get people for Christmas. I don't know why, but buying gifts for people makes me really happy. As much as I hate spending money (especially on other people), I get this warm fuzzy feeling when I get to give someone a gift.

As far as my mother knows, I'm taking the train for the first time by myself tomorrow. Which is not entirely true because once before I did, but I told her I was getting a ride with someone. She's very overprotective and always insists that I bring a friend. I think that's totally unreasonable because first of all, I'm seventeen years old. I'm not a baby anymore, I'm quite capable of getting on and off a train. Second of all, it's kind of a bit much to ask someone to spend 100$ to come with me to Montreal so that I can visit my boyfriend, nobody would be up for that. Plus I enjoy spending alone time with him.

Anyways, I'm just super excited that I get to spend another weekend with him. He makes me the happiest kid, ever. A lot of people are like "wow, you're in a long-distance realtionship, that must be hard!" I admit sometimes, yes it is. But not to the extent that people think necessarily. There are good things about being in one.

Number one: I get my personal space.
Since I see him once a week or once every two weeks, I really get to focus more on school and keeping my grades up. I don't spend all my time with my boyfriend, I learn to be independant.

Number two: I don't need to worry about looking nice since I don't see him all the time. I can go to school looking like a bum, and he won't care because he won't see.

Number three: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. (Enough said)

Number four: You really get to know each other on a deeper level, and not just necessarily on a physical level because your relationship is solely based on communication. Constantly texting, skyping, calling, emailing, facebooking, you really get to know that persons personality thoroughly.

I have way too much time on my hands.  

Money Goes Fast

This may have been one of the best weekends of my life. I actually had such a fun time. My boyfriend came to visit me from MTL and it was lovely. We spent a solid amount of quality bonding time together; getting lost downtown for hours, going on dinner and lunch dates, watching tv, going for drives, all that cute stuff. I was really sad when he left, I wanted to cry a little... But I put on a brave face cause I know I'm going to see him in two weeks probably.

When we got lost downtown, my initial mission was to go to this place called "The Gold Lobby" which is essentially a place where you bring in gold that you don't use, and sell it for cash. My mom did that a few weeks ago and she got quite a bit of extra money. The only gold I had was the gold that my great gradmother left for me when she past away. It was nice and all, but I never wore it, it just sat in my jewlery box 24/7. I felt bad selling it, but I needed the money. I have to admit, I feel extremely guilty deep down but in a way I don't think my grandmother would've cared, I'm sure she would have wanted me to have the money instead to buy myself something nice. Or maybe that's just me justifying it. Either way, if my mom found out what I did, she would slap me (exaggeration)

Anyways, I got $220

Made me happy. (Please note the use of past tense)

All the money is gone.

Boyfriends are expensive, and so am I.