Sunday, January 5, 2025
The Prompt: What are your top three financial goals for this year?
Well, I''m not the one making the money but I do get a voice in it, so:
1) Move! To a better, safer mobile home community. This place has too much drugs and fighting, and the cops are here at least twice a week. We''ve got our eye on a place that''s $120 more a month than we''re paying for this nightmare carnival ride.
2) A "new-to-us" car. The one Mom drives to work should have been put out of our misery over a year ago. It costs more to maintain than it''s worth, now. But I think we shouldn''t get a car yet. The new place is on the bus line, the bus goes everywhere, and when the bus isn''t running we can call a ride share if we absolutely have to. That''ll save money for…
3) Nursing school. Mom''s saving most of the money she makes so she can go to nursing school without taking out loans. I don''t think she really wants to be a nurse, the pay is better than anything she''s ever seen.
Mom and I fixed the faucet handles in the bathtub. It cost $20 and took ten minutes. Makes me wonder what the maintenance guy was talking about when he said it would be an expensive fix and he didn''t have time.
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Monday, January 6, 2025
The Prompt: How can I improve my daily habits?
Easily. I don''t have any — at least not any that are deliberate — so just starting a habit is an improvement. There are all kinds of habit tracker apps or I could just make a note in my daily entry. I should probably start with cleaning the kitchen every night.
I just got suspended from school for the first time in my life. To be brief: four guys from the basketball team were harassing me in the hallway. They do this all the time and I ignore them because that''s what I''ve always been told to do. Except this time Noah Adams grabbed my arm, turned me to face them, and shoved me against the lockers hard enough it hurt.
And I punched him in the eye.
His friends thought it was hilarious but still scattered like chickens when the principal, Mr. Thomas, came to see what was going on. Noah went to the nurse''s office I had to go to the principal''s office and wait for Mom. That was the part I was afraid of. Mom is terrified of male authority figures. She managed to sit through Mr. Thomas'' spiel about ''violence only begets more violence'' and saved her panic attack for when we got to the car.
To add to my seething kettle of anger, Noah only has to do Saturday detention.
Days cleaning the kitchen: 1
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Tuesday, January 8, 2025
Suspension Day 1
The Prompt: What is one thing you could do today to help you achieve your goals?
Um, figure out what my goals are. Besides surviving high school. Honestly I''ve barely thought about it. Life is just one crisis at a time and all I can really handle. I know more about what I don''t want than what I do.
When Mom dropped me off after I was suspended I Googled ''how to deal with bullies''. The advice on the internet boiled down to ''ignore them'' and ''tell an adult''. Like that''s ever worked. I got so frustrated I was about to yeet my phone. Fortunately I didn''t because we can''t afford to get me another one right now.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
One of the answers was funny though. It was a spell. I clicked the link and read it just for fun. It reminded me of that scene in Lilo and Stitch where Lilo had put effigies of her friends in a pickle jar and was shaking it because her friends needed to be punished. The actual spell was a little more complex than that, but it called for things we already had around the house. So I did it.
It was cathartic. I put all my anger and frustration into shaking the hell out of that jar and repeating the words. When it was done I felt better. Silly, but better.
Days cleaning the kitchen: 2
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Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Suspension Day 2
The Prompt: What skills do you wish you had?
I don''t know. I can learn anything I want to — for free, in a lot of cases. Thanks be to the Internet!
So, what kind of skills do I want to learn?
One that''s free or cheap; one that I won''t have to go to college for; one that lets me work from where ever; one I can use to start getting paid the moment I turn eighteen; one that will get me a job that pays enough for me to live off of.
I think I''m talking about coding. If I learn to code I can do a lot of things with it.
I''m still doing the spell on Noah, for funsies. The first day was to make him quit hassling me. Today is to punish him, at least more than Saturday detention. I''m so mad he got off with that because he''s a basketball player, I want to hit him again! So that energy is going into shaking the damn jar.
The odds of this spell actually doing anything are microscopic, but it sure is a fun way for me to vent frustration!
Days cleaning the kitchen: 3
Days studying coding: 1
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Thursday, January 10, 2025
Suspension Day 3
The Prompt: What does success look like to me?
I''m starting to get a vision of that. To me, success would look like living on my own terms and not worrying about money. I want that for me and Mom.
I plan to achieve this by getting the best grades I can in high school even though I''m not planning to go to college. Plans change and I want to keep that door open. Somehow while I deal with high school and homework, I''m going to teach myself to code until I''m very, very good at it. That''s going to be an intense juggling act but nothing like the one Mom does every day.
I''m trying to talk Mom into holding off on the car. She says she''ll think it through but she wants to have the option to go anywhere we need to go without relying on someone else. I see where my independent streak comes from! And I agree, I just want to move things along and get out of this rusty hellpit.
Day three of working on the spell. Today is about Noah having a genuine attitude adjustment, if he''s got it in him.
Days cleaning the kitchen: 4
Days studying coding: 2
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Friday, December 10, 2025
Suspension Day 4
The Prompt: What do I need more of in my life?
Peace! For goodness sake, everything in my life is so damn stressful! I probably have anxiety. Scratch that, I definitely have anxiety, I just haven''t been diagnosed by a doctor. And I cringe to think about Mom''s psychological issues.
''How to get peace'' is going to be another project.
I''m looking into ''coding 101'' type online classes. Once I get an overview of what it''s going to take to learn to code I''ll work out my study schedule around my high school homework.
The spell on Noah is done. The instructions say to put the jar in a sunny window until I see that it worked, then release him by dumping out the contents of the jar somewhere away from where I live, dry out the picture, and burn it. I''m not a pyro, but setting something on fire sounds fun.
Days cleaning the kitchen: 5
Days studying coding: 3
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Saturday, January 11, 2025
The Prompt: 3 short-term personal goals
1) Finish my homework on time and get a B or higher on all my tests.
2) Talk Mom into moving. I like this place less and less every day.
3) Be on track learning to code — whatever that''s going to entail.
I''m looking into how to find peace, as cheesy as that sounds. There''s not a lot I can do about what''s going on in my life, but I can work on how I handle it. So I guess I''ll be trying things like yoga and meditation. Oh, and journal prompts for inner peace since I''m already journaling anyway.
I''ve cleaned the kitchen five days in a row. I get a hit of dopamine every morning when I get my bowl of cereal and sit at the table I wiped down the night before.
Of course, maintaining it when I go back to school is another matter.
I''ve figured out that I should start learning to code with html. The problem is that there are so many apps, online classes, tutorials, and advice posts that I have no idea which to do. I haven''t even started coding and I''m already about to tear my hair out.
Noah gets to join the Breakfast Club today. Or the Deadfast Club. Whichever.
Days cleaning the kitchen: 6
Days learning to code: 4