I love March! March is the best month of the year...better than Christmas, better than New Years. March Madness is here! It's Championship Week, and Selection Sunday is this weekend.
Louisville is playing Marquette right now, and we are up 66-48. If we hold on to this lead, we will play Notre Dame in the Semifinals of the Big East Tournament. I really hope we can do it because I want a rematch with Notre Dame. We should have won the first meeting earlier this year! It went to overtime, and we completely broke down. The first game today in the Big East tournament showed what March Madness is all about! Game winning shot by Kemba Walker for UCONN. It was basically a perfect final possession.
I've been waiting all year for March Madness! It should be another great tournament! I'm ready for the upsets (except for Louisville - they should have a good run!).
Is it just me, or are the American Idol contestants SO much better this year than EVER before?? It is amazing performance after amazing performance every time!! Not one person has messed up yet... Here are my reviews of each contestant from tonight:
Lauren Alaina: She has been one of my favorites from the beginning. I agree with Jennifer Lopez that she doesn't have to work at all to sing well...she is amazing every time. Tonight, she probably could have chosen a different song and done a better job just because Any Man of Mine is a pretty tough song. That being said, WOW! She still hit it, I thought!
Casey: Wow. He seems to hit it every time. Loved his choice of songs the past few weeks and I enjoy seeing him every week.
Pia: LOVE her! Her voice is pure magic. The past two performances have been absolutely amazing. She may be one of my new favorites.
James Durbin: I also love him! It's amazing that he can go from singing these ridiculously high notes to singing Paul McCartney. He slammed it tonight!
Ashthon: I like her, but she isn't one of my favorites. I thought she did a pretty good job tonight.
Haley: I like her, too. I like how she can go from Alicia Keys to LeAnn Rimes.
Thia Megia: Not one of my favorites...never has been, but she has a beautiful voice.
Paul: He has a really unique voice. I wasn't a huge fan of the song because I didn't really know it, but I thought he sounded good.
Jacob Lusk: LOVE this man's voice. It is so unique and so good. He had his breakout performance in Hollywood week and has not looked back since!
Stephano: I like him...again not one of my favorites. But I do enjoy listening to him.
Karen: I've always liked her voice, but I wasn't a huge fan of the song choice tonight.
Scotty: I LOVE this guy! Country music makes me SO happy, and I love that three of the 13 idols left chose country songs. I love Garth Brooks, and I think Scotty did a great job! I'm glad he has branched off from Josh Turner!!
Naima: I cannot decide what I thought about her performance. It was very different. I like that the performance was different from others. I liked the rapping and the dancing. Not one of my favorites, but unique.
In conclusion, I love Scotty, Casey, Lauren, James, Jacob, and Pia! My six favorites!! I honestly really like all the finalists, but I had to choose a few!
I thought it would be fun to put together a travel bucket list. I am making two lists. One list will include places I have never been, and the other list will include places I want to go back.
Places I have not been
Ireland
France
Italy
Spain
Fiji
Bali
Tahiti
Southern Caribbean Cruise (Curacao, Aruba, etc)
Australia
Bora Bora
Niagara Falls
Places I have been to, but want to revisit!
Hawai'i
London
Quebec
Montreal
Switzerland
Scotland
Sanibel Island
San Diego
Hilton Head
Alaska
Of course, all of these places will have to be put on hold until all my debt is gone!! 2013 is the year!! :)
57 days until my last final exam EVER!! 11 days until my birthday!!
I have been listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio and Suze Orman on television when Monica watches her show. They are both professionals in the finance world, and they provide, for the most part, sound financial advice to those that need it. I like to think that I'm not like some of those people that call in with thousands upon thousands of credit card debt, their home is in a state of foreclosure, or they have reduced incomes and their extravagant lifestyle is draining all of their funds. I would say I am pretty good with saving my money and only spending it on the essentials. So here is my future financial plan. I have created a budget starting this month. I am also using the envelope system with groceries. For those that don't know about the envelope system, it is where you take cash for that month and put it towards something. In my case, I am using it for groceries. I take $115 per month and stick that money in an envelope. When I go to the grocery, I ONLY use that money designated for groceries at the store. Once that money is gone, then it is gone for the month. Therefore, it encourages and incentivizes you to spend your money wisely!
Onto my own debt... student loans! Once my subsidized student loans are dispersed for the next school year, I will have a total of approximately $56,000 in student loan debt. UGH! About $24,000 of that are unsubsidized loans, which means they are currently accruing interest. My plan is to start paying those off now. Actually, I just started that yesterday. I have applied $1,000 to one of my loans so far. I have over $3,000 more that I am going to put towards my loans in the next couple of weeks. Then, HOPEFULLY each month up until June, I will have some extra money "left over" after paying for food, gas, rent, utilities, etc. The money I have left over, I am putting towards my loans! In June, I start my residency, and ALL of my "extra" money after paying the essentials is going towards my debt. I am hoping to pay at least $1,000 per month. My goal is to pay more than that.
MY ULTIMATE GOAL is to have ALL my loans paid off by mid-2013!!! That gives me 2 years...and I'm also banking on having an increase in income next year after my residency to make it easier to pay them off! Long blog post...but fun!
