Story Corps

This past Saturday I went to Atlanta with 

my husband & two friends.

We did a recording for Story Corps on our Asian Heritage,

and the audio file will be preserved at the 
American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

It was SUCH an amazing opportunity!
StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind!

We discussed growing up Asian- home life, 

friends, education, dating, traditions, stereotypes, etc.

It took about 40 minutes at the Atlanta History Center.

I recommend checking out their website and

listening to some of the various stories.

You might find they are recording 

in your area as well. 

If so- I definitely recommend participating! 

By the way- in case you haven't noticed...
I am changing my blog name from 
Lawton Lane to A Whimsical Existence!
I felt Lawton Lane was boring and my new blog name
describes me and my life perfectly.

So please be sure to update your bookmarks to
awhimsicalexistence.blogspot.com!

Thank God for closed doors!

Does it sound crazy to hear someone say "Thank God for closed doors?"

I thought so the first time I heard it.

The other day, Actor/Producer Tyler Perry posted a blog about thanking 

God for closed doors.

He was thankful that certain doors that he thought he wanted opened, weren't.

The message I got from that is that sometimes what you THINK you want, is something God doesn't want for you. He may have something else in store for you.

This post gave me a push that I needed for so long.

I have worked for the same company, in the same position for

the last 9.5 years. I have applied for several positions and even went on a 

few interviews. I was passed over for every single position.

It didn't matter that I have 3 college degrees & almost 10 years of experience.

When you're competing against 4000 other people in your 

company and the person who gets picked is either a sorority sister or friend of the hiring

manager, you're screwed.

So last year we started saving money. 

The  purpose was actually to travel to Paris this September but

we decided to do something different.

After almost 10 years with the same job, and lots of closed doors,

I've decided to quit.

I am going to pursue working independently and continue to 

do my wedding photography as well as a jewelry website I am working on.

The biggest change is that I'm going to start selling insurance.

I will be an independent agent for the same company I've been with for 

the last 9.5 years and right now I will only be selling in GA.

It's going to be hard not having a regular paycheck but we've worked

out our finances and the savings we had for Europe will now be used to cover 

our living expenses for the first 7 months ~ just in case!

We also lowered some of our expenses to help with the transition.

Switched cable providers which will save us $75 a month.

Traded in my beloved coupe & got a new suv which actually lowered

our car payments by $100 a month and our insurance by $10 a month.

I LOVED my coupe!

I really hated to get rid of it. :(

My new ride.

The color is  black amethyst.

It came with a lot of great features like a 

bose sound system, navigation, rear view cam, etc.

 I also went ahead and scheduled all my doctor's appointments and dental appointments 

since my insurance will be cancelled once I quit. My dental appt is expected to cost $400 so that means I can't quit as soon as I'd like (part 2 of a root canal).

Bottom line:

In my work life I have been miserable for 9.5 years.

Corporate America is not for everyone- and definitely not for me.

I am thankful for the opportunities, the friendships, and the money of course.

However I can't continue to live this way for a pay check.

I am grateful we were able to save so much money to cover ourselves financially during this new journey for my new career in sales.

And I am SO looking forward to this change!

Paid in Full!

We made our last payment on the hubby's truck this week! I can't tell you how relieved I am to be done with that car payment. Now we have 4 more years to go on mine, booooo!

We also finally paid off our cruise to Hawaii!

 I am so excited!

We booked a luau already too for our visit to Kauai.

We decided on the Smith's Family Garden Luau. 

I read some good reviews so I hope it's as good as

 everyone says it is. 

 I'm trying to find things for us to do on each island, but everything is so expensive in Hawaii.

I expected it to be high, but good lawd, it's reeeally high.

 We've looked at helicopter rides, tubing, horse back riding, massages, golf, volcano tours, etc.

There is so much we want to do, especially since Hawaii is not an everyday or even an every year vacation. It may be the only time we go so we're prepared to spend some serious dough so we can get it all in. We may have to forgo food for a few months! I kid, I kid! (No seriously, we may have to!) lol!

Anywho, I promise to get better at taking more personal pics and sharing things. 

I used to be so good at this, but I swear once you do it for a living, you learn how to put the camera down. Which is terrible because I've missed a lot of good memories.

Oh and I am aware that my blog is super jacked up. 

I tried to change the template and it's all screwy. 

You may see various changes in the next few days.

Ciao!

Vote for Candis!

My friend's daughter is in a PROMathon & needs some votes!

And I am mean...she is in some serious need of some votes.

Candis is new to the school, was just told she'd be graduation in a few months, so they have not had much time to save for prom & graduation. Her mom, one of my best friends, was diagnosed with a rare cancer a few years ago so she hasn't been able to work. So money is tight!

Any help would be appreciated!

Please click HERE  to read more about the PROMathon 

& to vote for Candis!!

Please tweet "@MashChicago I vote for #Candis as the 2012 PROMathon Queen!"

Thank you & Have a Great Weekend!