I have taken a look at my credit card and its $3800.00. My goal is to get it back to $0 by the end of the year. So I will have to put $1000.00 towards it. Then I will tack my student loan which is currently $8400.00. I want to pay that off by May 2010. I will pay the minimum until December after which I will pay $1000.00 per month. Then I will take some of my savings to pay the remaining balance.
Today I paid the electrical bill: $63.94. I am trying to keep the bill around $60.00 or lower but my roommates seem to not care about saving electricity. 
Also in my last post I mentioned that I was making a reading list. It is suppose to help me learn to commit to task but it is also helping to enjoy one of my favorite free activities. I use to be passionate about reading and for a few years now I havent been into it. I want to get back into it because it will give me something to do that doesnt involve spending money since I am trying to save and pay my biggest bills.
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Well I finished my first book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte! If you dont know or dont remember the story and youre interested, here is a link to a synopsis: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/summary.html
Thoughts on the book:
Catherine Earnshaw knowingly set aside her feelings for someone she loved to pursue a more profitable (both in reputation and finances) future. Given that I did not grow up with money at my disposal I can understand why Catherine can make the decision to be with someone who isnt her true love.
Catherine Linton and Ellen Dean (nursemaid/housekeeper) angered me because they seemed so weak and foolish at times. I wished they acted with as much anger as I felt while reading the book. I really get into a good book ...I was yelling at the book when my roomate just shook her head and laughed at me. (haha)
I felt sorry for Hareton Earnshaw because he was a young Healthcliff in the sense that he began life at a disadvantage.
And now the best for last...Healthcliff, the villain; I felt the expected rollercoaster of emotions for this character. I was sorry for young Healthcliff because of his mistreatment as an adopted child. I hated the adult Healthcliff because he sought revenge for all who wronged him and hurt many people in the process but finally I was curious. I wish Emily Bronte wrote an entire novel about Healthcliff. I am intrigued by history of characters like Healthcliff because I dont believe that people do psychotic things just because. There's always some reason and usually it’s because of an event in their lives. I still have so many questions like where was he born and where did he come from? This information seems more pertinent at the end of his life when Ellen Dean describes his erratic behavior and facial contortions as that of a demon or imp. I will always wonder who is his family and what happened to him to make him react towards people in such harsh and cruel ways. Also how can someone so hateful love a woman with so much passion and devotion?
I really enjoyed the book and can see why it is a classic. 
Action Plan (in the making) and Wuthering Heights
August 12th, 2009 at 08:43 pm
August 13th, 2009 at 12:13 am 1250122388
My 2 cents on Heathcliff...
Society in England back then was very stratified.... you have peasant, the working class, the landed class, nobility, royalty etc....
I suspect Heathcliff was from the lower classes... the fact that he was an abandoned orphan would suggest this.... or at least his MOTHER was from lower classes... his father may well have come from a high social rank... but,of course, many wealthy men did not recognise illegimate off-spring back then (mistresses, prostitutes etc..)
Anyway you maybe have to imagine Heathcliff roamed free as a bird as a kid - a very animalistic existence.
Then he is brought into a "civil" family. Catherine and he falls head over heels in love. Catherine chooses security over love - as women did back then - women couldn't even vote - this is not Sex and the City society !!
Heathcliff storms off and tries to enter that world that Catherine has married into - the world of money and security. I'm sure he was hoping that she would leave Linton and live with him - because he would then be "rich"... or maybe he wanted to punish her by saying "hey, you thought marriage to me woud be degrading... now look at me !!".
Anyway.. Heathcliff then became trapped in a world of high status (money) but at the same time he lacked the skills of the that high status (upbringing, manners and civility) - so that is a conflict there... and of course when his true love is married to another... there was no "stiff upper lip", there was rage, anger and revenge - like a wild wolf who has just seen her baby wolf (cub/pup ????) been dragged away by a big bear.... At the bottom of all his hatred and anger was a realisation he and Catherine were so in love that they were effectively one person....
And as I say, such outrageously volcanically powerful love in such an unmannered man was twisted into bitterness by Catherine's desertion to Linton and "society" and the result is one of the greatest love stories ever told.
Just my 2 cents.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:14 am 1250122450
Good Luck !
August 13th, 2009 at 12:44 am 1250124246
ok... I'll stop now.... just so fascinating...
August 13th, 2009 at 04:27 am 1250137639
The Bronte sisters were interesting bunch for sure.
August 13th, 2009 at 05:39 pm 1250185179