9 Steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach I wish they would begin teaching personal finance in high school. I really needed to learn this life lesson earlier on. Reading these books helped me get out of credit card and student loan … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Celebrity Skin – Hole
My doctor wanted me to start tracking my blood pressure every day. He asked me to run it in the morning and again at night. I started keeping a daily log. One evening, something felt off. It had been a stressful few months. I shook it off. Stress was a normal part of my life. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Unwell – Matchbox Twenty
Waking up before dawn and enjoying coffee in the quiet stillness of the early morning. I’ve had 55 years of constant motion. Some good, some bad. Some fast, others slow. It’s nice to put everything on pause and awake to a peaceful morning. In my adult life, there have been spans where these were few … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Peaceful Easy Feeling – The Eagles
I have a hard time unplugging. It’s the workaholic in me. But I’ve been learning to, gradually, sometimes not by choice. After my brain surgery, I still planned on checking emails during recovery. I didn’t want to get too far behind on projects and I wanted to stay in the loop. When I went on … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Take On Me – A-Ha
One of our first hikes was Half Dome in Yosemite. It’s about a 17 mile round trip hike. The climb to the top of the dome brings the most amazing views. It’s breathtaking. This was one of our rookie hikes. It was longer than we anticipated and we were not well prepared. We ran out … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: My Best Friend’s Girl – The Cars
I worked a bunch of different jobs during college. During my college years, I worked full time during my summers to save up a little bank roll for the school year. I also had a part time job on campus working 10 to 20 hours per week in between classes. It wasn’t too bad. The … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: American Music – Violent Femmes
Our family church was Presbyterian. Although it was a church my great grandparents and grandparents attended, we didn’t go every weekend. My parents were busy shuttling four kids to and from sporting events. When I was neck deep in career, I sometimes felt a void and would randomly attend a service. Usually it was a … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Blasphemous Rumors – Depeche Mode
I listened to a lot of music in high school and college. This was before the internet, so the only way to consume music was through the radio or buying CDs or albums. I used to love obscure cover versions. I would search for compilation discs or rare bootlegs. Both were not easy to find. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Emmylou – First Aid Kit
I’m good at being the voice of reason. Typically I can cut through the crazy and chart a reasonable path. I’ve learned sometimes it’s difficult to see the forest between the trees, especially when you are knee deep. I’m not immune to crazy. When standing in the middle of insanity, I try not to get … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Good – Better Than Ezra
I used to drive a 10 year old Honda in college. I remember seeing other kids driving around in their brand new convertible BMWs and I thought, Man, one day… that’s when I’ve made it. Weird fact. In college, I wanted to buy cheese, but it just seemed too expensive for my college budget. Sure, … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: The Beatles and the Stones – House of Love
Odd. Not just the strange phrasing of the question, but also the idea it’s asking. I don’t know how to answer this one. Usually at the very least, I can dance around the topic and write something remotely close to the prompt. This one? It’s just too weird, I’m out. Maybe if I close my … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: We Close Our Eyes – Oingo Boingo
I don’t know why I held on to my CDs. I don’t even have a CD player anymore to listen to them. I boxed them up and had them in storage over fifteen years ago and only picked them up recently because of this blog. The other day I was going through my CDs and … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
I was having difficulty with this prompt until I remembered a line from Musings From a Tangled Mind. Why is it that my brain can remember every embarrassing thing I’ve ever done… This was a fragment of a longer statement, but it made me stop to say, Yeah, that’s me, too. I’ve got a complete … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Shine – Collective Soul
I recently watched a Netflix movie. It was one of those hour and a half, made for streaming films that you don’t take too seriously and doesn’t sap an entire evening. The story included a woman with cancer throwing a living memorial so that she could say goodbye to her friends and family before she … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: I Wanna Dance With Somebody – Morgan Harper Jones
Let’s be honest. Southern Californians are wimps when it comes to cold weather. If it dips in the 60’s, we feel an ice age might be coming around the corner. To us, that’s cold. In the 50’s, that’s damn cold and a sign that the end of the world is near. But you can’t blame … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Walk Out To Winter – Aztec Camera
I don’t. I mean, it’s not like I don’t try. And in my defense, I have gotten better. But I do get consumed with work. It’s a little bit of a catch-22, though. This imbalance has helped propel my career, but it seems at a cost. Unfortunately, the reward for success is more stress and … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Superman (It Ain’t Easy) – Five For Fighting
There are a few places I hover when I go grocery shopping. The most painful place is the pastry section. When I say hover, I mean I literally stand there and stare at pastries and donuts. I’ll pick a box up, look at the nutritional content hoping it has magically changed to being healthy. Sometimes … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: My Sacrifice – Creed
My wife likes jewelry, but isn’t obsessed with it. She doesn’t overdo it and wears enough to complete her outfit. She is happy when she unwraps a gift and sees a robin’s egg blue box. I didn’t even know that was even a color name until I looked it up just now. You learn something … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Blue Monday – New Order
One of the worst experiences I ever had was having to let someone go. She was almost sixty years old, had been with the company for 20 years and just bought a new house. I’d spent countless hours providing personal training to get her up to speed but she was lacking the right skills to … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: A Symptom of Being Human – Shinedown
I used to like eating pineapple, but it was such a pain to cut up and serve. I didn’t really know how to cut it cleanly. There would always be too many hard pokey nubs left over that were never fun to chew. If I tried cleaning them up, I always felt like I was … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Strobe Light – The B52’s
I was standing in our shower and noticed it needed new caulking where the wall met the floor. Now if you’ve been a reader of this blog for awhile, you already know I’m not handy at all. In fact, I’m the exact opposite of handy. I am an unhandyman, if there is such a thing. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: One Step Forward and Three Steps Back – dodie
I have a good friend from college that I’ve known for over 30 years. Typically with friendships that last that long, you tend to rub off on one another. The one thing that I appreciate about him is his get shit done attitude. He doesn’t complain, bitch or moan. Despite the task, he rolls up … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Waiting On A Friend – The Rolling Stones
I’m fortunate to live in a diverse area. I’m surrounded by all walks of life. So much so, I don’t think twice about it. It’s my everyday norm. Yeah, we have our share of oddballs out here in LA. There’s some truth to the nickname Hollyweird. Everywhere has their own fringe population. Maybe ours is … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: One Love – Bob Marley
I was skeptical of Michelle Obama at first. Maybe because she was guilty by association. I didn’t know much about her at the time, I admit. I must have had been my political blinders on. I did like her Let’s Move campaign. Childhood obesity is a really big problem. Although obesity rates haven’t decline as … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Sing Our Own Song – UB40
When I was in school, they brainwashed me to be hard core about career. It was a non-stop push to climb the corporate ladder. In hindsight, it felt a little cultish and extreme. When my company was recruiting interns, of course I was happy we had a number from my alma mater over the years. … Continue reading My Gen X Playlist: Monsters and Angels – Voice of the Beehive
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