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Apr 17 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Cold Front on the Job Front

Young woman and man dancing in the rain under umbrella

Spring has officially sprung, ladies (and Kates)! The sun is shining, when the rain’s not falling, and the flowers are starting to bloom. It’s time to deep clean your house and purge all that winter clutter. It’s also time for me to re-double my job-hunting efforts. It’s hard to believe that this time last year I was hunting for jobs, and even posting about my failure to acquire said jobs, and here I am again. Still at square 1. Still secretary-ing my heart out in the daytime hours, and hunting for gainful employment more geared to my degree (and personal aspirations) by night.

This is what my never-ending job hunt feels like

This is what my never-ending job hunt feels like

In the last two weeks I’ve been recovering from my dasterdly bowling injury, and I’ve also been assisting on a contract project (thanks to a hook up from my best friend) for a prominent PR firm in Chicago that might generate some job leads for me.  Fingers crossed, of course. I’ve also spent some time tidying up my LinkedIn profile, adding content to my online portfolio, and trying to expand my professional wardrobe with a few cute professional dresses–all in time for Spring. I’ve even been channeling huge amounts of time and energy into my personal blog with the hopes that some company, somewhere, will stumble across it and become wholly twitterpated with my writing style. (I often day dream about some benevolent, old lady-millionaire discovering my blog and deciding that I deserve a 1 million dollar donation–because that’s totally plausible, right?)

Despite all my work, the forecast on the job front is still quite frosty.

Continue reading →

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Apr 03 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: When Life Gives You the Boot

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By: Kaitlin Marie

Well, guys. This last week and half has really been a bitch. I’m not usually one to complain about flashy footware, but this boot isn’t really up my alley.

So, what happened?

Y’know, I’m not entirely sure. I ran 3 miles after a 2 month running hiatus. I didn’t feel any ankle pain, but sometimes my body has a bit of a delayed reaction time. A few days after my run, I went bowling and I felt my ankle twinge a bit. The next day it was quite sore, and that soreness continued for a few days. Then I had the bright idea to go to yoga and really put a lot of stress on my ankle (because that ALWAYS works, right?).  The pain I felt after my yoga class sent me limping over to my dad, who is a Podiatrist (foot and ankle specialist), and he gave me the boot to wear for at least the following week.

Boo :(

Things that are awesome about the boot:

  • Not feeling guilty when you take the closest parking spots (but not the handicapped one–I’m not that much of an asshole)
  • People going super out of their way to hold doors for me
  • The nice dude at the grocery store who put my cart away for me
  • The oddly pitying looks people have given me while I hobble around in public (I promise, folks, I WILL WALK AGAIN!)
  • The fact that I have to wear a high heeled shoe to balance out the height difference of the boot
  • The hilarious worker at Michael’s that told me I was “working my boot look” because of the high heel I wore with it
  • The fact that I told the gossipy people at work that I injured myself by kicking Chuck Norris in the face

Things that suck about the boot:

  • It’s cumbersome as hell
  • My cat seems to be terrified of it, especially if the velcro straps are undone
  • Walking in it has bruised my shin
  • It makes me walk like Frankenstein
  • Wearing it while driving is EXTREMELY difficult (You’re either stopping or accelerating. There’s not much in between)
  • I can’t run, obviously, which makes me very sad
  • After a long day of walking around in it, my left knee is so sore
  • The weird dudes that tried to use the boot as a conversation starter in order to hit on me while I was walking around downtown

Thankfully, today is the first day I’m feeling well enough to walk around without the dang boot! This is me today:

ankle

 

I’m obviously starting up some serious fashion trends with all this fancy footware. I’ve never broken a bone before or experienced an injury that required anything more than a simple brace (like the one I’m wearing above), so wearing the boot for a week was a very interesting and frustrating experience. I can’t imagine having a cast or having to wear the boot for more than a month.

Ultimately, I feel lucky that I didn’t cause myself a more serious injury, although it’s embarassing to say that I hurt myself bowling. (BOWL SAFE, GUYS! BOWLING AWARENESS IS KEY).

Hopefully I’ll be back to walking and running and yoga-ing quite soon.

My CompliKAITed Life is a column by Kaitlin Marie running on Kate-book.com every other Wednesday at noon. You can read all about Kaitlin’s Zombie Apocalypse plans on her blog Zombies4breakfast.com. Oh, and follow her on Twitter here or on Pinterest here. She pins obsessively.

 

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Mar 20 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Budgeting Like a Badass

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By: Kaitlin Marie

If you’ve read my blog a few times, you might know that I work as a secretary. Not a corporate secretary or an executive assistant–nothing fancy like that. I’m just a plain, vanilla secretary (with an incendiary dash of peanutbutter cup tossed in, but that comes from my winning personality!).

As you might suspect, secretaries are not, on the whole, highly paid. I am fortunate in that I get an awesome, incredible benefits package from my job, and I also receive overtime pay. In any event, I thought I would put a breakdown on how I currently manage my finances, in case people were interested.

Things that are important in my personal budgeting manifesto:

  • I pay my credit card off in full EVERY MONTH. I have 0 credit card debt.
  • All of my monthly expenses (except rent) are paid automatically from my checking account
  • The small amount of money I put in savings each month is also taken out automatically
  • I actually pay $60 extra on my car loan each month, so I can have it paid down in 3 years, as opposed to 4
  • If you’re not 100% certain of an expense, always round UP
  • If you’re not 100% certain how much money you have, always round DOWN

Budget Breakdown

If I include my overtime pay, I make just shy of $2000 a month. However, for the sake of this budget plan (and any buget plan you might want to make) it’s best not to include overtime pay. I’m using my lowest pay stub from 2013, rounded down slightly. Just concentrate on the bare bones, and anything you have leftover at the end is yours to play with in whatever way you see fit.

My monthly take home pay (not including OT): 1750

Whenever you’re budgeting for anything, look first at your fixed expenses. These are the things that will be the same month after month, and will under no circumstances change in cost. I’ve rounded up on a few of them to make it simpler. Here are my fixed expenses:

budget_fixedincome

You might have noticed a few things on this list that are missing or extremely low. Continue reading →

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Mar 06 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Sick of Snow

snowshoveling

This was me yesterday

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m officially sick of snow. I’m over it. Done. And I’m currently writing this in the aftermath of the year’s biggest blizzard.

I’m not sure if Mother Nature missed the memo, but it’s March now! Bring on the rain showers, galoshes, and flowers please!

Now, most of the Kate Book ladies are New York gals, and I know they’ve experienced their fair share of storms and snow in the last 6 months. I, however, am a mid western girl, born and bred and accustomed to massive blizzards and towering snow drifts.  But after a year spent in and around tropical rainforests, I’m less inclined to enjoy the winter wonderland I’m currently living in.  I miss constant warmth and sun. (Although a friend in Costa Rica informed me that they’re also having a cold snap of epic proportions in San Jose. 68 degrees! Can you imagine!?)

The sad thing is that the last few winters in my area have been enviably mild, so much so that my belly-aching doesn’t even feel warranted. That hasn’t stopped me from being sick of the weather, though. Winter does nothing for my figure; icy roads keep me from running and chilly temperatures have me craving warm comfort foods. Heaps of steaming hot mac n cheese and warm cookies fresh from the oven, anyone?

I daydream of sunny afternoons when my boyfriend and I can ride our bikes downtown and I don’t have to mummify myself in scarves before I leave the house. Still, the winter has afforded me the opportunity to dream and scheme up myriad summer projects. (Think spray painting and decoupaging.) I’ve also had a chance to work on my strength training (occasionally). And after several months of being cooped up, Cabin Fever got the best of me and I signed up for a yoga class, which I’m totally LOVING! (Which also happened to be canceled because of the blizzard. Arg!)

Soon to come will be Spring Cleaning, sunshine, and an intensive half marathon training schedule. As soon as the ice on the roads melts. Until then, I’ll just have to settle for blogging, baking, and vegging out on the couch with a new series on Netflix.

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Feb 20 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: A Year in Review

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By Kaitlin Marie

This February has provided me with multiple milestones. On top of turning 25, February 1st marked the anniversary of my return home from Costa Rica, and today is my 1 year anniversary at my job. A lot can happen in a year, and a lot has happened to me. Failed job interviews, apartment-related hijinks, weight gain, moving out of my parents’ house, job frustration. I’ve documented a lot of my frustrations and misadventures here on Kate-Book, but one of the things I write about most is my job and the myriad disappointments and annoyances it has caused.

But I do really, truly want to say something: I don’t hate my job.

I work with some really wonderful people and the company I work for cares deeply about their employees. When I accepted this position, I honestly thought it would be a transition job and that I would be quitting to move on to something better in a matter of months. I had a lot of job angst, and I felt particularly over-qualified for my position (and I still do sometimes, and I probably am over-qualified. But that doesn’t mean this job is beneath me. I don’t believe there’s a job that exists that is “beneath me”)

It sounds strange, but this is the first job I’ve had where I worked full time for an entire year. I’ve had a number of part time jobs, summer jobs, and internships but I never worked a full year for any of them. And even in Costa Rica, I held 2 different positions, but only for about 6 months each. So like it or not, this job-iversary is a big deal for me.

In a way, it represents my continuing transition into adulthood. This is my “big kid job”. Continue reading →

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Feb 06 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: On the Weirdness of Turning 25

25So this Monday was my 25th birthday, and even though I’ve had a few days to mull it over, I still haven’t decided how I feel about the big 2-5. In the last month or two leading up to this birthday, I felt kind of nostalgic. 25 is the last milestone birthday of your YOUTH, and even though most people don’t consider 30 to be old, it’s still a profoundly ADULT age. 30 year olds are supposed to have careers and marriages and mortgages, right? At least in your twenties, your maturity and sense of accomplishment have some wiggle room. Space for mistakes. Time for growth. But my twenties are halfway over now, and I don’t see any mortgages in my near future.

Growing up is weird. I’ve always felt young because I WAS young, and even though in the back of my mind, I knew one day I’d be as old as my grandparents, it’s very hard to relate to that age. It seems so far away. But now suddenly I’m 25 and I’m sort of starting to notice that time never STOPS and the years will just keep coming and I’ll keep getting older. I’ve always known this, but I didn’t really realize it until recently. I guess I thought there would be a Pause button, but I haven’t found it yet.

Turning 25 is like accidentally missing the last stair step. It’s that mini-heart attack you have when you think you’re about to fall, but then you don’t.

When you’re in high school and college, the world sort of revolves around you–not just in your own mind, but in a societal sense as well. Our culture idolizes youth and puts it on a pedastal, and a huge chunk of advertising, movies, music, and television are all geared to that 16-22 year old age group. And once you grow out of that group, it’s almost as if you’ve been kicked out of a special club. You’ve lived through high school and college and experienced all of the good and bad times that go with that chapter of growing up. You’re ready to move on, but you can’t help but feel as if you’ve lost something.

I know I’m not the only twenty-something who feels a bit lost. The recent success of shows like HBO’s Girls and blogs like “Fuck! I’m in my Twenties” proves that this is a slippery time of life, and those of us experiencing it feel under-represented in the media.

growup

This quarter-century birthday has also been a bit of a reality check.  Continue reading →

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Jan 23 2013
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Apartment Therapy a la Pinterest

pinterest-main

By Kaitlin Marie

When you’re living the secretary lifestyle, you can’t decorate on a high-roller’s budget. I’ve always loved interior design, and I take pride in the way I represent my apartment–it’s my way of expressing myself. But when you’re low on funds, it’s tough to let your style shine through.

That’s when Pinterest comes in handy. If you’ve read the little bio underneath my other columns, you’d know I am OBSESSED with Pinterest. Unhealthily so. The home decor section is practically like porn for me. I literally drool over the massive kitchens, perfectly organized pantries, daintily decorated vanity tables. Unfortunately, the only way I’m going to get anything like that stuff is if I make it myself.

Still, a little inspiration goes a long way.  I was never a big do-it-yourselfer in the past. I wasn’t even that interested in crafts. But when you’re bound and determined to let your personal space shine, it’s amazing what you can create.

1. The “Hello” welcome mat

For starters, I fell in love with this “Hello” welcome mat. All I needed to to make something similar was yellow fabric, scissors, and a pencil. I freehand drew the lettering for my version below, and I took it in a different language direction, choosing “Hola” over “Hello.”

pinterest-rugs

Sorry for the terrible picture quality. I busted my camera recently, so I’ve been reduced to photographs taken via my crappy cell phone. The next piece of decoration is the one I’ve definitely used the most, and it’s also the biggest DIY I’ve attempted to date.

2. The pallet table

You can’t really see the plexiglass top on the table on the right, which is obviously my less polished representation.

pinterest-tables

Continue reading →

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Jan 02 2013
2 Comments
Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: My Uncles got MARRIED on New Years Eve!

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My original plan for this column was to write some pithy, tongue-in-cheek article about how no one really keeps New Year’s resoultions, blah blah blah, yaddah yaddah yaddah. (Besides, it’s already been done, and I have more fun stuff to write about!)  Instead of that, I’m going to write about my amazing Uncle Mike and his partner of 30 years, Cliff, who got married at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day.

My uncles met on my birthday, four years before I was born, on February 4th, 1984, and have been together ever since. They’re more committed than plenty of other couples I’ve met throughout my life, and they’ve always been incredibly loving and patient with each other.

Having never really experienced a Christmas season or important family gathering without them both, I can say that growing up with Mike and Cliff in my life isn’t something I ever really thought of as “different” or “exceptional” until I grew older and other people described it as such.  To me, they were like all of the other Aunt-Uncle combinations in my family.

For years, Mike and Cliff said they would never get married. Perhaps this was because it wasn’t really a possibility, and perhaps it was because both of them are highly successful professionals in their respective fields, and in the past gay marriage wasn’t as acceptable as it is today.  Whatever their reasons were, they (fortunately!) changed their minds this year when the state of Maryland voted to legalize gay marriage. They sent out their wedding invitations not long after the election ended. Continue reading →

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Dec 26 2012
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Working at Christmas Time

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Sometimes I wonder about our country’s state of mind and attitude towards work. The US of A is a great country and a free country, but I think we have a really twisted way of looking at work. Sure, the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” idea is fantastic, and there are a lot of people who are living proof that it’s possible. Still, what’s wrong with taking a break every once in awhile?

I say this because it’s December 26th and I’m at work. I was also at work on December 24th. In fact, last week I was pulling 9 hour days, waiting almost 7 hours for my lunch break, and then I worked half a day on Saturday the 22nd too. It totally sucks. I’ve sort of been telling myself, “I’m young. This is the time to work overtime, work holidays, etc. because I don’t have a husband or a family. I’ll take time off when I’m older.” However, I’m not even sure that taking time off work will be acceptable when I’m older.

This year Walmarts and McDonalds encouraged their stores to stay open on Christmas day. The sanctity of holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving as absolutely unquestionable days off for pretty much everyone (unless you work in a hospital, healthcare, emergency response) is gone. When Black Friday now starts at 7pm on Thanksgiving Day, I think it’s time for our country to take a look at our priorities.

I spent 2011 living in Costa Rica, and one of the major things I noticed about that country is how often they stop and celebrate. They have WAY more national holidays than we do, and they really know how to throw a party. There are parades and fireworks and little festivals constantly throughout the year. The week leading up to Easter is called “Semana Santa”, Holy Week, and everyone goes to the beach and parties. Literally, EVERYONE. The public bus system in San Jose, the capital city, didn’t even run that week. Costa Rica is a third world country (even if they’d like to pretend that they aren’t), but there’s a reason they are one of the top 10 countries on the world’s “Happiness Index”.  They don’t live to work—they work to live.

I know that, right now, I’m just an entry-level secretary. I’m on the bottom of the totem pole, and I’ve used up pretty much all of my 10 alotted vacation days this year. Working more or less nonstop is the status quo for the working world now. I’m just wondering if it’s a healthy mindset to have.

I’m just feeling really burned out right now.

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Dec 12 2012
7 Comments
Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: On Apartment Warfare

By Katilin Marie

Remember the good, old college dorm days, when neighbors would bicker and snap at eachother over music volume, squeaky mattress springs (or loud moaning), and perpetually beeping alarm clocks? I was naively under the impression that once I’d moved out of the dorms, I would be finished with the passive agressive arguing over a shared space. But I was wrong. So wrong.

My apartment situation can only be described as unique. I live in one of 5 apartments in a massive, 200 year old house. I’m in apartment #4 and I share the upstairs hallway area with apartments #3 and #5. I also share a thermostat with apartment #5. This wouldn’t be a big deal, except apartment #5 is occupied by a Crazy Lady.

Some info about Crazy Lady:

  • She is in her 50s or 60s
  • She does not appear to have a job
  • I have never seen her wearing outside clothes. She only wears nightdresses and pajama shorts.
  • She seems to spend the majority of her time talking on the phone
  • I suspect she may be a hoarder (as evidenced by the glimpse I caught of floor-to-ceiling stacks of newspapers in her apartment)

When I first moved into my apartment in June, I allowed my landlady to set my thermostat, which is thankfully in my apartment, to her desired temperature and I did not touch it. This did not stop Crazy Lady from leaving a series of passive aggressive notes taped to my door, in which she chastised me for “turning off the AC when I leave” and “keeping the temperature too high.” I eventually mentioned this to my landlady’s daughter and the notes stopped.

For the past several months, Crazy Lady (henceforth referred to as CL) and I coexisted peacefully.  That is, up until a few weeks ago.

The War Begins

Now, in addition to her alleged hoarding ways, CL has created an odd little display of items in the hallway outside of her door. This display (which was there when I moved in) consists of a small bookcase piled with odd books (Catholicism for Dummies, for example), random odds&ends, a Teddy bear, empty cat litter tubs, and, most recently, an enormous Yankee candle. Which she likes to leave lit. In the HALLWAY.

Continue reading →

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Nov 28 2012
2 Comments
Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: The Weird Transition Phase of the Holidays in your Post-Grad Years

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By Kaitlin Marie

The older you grow, the more the holiday season changes. It grows with you, in a way, and the frame of mind  with which you approach the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations is a huge factor in whether or not you enjoy the season.

At my ripe old age of 24, this will be the 24th time I participate in these Wintertime festivities. However, now that I’ve graduated college, I’m starting to notice a lot of changes in my life that affect how I celebrate during this holiday season.

 1.  Time Off

Remember that glorious time called “College”, when you would study/cry yourself into a finals-week-induced breakdown and then spend the entire month of December lounging around your parents’ house in your pajamas all day and eating pie for breakfast? Those magical, beautiful days are gone. In their place, I now have endless work weeks, and the glittering promise of only having a day off  on Christmas Day. This experience must be old hat for anyone who has been in the workforce a while, but for me, it’s a cold, harsh reality-smackdown.

Also, I have to work the Saturday before Christmas. Lame sauce.

2. Decorating

One strange and exciting part of being what some would deign to consider a “grown up” during the holidays is that you get to decorate your own space. Of course, I’ve already dabbled in Christmas decorating by dint of spraying snowflakes on my college dorm windows and owning a miniature Christmas tree. And accidentally killing an amaryllis.

However, this year is different. This year I bought stockings and sewed my boyfriend’s and my name on the tops. I then hung them very ceremoniously over my couch (My apartment has no fireplace) with command hooks (because I am a classy broad).

Continue reading →

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Nov 14 2012
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Real Kates

My CompliKAITed Life: Surviving Cold Season at the Office

cold-season

By Kaitlin Marie

It’s mid-November now, the air has taken on a permanent chill, Thanksgiving is JUST around the corner, and you’re probably sick.

I’m sick, and so is almost everyone else I know. The beginnings of the dreaded Cold Season are upon us. The germs are spreading, the mucous spewing, and there’s very little hope than ANYONE will make it out without a bit of congestion at the very least. If you are one of the lucky “uninfected” folks, then do a happy dance and start chugging orange juice this minute because that’s likely to change — ESPECIALLY if you work in an office environment.

My office is a cesspool of germs right now. Despite the jumbo-sized tub of hand sanitizer sitting proudly at the front desk, the common cold has spread throughout our ranks faster than the juiciest piece of office gossip. And even though I am one of the sniffling, contagion-carrying masses, I have a few tips for those of you trying to stave off the onset of your colds.

Things to AVOID at the office

Let’s start with the things around the office that you should steer clear of.

1. ALL HUMAN CONTACT

Just like the paranoia-inducing image above points out, one touch is all it takes to turn you into a raging snot-monster. If you can help it, abstain from hand-shaking, high-fiving, hugging, and generally interacting with your co-workers. If your office allows it, work from the safety of your home. If not, regard every other living person as a threat and potential source of infection.

Continue reading →

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