Fights with Girlfriend

She's the first official girlfriend I've had, me at age forty-three. I've tried before with other gals but have always been rejected before we reached the exclusivity stage. Things with this gal have been stormy, especially since exclusivity. A lot of it's my own fault, my own indecisiveness and anxiousness about the relationship, which I'm frustrated by. I really want things to work, so why do I keep sabotaging it?

Trips to Boston

I visited Boston in October on a research and work trip. It was my fourth time to the area and the first in a decade. Here are the times I've visited Boston in the past:

I love Boston. I almost moved there at one point. But I don't know that I'd actually like living there. I've always visited in the fall--never had to endure the weather. And it's superexpensive.

Music Minutes by Year 2

It's been a couple of years since I last charted the number of minutes I had of music from each year. I've bought a number of albums in the past couple of years, including several jazz albums, which was previously not something in my collection. I like jazz, though I prefer to listen to it live; still, with my parents traveling with me for a bit and with their absolute hatred of contemporary music, I had to find something we could both be satisfied with. No show tunes or big band for me, no alternative rock for my parents, so jazz it was. Let's see how the years fared:

Looks like the 1990s are still where most of my music collection resides, with a fairly heavy drop-off in the 2010s. There's been a small uptick in the 1980s collection, probably because I've been replacing tapes with CDs where possible. I could suspect several reasons for the current drop-off in CDs: digital online music means that used CDs for contemporary music are more rare (I buy most of my music from used CD bins); I'm less familiar with contemporary music (indeed, I listen to college radio less than I used to, as it has been overrun by stupid talk shows; I go out to see bands less frequently than I used to; and I pay less attention to music blogs than I used to); and there are fewer music stores at which to buy music (again, I still tend to buy CDs rather than downloading, which means that a number of artists' new works are still on the to purchase list, since the dearth of local record stores means I can only check one or two venues to see if an album is in stock rather than five or six as I used to be able to).

Amount Saved by Place of Abode

I wanted to see how much each place I've lived has contributed to my savings, as it's likely I'll spend down much of this in the upcoming year. Here's the amount compared by percentage:

The amount I lost in Mississippi isn't surprising, except maybe in the fact that it was so little: I was in graduate school and had to live very cheaply. Texas didn't treat me very well, it appears, as my nearly five years there actually led to a negative cash flow balance.

Amount Saved by Decade

I wanted to see how much each decade has contributed to my total savings, as it's likely I'll spend down much of this in the upcoming year. Here's the amount compared by percentage:

What I hadn't realized? Just how bad the 1990s were for me financially. They actually made a negative contribution to my life savings!