Take B...

Lesson Two: Measure twice, cut once. Better slow than a severed femoral artery...

Building stuff is not my forte.

I'm really more of a put-the-books-on-the shelf kind of girl, than the nuts and bolts plus wood plus esoteric-knowledge-communicated-in grunts from-man-to-son-since-the-dawn-of-time equals shelf... kind of girl. But part of being independent is knowing how to use basic tools to put together basic stuff. Even if it's just press board out of a box, you kind of need to know how to make it coalesce into solid piece of furniture.

The other thing I do not do well is a budget.

Numbers, actually scare me. I get nervous and my palms get sweaty whenever someone seriously wants me to do numbers crunching. I know it's basic arithmetic, 2+2=4... but I'm still convinced I'll get it wrong, so for a long time I've just let it go. But no longer.

A serious, no nonsense budget is on the agenda for this week.

Look for budget blog on wednesday and Jess-the-builder/handy-Jessi on friday. I'm sure there will be some hilarity and pictures involved.

(Car update: Car's name is Narcissa Edith Wimbledon-Tate of Yorkshire or N.E.W.T.Y. for short. She's a little old Lady.)

Fixing up Cars Without Boys

Lesson One:
Always use the right tools for the job, if you don't you're just making it worse and ruining your nails in the process.


Hi! My name is Jessi, and I'm going to be independent for a year. That's right. I know, it sounds silly, like "um, are you over eighteen? Then you should have been independent a while ago" but who really is?
Do you do your own taxes?
Can you change a fan-belt or tire on your car? The brakes?
Do you know how to fix your computer when it stops being compute-y?

I hope you said "no" to at least one of these or I'm probably just a total moron.

Anyway, I decided that I'm far too old to have to depend on anyone for anything, so I'm going to learn how to live my life in the singular. And I believe that with a little work and a lot of research I can do anything I want to. So I'm going to learn how to do a little of everything.

I bought a car that needs fixing up in order to fix it up, by myself.
I'm going to do my taxes without turbo tax, and all by my self.
I'm going to learn how to fix windows and doors and minor plumbing emergencies.
I'm going to learn how to read a contract and negotiate it.
I'm going to learn how to file a grievance
I'm going to tame the savage beast that is manual transmission.
I am going to learn how to dye my own hair.
And fix shoes.
I am going to learn how to fix my own computer and maintain it.
And whatever else comes along.

If you have suggestions or horror stories please feel free to leave me comments in the doobly doo (at the bottom).

Thanks,
Jessi