A Very Productive Saturday

Today alone I've made up for my lack of productiveness last weekend (I accomplished basically nothing last Sunday, and was quite perturbed about it at the time).  But today has gone quite well, and it's only quarter to eight!  Here's what I've managed to accomplish:

1)  Draw up a budget for the new year, and determine that repaying my student loans will not entail grinding poverty and destitution. 

I had been meaning to do this for a while, but this morning (after a languid hot shower which was far longer than strictly necessary - shoot me, environmentalists), I sat down and did it.  Thanks to the National Student Loan Data System, I can draw up a page that details all of my federal loans (and, since all of my loans are federal, this means I can see all of my student loans).  The site does lag behind by a month or so, so outstanding interest figures are behind, but sometimes you just need to know exactly how many loans you took out, and how big they were.  But most importantly, you can also figure out who's servicing them, and then head over to their website to get more precise information - like monthly payments. 

Armed with the knowledge of how much I'll be expected to fork out in January, I pulled together a spreadsheet where I deducted my various expenses from my salary (including anticipated deductions for health insurance, which starts next month), allowed for various other irregular expenses (like haircuts) and came out ahead.  Not rolling-in-dough ahead, but ahead enough that I have a bit of discretionary spending money.  Not much, but far more than I had last year when I was still in grad school.  Essentially, I have to live until September much like I'm still in grad school, in terms of consumption.  Why September?  Because that's when I'm supposed to get my grade increase - the president may freeze my salary, but if I get a promotion I earn more, and there's not a thing he can do about that!

2)  Find (and purchase) curtains for the sliding door, which lets heat out like a sieve.

After lunch, I hopped on the Metro up to Columbia Heights, for to get a Christmas tree, but first I stopped at Marshall's, my favorite knock-off store in the DC area (of course, I don't know very many others besides Filene's, so if you have recommendations, by all means leave them in a comment).  I was just wandering through the home goods section when I cam across the curtains.  And I suspected - correctly, it turns, out - that I had hit the jackpot.

You see, I have come to the conclusion, as the weather has gotten colder, that my windows leak.  I'm not quite certain which way - if they leak heat out, or cold in - but I've had the heater in the dining room running non-stop for days, and this morning when I finally pried myself out of my warm bed my hands were so cold that I didn't even want to touch me.  Now, I've had bad circulation for a while, but honestly, "hands of death" indoors, when you've had the heat on, is a bit much.  So I decided that, even if I didn't need curtains aesthetically, I needed curtains to stay warm (thank Heaven I don't pay for heat).

This is what I eventually decided on:

They're not actually shiny - that's just the flash.  They are, however, too short.  This is because 84" is the longest standard curtain size one can find with any sort of ease, and my windows are floor-to-ceiling.  Also, my curtain rods are somewhat higher than they should perhaps be, but that comes as no surprise, given who put them in (not me, and that's all I'll say).  More importantly, they don't clash with the rest of the apartment - the tan basically matches the majority of the walls and the brown matches the accent wall - they cost less (both of them together) than a single panel would have cost at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and most importantly, they work.  Ever since I put them up I've felt warmer, even though I haven't turned on any more heat.  I'm sure that when I move somewhere with standard sized windows the curtains will fit better.  For now, I'm just not going to worry about it.  Who sells 96" curtains?

Also, I'm rather fond of the detailing on the rings.  I'm just a bit weird like that.

3  Obtain a Christmas tree

After my triumphant purchase of curtains at Marshalls, I headed upstairs to case the joint at Target.  I was unimpressed with the Christmas trees, and remembered seeing some in the catalog of Bed, Bath, and Beyond that shows up, unannounced and unsolicited, in my mailbox on an oddly irregular basis.  The catalog also had a "20% off a single item" coupon in it, which was enticing, since I wasn't pleased with the prices at Target (not something I usually say, but perhaps someone decided to gouge holiday shoppers this year.  Or maybe we haven't been harvesting as many artificial Christmas trees this year due to climate change or something).  In the front of the store - thank the Lord, since going through Bed, Bath, and Beyond is sensory overload to an unpleasant degree - was my quarry.  I got a 6.5 foot pre-lit tree for $40, after the coupon.  Not too shabby.

Of course, when you unpack an artificial tree, it looks like hell.  I remember reading reviews on Target of the various artificial trees, and inevitably, someone would complain that their tree didn't look like the picture.  No, of course not, because your tree has been inside a box since it left China a couple of weeks ago, twit.  Real trees may be messy and expensive and give some people (like my boyfriend) allergic reactions, but they have one jump on their artificial cousins: they don't have to be fluffed.  My tree looked like it had been in a fight with a hay baler of a cylindrical (rather than cubic) persuasion, cross-bred with a poor-quality broom.  So I set it up and commenced fluffing.

An hour or two later - I lost track of time, probably because I needed to stop and get a pill for my headache partway through - I was done, the tree properly fluffed.  It's a lot of work - if you don't do it right, you'll be able to see right through the tree, and there's no sadder reminder that your tree is artificial than being able to look all the way through it.  Or, worse still, looking into it and seeing wire.

So, properly fluffed (for the most part - I still need to do a bit here and there), here it is:

(Hooray for pre-lit trees, right?)

I'm also pleased that I was finally able to put the random black sheet (that I've had for years now) to good use - as a tree skirt.  A very professional-looking tree skirt, I should add.

Now, I haven't done any decorating yet, but these are my ideas:

- paper chains or lattices (very fine, in either case) to help cover any remaining gaps; I could do the same with strings of beads, but I can make things out of paper (which is cheap), whereas I'd either have to buy materials for strings of beads and string them myself (ooh, fun) or just put out for strung beads.  I'd rather do paper.
- homemade salt-dough ornaments, which my parents did when they were a young married couple without children
- a large something for the top of the tree.  Not sure what that's going to be yet - at home it's an angel, but if I decide to make something, it's won't be an angel, as I'm just not that artistic.  I am, however, going to Eastern Market tomorrow, so maybe I'll find something...