Cheap ass!

Yes, I am a cheap ass. Although I will splurge on some things just have to be the right things. I love a good challenge so at 2am I got went to walmart with $30.00 and a goal to get food for the next 10 days (for those who are quick that $1 per meal) Anyways this isn't so much a blog but rather the best place to show what I came up with off... WAIT I KNOW IT IS GOING TO TURN INTO A BLOG, just not one of my normal one =) Anyways I had a few goals, 1) make it some what healthy. doesn't have to be all organic, but not just ramen 2) make sure it is reasonable to make in time; basically no large bags of white rice 3)Have a bit of variety... ok here we go....

So that's what I got for $30.01 USD here is the break down. For B fast: I will have a glass of milk, glass of grape juice(100% no sugar added) a piece of fruit, and a slice of toast... Lunch: Cheddar and turkey sandwich and some chips... Dinner: Option1; Steak with sweet corn and mash potatoes Option 2; Steak with mash potatoes and black eye peas Option 3; Spaghetti!

That will allow me to eat 3 meals a day, at reasonable health, and some variety...Also I have two extra pieces of fruit for a late night snack and tow packs of instant banana pudding mix for a snack.

Ok so now for the ramble on this. Con tray to popular belief I am not rich. YES, my parents are decently well off, but I pay them rent, I pay my car, car insurance, own out of pocket health insurance, and pretty much am on my own. They only thing I don't pay for is my cell phone because we have a family(including grandparents) plan. If you aren't on a plan with your family I am sorry you are getting screwed, because we pay for 6 what 2 would probably pay on their own. BACK ON TRACK: I made around 24k after taxes last year. But I took a Trip to Atlanta, A trip to Dollywood and Atlanta with stops at a Casino and another theme park, 5 trips to Las Vegas, and a Trip to Florida, Not to mention I purchased a new lap top, and did many other things that were decently big spends. ALL while paying my bills on time and saving too. At the end of the year I had about 2,500 in savings. How did I manage this? Well simple I was extremely frugal. First on all the trips I never paid more than $200 per flight except for Vegas which was $250 and under. I deal hunted, now I know sometime you have a date at a place that you HAVE to make and go with the air fare for then, but when you don't and you are flexible you can find deals. This spreads to other things as well I SEARCH FOR DEAL! I will spend a hour in a store to buy $30.00 of food and I will look at clearance items at a cloths store. I am even willing to buy at  goodwill. It is a test in humility. I guess what I am getting at is that with a bit of time and effort you can make a dollar stretch. It is a challenge and of course many other things factor into...Some people have meds to pay for and some people have kids to pay for.... But some people have bad habits, buy stuff they don't need, or simply don't look for deal. I mean lets be honest the Toasty O's and Cheerios are the same thing (here is an interesting side note; did you know a lot of store brands are made in the same factories with the same stuff as the brand name?!?!)

So time for a wrap up. IT CAN BE DONE. Heck I didn't even clip coupons or look for sales. I just took my time and got creative. Imagine what I could have done with a bit of research prior! You just have to be willing to be humble a bit, not always get what you want, and give some time to it. I do it because I love to travel and I love to save... Don't get me wrong I will spurge for sure..... Some vacation stuff, some adventures, a good computer, LED lights (www.magicinthesky.com/lighting I know shameless plug) or heck even a engagement or wedding ring(that's a whole new block in itself =) hehehe )

Ryan (look for another like real you know sappy happy blog soon like maybe even hours)

If you give a mouse a cookie....

As a child I loved the book "If you give a mouse a cookie" Seeing that I was a smart ass kid I totally knew that it was about not being greedy, but I didn't care cause damn it I liked mice and loved cookies and this book had both!(and in my kinder class we ate cookies when we read it YAY!) If you don't know about the book basically you give a mouse a cookie he wants milk, then he want a napkin, then he wants a napkin, bla bla bla, and so on he keeps wanting. I got the message don't be greedy, but I fear that a lot of kids may have mistaken it. Maybe some though... "Don't give because people will take advantage" I am not sure if anyone thought this or maybe they were just thinking about cookies, but today it made me think about giving. So hear we go a little about what you give.

TO GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE IS TO GIVE YOURSELF A HUG....
       There seems to be two main fields of thought on giving.... One school is if you give all of yourself there is nothing left of you. The other school is if you give all of yourself you gain a lot more in turn. I tend to follow the second school of thought. Giving is awesome and you get so much in return. Now is it always a eye for an eye. Well, no.... I can give some one $25 and they could give me $25 back, but what is the point of that... It is not giving it is just an exchange... I could give someone $25 and see their family eat... They get food, but I get something way more in return. It is a feeling, but to me that it is way more than $25.
       Now of course there are bad givers too. You can give and give and give to a person who can't give to themselves, but in the end you are not giving that person anything. It goes to the saying, "Give me a fish and you feed me for a day, teach me to fish and you feed me for life" Now, I fully believe sometimes you have to give someone a fish just so they can make it to you teaching them to fish, but this is soooo true as well.
       Ok now that I have been on both sides like a hardcore ping pong match let me get where I am going with this. What is it to truly give. I feel the ultimate gift you can give is you. This is mimicking the ultimate gift we have been given.. HIM(Jesus for my less up spirited friends) When yo devote your life to giving it to others you will be surprised how much you get in return. I bring this all up because I know someone who gives a lot... A LOT of themselves. It was amazing looking at how much they had given of themselves and how much they had gotten in return. Now, it was not the most obvious.. They don't live in a mansion, they don't roll in a Bentley, Diamonds all over the place, and such. But, what I noticed was how god seemed to have worked out a few little details for some of the hazards in their life. Their gifts were returning the gift that they had given. They made givers out of others who could help them out. We would all like to think that if we give a meal to a homeless person then go buy a scratch off we will win. SIDEBAR STORY: I was at a gas station about 3 years ago.. A lady who appeared shaky approached me from the pump next to me. I had just gotten $20 in gas and a $5 scratch off. I had a $20 in my pocket too. She said to me that she was in an abusive relationship and had just left her husband trying to get out of town. Her car was packed with her belongings. She said she was out of cash and could not use the credit cards. I gave her the $20. She thanked me, got her gas and drove off. I got in my car though nothing of it... scratched my ticket and won $20... It really only replaced the $20 I had given, but I think it was Gods way of taking care of it for me. SIDEBAR OVER... Back to what I was saying we can't give with the intention of getting one thing we want in return. We give to give and know that God will give it back to us!

This one was a bit of a rambler and I am sorry for that. It is hard to explain how and what giving is, but I guess in the end it is doing something with you heart with no intention to get back, but faith that it will come full circle. I am glad my friend got to see it come full circle. Show the faith and keep it!

So if you give a mouse a cookie... HOPEFULLY HE WILL ASK FOR A GLASS OF MILK.. and hopefully you aren't afraid to give it again.

Ryan

You see way more in the dark!

A few weeks ago I had this status on facebook "When all things seem lost...When the light at the end of the tunnel seems off... that's not when you stop... That's when you journey further and maybe even begin a new journey... Because in the darkness may lay something amazing and beautiful... You just have to be in the dark long enough to let your eyes adjust to see the amazing things in there! further you may see thing that once scared you aren't that scary." Well face book limits you to 420 characters so I thought since this was an important thought of mine I would share a little more what I mean.

Before I go further you many notice a theme in my blogs... They all seem to say basically live life for what it is. I don't think I am being to repetitive, but rather showing you how with so many thoughts and ideas a life can be like this too. It is the guiding principle in my life. These blogs are just going to reflect random thoughts on how it works. Oh and I will toss in the occasional OMG GUESS WHAT HAPPEN TODAY BLOG as well. Now, onto the darkness.... and light of course.
    
DUE TO BUDGET CUTS THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL IS BEING TURNED OFF..
     Great here you are in this long tunnel and well at first you were all excited.... You could hear and echo and it had a nice breeze. Then it just became another long tunnel and you were waiting for the light at the end. BAM lights out... CRAP all hope is lost now, you freak out, this is not suppose to happen, bad things always happen to me. So you begin to run in the darkness; trying to find or reclaim that light. What if you just stopped for a second though? Take a deep breath, then be really still, and quite. Let it all soak in. After a few minutes your eyes adjust. Now you can see in the dark. I mean you are still unsure of some things, but you can see. If you are quite you can hear things too. At first they seem scary, but then you realize that they are something interesting.
      You were racing through this tunnel just to get to a light at the end. All the while in this tunnel were some amazing things. Things that maybe you would be scared about normally, but after awhile you realize it is not so bad. The sounds can't hurt you. Neither can the darkness if you give it time. What can hurt you is the failure to stop and take it all in. Why?  Because in that tunnel was a lesson, a new opportunity, or a new outlook on things.  
        Now, after sometime you have settled in and adjusted now, you are ready to find the light again. It maybe easy it may be hard. This is where perspective come in. If you hate being in the tunnel you may never find the light. You are to busy dwelling on the tunnel and the problems it is causing you. However, if you take in what you have seen in the tunnel and put it into use then you can find the light. Once you get out of the tunnel it does not mean all problems from the tunnel are solved. They maybe or you may have new way at looking at them. Or while you in the tunnel you realized that the whole reason you were in it in the first place was because the light at the end had attracted you to it, but that light was a bug zapper or something (OK I know that was random) The point being the time you spend in dark allows you to see far more than the time in the light. After all we wear sun glass in the light because light blinds us and makes it hard to see sometimes. That's the point we are put in the darkness often to see something. If we sit in there long enough for our eyes to adjust we may actually learn something our of the darkness.
      It all goes back to giving it up. There is some reason you are in the dark. Just accept it and go with it. Allow it to let you see better. Allow it to better you. Allow it to let you find the light at the end of the tunnel.
   Don't be afraid of the dark. Just open your eyes more and see what is really in there. You maybe surprised.

POST BLOG INFO..

You maybe asking yourself..."Ryan, why are all you blogs about how bad things happen, but just say oh well? Has life crapped on you that much?"
By no means no... I just know that these days in our busy world people get so caught up in the speed of it that maybe they need some help. I use to be that way, but now I just let it go. I write these things in hopes that maybe you or someone you know could really use it sometimes. You may already feel this way and are glad to see someone who shares this view. You may also thing I am off my meds and need help. Either way I just hope that sometime someone can use it to feel better and change somethings

Ryan

Winning the Lottery

For those that don't know a lottery is a simple thing. Many people buy small amounts of tickets and put the money in a pool then a few people win and the rest lose. It has been around for centuries in one from or another.

For those that don't know I am an extremely lucky person. I have a way to explain, but you will have to read below.

    Now, I don't go shouting this from every mountain every day until now, but I won the lottery. PAUSE PAUSE WAIT WAIT... ok now that you are back in your chair; don't text or call me right away it is not the Power Ball, Mega Millions, Lotto Texas, or even a scratch off. And no I did not win some European Lottery that wants me to send money to collect my millions. So what lottery did I win? The one of life!
   The current Lottery system uses ping pong balls with numbers that are dropped into a bowl mixed around and shot out with air. These six random balls make someone win depending on how many they match. That is kind of like life. A bunch of random events( at least to the average observer) So am I luckier than you? Why did I win the lottery of life? Does God love me more? The answer is easy No, Perspective, No!

Now here comes the thoughts of randomness and rambles.
       I have been through a lot in my short 25 years here on Earth, but everything has taught me something. When I was younger something bad would just deviate me. I was and still am a perfectionist. I have my plan, see it happening my way, and if it doesn't then it must be a total fail(more on how I changed that later) When I was younger and in my early teens though I feared failing. Thus I avoided things I thought I could fail. Something somewhere clicked though one day. I can't put a time or date on it, but after many years of "poor me" I finally said screw it "LOVE ME". Since then I strive to live in a positive manner.  Now I would love to say that at that point everything was just flowers blooming in fields as I walked by. It wasn't, but that's the point...It doesn't have to be. In my first post I talked about letting go... well this is a form of that. Just letting what will be be. It all happens for a reason. The lottery of life is not random, even though it may seem that way, but rather a perfectly imperfect series of events that leads you on you life. So how did I win then?
       It is all perspective. I could sit in an airport and piss and moan about the 30 minute delay I just encountered, or I can thank god that maybe that plane was delayed cause had it left on time it would have been on the runway and someone would not have noticed another plane there and BAM... I mean it could have happened... I may never know, but thankful I don't. Plus it is 30minutes. In that same airport(DFW terminal D) I look up on the mezzanine level and notice a long line of Military personnel in full uniform de-boarding. Not sure if they were coming or going, as for me I was going to Vegas.... I wonder what would they give to be delayed 30 more minutes to spend with their family? That's what I am talking about on perspective. Sure it can always be better or it can always be worst. So why not just be ok with what it is? Poor Poor me. I am now going to be 30minutes late to Vegas HOW AWFUL IS MY LIFE... You see from the outside your thinking UMMM LUCKY YOU GET TO GO TO VEGAS. That is perspective.
       So how does this tie into me winning the lottery of life? How am I so lucky? Luck is in short what you make it. If you think bad things will happen to you then they will! Why? Because you are looking for bad things to happen. You will notice them when they do and point them out. All the while 10 good things happened and you had no clue because you were looking at the bad and waiting for the next bad thing to happen. I look for the good and silver lining in everything. Back in July I got a ticket for my tags being out of date (all my fault) Now, I could have been pissed at the officer as I am sure there was some gang banger causing far more trouble for society that he could be chasing down.(isn't that most peoples rant) but I thanked him. I am sure he walked away confussed. 5miles down the road there was a terrible accident that appeared to have happened no more than 15mintues earlier. Intrestingly enough doing the math I would have been around that area had I not gotten the ticket. Not saying I would have been in it, but you never know. That another point YOU NEVER KNOW. If you are willing to let go and let god handle it, you can by know means ever begin to understand his plan. Trust me HE knows what he is doing. You never know why things happen, but they do. Maybe I got that ticket to protect me. Or maybe I got it because I needed to be humbled. I don't know why, but I don't care why either I did I paid and in the end I was happy(ok am I just making you sick with all this positive stuff) Now, dont get me wrong, I dont want to get tickets and pay traffic fines, but if the alterantive was a auto accident I WILL TAKE IT!
AND NOW FOR THE LONGEST WRAP UP EVER
      What I am getting at is life is what you make it. So you better be sure to make it a damn good one. I won the lottery of life because I choose to feel that way about my life. I have great friends, loving family, great opportunites, and hey I love my life. Do I struggle? YES! There are things that happen that make me mad, angry, and sad. These are all natural feeling and by no means am I saying supress them. It is ok to feel them, but recover from them get mad, but then settle down and be happy for what you have. Does this mean that if someone wrongs you you should not fight. NO... FIGHT STILL always fight for what is right. If someone short changed you at the store don't just say oh well and give up... But at the same time don't feel that it is the most horrible thing you have ever seen and that person should burn in hell...Pray for them maybe...Who knows maybe they have two kids at home, her husband just left her. She can't afford to feed them and well was trying whatever she could just to get by. That doesn't mean it is right still, but I would hope you could see where she needed prayers. Just be happy with what you have we all could have more we all could have less. LET IT FLOW. Let it be what it will be and be happy with that. TRUST ME IT IS HARD. I AM STILL A PERFECTIONIST AND WHAT EVERYTHING TO GO AS PLANNED. So how do I fight that? Well I go with God's plan now which I don't know so I assume it is all going according to plan and thats how I survive.
I make my own luck, you should too. Win the lottery of life by just being happy.

Ryan

A Final First Thought

So I am a person of many words. In fact I tend to ramble on and on and on..wait you get the idea. However, I think I have a lot to say, to share, and even to learn. I figured that I would start a blog to hold all my thoughts forever in cyberspace. This first one is a final thought and a first one.

Today was my last day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. For those who don't know the full story let me give you a little background first. When Fiesta Texas was announced in 1989 I was just 4 years old. I was fond already at that age of a local Family Entertainment Center known as Jungle Jim's (now called Jeepers around the US) and of course of Sea World Texas. My father and mother would always take me to both these places. I knew even at a young age of 2 how much I loved these places. The announcement of this new place though seemed special though. My mom worked at USAA the primary owner and developer so I got to be first hand at many of the festivities. This place would become my life passion. Now of course I could ramble on about all the times and memories, but this blog today is about my final thoughts on moving on to new thoughts soooooo here we gooo!

A FINAL FIRST THOUGHT

     Today I move on I let go. Last year I knew that my time of where I was had come but, how? How could the place I had called home for 9 years and had been living the dream at be done for me? It was not easy, but I knew that I needed to grow and spread my wings. After all we grow up in a real home with parents and are expected to launch at some point from that. Of course why would we ever do that why would we ever grow up there either. That is the answer to my first question. It is because we are suppose to grown and fly away.
     When 2010 started I began looking for new opportunities to allow me to spread my wings. There were a few that I felt were really right, but in the end they didn't work out. This may have discouraged the average person, but it put it all into perspective for me. What was I meant to do? If you know me well you know I put a lot of faith in letting God guide the universe. What will be will be. I then realized that what I needed to do was be myself, do something on my own, be something more, and share my passion for life. So I began to prepare for the end. Me leaving my comfort zone. The only place I had ever worked. I at first was going to dive in and leave in September, but knew that I could not leave in the middle of something. I needed to finish the season and put my passion on one last thing the Holiday Seasons. So I did. I put it all on the line gave it my all and in the end was proud of my final product and final showing.
     So how do you let go? This is the final first thought I present you. LETTING GO. It was not and still easy, but it was what I had to do. This is the only thing I have ever known. I have never had a job anywhere else. I have been loyal to this place with all my heart and soul. I have gave and gave and gave it all. I think about it and a cry. It is emotional for me, yet it is right. It is right for me. I think sometimes in life we hold on to things because of fear. Fear that if we let go nothing will catch us, we will fall forever, or we will crash and burn. Yet, I have learned that sometimes when you hold on you lock in where your at and never move again. Frozen in time with no hope of anything new, anything better, anything different, or anything that may give you a better chance at getting there.
     That being said letting go of anything is hard, BUT A DREAM.. WHY THAT JUST SOUNDS CRAZY. How could I let go of my dream job? It is all perspective. I would hope that most of you out there have more than one dream. That is the nice thing about dreaming and about life. We go to bed every night and by God's will we wake up every morning with a new dream fresh in our head and a new day in front of us. That is where you have to take the opportunity that the new dreams present. We have many dreams and many hopes. We never want to let go of what we have worked so hard to make work or make right. But if we hold onto everything forever we will never be able to gain new things. Of course somethings are worth holding onto don't get me wrong, but being willing to separate from a dream when that dream is nearing it's end allows you to keep that dream a dream and not a nightmare.
     Wrapping up the ramble... Cherish all you have been given. Don't be afraid to let go. Spread your wings and fly. Dream a new dream every night. Finally, give it up to something higher than you. Only he knows why things are happening and you have to put it in his hands. The answers are never simple and you may have to struggle and fight to get somewhere. In the end sometimes the results may not seem to be something you want, but the way to go.

Ryan