And today... today I kicked ass.

Tomorrow? I'm going to see Van Halen.

Being over a thousand miles away from home means I will probably go home once or twice a year. This also means Thanksgiving and/or Christmas were bound to be skipped. If I went one year, didn't the next, and visited them the third year, There would be, at maximum, a two year gap between holidays. This way, I minimize it down to one year and two months. Do the math.

I managed to make it through and orphan Thanksgiving due to good company — I should be able to make it through Christmas without a hitch. Happy holidays.

The short time I've spent here have been filled to the brim with good friends and good fun. For a while, when I was waking up at 5:30 a.m., I tended to fall asleep at odd and early hours. At one point, I thought to myself, Am I depressed? Why am I sleeping so much? when I quickly realized that I've been having too much of a good time to be depressed. However, with my new role I can mosey out of bed at a normal hour, and the abnormal sleeping patterns have been eliminated. And with that personal bug out of the way, I think I'm good to go for round two.

Another company ran across my resume on Monster and contacted me regarding a position dealing with front-end Web development. They had an extensive interview process that dealt largely with how well I would mesh with their company's core values. They are very customer-oriented (what company will claim otherwise?), but they seem to mean it. They wanted to make sure that I was not only qualified to perform my responsibilities and duties well, but also that I fit in with their corporate culture.

It's a very young dot-com that's upwardly mobile. I'm a young person who's also upwardly mobile. They are casual, fun, like to be positive and joke around. Everyone I spoke with during my interviews, and even those who I passed in the halls, loved their jobs and felt like they are treated with the utmost respect by their colleagues and managers. Everybody smiled, waved, looked happy and healthy. Sold, I thought to myself. I wanted to work there and nowhere else.

They were a bit wary of my skill-set since most of my 10 years of experience related to personal projects. Sure, I do some Web stuff with my current company, but it's neither extensive nor challenging. The company threw a "coding challenge" at me and I rocked it. A few more phone screens later and I had an offer that I eagerly accepted.

I'm moving to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks.

I would normally be apprehensive of such a move seeing as how it's an awful long way from home, but I warmed up to the idea of relocating (albeit a much closer relocation) when the aforementioned dreadful company offered a position in San Antonio, a mere 300 miles away. My new company, however, makes me very excited to work there that relocation has become a secondary thought. Honestly, moving cities usually depresses me when I don't know anyone or I leave a good thing for a not-so-good thing. The one time I moved and didn't think twice was when I transferred to A&M—a school I yearned to attend. I have a good feeling I will adjust in very little time and enjoy myself and my new job immensely.

Happy trails and viva Las Vegas, baby!

And then it hit me. I don't want to retire a poor woman. My mother only recently started investing in a 401k—she has a mere 13 years before (ideal) retirement. I don't want to be in that situation.

But how do I save for retirement without a 401k or something similar through my employer? Behold the power of the Roth IRA. Small yearly investments, compounding interest, and tax-free earnings? Show me the dotted line. Apparently, I'm at the perfect age to invest now and have over a $1.5mil by retirement, though this doesn't account for inflation. If I invest the maximum allowable amount in a Roth alone, I should earn an inflation-adjusted amount in the upper six-figures by age 65. Plus, I'm pretty sure I'll have a 401k available to me in the future, as well as other taxable retirement accounts if I stick to this plan, so building a cushy nest-egg is definitely feasible.

But the conception was the easy part. Setting up a budget, analyzing my past spending patterns, and cutting costs were a little frustrating, but well worth the effort. I'm sure my future-self will be very thankful that my present-self heeded good advice and got on the right path to financial stability.

Now here's the million-dollar question... literally. Do I invest in a Roth now, or should I pay off my other higher interest debt? My student loans have interest rates between 7.22% and 9.5%. Those rates would basically negate the earnings any investments would make during the life of the loans. On the other hand, retirement assets will compound interest for 40 years, whereas the loans will be paid off in less than 10 years. In a vein similar to why people choose Roth over traditional IRAs*, I think I may opt to save for retirement before allocating payments to debt because these are years that I will never be able to recover. I know some people would argue either side, but I hope I'm making the correct decision for my own future.

*Having a tax break in retirement when one is unable to work and recoup costs is much better/easier/smarter than having a tax break now, in the prime of one's working ability.

I asked him questions about how he was feeling, if there was pain, how he felt. He seemed spacey and mostly unresponsive. He started to say a word, but would hesitate and end up not saying anything. I began to ask yes/no questions to which he responded occasionally. He was a tiny bit out of breath after coming down the stairs so I thought hm, heart attack? He said/shook his head "no" to questions regarding pain in his chest and left arm. He managed to let me know about pressure in his head and that's when I put it all together. I had a feeling his impaired speech was the result of a stroke.

In just a couple hours he lost the small ability to say "yes" or "no" and couldn't talk at all. He could make sounds, comprehend everything said to him, and had complete motor ability, though. The neurologist gave him (something) in his IV and moved him to the Neuro ICU. Apparently, he tried to get up and walk soon after being admitted into the ICU, but the nurses weren't having that and had to restrain his arms. This did not make him happy one bit. While there, he was greatly frustrated that he couldn't talk to us. He was trying to tell us something, but no one could understand him. He certainly didn't like us constantly asking him questions or trying to assume we knew what he was saying. My mom asked him multiple times if he needed to go to the restroom, but he shook his head no and became more frustrated. I told everyone to stop asking him questions since he couldn't respond. Eventually, my mom asked if he needed to use the restroom and he nodded his head yes.

We were very worried about him. The doctors said he had two small hemorrhages, but neither were in his parietal lobe (part of the brain that controls speech). They were giving him steroids for anti-inflammation and scheduled him for an MRI and another CT scan the following day. However, he didn't get worse so I knew it wasn't life-threatening.

The next day, my oldest brother went to visit at 9:00a. My other brother called soon after I got into work to say my dad was doing much, much better and he was able to talk. I then got a phone call from my dad and he was (mostly) back to normal. To make the rest of this short, one of the hemorrhages put pressure on his parietal lobe, which is why his speech was temporarily impaired. The steroids helped relieve inflammation. Lastly, the bleeds are being slowly reabsorbed so there won't be a need for surgery.

My mother and him are obviously very scared that something like this could happen again. He's scared that he won't be able to talk more than he's scared of simply dying. This morning, four days later, he thought he was having another stroke, but the numbness, dizziness, and headache subsided after 30 minutes and all is well. He's hesitant to come home when he's tentatively scheduled to be discharged Monday. This is saying a lot when he'd always want to leave after two or three days like when he was previously hospitalized for his blood infections.

To bring this up a little bit, he's doing well and he should make a full recovery. He should be home tomorrow, unless they let him stay for a few more days (or if something bad happens). I guess now is not his time to go, which is good because we're not ready for him to leave us yet.