eight is great

this weekend we managed to eek out an 8 mile run through east atlanta, past the zoo and through cabbagetown for the homestretch (read: homecrawl). between blisters and sore knees it was not the best of times. i'm obsessed with smart wool socks, but they apparently aren't going to work for the longer runs. sweaty feet + over 90 minutes of running = swollen and blistered pinky toes. you can bet we'll be visiting REI before this weekend's 9 miler. 2 layer wicking fabric here i come.

speaking of relief, i have finally paid off a credit card that has been my own personal bogeyman for about 3 years now. back in the days of a full time salary from a private research company, i dabbled in the alternative health comforts of chiropractic and acupuncture. the chiropractic office had 2 options for payment: a carefirst credit card (through GEMB) with a 12-month promotional no-interest balance or out of pocket through a monthly checking account withdrawal. i opted for the credit card because, despite the healthy salary, i didn't have the cash to cover the services. i'd like to say that all of my money was being thrust toward student loans or some other socially acceptable form of debt, but i recently took a look at old credit card and bank statements during a shredding project, and my money was definitely going the way of the dodo. those smart wool socks i mentioned? we won't talk about how much money i've wasted on those.

back to that 12-month promotion. the credit card balance was interest free, but only if you paid the balance in full by the 12-month deadline. i don't know why i thought this would be easier than paying out of pocket, but as you can imagine, i did not make the deadline... twice. so for the last 3 years i've had 2 year's worth of chiropractic expenses sitting on a high interest credit card. J.D. over at get rich slowly would cry himself to sleep if he read this entry.

how did i finally pay it off? well it certainly wasn't from high monthly payments because i can barely afford the $150 i've been pitching at it for the last 6 months (before that it was minimum payments only). $45 of that monthly payment was going to interest so it would have taken me forever to break even. every year i get a chunk of change from a wealthy relative, which i usually dump into my savings account and slowly piss away with overspending (or on the money pit known as my car). this year i've decided to take a different approach and give myself "extra" income by reducing my monthly credit card payments.

good riddance, you bloodsucking GEMB bastards.