All Posts By

Nicole

Holiday Gifts
Frugal Living, Money

Holiday Gift Giving on a Budget

Some might call me cheap. Some might call me frugal. Some might call me financially selective. Others might call me Scrooge.

Yep. Scrooge.

You see, I haven’t done a lot of gift giving over the past couple of years. In fact, I’m not sure I actually got anyone anything last year. That is, unless you count my presence , as I took vacation days from work and flew to New York from rural Missouri for a fanciful two weeks of fun with friends and family.

Now before you get all up in arms about my lack of gift giving, let me note that I’m not one who either expects or feels entitled to receiving presents. I think I’d like to change it up this year though.

No, not about the feeling entitled (*cough* give me ALL of the presents! *cough*).

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November 26, 2012 by
Pre-Thanksgiving Feast
Life

The Many Things I’m Thankful For…

Happy Post-Thanksgiving, everyone!

We went out to a restaurant yesterday for our holiday dinner, so there was no turkey on my plate. However, I did enjoy one last week at a friend’s house at a pre-holiday feast.

I’m going to keep it simple. Here’s a list of the things that I’m thankful for:

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November 23, 2012 by
Marina at San Diego
California, Destinations, North America, Travel, USA

San Diego Guide Part II: Exploring

Last week, I wrote about all of the fabulous food that I ate while in San Diego. Now this week, you get to hear what we actually did during the hours that we weren’t eating.

In researching the city prior to my trip, I just wasn’t finding many things that I was interested in doing or seeing that were plan-able. It turns out that you can’t really approach a trip to San Diego with that mentality. I found that the best approach was to just going with the flow, spending a lot of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather and exploring parks and beaches that sprinkle the city.

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November 19, 2012 by
From the Internets
From the Internets

From the Internets: November 16

Hello, everyone!

It’s been quite the busy week, but only a few more hours until the weekend. This will be my second weekend back in Hoboken and my second weekend without any formal plans and let me tell you, I’m excited! I hope to catch up on some personal projects over the weekend and just relax.

In the meantime, here are some good reads to keep you busy:

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November 16, 2012 by
California, Destinations, North America, Travel, USA

San Diego Guide Part I: The Eats

After I successfully conferenced myself out for the foreseeable future (Kidding! I love conferences!), I headed from Las Vegas to San Diego to meet up with my boyfriend, who had been partaking in the conference scene that week himself.

One exciting thing about going to San Diego is that it was my first time in California. Traveling to California means I’m one step closer to reaching my goal of visiting all 50 states, per my flux list. California and Arizona are the first new states that I’ve visited since starting Living in Flux, so I still have quite a way to go. My rough estimate is that I’m about half way there. Want to know what states I’ve been to? Well, there will be a post for that in the coming weeks!

However, I digress.

We spent about 4 days in the San Diego area, and I must say it: I’m in love with San Diego! The weather was gorgeous, the food was to die for, and I was definitely digging the Spanish-influenced architecture.

Today, I’ll talk about the eats in San Diego. Stay tuned for a follow-up post about what we did during the hours that we weren’t eating (spoiler alert: most of our exploring simply got us from one food venue to the next, so there weren’t all that many non-eating hours).

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November 13, 2012 by
From the Internets
From the Internets

From the Internets: November 10th

After my 7-day trip turned to 12 days and then turned to 20 days, I’m finally back in Hoboken! The most ironic part? I managed to remember my phone charger at every one of my stops… except the very last one at my friend’s apartment in Manhattan. I’ll be filling you in on the details of my trip next week. In the meantime, enjoy these reads from the Internets on this glorious Saturday afternoon:

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November 10, 2012 by
Money with Calculator
Career, Money

The Future of Money: Financial Services Conferences

Money, money, money! That was the topic that was on my mind for the beginning of my trip to the West Coast. Well, it was much more than money that was on my mind: it was the current and future states of financial services and how technology is going to impact the space in the coming years.

In general, I’m a big fan of conferences. I find them to be a great way to keep on top of trends, meet new people, and learn a lot of things in a short amount of time. In going to these two conferences and participating in them, I also found that I’m a big fan of speaking at them.

This was the first time I had attended any financial services conferences (let alone participated in one), so I thought I would share some key takeaways and observations from my experience.

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November 8, 2012 by
View from JW Marriott Desert Ridge Hotel Room in Phoenix, AZ
Goals

Monthly Review: October 2012

November 5th already?! I’m still playing catch-up with blogging and life in general, so it’s no surprise that it’s already this far into the month.

Last month, I shared four goals that I had for October. As I went through October and subsequently failed at all achieving all of them, I began to think about how I wasn’t sure how my personal goals would really be helpful to you.

Obviously, this blog is where I share my life and my experiences and goals, but I don’t want my life to be the sole focus: I want to provide entertaining and empowering information that you can use as you navigate the terrain of life.

So, I’m going to try something a little different as I move forward.

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November 5, 2012 by
A view of the Pacific Ocean from the 101
Travel

When Your 7-Day Trips Turns Into a 12-Day Trip…

… you are definitely living in flux.

First, I hope everyone reading this is safe, happy and warm in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Luckily, I’ve been able to stay out of harm’s way. After seeing that Hurricane Sandy was headed right for New York / Hoboken the day I was supposed to arrive back in town and not wanting to risk not being able to get to Hoboken (since that was right around the time they were planning to start shutting down the subways), I decided to extend my trip a bit.

I’m currently flying from San Francisco to Washington, DC. Yup, I’m not quite heading home, yet.

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October 31, 2012 by