My cabin is booked, I’m pretty sure I have a roommate, the only thing I have to do is raise the rest of my money and book my airfare and I will be headed to Cozumel in December on a cruise ship. This is the one thing I have to look forward to as we trudge through the last week a late registration. Merely saying I need this vacation is not adequate. Work burnout is in full force, and I need out of dodge.

It wasn’t until recently that I noticed my last full week off was over Thanksgiving week of last year. Yes so even 2 of those days were paid holidays. I only took 3 days off for Spring Break, and the most I’ve had is a long weekend here or there, and even those were usually to comp time for six day work weeks. It isn’t that my place of employment doesn’t give me TONS of time off to use. Really, I accrue over half a day per pay period. I actually max out my accrual every couple months.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

It’s summer time and with this hot and sweaty season, most people go on some type of vacation and I’m proud to say I am one of those “most people.” I am heading to Destin, Florida in a week with my family and my boyfriend and I must say I’ve never been so ready for relaxation in my life!

This year has been a crazy and busy year. I just started a new job, I’m busy with my blog, my podcast and writing on Culture Feast, and I’m ready to just sit on the beach and stare at the ocean. What is it about life that gets us so stressed out that sometimes we get even stressed about taking a vacation?

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Popularity: 8% [?]

There will come a time in your life where you or someone you know will be sucked into a multi-level marking scheme.  It may be selling individual products, being a travel agent or selling vitamins and other “health” related supplements.  The companies change names but the story is all the same, untold wealth waiting to be discovered. 

Sadly, for the period of time that your friend is on the existential high that comes with the thoughts of earning an extra $500,000, all with no extra work, you will need to mourn their loss as if they had passed from this world on to the next.
 
I want to warn you about the signs that the opportunity that you are being presented with is simply not true, the first one is that the guy or gal is just so excited about sharing what they know with you.  If I found a way to make millions all by doing no work at all do you know how many people I would tell?  None!  If everyone knew the secret to my easy money machine the money would be gone. 

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Popularity: 6% [?]

NBC's local Channel 5 News team just announced that a premium outlet shopping mall is headed for south Grand Prairie. Along the Hwy 360 and I-20 corridor, a San Marcos-style outlet mall is planned for the near future. Christmas shopping fanatics like the Wellspring Church women's group will no longer have to travel hours beyond the DFW metroplex to get the best deals on popular name brand items. 

Only a few short miles from Parks Mall, this new outlet mall will make Interstate 20 the place to go for all your gift shopping needs. Hopefully, the Hwy 161 (George Bush Turnpike) extension will be completed by the time of the outlet mall's grand opening. The southbound side of the turnpike currently ends at Airport Freeway in Irving, but construction has been underway for some time to extend the turnpike through Grand Prairie, intersecting with I-30 and eventually I-20 as well. 

In the mid-cities area, Parks Mall, North East Mall, and Southlake Town Square are currently the three best shopping areas between Dallas and Fort Worth.

Planned store names have not yet been released for the new outlet mall. We'll keep you updated on the construction and other newsworthy items.

Popularity: 11% [?]

It's a sad day when you realize that you can't trust an institution like Bank of America to deal fairly. You would expect a Fortune 500 company like Bank of America to ensure that their software was functional and capable of serving the needs of their customers. Not so.

Recent experience has taught me that this banking and lending giant "can't" find the time or money to fix an error in their software that would make the lending customer service experience as smooth and functional as it should be. 

Warning: If you have a home loan with Bank of America, they have orchestrated their software to be "flawed" so that any payment towards principle only will be mishandled and at least partially applied towards your regular monthly payment and interest.  

That's right. Although there is an option to pay towards principle only, you the customer have to call the customer service department and explain to someone (who has apparently never experienced this issue before) that they have misapplied your payment and you have to make sure they reappropriate the payment towards principle only. 

IF YOU DO NOT HOLD THEIR HANDS, BANK OF AMERICA WILL MISAPPLY YOUR PAYMENT AND YOU WILL UNWITTINGLY PAY FOR MORE INTEREST THAN IS NECESSARY. 

This is beyond sad and pathetic. This is borderline criminal. If 10,000 borrowers made one extra house payment per year towards principle and didn't realize how BofA was "unintentionally" misapplying their payments, Bank of America profits an extra million dollars per year. That might sound like nothing to one of the nation's largest financial institutions, but that's an extremely costly error for a company with the billions to correct such an issue.

There is no excuse for this error. I wish I could tell you that they will fix this issue quickly. However, Bank of America has been misapplying extra payments for years. There's no telling how many people have lost equity in their homes due to blind trust in a company that says you can easily make a payment towards the principle of your home.

Someone will inevitably accuse me of being incapable of properly making or specifying that each payment was strictly intended for principle. Had several Bank of America representatives not admitted to the flaw in their software, I would consider the possibility that this issue is due to incompetence on my part. Unfortunately, the burden of responsibility does not fall on my shoulders, but rather the corporation.

I apparently never received the memo that informed us all that companies no longer have to provide honest and accurate service in order to prosper. My bad.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Penelope Trunk wrote a blog post referencing a report written by Stan Smith. She quotes Smith concerning Gen X and Gen Y: "The real revolution is a decrease in career ambition in favor of family time, less travel, and less personal pressure."

While Baby Boomers still set the standard for most corporations, that reality is already changing and will soon change completely. One of the most frustrating realities is the "Reality is set by the majority" principle. If 198 out of 200 people in a company believe that working overtime to meet a deadline is more important than family time, then that is the truth at that company. The remaining two people who believe that family time should never be compromised under any circumstances fit into the irresponsible /not-a-team-player category because they do not share the overarching value of the company.

Put those same two people with 198 similar people, and their beliefs are suddenly the moral majority. Those previous overtime workers? They are suddenly workaholics, a despised and unhealthy minority who constantly work as they avoid home life like the plague.

So corporate values are set and enforced by the majority. This is why it excites me to be "officially" part of Generation Y. I will accept that label more so now than ever because of the attitude Gen Y brings to the workplace. We are the product of workaholic parents. Our parents never lived the "good life" because they got themselves into so much debt that they never found a way out. We, like our parents before us, are reactionary. We might produce workaholic children (who knows?), but we are determined to balance the life our parents couldn't.

Which is why the quote above is so important. Decreased ambition in favor of family time. Less personal pressure. In a phrase: Quality of life. That is our pursuit. We may or may not know how to actually attain said higher quality of life, but we are dead set on pursuing it.

Which really only begs the question: what is it that you see as the answer for Quality of Life? Is it life on an island? In the mountains? Urban loft? Small town community? Farm life? Ministry? Culture? Vacations? Writing at your own pace? 

We all have different paths, but the same goal. What path are you on? 

Popularity: 4% [?]

Ever since we moved into our new office space in Las Colinas, a few things stand out as I make the drive to and from the office every day. More and more, I notice these stylish luxury sedans (usually TownCars) with the tinted rear windows driving casually on the freeway. You just know the sedan belongs to a car service, and that somebody fairly well-to-do is relaxing in the backseat reading the paper, checking email, or talking on the phone. I typically picture the person as an older male, dressed in a suit that costs as much as my car, checking stock info in the paper. Of course, that's old school. It's probably a smartly dressed woman in her twenties checking the stock ticker on her smartphone. Whatever. It doesn't matter.

The point is that I see more and more car service companies driving people around Dallas, Irving, Addison, and Arlington. Must be nice. More power to them. Heck, if I was ridiculously wealthy, I'd probably hire a Dallas limo service to drive me to and from everywhere. Why drive when you can ride in style? Seriously. I'd give up driving in a second.

Popularity: 4% [?]