A First Date & A Budget Break

Kate & I started dating around the holidays but it wasn't until Valentine's Day 2012 that I took her out to dinner on an actual date.  We had been hanging out a lot watching football at Sunshine Company & at each others places, but it wasn't until the middle of February that I asked her out to dinner at the Venetian.  I picked her up in my truck & everything.  We sat in a booth, ordered some wine & ate some pasta.  

The food was good, the conversation even better & the bill was fantastic.  Kate offered to split the bill, but I insisted on getting it because that's the right thing to do.  And, I was really into her & didn't want her to think I was a cheap skate.

Later on that night, when I left her place & went into to work my overnight shift at the Inn, I checked my bank account.  It was something I did on the daily back then, & after some simple cowboy math, I realized that I would be pretty broke until my next check, the following Friday.  

I really liked Kate & had no regrets about paying for dinner that night- I was mad that I still couldn't afford to do the things that I really wanted to do (e.i. start Mad Munch up at the markets in San Diego).  

It was a real turning point for me.  

I did some more math with my budget & how much I needed to get the ball rolling with this business & I realized that the Inn at Sunset Cliffs just wasn't cutting it for me financially.  There was no room for growth there & two of my other co-workers were about to leave as well seeing the writing on the wall.  While I enjoyed the job & really valued the free time it offered me to research & develop my new idea, it was time to move on to Phase Two of California.  

Whatever that was gonna be.