About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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March 25, 2008
Driving to the bank and to the mall after work yesterday, I actually listened to the commercials on the radio instead of tuning them out as usual. This might have been because the Hyundai commercial unexpectedly had a cameo by Larry Winget, and inadvertently, highlighted my ambivalence about the state of our economy.
The commercial went something like this:
Narrator kid: I could save all sorts of money buying a Hyundai! I could use that money and buy a trampoline! Or a [something else ridiculous that I’ve forgotten].
Larry Winget: That’d be stupid. You should use that money to pay down your debt, or save.
Narrator kid: Aw. That’s true, but it’s not nearly as fun as my ideas.
Voiceover: Voices in your head might sound something like Larry Winget, author of You’re Broke Because You Want To Be, and with the special Hyundai sales event, you can actually have a choice of what to do with the money you’ve saved!
That commercial was quickly followed up by an ad for cheaptickets.com: another spend to save shill. Of course all radio commercials are selling something, but it was ironic that they are also reflective of our nationwide dichotomous dialogue about the economy and how to cure what ails us:
Spend! We’re facing a recession, so we need to spend our way out of it
But Save! The cost of living has skyrocketed, and don’t have money for luxuries. People’ll really get in trouble if they lose their jobs!
But, spend! So we’ll give them a fat check, and they should spend it so people can keep their jobs, and the economy can grow again!
But no, save! Because we have a negative savings rate, and that’s very bad!
Ugh, no wonder our economic policy seems to be all over the map. Giving out money, spending $42 million to tell us all about it, watching the subprime market go nuts and then bailing them out, dropping the interest rates which feels like punishment for us savers. I know that I’ve got a fairly tenuous grasp of economics in general, and I’m reacting emotionally, but seriously, it seems like there is an awful lot of flailing about in trying to fix what’s broken, and I have to wonder how much of that is an inability to identify the problems, and a moderate, reasonable course of action.
March 24, 2008
I’m sure BoyDucky thought I was nuts, but we didn’t have any plans for Saturday evening, so I abruptly decided that I wanted to replace my hoop earrings that were accidentally left behind at the hair school several months ago, and I wanted to go to Macy’s to do it. Given the spending fiascos of the past month, you’d think I’d lost all taste for spending by now.
I dunno. I have a gift card, and an 11% off coupon that expired at the end of the month. Easter weekend sales. Terrific luck with the last holiday weekend sales at Macy’s, and really didn’t want to pay much money, real or gift card, on replacing a frivolous item. Made sense.
It was rather strange because when we got to the mall, I’d forgotten why I was there. BoyDucky had some work to do, so I left him at Starbucks to do it, and wandered through the Banana Republic on my way out to Macy’s. There were sale signs all over the dang place, so I got distracted thinking I could find a suit deal, but no go. The next 30 minutes of wandering through Macy’s junior department was just boring and frustrating.
When I decided that this recreational shopping business was for the birds and decided to leave, I caught sight of some dresses and thought hey! Maybe…….? Nope. Nothing.
After nearly an hour, I remembered that I was there for earrings and moseyed on over to the jewelry counters in search of the sales and clearance racks. Grown-up jewelry is expensive! They wanted anywhere from $10-$30 for a single pair of hoops. Are they crazy? Those hoops had better double as spy cameras or something if they’re charging $30 a pair! Finally found two pairs of silver hoops, small and medium, for $12, and stacked with my coupon, came out to $11 after tax.
I was satisfied with a good deal, until C2 offhandedly remarked today that her new hoop earrings were 3 for $2. !!! My brain ticked all day: That’s WAY better than my deal! I should see if I can do better. But, these required no cash. Her deal required money out of pocket. Hmm…..
Make no mistake: I’m totally obsessive. I went to the mall after work, on a Monday night no less, and quickly got over my guilt about returning jewelry that C2 had picked for me on behalf of the office last September. My logic was that if American Eagle had a good enough sale, and the gifts were still worth anything, I could avoid paying real money for the new earrings. So that I don’t come off a complete ogre: the birthday gifts of necklace and earrings from American Eagle were nothing I would have picked for myself, nor were they something I would want to wear. I’m usually open to trying new things, but an ostentatious silver ribbon & bow necklace just isn’t me. For the longest time, I kept seeing C2’s face, full of surprise and disappointment when I first opened the jewelry box and didn’t manage to hide my “uh ……” face. Of course I lied and said that I liked it, and had kept it ever since out of sheer guilt. Until now.
Not only did AE not have a sale of any kind on their jewelry, the two pieces that I returned netted a gift card for $15.01. No spending and coming home with more money than I left with. I’ll take it!
I realized that I’m not always going to get the best deal ever, but I can get the best deal for me, for now. I don’t own tons of jewelry, and wear pretty basic, classic stuff. And I’m getting too old to be buying the cheapie, shiny plastic, jewelry from Claire’s anymore.
March 22, 2008
so late into the night…”
At least not this month, anyway.
Going out to bars, or dancing, or staying up all night is, quite often, the perennial tale of foolish youth gone by, the “good old days” for many of my cohort. Perhaps not for my immediate friends, but for friends of friends, or coworkers, or even the slightly older friends in their 40s or 50s. Most everyone has fond anecdotes of their days in college or after high school when they’d stay out all night, drag in the early morning exhausted, only to shower and head out to face a day of work. Heck, that still describes the habits of many of my industry colleagues during our week-long conferences! I don’t know how they’re still up and about after all that, but I’ve never been able to hang with the cool crowd because I definitely need sleep. Blame it on the arthritis. Then, too, I never really wanted to because I was on the wrong side of the dichotomy: there were the hard-partiers who could be up past 4 am drinking, or my own, must be responsible, type. As a card-carrying member of the second group, I always felt awkward committing to drinks with the partiers, and having to duck out early every time.
Without the pressure to stay out all hours, though, going out sounded like a lot of fun. And with a 26th birthday looming this year, it’s time to shake things up before I completely fossilize. Since my friends who have embraced the social scene are in New York, and those who continue to avoid a social life are in Southern California, I floated the idea to the gals at work. We’ve all been working really hard, so they were game. We planned a night on the town after work last Friday. [This is a great group, not only do we get along well enough to work and play together, we wear about the same sizes and can exchange clothes. Win-win!]
We had it all figured out. Coworker’s friend, our DD, made up our fourth, and arranged for free passes to a Hollywood club. We figured out a relay driving system to share gas and parking costs. It was going to be some good, cheap, fun! Well, it was definitely fun, but the cheap part went awry.
Foolishly, I’d thought getting to work an hour earlier on Friday meant we could leave earlier, get some rest, food, and prettied up for our night out on the town. Stupid deadlines. We couldn’t leave until 7:30! By that time, we starvelings were also punch drunk from sleep deprivation, which boded well for the rest of the night. Also, we found out that our free club was hosting an all-Asian night Friday, and that was much less appealing. Yes, I realize that sounds mean and I’m also Asian, but that doesn’t mean I really want to be in a club full of them. It’s a different crowd and music and energy than what we had in mind. So, change of plans. We decided to start elsewhere, where we could get some proper ’80s music, and that cost us.
As it turns out, Hollywood is quite the expensive town for spur-of-the-moment plans. I’d budgeted $20 total, but only brought $14 in cash because I didn’t have time to run to the bank. Also, credit cards are normally my go-to form of payment anyway.
For dinner, we shared a fine repast of Vietnamese food: $7 each, tip included. Since we had a DD, we gals each had a cocktail while getting dressed at Coworker’s place, but our overall tardiness meant that we had less than ten minutes to get ready if we wanted to make it to the first club in time to use our coupons. We’d managed to scare up $5 off coupons, which would have been perfect had we arrived by 10:30. Alas, leaving work late meant we had dinner late, got ready late, and had to pay in full. Booo. Our DD had to pony up the extra money for us girls who didn’t bring enough cash. What’s with clubs charging $15 cover, and not taking credit cards? Preposterous!
Then it turned out that both clubs required a $20 minimum to use credit cards. I was to drive C2 back to her apartment at the end of the night, so I’d stopped drinking, but the others were, and that means I couldn’t pay back either DD or C1 for paying for dinner or cover by buying their drinks. Also, they paid for our water because they’d opened tabs or had cash. Gr, I hate owing people money!
Don’t worry, though, I didn’t spend the whole night fretting over money. The first club was well worth the cover because they played ’80s favorites nearly the whole time: Prince, Depeche Mode, Billy Joel, Toni Basil, Michael Jackson, and of course, Madonna. There was a blonde guy up front on stage the entire night and he was an absolute SCREAM. I have never seen a man, gay or straight, so seriously rocking out and playing air guitar in my LIFE. They had a huge multi-step stage on which anyone could dance, and of course, C2 insisted on going up there. While I really haven’t got rhythm, I didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious up there because the crowd was so fun! The energy of a crowd out to dance is palpable, and intoxicating.
We crossed the Walk of Fame and passed the historic El Capitan Theater on the way to our free club, nicknamed “Asia.” I’ve never done this before. Never enjoyed the sights in Los Angeles, never been out there just to have fun. The night was blustery and nearly frigid, our feet rudely reminded us that we’re not 19 anymore. It was, as C1 said, almost like we were in an actual city, where you could walk wherever you wanted to go. It faintly reminded me of New York. Asia wasn’t 100% Asian as we’d feared so it was a good time there too, but we were pretty wiped out by then and people were much too fond of using their elbows to get through the crowd. There was a flying cocktail glass, at some point, and ice on the dance floor. We finally called it a night at 2 am, and hobbled through the cold night to our car, exhausted and happy. Most of all, happy to be sitting down.
Now I’m both out of cash, and owe C1 ($6) and DD ($10). Total spent: $30. Oh. Hm, doing the math just now, I thought I’d gone over quite a bit more than that. Both my wallet and feet need a little R&R. 🙂
March 21, 2008
It’s official: I’m beyond tired. I’m stupid-tired. That means ….
1) It’s stupid that I’m this tired from 11 hour days, I used to do 14 hour days, 5-7 days a week for months on end. Seriously. I’ve worked 7 days in a row, and that’s really not bad for the state of affairs in the office right now. The boss is in much worse shape.
2) I’m in a huge mental fog. I’m saying stupid things ALL the time.
3) Everything seems funny. Stupid things seem hilarious.
Speaking of funny things, a friend sent me to this site to check out this actual poster for an actual church:
“In a (successful [and adorable]) attempt to capitalize on the continued popularity of the Nintendo Wii, the Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco has adorned their ads for holy week with the pint-sized Jesus Mii.
Christened with the tagline “Come and Follow Mii,” and including a very confused bunny, the ad is surprisingly well put-together, and definitely gives the impression that the church knows their audience. Kudos to them for the slick design.”
It’s so cute!
March 20, 2008
I’m not allowed to buy shoes, especially not $60 on sale shoes, but it’s fun to look, now and again. When I was on the Nine West website, I got sucked into the *SALE* link. I may be hesitant to buy from them again, though.
These look like a nice solid pair of work shoes, with a solid heel and cute front with buckles to poke out from under long pants.
I find I’m more into red these days, and have this odd conviction that these shoes will be cuter in person. *shrug* Not $59.99 cute, but cute.
March 19, 2008
Remember the birthday shoes? I cannot emphasize enough how much I love flats, and how much I loved these flats in particular because they conformed perfectly to my feet and didn’t make my knees hurt like some flats do.
Sadly, Boy Coworker pointed out that the heel had come off the right shoe on Friday morning, and then the left heel fell off that night!
They’re a shade under six months old, so I checked NineWest.com to see if they have any sort of quality guarantee, but came up dry. This stinks, I thought their quality was supposed to be better than your average shoe. I’ve never lost heels off any shoes, even my cheapie shoes from Payless! It’s times like these I understand the love of stores like Nordstrom with their insanely good return policies, or Levenger with their satisfaction guarantee.
March 18, 2008
It turns out that my case has already been sent on to arbitration and is scheduled to be heard on May 6th. I know that worrying won’t do a whit of good, but I’m still a little nervous about it because I’ve never gone through this before and am unsure what to expect.
Reminds me that I need to print those photos of the car as well, and send those out just in case, I would hate to lose this case for lack of prep.
Edit: I just realized that this kicks the deductible back up to $1000. Holy mackeral.
