So, with the economy down, I've been trying to watch my spending habits as well. Still a work in progress there. I'll do really well and then have a weekend like this last one.
Friday:
Pretty good except I paid for dinner, and who knew Red Lobster could be so bad! Boyfriend and I split household costs by switching off on items (I'm a very lucky girl and it's definitely not a 50/50 split, but I also wouldn't want to feel like a "kept woman"). So it was my turn for dinner.
Saturday:
IKEA! one of my weaknesses! But we were on a rare trip into the big city and it could not be passed up. I was really good though and only bought a few small items (candle sticks, art shelves, a hammock, a shoe holder), and got out for less than $100!
Well, unfortunately dinner reservations weren't until 5:30 and we finished shopping a lot quicker than expected, so on to the adjoining mall...and WHITE HOUSE BLACK MARKET! my favorite clothes store. I was actually wearing WHBM from head to toe when we walked in (something every attendant noticed). I usually don't walk into the store any more, because I'm not a masochist and like to stay away from temptation, but Boyfriend knows its my favorite and tries to be "sweet" and take me in. A whole "style session" (their term not mine) began and I tried on a few sale rack items plus a few things the "stylist" chose. She kept having to run things by Boyfriend to see if I owned it already. Honestly, not the best stylist I've had, the ones at my local store seem to get me a lot better (possibly because I'm there so much), I only bought the skirt and the top I picked out myself. Then we went to the Sony store for Boyfriend, but I ended up buying an e-reader that was on clearance for $50 (review on that later! Along with all the books I've been remiss at reviewing here).
At dinner Boyfriend paid, so I got out there...really funny about dinner coming soon.
Then we went to go see Wicked. I've seen it before in Boston, but it was almost just as enjoyable the second time! I've finally found culture in this sunny state!! It was off, off, Broadway with a touring company, yes I know, I'm a snob, but it was pretty good! They're doing Shrek next month and I want to see it. Even put season tickets on the gift wish list. My only issue was with Fiyero, he just wasn't manly enough for me. He's supposed to be a hot prince and all the girls swoon. I was defiantly not swooning. I could definitely see more of a Gene Kelly type playing Fiyero: athletic style of dance, and pleasant but still masculine tenor.
Sunday:
We head to the WHBM near our house to RETURN a pair of shoes - love the shoes but this is my second pair and the leather sole keeps wearing off in the first wear, I feel like one of the 12 dancing princesses but without the fun! Well somehow, my well laid plan of exchanging for the exact amount of shoes went out of the window (probably because I remember them being $98 and they were actually $80)
Next stop was Fredrick's of Hollywood. Get your mind out of the gutter. I bought a DRESS! It was a dress that was pretty similar to a dress that WHBM had that I missed when it got to the 60% off rack. It's one shoulder, completely sequin, and made out of some magic material that minimizes what should be minimized and enhances what should be enhanced. As a pretty curvy lady, I never expected the sheaf dress to look good - they never do. The dress was UNBELIEVABLE! Boyfriend's eyes bugged out (after 2.5 years, that's not so easy to do) and he told me that if I didn't buy it I was crazy.
So far this week I've only spent $5 on Coke while at work, so I'm doing well! But I'm supposed to go to Disney with the girls this weekend....guess it's time to cash my credit card rewards into Disney Dollars!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
New Job...oh boy
So Monday I started a new job. It's a 4 month contract position at a local corporation. Well while I was at my parents' house, Boyfriend started a new 9/80 schedule - which means we now get up at 5:30 am so he can get to work on time. No problem, its dark out still and the thought of breakfast makes me want to puke, but plenty of time to get ready and get there for 8 am! Outfit looks great, lunch and to-go breakfast packed, got my passport...all set to go!
Chapter 1: The Arrival!
The final email from the recruiter with the first-day instructions says to go to X address, so I do. Well there's 7 buildings, eany meany....I pick the main building! Ask for the person I was told to...The receptionist has never heard of her...she guesses to go to a different building. I totter back to the car in my heels....great now I'm late. Second building is the charm and I'm ready to start!
Chapter 2: The Paperwork.
Per the instructions I got, I filled out all of the paperwork ahead of time. I questioned some of the paperwork, as it seemed it needed to be done on the first day, but was told to just fill it out. Ok. I get there...nope, wasn't supposed to fill it out ahead of time. It asks for phone numbers of contacts - all information I do NOT have with me. Gotta totter back to the car and get my cell phone so I can get numbers out of my cell. Finally fill the paperwork out and now I need to wait for someone with clearance to come escort me to my desk....except they seem to keep forgetting about me.
Finally I get to my desk, but my supervisor wasn't given the right password to get me in...and the help desk isn't picking up...The next few hours speed by as I go from meeting to meeting and run all around the building in my heels. I don't get to my desk until almost 2pm...and of course none of the computer programs my superior requested are ready. I have had to call the help desk every day this week!
Don't get me started on the cubical village I'm currently housed in either. There are soooo many stories about that. There are 35 cubicles in the same room as me - I counted on the map. I'm in the overflow area - even the switchboard is in the same room as me!! I could have a whole blog just devoted to the one sided conversation I hear from my cube. There should be a site like "FML" or "Texts From Last Night" devoted to the crazy stuff you hear from your cubical..... more on that later
Chapter 1: The Arrival!
The final email from the recruiter with the first-day instructions says to go to X address, so I do. Well there's 7 buildings, eany meany....I pick the main building! Ask for the person I was told to...The receptionist has never heard of her...she guesses to go to a different building. I totter back to the car in my heels....great now I'm late. Second building is the charm and I'm ready to start!
Chapter 2: The Paperwork.
Per the instructions I got, I filled out all of the paperwork ahead of time. I questioned some of the paperwork, as it seemed it needed to be done on the first day, but was told to just fill it out. Ok. I get there...nope, wasn't supposed to fill it out ahead of time. It asks for phone numbers of contacts - all information I do NOT have with me. Gotta totter back to the car and get my cell phone so I can get numbers out of my cell. Finally fill the paperwork out and now I need to wait for someone with clearance to come escort me to my desk....except they seem to keep forgetting about me.
Finally I get to my desk, but my supervisor wasn't given the right password to get me in...and the help desk isn't picking up...The next few hours speed by as I go from meeting to meeting and run all around the building in my heels. I don't get to my desk until almost 2pm...and of course none of the computer programs my superior requested are ready. I have had to call the help desk every day this week!
Don't get me started on the cubical village I'm currently housed in either. There are soooo many stories about that. There are 35 cubicles in the same room as me - I counted on the map. I'm in the overflow area - even the switchboard is in the same room as me!! I could have a whole blog just devoted to the one sided conversation I hear from my cube. There should be a site like "FML" or "Texts From Last Night" devoted to the crazy stuff you hear from your cubical..... more on that later
Friday, March 11, 2011
DING! The Captain Has Turned Off the Safety Light. You are Now Free to Hate the Airline.
I think the flight back from Massachusetts was the WORST flying experience I have ever had - and I fly a lot.
First the flight was delayed due to the previous flight being late and they kept subtly changing the depart time without announcements. The only indication that you weren't crazy and misremembering the time was the TIIIIIINY yellow announcement on the flight monitor. Thankfully, they made boarding go faster than normal so that we could all get on only about fifteen minutes late.
Ok, so now we're all packed in like sardines. I'm sitting next to a guy who looks like a cross between Jersey Shore and European Man Today- stubble, undershirt showing, fur-lined jacket, jeans, and men's leather boots - on his cell phone speaking not so happily to a phone carrier. Whatever, if nothing else it will be entertaining. Then the worst thing imaginable...
"Bing! Hey folks, this is the captain. It seems while they were closing the cargo hold the handle broke off, [inner thought: WTF!? I feel safe!] so we need to get maintenance out here to fix it. Just hold tight [where am I supposed to go?? I'm belted into an airplane!] and we'll fix it as soon as we can. I'll give you an update soon, this should only take about a half hour." The woman across the aisle starts flipping out. Calling the airline, demanding to be put on another plane, another airline.
A half hour later..."Hey folks, the handle is completely broken and they need to replace it, they got the part now and it shouldn't be too much longer, I'll keep you posted". more screaming from across the aisle....another half hour...the guy next to me starts calling for free shots, the woman has sent her husband to the front of the plane twice and rang the call button, but no word from the captain and the flight attendants are hiding. At this point I know that even if we take off immediately, I'm going to miss my connection...another 15 minutes..."Hey folks, I've been down there checking it out. They got the handle on, just need to fill out some paperwork and tighten a few things. They're hurrying so we can take off as soon as possible. We'll get out as soon as we can, if you have a 5pm connection you should be ok"...another 20 minutes..."Hey folks, still working on the paperwork and final check, it should be soon...if you missed your connection we automatically rerouted you..." he then rattles off destinations and new flight times, except for my destination - but the attendants are still hiding so I can't ask about it...another 20 minutes after that we finally left - almost two hours late.
During takeoff, a piece of molding over the window comes loose and flaps in the breeze over some passenger's heads. The attendant runs over with MASKING TAPE to hold it back up. They couldn't even use duct tape?? The guy in front of me recorded it on his phone, but I can't find it on youtube to show you. The attendant gave him a bad look when she realized he'd taped it.
Here's the only good part of the flight: while coming down the aisle with the beverage and food, I look at the menu and decide I'm splurging for some alcohol and a $5 adult lunchable. They don't have the snack advertised in the sky magazine, so I get a different one, but when I go to hand the attendant my credit card she shakes her head. BOO YA! free booze and food. Small victories, my friend, small victories.
So we land at about 4:35, my connection took off at 4:05. Now there's no room for us at any gates because we're so late, so we have to wait AGAIN on the tarmac. Of course angry lady to my left gets on the phone screaming to the airline again (with the attendant strapped in two seats over). Finally pull into the gate at about 4:50 and people clamor over each other to get out and to their next flight. I know I'm screwed so I hold back and let people go in front of me. I scan my boarding pass at the "Missed your flight? Scan and Go" counter...7:35 flight....standby...excuse me? Yup, standby. Great. Check the gate, decide to go check it out and cry to the booth person. After 2 gate changes and running all around I finally get to the right place, they're boarding a different flight, so I get some nasty airline food and look for a book store since I finished my book due to the delay. No book stores in this terminal. No book, dead ipod, no free internet for laptop...so not happy. I'm forced to get a trashy romance novel at the newsstand. I get to the booth, tell he guy my sob story, he says he can't tell me if there's room on the flight for at least an hour. So I go angrily eat and wait. When I go back in about an hour, whine some more, and get a real ticket! YAY! Then things start looking up as I find someone I know on my dinky flight to my little town, so I sit and talk to them for the hour until boarding...then this flight gets delayed too...o well I'm now numb to all this and just wait it out talking to my friends.
We board...I have a middle seat, of course, whatever I'm going home. There's drunk people galore across the aisle. I wouldn't care so much if my Lenox Mickey Mouse, that I carried on so it wouldn't break, wasn't above their heads and they kept knocking around their bags and re-opening the compartment even after the attendant closed it for take off. I begged the man to my right to get up and close the hatch, explaining about the Mickey, he does it since what am I going to do, climb over him? Nice short flight, I read my new trashy book the whole time, the drunk people slept, and its good, I even get the guy to jump up and get my mickey before the drunk people knock it on the floor - he made a comment about it but I just didn't care at that point. Time to call the boyfriend to pick me up....I text him I land and when I go to answer him calling while at baggage my phone dies...crap. They flight friends are mutual friends! I ask them to call him, they only one that has his number has a dead cell too...crap. So I go outside and hope he just circles until he finds me. He does! With Riley in tow, he picks me up. Its almost five hours after I was supposed to be home, but I'm finally home and it's wonderful.
I just got an email from Delta asking me to give feed back on my flight experience...this is going to be fun!
First the flight was delayed due to the previous flight being late and they kept subtly changing the depart time without announcements. The only indication that you weren't crazy and misremembering the time was the TIIIIIINY yellow announcement on the flight monitor. Thankfully, they made boarding go faster than normal so that we could all get on only about fifteen minutes late.
Ok, so now we're all packed in like sardines. I'm sitting next to a guy who looks like a cross between Jersey Shore and European Man Today- stubble, undershirt showing, fur-lined jacket, jeans, and men's leather boots - on his cell phone speaking not so happily to a phone carrier. Whatever, if nothing else it will be entertaining. Then the worst thing imaginable...
"Bing! Hey folks, this is the captain. It seems while they were closing the cargo hold the handle broke off, [inner thought: WTF!? I feel safe!] so we need to get maintenance out here to fix it. Just hold tight [where am I supposed to go?? I'm belted into an airplane!] and we'll fix it as soon as we can. I'll give you an update soon, this should only take about a half hour." The woman across the aisle starts flipping out. Calling the airline, demanding to be put on another plane, another airline.
A half hour later..."Hey folks, the handle is completely broken and they need to replace it, they got the part now and it shouldn't be too much longer, I'll keep you posted". more screaming from across the aisle....another half hour...the guy next to me starts calling for free shots, the woman has sent her husband to the front of the plane twice and rang the call button, but no word from the captain and the flight attendants are hiding. At this point I know that even if we take off immediately, I'm going to miss my connection...another 15 minutes..."Hey folks, I've been down there checking it out. They got the handle on, just need to fill out some paperwork and tighten a few things. They're hurrying so we can take off as soon as possible. We'll get out as soon as we can, if you have a 5pm connection you should be ok"...another 20 minutes..."Hey folks, still working on the paperwork and final check, it should be soon...if you missed your connection we automatically rerouted you..." he then rattles off destinations and new flight times, except for my destination - but the attendants are still hiding so I can't ask about it...another 20 minutes after that we finally left - almost two hours late.
During takeoff, a piece of molding over the window comes loose and flaps in the breeze over some passenger's heads. The attendant runs over with MASKING TAPE to hold it back up. They couldn't even use duct tape?? The guy in front of me recorded it on his phone, but I can't find it on youtube to show you. The attendant gave him a bad look when she realized he'd taped it.
Here's the only good part of the flight: while coming down the aisle with the beverage and food, I look at the menu and decide I'm splurging for some alcohol and a $5 adult lunchable. They don't have the snack advertised in the sky magazine, so I get a different one, but when I go to hand the attendant my credit card she shakes her head. BOO YA! free booze and food. Small victories, my friend, small victories.
So we land at about 4:35, my connection took off at 4:05. Now there's no room for us at any gates because we're so late, so we have to wait AGAIN on the tarmac. Of course angry lady to my left gets on the phone screaming to the airline again (with the attendant strapped in two seats over). Finally pull into the gate at about 4:50 and people clamor over each other to get out and to their next flight. I know I'm screwed so I hold back and let people go in front of me. I scan my boarding pass at the "Missed your flight? Scan and Go" counter...7:35 flight....standby...excuse me? Yup, standby. Great. Check the gate, decide to go check it out and cry to the booth person. After 2 gate changes and running all around I finally get to the right place, they're boarding a different flight, so I get some nasty airline food and look for a book store since I finished my book due to the delay. No book stores in this terminal. No book, dead ipod, no free internet for laptop...so not happy. I'm forced to get a trashy romance novel at the newsstand. I get to the booth, tell he guy my sob story, he says he can't tell me if there's room on the flight for at least an hour. So I go angrily eat and wait. When I go back in about an hour, whine some more, and get a real ticket! YAY! Then things start looking up as I find someone I know on my dinky flight to my little town, so I sit and talk to them for the hour until boarding...then this flight gets delayed too...o well I'm now numb to all this and just wait it out talking to my friends.
We board...I have a middle seat, of course, whatever I'm going home. There's drunk people galore across the aisle. I wouldn't care so much if my Lenox Mickey Mouse, that I carried on so it wouldn't break, wasn't above their heads and they kept knocking around their bags and re-opening the compartment even after the attendant closed it for take off. I begged the man to my right to get up and close the hatch, explaining about the Mickey, he does it since what am I going to do, climb over him? Nice short flight, I read my new trashy book the whole time, the drunk people slept, and its good, I even get the guy to jump up and get my mickey before the drunk people knock it on the floor - he made a comment about it but I just didn't care at that point. Time to call the boyfriend to pick me up....I text him I land and when I go to answer him calling while at baggage my phone dies...crap. They flight friends are mutual friends! I ask them to call him, they only one that has his number has a dead cell too...crap. So I go outside and hope he just circles until he finds me. He does! With Riley in tow, he picks me up. Its almost five hours after I was supposed to be home, but I'm finally home and it's wonderful.
I just got an email from Delta asking me to give feed back on my flight experience...this is going to be fun!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Cleaning Out the Attic
I traveled to my parents house in still snowy Massachusetts. As someone who detests the cold, I was very unhappy to find at least three feet of snow STILL on the ground - but with sweat pants and plenty of fuzzy socks in hand, I was able to get to business - cleaning out my stuff!
It is an eventual part of life, your parents realize you are never coming home, and they want to reclaim what was once your space for purposes of their own: a craft room, a yoga pad, or Grandma's new diggs. My mother has been after me for a while to come get my stuff...though that isn't the word she uses.
Task 1: Polly Pockets. I forgot how awesome these are! I have most of the village, including the mansion, the pop-up drama house, and the magnetic play set where Polly "walks". I lined them all up on the kitchen counter and had a great trip down memory lane. This trip was double the fun because my mother admitted how cool they are - WINNER! Quick search on EBay and they are going for $6-$12 a set. Nice. These are definitely coming home - either I save them for my future girl, play with them, or realize they are a horrible choke hazard and sell them online.
Task 2: BARBIES. Again, great trip down memory lane. I decided to get rid of the cheap plastic sets (i.e. the Stable and similar sets of snap together, minimally colored plastic sets from when Mattel stopped trying making cool things and went for mass-produced cheap things), and kept the awesome "they don't make them like this any more" things, like the Tyco Little Kitchens play set. Oh yea, this spoiled little princess had the stove, the refrigerator, AND even the kitchen sink! The stove makes cooking sounds, and the front two burners have magnets of opposite polarity so that you can flip a special pancake! I think I now understand why I went into engineering! The refrigerator was slightly less cool, but had a real ice dispenser that made nose and shot out little clear plastic ice cube blobs. The best thing about the refrigerator was the FOOD. Amazingly detailed packages of real brand-name foods, like Wonder bread, and Pepsi soda (though I'm a Coke girl). The kitchen sink was attached to a wall of counter and cabinet space for storage with a dishwasher and a sink that sprayed real water (if you filled the special tray in the back). So awesome! Those are all safely packed away with a few of my all time favorite barbies to pass on to my daughter (or pull out and play with when I feel like reverting to an 8 year old)
Task 3: Beanie Babies. My high school friend came over and helped me go through them all. We tried to do some research for a list of the top value beanies. The engineer in me was determined to apply the 80/20 rule: 20% of the items would make up about 80% of the total value of the whole bunch - much better than doing the work on that 80% and only getting 20% of the money!! So many lists were contradicting themselves that we decided to sort by release year - all 160 of them, yup, I counted. Finally found one list that said the original beanies were usually worth the most - if they were also first generation. How the heck do you tell? Find an obscure website that lists out which tag design is which generation. ALL of my beanies are 4th or 5th generation. So how much are they all worth? About $80-$160 for ALL of them...before eBay fees. So not worth it, I donated them (except for specific ones to give to friends, a couple holiday ones for decorations, and one that looks like Riley). At least now they will benefit someone! Karma points beat out dollars in this case.
So now all of my items have been sorted at my parents house; now we just need to figure out how to get it the 1300 miles to Florida!!
It is an eventual part of life, your parents realize you are never coming home, and they want to reclaim what was once your space for purposes of their own: a craft room, a yoga pad, or Grandma's new diggs. My mother has been after me for a while to come get my stuff...though that isn't the word she uses.
Task 1: Polly Pockets. I forgot how awesome these are! I have most of the village, including the mansion, the pop-up drama house, and the magnetic play set where Polly "walks". I lined them all up on the kitchen counter and had a great trip down memory lane. This trip was double the fun because my mother admitted how cool they are - WINNER! Quick search on EBay and they are going for $6-$12 a set. Nice. These are definitely coming home - either I save them for my future girl, play with them, or realize they are a horrible choke hazard and sell them online.
Task 2: BARBIES. Again, great trip down memory lane. I decided to get rid of the cheap plastic sets (i.e. the Stable and similar sets of snap together, minimally colored plastic sets from when Mattel stopped trying making cool things and went for mass-produced cheap things), and kept the awesome "they don't make them like this any more" things, like the Tyco Little Kitchens play set. Oh yea, this spoiled little princess had the stove, the refrigerator, AND even the kitchen sink! The stove makes cooking sounds, and the front two burners have magnets of opposite polarity so that you can flip a special pancake! I think I now understand why I went into engineering! The refrigerator was slightly less cool, but had a real ice dispenser that made nose and shot out little clear plastic ice cube blobs. The best thing about the refrigerator was the FOOD. Amazingly detailed packages of real brand-name foods, like Wonder bread, and Pepsi soda (though I'm a Coke girl). The kitchen sink was attached to a wall of counter and cabinet space for storage with a dishwasher and a sink that sprayed real water (if you filled the special tray in the back). So awesome! Those are all safely packed away with a few of my all time favorite barbies to pass on to my daughter (or pull out and play with when I feel like reverting to an 8 year old)
Task 3: Beanie Babies. My high school friend came over and helped me go through them all. We tried to do some research for a list of the top value beanies. The engineer in me was determined to apply the 80/20 rule: 20% of the items would make up about 80% of the total value of the whole bunch - much better than doing the work on that 80% and only getting 20% of the money!! So many lists were contradicting themselves that we decided to sort by release year - all 160 of them, yup, I counted. Finally found one list that said the original beanies were usually worth the most - if they were also first generation. How the heck do you tell? Find an obscure website that lists out which tag design is which generation. ALL of my beanies are 4th or 5th generation. So how much are they all worth? About $80-$160 for ALL of them...before eBay fees. So not worth it, I donated them (except for specific ones to give to friends, a couple holiday ones for decorations, and one that looks like Riley). At least now they will benefit someone! Karma points beat out dollars in this case.
So now all of my items have been sorted at my parents house; now we just need to figure out how to get it the 1300 miles to Florida!!
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