Archive for December, 2008

I am not good at saving–in fact, I’m kind of terrible at it. Because why save money when you can spend it on shiny things like shoes and a new face from a Brazilian plastic surgeon? I thought that would be a good thing, though: it takes me many, many decades to slowly pile up money into an amount that could be considered more than pocket change, so while I saved,I would have plenty of time to think. I’ve been wanting a car for awhile, considering it, waffling over the possibility of maybe getting one. Maybe? Perhaps. Could be. Don’t question me!

This was my great plan, after a long time of dithering: if I took my time in saving up for a car, then I wouldn’t have to make a decision right away.

Sometimes, things turn on a dime. You end the week sad and poor because you don’t have health insurance, upset because you have just emptied out your bank account and over the course of the weekend you end up with fancy, stunningly affordable health insurance practically out of nowhere, which turns your entire life around. Funny how that can happen.

On Friday, I picked up the mail when I walked through the front door of my building and shuffled through it while I trudged up the stairs, because distracting myself from two flights of stairs is always a good idea. I almost tossed the giant flat envelope into the To Be Shredded pile, because it said “Urgent!” and “Open Immediately!” and I do not like to be told what to do.

E is going on a diet. We keep trying to refer to it as “healthy living,” but really it’s a diet, because he thinks that he needs to lose weight. He went to the doctor, got a full physical work up, discussed his health and his options and his goals, and was prescribed the South Beach diet. We went through the cookbook, picked out some meals and went shopping, on Sunday, for many different kinds of meats and all the additional spices required, a whole sack of garlic and a whole bag of onions. We agreed that this whole healthy living thing is very expensive, when the cashier hit us in the face with the grand total.

This is a lifestyle change, and we have been cooking every night since, for a grand total of two nights.