Sunday, July 31, 2011

Money Under the Bridge

I go into intervals of being frugal and then suddenly spending money like it's going out of style. The last two weekends have been in the latter vein. For instance:

Shoez

This is Emily's Fault. And possibly also Elsie's, who told me I need to "advertise more". But Emily is more directly responsible, since she came into town, visiting from Seattle, and we ended up heading to Nordstrom Rack in Colma, what with us both needing new clothes. We didn't end up actually buying any clothes, unless you count $200 (each) in shoes as clothing. Though I really was in need of some new shoes for the office. Some day I'll get around to actually buying new pants.

And FYI: the above are definitely not for the office. They are most definitely for Other Purposes. Trust me, they look innocent in that photo compared to how they look actually on my feet. Mmm ... almost can't wait to try them out.

Mmm. Anyway.

Last weekend was a bit more practical in the spending arena. I'd been using a $30 AT&T Nokia Go Phone for three years. I liked to call it my StupidPhone, and was more or less happy: I could make and receive calls, I could text, I could (very slowly) make a quick Gmail check if I really had to. It was all I needed. I don't like changing much: I'd been with AT&T since they were WorldCom, and was kind of reluctant to try something new.

However, after months of being mildly mocked for my not-quite-Luddite tendencies, and after getting an email about a sweet company discount on signing a new contract with Sprint (the prospect of playing Words with Friends may also have had something to do with it), I finally bit the bullet. Ported my number to a new account, signed a contract, and got a shiny new SmartPhone:

Camera

It's a Samsung Replenish, which sort of was my original first choice, anyway, and ended up being the best deal overall. I even bought the solar panel battery cover, despite the fact that I live in foggy San Francisco and, as I've mentioned before, only see the sun maybe 10 days a year. Hopefully it will come in handy if/when I take another road trip. Or if I get stranded in the middle of the desert.

The ensuing week, up to and including the shoe shopping extravaganza, was far less sensible. There were a couple nights of drinking, the latter of which (Friday) involved me losing a tote bag containing my hard copy calendar — so I haven't switched to a digital calendar yet, so sue me — a couple of glassware leftovers containers, and, really critically, my current knitting project and all my knitting notions. It was a fun night, I got far too drunk, but now I'm kind of missing that sack. The bar says they don't have it, the guy who drove us home said it's not in his car ... and it's definitely not in my apartment. I may have to give it all up to the universe as a lost cause, but I'm still kind of sad.

Though I guess there are other things I should be knitting, anyway. Curse you, universe.

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