Money Changes Everything
I haven't talked about anything but myself for a very long time.
The state of the economy has me worried.
Okay that's enough. Now back to me.
Naw, seriously. I feel fortunate that I've managed to stay relatively untouched by things as the economy crumbles. I feel like a Titanic survivor watching everyone else go down with the ship and asking myself how fate chose me as a survivor. I have a strong feeling of cognitive disonnance that just as the economy gets worse by the minute, and things are probably going to get much worse before it gets better, I'm experiencing the greatest prosperity of my life.
So I'm in this strange wilderness where I'm trying to figure out how to deal with money as everyone else is scrambling, figuring out how to survive. It's not something I can talk about with anyone. How dare I even complain or laugh at my foibles while others are suffering? For example, I didn't know that when you pay for dinner for a party of six or more, the gratuity is already included in the bill, and if it's not included and the bill is more than, say, $100 the 15% rule no longer applies. But what I do know is that if you don't know that and you pay the bill using the 15% rule all of a sudden the management and waitstaff will treat you as their new best friend and give everyone at the table free gelato.
So while on my personal quest to generate my own economic stimulus, I have spent a lot of time shopping. A lot. Just about any day off or free time I have I find myself running around to different stores looking for just the right bag, or pair or shoes, or jacket.......or something. It used to be if I needed something I would just walk in the store, buy that something and walk out. Now that I can afford nicer things I want to take my time and comparison shop.
I'm a surprisingly quick study - or maybe I've developed over the nine years that J and I have been together, but now when I shop I can immediately tell if something is good quality or a piece of crap. And while I'll buy a less than nice thing if it's something I don't need long term, mostly what goes through my mind is thinking about how hard I worked to make my money and not wanting to blow it on something that's going to fall apart in a couple of months. The other thing I think about is how much time I spent shopping for a thing and not wanting to have to shop for it again for a few years. I also want to avoid a misfire by buying something that just isn't quite the right color or size, and having to trot it back to the store for a refund, or if I can't take it back, it's languishing around my house, a constant reminder of wasted time and money.
Case in point. I have been shopping for body powder for probably six months. I've tried different brands but can't find something I'm happy with. Just before Thanksgiving I decided to find the body powder version of some kind of perfume. I have sniffed and whiffed dozens of brands of perfumes and don't like any of them. Finally because I'm just so sick of spending time on it, I bought one that I used to wear 20 years ago. When I think back over this endeavor I'm mad at myself to think I've created all this angst for myself over freakin' body powder!
This also brings up the reality that I'm getting older. As I get older I'm finding it harder to change. Every year I feel more overwhelmed by the world, technology, information, choices, entertainment, and I just want to withdraw into what is most familiar. That is why I went back to a perfume I used to wear. I already know I like it and I wanted to get off the perfume search merry-go-round.
I used to snicker at women who have worn their hair the same way for decades. You know the ones. The middle-aged women who still have the horrible mall hair, the "hair flower" where bangs should be, the sides gelled back and the rest of it hanging around their sholders.
Then it happened to me.
I've been wearing my hair short and layered for years. Most of the time I don't even comb it. I wash it, put some curl enhancing gel in it and leave. I've tried different styles over time, but this is the easiest and looks the best. But I'm bored with my hair. I try growing it out from time to time because I'm so tired of wearing it the same way. J has been wearing the same bowl-on-the-head pageboy since she was 7 but she's comfortable like that. I need a change.
So I got my hair done the other day. A while back I went about three months without a hair cut. My hair grows like kudzu so I had a nice bit of length to work with. I got a trim about six weeks ago but I was looking sort of shaggy and decided it was time to get it done.
Now that I'm on this endeavor to not do things on the cheap I decided to go to a salon that was a bit more upscale and expensive. Not crazy expensive, just maybe $10 or $15 more than I usually pay. So the lady worked her magic on me and I walked out looking something like this only more like a human being. I felt so great that I immediately went to the mall for a makeover. Well, not immediately. Actually I was shopping for a bag, a jacket and shoes to go with some pants I bought a year ago and still haven't worn when I took a shortcut through the cosmetic section of Macy's and a make-up technician grabbed me.
The next morning, full of hope and inspiration, and $60 lighter, I washed my hair and got busy doing my hair the way I thought I had seen the lady do it at the salon. Thirty minutes later I wound up with a perfectly coiffed..........helmet. I don't know if it's because I didn't use a round brush, I don't have the right product or if I just need time to learn a new technique, but my hair looked nothing like it did when I left the salon. But my hair pooofed up to three times the volume it was the day before. I was able to flat-iron the curl out but the nice, silky texture I had was gone. I was left with this wiry, unruly mass that felt like a doormat. As the day wore on it formed two wavy ridges over the top and trying to plaster it down with water just made me look like a water-logged cocker spaniel. I spent 30 minutes on this mess.
So today I just washed it, ran some curl enhancer throught it and went about my day.
Maybe I'll just grow it out, gel it back and wear a Scrunchi from now on.
The state of the economy has me worried.
Okay that's enough. Now back to me.
Naw, seriously. I feel fortunate that I've managed to stay relatively untouched by things as the economy crumbles. I feel like a Titanic survivor watching everyone else go down with the ship and asking myself how fate chose me as a survivor. I have a strong feeling of cognitive disonnance that just as the economy gets worse by the minute, and things are probably going to get much worse before it gets better, I'm experiencing the greatest prosperity of my life.
So I'm in this strange wilderness where I'm trying to figure out how to deal with money as everyone else is scrambling, figuring out how to survive. It's not something I can talk about with anyone. How dare I even complain or laugh at my foibles while others are suffering? For example, I didn't know that when you pay for dinner for a party of six or more, the gratuity is already included in the bill, and if it's not included and the bill is more than, say, $100 the 15% rule no longer applies. But what I do know is that if you don't know that and you pay the bill using the 15% rule all of a sudden the management and waitstaff will treat you as their new best friend and give everyone at the table free gelato.
So while on my personal quest to generate my own economic stimulus, I have spent a lot of time shopping. A lot. Just about any day off or free time I have I find myself running around to different stores looking for just the right bag, or pair or shoes, or jacket.......or something. It used to be if I needed something I would just walk in the store, buy that something and walk out. Now that I can afford nicer things I want to take my time and comparison shop.
I'm a surprisingly quick study - or maybe I've developed over the nine years that J and I have been together, but now when I shop I can immediately tell if something is good quality or a piece of crap. And while I'll buy a less than nice thing if it's something I don't need long term, mostly what goes through my mind is thinking about how hard I worked to make my money and not wanting to blow it on something that's going to fall apart in a couple of months. The other thing I think about is how much time I spent shopping for a thing and not wanting to have to shop for it again for a few years. I also want to avoid a misfire by buying something that just isn't quite the right color or size, and having to trot it back to the store for a refund, or if I can't take it back, it's languishing around my house, a constant reminder of wasted time and money.
Case in point. I have been shopping for body powder for probably six months. I've tried different brands but can't find something I'm happy with. Just before Thanksgiving I decided to find the body powder version of some kind of perfume. I have sniffed and whiffed dozens of brands of perfumes and don't like any of them. Finally because I'm just so sick of spending time on it, I bought one that I used to wear 20 years ago. When I think back over this endeavor I'm mad at myself to think I've created all this angst for myself over freakin' body powder!
This also brings up the reality that I'm getting older. As I get older I'm finding it harder to change. Every year I feel more overwhelmed by the world, technology, information, choices, entertainment, and I just want to withdraw into what is most familiar. That is why I went back to a perfume I used to wear. I already know I like it and I wanted to get off the perfume search merry-go-round.
I used to snicker at women who have worn their hair the same way for decades. You know the ones. The middle-aged women who still have the horrible mall hair, the "hair flower" where bangs should be, the sides gelled back and the rest of it hanging around their sholders.
Then it happened to me.
I've been wearing my hair short and layered for years. Most of the time I don't even comb it. I wash it, put some curl enhancing gel in it and leave. I've tried different styles over time, but this is the easiest and looks the best. But I'm bored with my hair. I try growing it out from time to time because I'm so tired of wearing it the same way. J has been wearing the same bowl-on-the-head pageboy since she was 7 but she's comfortable like that. I need a change.
So I got my hair done the other day. A while back I went about three months without a hair cut. My hair grows like kudzu so I had a nice bit of length to work with. I got a trim about six weeks ago but I was looking sort of shaggy and decided it was time to get it done.
Now that I'm on this endeavor to not do things on the cheap I decided to go to a salon that was a bit more upscale and expensive. Not crazy expensive, just maybe $10 or $15 more than I usually pay. So the lady worked her magic on me and I walked out looking something like this only more like a human being. I felt so great that I immediately went to the mall for a makeover. Well, not immediately. Actually I was shopping for a bag, a jacket and shoes to go with some pants I bought a year ago and still haven't worn when I took a shortcut through the cosmetic section of Macy's and a make-up technician grabbed me.
The next morning, full of hope and inspiration, and $60 lighter, I washed my hair and got busy doing my hair the way I thought I had seen the lady do it at the salon. Thirty minutes later I wound up with a perfectly coiffed..........helmet. I don't know if it's because I didn't use a round brush, I don't have the right product or if I just need time to learn a new technique, but my hair looked nothing like it did when I left the salon. But my hair pooofed up to three times the volume it was the day before. I was able to flat-iron the curl out but the nice, silky texture I had was gone. I was left with this wiry, unruly mass that felt like a doormat. As the day wore on it formed two wavy ridges over the top and trying to plaster it down with water just made me look like a water-logged cocker spaniel. I spent 30 minutes on this mess.
So today I just washed it, ran some curl enhancer throught it and went about my day.
Maybe I'll just grow it out, gel it back and wear a Scrunchi from now on.