Snippets of Spring
My dad is home from the hospital and walking with the help of my mom and a walker and maybe a cane. I’m not really sure. He’s sleeping on an air mattress in the den as he can’t manage the thirteen steps up to his own room. He reassured me that everything is okay, the amount of pain is very small but “I STILL HAVE 26 STAPLES IN MY BACKSIDE. THEY HURT A LITTLE BIT.”
I can imagine.
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I was walking toward the subway turnstiles the other day and a blind man was walking the wrong way, his cane held out in front of him. A man in a business suit stopped and asked him if he needed help. Not only did he point him in the correct direction, he took him by the elbow and led him there himself, making sure he got through okay. I thought about it all morning. Even here in crazy old New York City, people are mostly good.
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I’ve been questioning my financial decisions lately. My ridiculous way of picking up the tab when I have no business doing so. Getting half a sandwich when I should’ve just made one at home. Signing up for Italian lessons when I should’ve probably paid down my credit card. And just when I was wondering whether or not I could make it through jogs in the spring time without an iPod, my old one in the lovely habit of losing battery power after THREE songs, the option of buying a new one completely off the table, The Roommate came home and presented me with his old iPod Touch. Beautiful, perfect, selfless roommate. I opened up the iTunes store and downloaded “I Just Might” from 9-5 the Musical for $0.99. I walked out the door this morning into 70 degree sunshine and pressed PLAY and credit card debt or not, my heart soared.
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Yesterday afternoon, my co-worker sent me an e-mail invite to an impromptu outdoor barbecue in his East Side apartment backyard. I normally turn down invites like this, having something else booked or something else to do. Last night, I unexpectedly was free. I invited PCG and Alayna and the three of us snuggled under a blanket around a fire pit, digging into (veggie) burgers and sipping Blue Moon summer ales. I watched the sunset behind the buildings of the city and I felt so much love, so much peace, so much spring.
Have a great weekend everybody! If you have staples in your butt, I AM SO SORRY!!!
photo (c) brynmeillion
I want to tread carefully here, so I don’t come across as SuperTim, the annoying guy who has advice for everything. But that’s probably hopeless.
So… I’ll just say that two months ago I had $1,900.00 on my credit card and I paid it all off in two months with nothing but what I made in those two months. And I don’t make much money. I’m currently working as a concierge for $12.00 an hour. I did rack up some serious overtime in those two months, which was at the $18.00 an hour rate. So that helped a lot. But it really just means I was able to pay down the credit card in two months instead of three or four months.
My rent is $810.00 a month. My share of utilities is about $50.00. I have a cell phone bill that’s always around $55.00 and always buy the $89.00 unlimited thirty-day MetroCard. So I couldn’t touch that chunk of cash. I just spent two months not eating out, not hitting any bars, not going out to the movies, not seeing any plays, and watching my grocery spending. It’s amazing how much money you can save when you do that.
And it’s not like I was miserable for those two months. I went out and did things, visited friends, had friends visit me, and enjoyed myself. I just watched my spending. One time I went out to a restaurant with some friends and ended up spending $15.00 on a hamburger. Another time I went to Borders and bought a CD and a Who t-shirt for a combined $20.00. I had a Borders coupon. I also bought the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, because beautiful women in bikinis are almost as awesome as The Who.
I’m being detailed so that you know that it’s possible to get out of debt relatively quickly if you set your mind to it. Even on a limited budget. I’m sure you already know this. I’m basically just saying that if I can do it, you can do it. So do it. And I don’t think you should regret the Italian lessons. I think you should make the most of them and consider it money well spent. Ciao, bella.
Oh, and about what you witnessed on the subway… I see stuff like that in this city ALL THE TIME. When I first got here it really surprised me, because of the abrasive, “f— you” attitude that New York City residents are supposed to have. But, yeah, you’re right, even in New York City people are mostly good. Of course, sometimes they shoot each other.
I found you a little while ago, read one post and was hooked. I’ve gone back through the archives and read my way through to here. I just wanted to let you know that I wish you were my friend, and that I think you’re brave, and strong. Our lives couldn’t possibly be different, but I feel like I just cheered you on through the last 5-6 years of yours.
You’re amazingly lucky to have the father that you do, and while I was reading, I couldn’t help but be struck by the ease at which your mother reads this blog. Which isn’t to say that you’ve been incredibly harsh, because you haven’t. I guess my frame of reference is my own mother, who wouldn’t be able to handle it if I laid out honest issues and emotions I have dealing with her, and yours just takes it in stride. Which is all to say: you’re amazingly lucky to have her, too.
There’s so much I want to say, but I’ll just leave it at this: I love being able to follow along with your journey, and I can’t wait to read more. Thank you for sharing your life, and the Dlugs, and PCG, and all of it. I hope right now, wherever you are, you’re happy, your womanly parts are happy, your father is healthy, and there’s a big bowl of artichokes somewhere in your near future.
wow Meggie, I want to be both of your friends, oh yeah, and SuperTim too! ; ) because ditto on everything Meggie said about you Laura!
Dlug!
I know this is early, but your b-day is coming up and I haven’t been in touch in forever, so I figured I’d just say ‘Hey wassup hope you’re doing great and have a sweet birthday’
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve said hi
Rob Wahl Ohmigosh, thanks! Yes! My bday is on Monday!
Hope all is good on your end!
Meggie – Your comment made me cry. Um. I’m not kidding. So, thank you. A lot. That was amazing.
Tim – Dude. Dole out all the advice you want! I’m into a dialogue here as long as it is NICE and you are always nice so, whatevs! I totally hear you on restricting your budget. I’ve been having lots of conversations about this with my friends lately. I’ve gotten very aware of my patterns and things I do that prevent me from chipping away at my debt on a month-to-month basis. I always think everything is great but I sabotage it and often by doing the SAME STUPID STUFF. So, it’s something to keep working on. The thing that sucks is that I have a lot more monthly expenses than you do. My rent is cheaper but my cell phone is about the same, utilities and MetroCard too. But I also happen to carry a student loan payment that is not necessarily huge but eats up a chunk of cash every month. If I didn’t have that, oh how sweet my life would be!
Oh, yeah, student loan payments. Not something I have to worry about, thankfully. I went to Saint Bonaventure in the nineties and had about $21,000.00 in student loans. I paid that off while I was in the Navy. Not a hard thing to do when you’re at sea for six months at a time with literally nothing to spend your pay on. And then the Navy basically paid me to go to UB, so I didn’t rack up any debt there.
This reminds me, though… You said in an earlier post that you failed to pay your card down by $300.00 because you actually paid $500.00 down and then had to put $700.00 on because of your car. So, if I’m calculating this correctly, it was a net addition of $200.00 to your credit card debt. I am a math genius.
So you said that you failed. But that’s not the way to look at it! It would have been another $700.00 on your card, but instead it was only $200.00. That’s the way to look at it, I think. Your car troubles ended up not being as big a hit to your finances as they would have been if you hadn’t been responsible enough to save $500.00 that month and use it to pay down your credit card. Give yourself some deserved kudos for that, kiddo.
Do whatever you did that month, and, if the car cooperates, you can put a serious dent in your credit card debt. I BELIEVE IN YOU, LAURA.
Oh, and I also have a Netflix payment. It’s like ten bucks a month. I love it. I watch many, many, many classic Westerns.
Sometimes I buy gum.