Acquisition Update

Since I'm usually compulsively thrifty and can't bear to spend money on anything, I usually have to psych myself up before I can get into shopping mode. Once I'm in shopping mode, however, I have no compunctions (well, all right, a comparative paucity of compunctions) about spending money. I go into shopping mode when I go on vacation, but since I have returned from vacation, I haven't been able to get out of it.

Partly this is due to the fact that I wore out a huge portion of my possessions right before leaving or while in California. My USB data transfer cable stopped working. My favorite pair of jeans developed a hole, my headphones lost their earpad, my black summer skirt (the mid-length one, not the long one or the short one) met a scheduled demise, my white skirt and white capris may or may not recover from the dirt stains, my grey jacket almost certainly won't. My black flip-flops started to look unbearably dingy and my black velvet sneakers became increasingly holey. With all these items suddenly in need of replacement, I think I went into shopping overdrive.

I'm hoping that if I remind myself of how many things I've purchased in the past two weeks and how much I spent on them, I will be appalled and stop spending my money!

The week before vacation:

• Strapless bra to go with bridesmaid dress - 11$
• Pink peasant blouse - 10$
  
• Blue skirt to go with peasant blouse and because I really just wanted a new skirt - another 10$

During vacation:

• Flowery sunglasses because I left my plain sunglasses at the hotel - 8$
• Cookies - about 6$
  
• Licorice and a postcard from the general store in Temecula - about 4$ (After that I wished I had bought more licorice)
  
• Pink sundress - 59$! Yikes! Thank goodness I refrained from buying the 40$ purse!
• More licorice and miscellaneous other candy from the candy shop at La Jolla beach - 11$
• 4 new tank tops at the Pink Zone in La Jolla - $11 - A great deal that I wouldn't ever be able to beat even in Ohio.

After vacation:

• Nice black flip flops to replace the dingy ones that I've been using since 2005 when I bought them for only 5 dollars but have been unable to find as nice a pair for as cheap since then - 13$
• Funky floral printed tennis shoes to replace the holey black ones I've only been using for a year and a half - 7$
• Black platform tennis-shoe-like things - that were ostensibly to replace the black platforms that I've mostly been not-using since they went out of fashion in 2006 - but were really mostly just because they were cute and only cost 9$

Grand total: 159$. And that's just frivolity money--it does not include the fortune that I spent on food items for immediate consumption, shared car rental and gasoline, the 142 dollars that I blew away on a second plane ticket home when I found out that Mom was leaving a day before me and I didn't want to spend an extra day in L.A. by myself, the 30 dollars that I spent for checking my bag on the flights to and from California, the 2.50$ Shout wipes that will hopefully remove the grease spot on my bridesmaid dress so I don't have to get it dry cleaned before I attempt to sell it, and the 7$ combined total of nasal decongestant spray and antihistamine pills that will hopefully treat the allergies that have plagued me for no apparent reason since Monday night. I might add that I now own four different varieties of decongestant, two of which don't seem to work.

So the moral of this story is, hey, Big Spender! Don't forget rent is due in two days, and you need to get your transmission repaired in the near future!

California Update

I have just returned from a semi-splendid vacation to the West Coast.

Some highlights:

1. My wonderful friend Julie got married! Way to go, Julie and David! I wish them both many years of future happiness! They had a gorgeous wedding in a garden, which was beautiful, but after seeing all the hassle that the preparations were, I realize I will have to be extra stingy and also develop some major assertiveness skills before planning my own unlikely wedding.
2. My mother and I climbed a mountain! We thought we would die from the exertion at first, but then we found the easy path and discovered the bridge of peace and the flag of memories and the cross of pilgrims and had a great time!
3. I caught a cold. Or was I allergic to something? Or was it a cold? Or an allergy? Four days into the trip, I developed a runny/stuffy nose that progressed to just a stuffy nose after a day and went away when I got off the bus in Maryland but seems to have come back. But keeps going away again. So am I allergic to California? Or allergic to something more nationwide? Or do I just have a really mild cold? My nose is mysterious.
4. It was too cold to swim. Which was not so bad, because I really don't like swimming all that much, except that it was also too cold to enjoy pretty much anything! I had all these cute summer clothes that I had to keep covering up with dingy old jackets.
5. We went to the San Diego zoo, which was impressively huge. We kept getting lost. But they had a good cafe that served salads with their sandwiches instead of chips, which is a rarity. We saw all sorts of animals, including several that I didn't know existed!
6. We went shopping a lot. I did not buy any souvenirs, because there was nothing that looked like it was worth buying. But then I went and spent over 50 dollars on a sundress I wouldn't have considered buying for more than 14 dollars at home. I spent most of the rest of my money on food. The nice thing about spending your vacation money on food, is that once you eat it, it's gone, and it does not contribute to clutter.
7. We stayed at La Jolla Beach, which was awesome. It had cliffs and caves and pelicans and pigeons and seagulls and seals and squirrels! People were even allowed on the beach with the seals, but I didn't go, because no one else was going.
   

This is the beginning.

It's my four-year anniversary as a blogger! (OK, it's a day later, but I was busy yesterday flying to California and rehearsing a wedding and such.)
In honor of this momentous occasion, I am moving my blog to Blogger. I have my reasons, but I am too lazy to list them right now.

If you care to look at my old blog, it still exists at http://valsgalore.bravejournal.com.

Later on, I will post more interesting content here.