Thursday, it was time to equip myself for the warming weather. I threw on my Porta-Portese three euro dress (roughly equivalent to four dollars, my sucker price) and dangerous flip flops, and set out toward Kohl's and TJ Maxx. I stopped on a whim, though, halfway there when I saw Plato's Closet. I got a couple of cute new dresses, snappy but casual, one green and one black.

Aww.

I got two new pairs of flip-flops, one of them fancy and with bronze decoration. I love bronze decoration because it suits my extremely pale skin and red hair. For the other, I had intended to buy my annual pair of shoes that wears out after its use is ended-- I like the thatch-top kind because they literally fall apart when their time comes, without turning smelly or allowing me to hold on to them past due. And mine had literally become dangerous. You may well ask, how could a pair of flip-flops actually become dangerous? Exhibit A:

Yeah, the thatchy part was coming off; I got these things in Valvegas last summer, as their carbon-copy brown version brethren were becoming dirty and torn up. But what, you may wonder, is up with that tape?

A piece of the busted glass that likes to lie around the apartment parking lot got lodged in the shoe, pushing its way up through, right along that black edging. I did not realize this is what it was, so thinking it was a rock, I tried to pry the thing loose. It cut up my finger before I knew what it was, and then I tried to get it out with small metal implements. In the end, I knew, I needed to get new shoes.

So I taped over the glass (it was never actually hurting my foot to begin with!) and wore the damn things a day or two more. Because I'm like that.

Recession Monday

This afternoon on my weekly walk to the bank (southward on the main street) and post office (northward) I saw a chalk sign in front of the Jo Shmo's that said "Recession Monday - $1 burgers."

It's a recession, alright. It's strange to have exited college just now. L sent me this a while back, and I really loved it. I felt like I could identify, in more ways than one, with its author (which is why I started following that blog).

I left a note on the blog, actually.. it's pretty recognizably me, down at the bottom.

Monetarily speaking, I am pretty broke. I am certainly not making bank on my enterprise of substitute teaching and occasionally tutoring Latin. But, I'm also handling more money than I've ever handled in my life. I walked past that $1 burger sign to the bank where I dropped off my check for two weeks of substitute teaching, a respectable sum, to me at least. People with real lives and families would probably balk at living on my income.

The recession isn't as big a deal to me because I've always been poor.. I've always trained myself to go without. Not because our family was bad off; we were fine. But I personally have never made so much money. (I don't count the grants that went toward my exorbitantly priced education.. I think, theoretically, I made like 40,000 in a year, but I never saw it.. it was all imaginary. I got a basically free frickin-awesome education instead)

I do feel the crunch in little ways. I was supposed to start teaching GRE prep classes for Kaplan back in the beginning of February. They canceled a bunch of sections though; I'll be doing it in April, now. I heard that they tightened down at the restaurant, too, where I used to work. But being a sub is both as precarious and as solid as it ever was. Teachers still get sick, and still have appointments, and still have field trips and mandatory testing. But I will only ever get paid for the days I go in.. and spans of time like spring break leave me out of work, SOL if I happen to need that money.

I'm pretty responsible, and do not feel the need to spend copious amounts of money on things like beer and cigarettes, thankfully. I treat myself on occasion (to the beer, not the cigarettes), but keep one tight fist around my wallet. Apparently, everyone does that these days.. but it's nothing new to me!

And I know this blog can be a bit on the hokey side, at times. But I honestly feel like I'm wealthy in the ways that really matter.

Gotta go.. dinner's ready.