Sorry I've not updated in a couple days, but the roommate monopolized the computer during that time designing a house he'll never actually build, among other things. The computer has also been loaded with viruses lately so we've had to be careful.
Yesterday was perhaps my least productive day since I moved here four years ago. Even while out of work for five months in 2005, at least I did something every day. Not so with yesterday. The busiest thing I did was move the garbage can six feet out from the house to prepare for trash day today. Sometimes you have those days where you want the whole world to bypass you and you want to "mail it in" from the moment you get up. That explains Monday.
It was the trash day issue that inspired today's entry. Giving the house a needed dose of fresh air, I saw a truck pull up in front of the house, and the same guy I saw last week got out and took a vacumn cleaner & a roll of wire mesh out of the neighbors' yards and load it. At first I shook my head: why would someone want to root through the trash?
I had to stop myself awful quickly because someone I know has done that: me.
How did I gain the end tables and coffee table for the living room? Not to mention the dining room chairs and even my mattress? Exactly; picking through other people want-nots. My roommate doesn't understand my reasoning, especially since we have a goodwill store two blocks from the house.
This, more than anything, shows my thriftiness. If I can get something at the lowest possible price, I'll do it. Having not had a raise at work for three years & with the cost of everything spiraling out of control since then, I can't just spend freely and binge. I eventually did run out of saved-up money during the five months I was out last year, but it ended up lasting me three months. Those last two months were torture, and I don't want to end up like that again. So I just increased the level of my thriftiness, and it carries over to today.
I am a victim of the materialistic society, and though I tolerate it, I'll speak out against it from time to time; particularly in the areas of romance (do they like you or your pocketbook). Not wanting to lower myself to the people I speak out against, I do what's right for me and I don't go to Macy's, Marshall Fields and Lord & Taylor like my mother did. If I don't have the money for something, I won't borrow it, or I'll wait as long as it takes. I figure they won't discontinue the item during that time. Nobody really has to know where I obtained my furniture.
So I stood there at the door as the guy loaded his truck, and just said nothing out of respect; noting a peer with the same idea I've had. And it's worked for both of us with no complaints. To get ahead in life, you need to start at the bottom level, and I've got that pretty much down to a science.
