MY FATHER'S PASSING

Things were as they had always been. Colorfully appointed, eclectic actually.

Yet somehow, things were different.

In a Salvadore Dali sort of way.

My father passed away.

Oh how I hurt for my mother.

My father passed away.

I'M A VULCAN

Sometimes, I find that a path I have followed along a specific journey seems, in hindsight, well thought out, well planned and very obviously placed before me. Not by me, and not by any means I can readily explain.

You know what I'm talking about. Times where you just hear that "little voice" telling you what to do or you get that "gut feeling" telling you what not to do. Times where, upon seeing the results, you just have to pick your jaw up off of the ground and say, WOW!, or WHEW!, or DAMN!

Here's such a time:

When I was very little, my great grandmother (on my dad's side) passed away and left the beautiful diamond from her wedding ring to me when I turned 18 years old. My mom kept it safe for me and when I received it, I had it mounted in a ring that I wore for a few years.

Many years later, after John and I got married, my grandparents (on my mom's side), gave me a 24 kt. gold band that had been in their family. So, for Valentine's Day 1986, John, with my elated approval, had the diamond mounted on the band for me.

It was a lovely ring. Oddly, however, I seemed to get the feeling that it just wasn't a good fit - that somehow the diamond was not meant to be on that band. But I sometimes wore it on my right hand as an accent ring, all the while trying to figure out what to do with the diamond.

You see, here's the dilemma I faced on that front:

When John and I got married, he was a poor graduate student and I was working only part time. We had very little, and our wedding rings reflected that, shall we call it, simplicity. My ring is an unadorned white gold band. His is a bit more elaborate with ribbed yellow gold edges and an etched white gold strip in the middle. Plain. Simple. Unimposing. Very representative of us.

Since John is left handed and since he does a lot of writing at work, he was never very comfortable wearing his wedding ring. That was okay with me, because he bought me a beautiful yellow gold watch one year for our anniversary and since I wore it on my left wrist, I didn't like how it looked so close to the white gold ring on my finger. It just seemed to clash. So, the perfect solution (drum roll, please) was to wear his band with my band, thus creating a striped effect of yellow gold/white gold/yellow gold (his band), white gold (my band), yellow gold (watch).

As an added bonus to this, whenever John and I went out, he'd ask for his ring and I always had it handy for him.

LOGICAL!! FLAWLESSLY LOGICAL!!! I'm a VULCAN!!!

At one point, I thought about having my diamond mounted as a solitaire on my wedding band, that way I could keep the ensemble as it was and still wear the diamond. You see, I wanted to have my cake and eat it, too - I wanted to wear both of our rings AND the diamond. But John didn't want me to disturb the symbolism of our love.

I felt the same way, actually, so I continued to wear his wedding ring with mine, I wear a beautiful emerald ring John got me about 10 years ago on my right hand, and the diamond ring spends a good deal of its time in the safe. I think about getting it reset periodically, but I'm still looking for that perfect solution - how to incorporate it into the ensemble I wear.

Well, one Monday morning about 4 weeks ago, I kept thinking (or hearing that little voice, maybe) "wear your ring", "wear your ring". It was a strong urging, so I got the diamond ring out of the safe and wore it.

After a few days, nothing happened. "Yeah, right", I thought, and put the ring back in the safe, exchanging it for the emerald.

On Saturday morning, just two days later, John asked me what was on the agenda for the day. Out of my mouth - OUT OF THE BLUE - for no known reason at all, I said, "you're taking me to the jeweler to have my diamond reset. I'm going to have it put on a band just like my wedding band and that way I can wear it in addition to my ensemble, instead of my ensemble, or as an accessory. In essence, I'm going to have my cake and eat it, too!"

As I said before, LOGICAL!!! FLAWLESSLY LOGICAL!!! I'm a VULCAN!!!

I picked my new ring up two weeks ago and slipped it on my finger beside my wedding band. It is absolutely GORGEOUS! The diamond sparkles with an intensity I've not seen before. And it FEELS so right. It's almost as if the spirit of the diamond was released from the spirit of the band. Or maybe it's happy to be nestled beside the symbol of John's and my (perfect) love. I don't know. But it's LOVELY, truly LOVELY.

But another, most interesting event happened when I picked up the ring. Since it sparkled so brightly, I asked the jeweler to clean my other rings while I was there. He cleaned my band and John's band but came back holding my emerald ring in his hand. He informed me that he would be putting it into a jeweler's envelope for me and would not permit me to wear it home. It was in desperate need of resetting because the prongs were worn flat and any trauma to the ring could cause the stone to shatter or fall out!

WOW! WHEW! DAMN!

How could I have known that?

If I hadn't heard that voice telling me to wear my ring; if I hadn't come up with the idea, for no apparent reason, to have the diamond reset; and if I hadn't asked the jeweler to clean my rings, I could have, and quite probably would have, lost my emerald. A very beautiful (and expensive to replace, I found out) emerald.

Yes indeed. Well thought out. Well planned. A path very obviously placed before me.

COACH Accessories

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a call from my lovely daughter. She was ending an afternoon of shopping with her best friend and wondered if she could stop by.

"Of course you can!", I told her. You see, it's ALWAYS a joy to see her and she's ALWAYS welcome here.

She arrived a short time later sporting a beautiful COACH box. Wow, she really has been shopping, I thought. Then, imagine my UTTER DELIGHT when she presented that box to ME!!!

With great excitement, I opened the box and found a very neatly (almost obsessively) wrapped package containing a purse. A black leather purse with white stitching and silver hardware. It is, in traditional COACH quality, beautifully lined and smells just wonderfully leathery.

But wait - that's not all...............

The box also contained a smaller cardboard envelope/box bearing the COACH logo. Inside that box was a black and silver COACH case holding a cute compact mirror to go with the purse. Ooooooh, this is nice!

So, I've had the purse sitting here beside me for a few weeks now. I feel it, I smell it, I inspect it, I pet it. And since I'm probably wearing it out without even using it, I think it's time to take it out in public.

Now, I've never been a materialistic person, but I'll have to admit, there's something about accessories like these that strike a "feel-good" chord in me. Or maybe I feel good because I'm fortunate enough to have such a considerate daughter who surprised me with a wonderful gift for absolutely no reason at all.

Yeah, I think that's it.

Like I said before, it's ALWAYS a joy to see her and she's ALWAYS welcome here. She's just that great.

And if you happen to see a middle-aged woman carrying a black COACH purse and a HUGE smile, say hi, because it just might be me! Fortunate, indeed!

AND THE ENVELOPE PLEASE

Well, it's been three months since John and I made the new year's resolution to save money by spending only on necessities.

You see, we made the commitment to take out an allotted amount of cash each week to cover necessities like groceries, lunches for John, etc.. At the end of each week, I take whatever money is left unspent and put it into an envelope. I think it's time for an update, wouldn't you say?

Things have gone better than I expected them to go, but not as well as I had hoped (duh!).

The first few weeks of this challenge, we'll call it the novelty period, went quite well. We didn't eat out. We didn't go out. We didn't do much. Not spending money was always foremost in our minds whenever we contemplated doing anything. Sort of fun, actually.

As you might have guessed, the novelty period wore off somewhat. Cooking, eating leftovers, having grabs for dinner and the like became a little boring. And since I am the one who has to plan and prepare all the meals, I started to feel as though it was a little like self-abuse. After all, who doesn't need the social experience of the fast food drive through once in awhile? Or the colon blockage you get from eating institutional food at the local greasy spoon?

So, we decided that eating out about once a week, maybe twice if John takes me out to lunch, was a necessity. Nothing fancy or expensive, mind you. After all, we are still committed to this challenge. It's just, as I said, a (new) necessity.

Sigh!

Then there was the dry cleaning. I don't go to the dry cleaners on a regular basis (maybe 5 or 6 times a year), so I certainly didn't think of it when I thought of necessities. And as long as I'm going to the cleaners, I can always find things that NEED cleaned, so, there's that necessity!

Double Sigh!

Same goes for the water filter I have on my refrigerator water and ice maker. It needs replaced every 6 months, so who thinks of it if it's not time to replace it? And the kicker to this is the special they were offering when I ordered the filter. You see, I could buy one filter for $52 or I could buy 4 filters for $149 total, which works out to be about $37 each. So even though I spent $97 more (actually $149 more since I hadn't planned on buying a filter in the first place), I really saved $60. And found yet another necessity!

Sigh again!

And then I went to the jeweler and had my diamond reset on a new ring. This ultimately proved to be more necessary than I could have ever imagined (I'll tell you the story in a later post).

And then we took a short overnight trip to visit family. Definitely necessary.

And then there was the trip to Sam's Club. EVERYTHING is a necessity when you're at Sam's Club.

And then........(on and on and on..............................)

And despite all of these "new necessities", I still ended up with (drum roll please), $97 in the envelope!

How cool is that? $97!

As I said before, while it hasn't gone as well as I had hoped, it is most certainly better than I had expected.

And we only have 274 more days to go.

PEOPLE REPELLENT - Part II

Okay, it's later this afternoon (not really, but relative to the previous post, it is).

I had to get some cash, so I decided to go to an ATM. The place I went had three machines in a row and since they were all being used, a single, first-come-first-served line formed in front of the row. I was second in that line.

Just as the person in front of me went to the next available ATM, a rather large man stepped in front of me. He actually walked up and STOOD RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!!!!!

Well, you must know me by now, so.................

"Excuse Me", I said. "The line is behind me", and I pointed over my shoulder.

Just then, a machine opened up and he very snottily motioned to it and said "I thought you were going to use that one".

What an ass, I thought to myself as I approached the first machine in the row. He went to the third one, which very quickly became available.

As I was going about my business, I faintly heard someone say, in a rather threatening manner, "Did you say something to me?".

I ignored it and continued on. Then it became louder. "Did you say something to me?". It was him. The guy who cut in line!

I turned to the woman next to me at the second ATM machine and asked her if he was speaking to her or to me. She said she didn't know, and looked a little concerned to be standing next to him. So I looked up at him and there he was - staring at ME. Then he yelled again, "What did you say to me?"

I said "Do I know you?"

"No", he snapped.

"Then why would I be talking to you? Do you know me?"

"No, I don't know you", he snorted.

"Then why are you talking to me?" I asked (or yelled, at this point). I turned to the woman between us and very obviously asked her if she heard me say anything to the man. She just as obviously said she did not, so I was quite comfortable telling the guy to just shut up and leave me alone.

Thankfully, I was done with my banking business and walked away.

Now I ask you, how does this guy cutting in line in front of me make me the bad guy? Really, how stupid is that?

And since he was hearing MY voice in his head, maybe he was just NUTS!

I guess it's a good thing, then, that I decided not to make a snide remark about that bald spot starting to appear on the back of his head.

It seems it was just a "people repellent" kind of day for me.

PEOPLE REPELLENT

Sometimes I feel as though I emit a sort of "people repellent", where despite putting my best foot forward, people just respond to me in a very negative way. Now, I understand that sometimes the things I say don't always come out the way I think they did, or the way I wanted them to, but many, many times (and my husband has witnessed this) people just respond to me negatively - from the get go!

Case in point:

Yesterday morning I had my annual mammogram. I arrived on time, changed into my gown, picked up the clipboard and started filling out the required form when the technician called my name. I asked her if I could finish the form and she told me no, I should sign the bottom because she wanted me to come with her now.

Wow, I thought, this woman means business!

As I entered the procedure room, she identified herself as Regina and told me to remove my glasses (I wear them around my neck). I apologized for having forgotten them and chuckled about how my generic drug store brand glasses weren't nearly as pretty as the glasses she was wearing. Her glasses truly were classy and sort of matched her hospital scrubs. I liked them and told her so. Anyway, after asking me the questions on and filling out my pre-signed form, we began.

OMG!

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is where I have to tell you that if you ever have to have a mammogram by a technician named Regina, RUN!!! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! DON'T LOOK BACK!!! JUST RUN!!! It just might be the same woman.

Okay, so this test is a no brainer for me (or for most of us women, actually). I've had it every year for about 30 years. It's usually chilly, inconvenient, and a little uncomfortable, but we tolerate it in the name of good health. So, imagine my surprise when...

"OWWWWW", I exclaimed as I pulled my arm away from the machine. "You can't do that!"

"What?", she asked.

"You jammed my underarm into the corner of the machine and it really hurts!", I informed her. (it's now bruised and quite tender and shouldn't be).

She very clinically explained how the test can be uncomfortable, to which I responded that I've been familiar with this test for 30 years and have never had that happen. Thinking, at that point, that it probably wasn't a good idea to piss off the person who had my 'tits in a wringer', so to speak, I shook off the experience and we moved on, again, very clinically.

After the test, I fully expected her to advise me to sit in the waiting room while she confirmed the quality of the films, but instead, to my surprise, she started yelling at me. Actually YELLING at me!

She stated, "In my entire career, I have never hurt anyone. ANYONE!".

I told her that she could no longer say that, now could she?

Then she decided she had to qualify her statement by saying ,"In my entire career, I have never INTENTIONALLY hurt anyone" and then went on to say that I accused her of doing just that -intentionally hurting me. I tried a few times to tell her that I never accused her of trying to hurt me, but couldn't get a word in edgewise. She was just so beside herself with emotion. She even went so far as to ask me how I thought it made HER feel to be accused of something I never accused her of!

As I said before, WOW. How could this woman possibly think that any part of this test was about her?

I felt it best to just leave. So I opened the door and walked out on her tirade. In doing so, I saw another employee standing close by (obviously listening to the goings on in the room) and asked her if I could speak with a Charge Nurse.

I was immediately - literally within a few minutes - taken into a private office with the Charge Nurse AND the Department Supervisor. They were sympathetic with my situation, took a very detailed report and assured me that this incident would be dealt with. The Supervisor gave me her card and told me to call her before my next exam to make sure it was performed by someone other than Regina.

I felt better. Not great, but better.

I only felt great after I got home, called John and told him what had happened. You see, he came home from work and had lunch with me. I'm so fortunate to have him.

Yeah, life was great again - until later that afternoon when ..................

HOPE. AND FAITH IN GOD

My daughter's best friend, and her new husband, are in a lot of pain right now.

Through no fault of their own, their lives have been turned upside down, putting into question the dreams they had, the each other they so completely lived for. My heart hurts for them.

And though I don't pretend to know the depth of the burdens they carry, I offer them these words of inspiration to draw on in times of need:

Sometimes when I awaken

in the stillness of the dawn,

I hear Him softly calling.

Urging me. Press on.

When troubles overwhelm my soul and

trials have brought me down,

There comes His sweet insistence.

Arise my child. Press on.

I pray for you and your husband and ask others to do so as well. I have hope. And I have faith that God will touch you with His Grace and restore your hopes and dreams.

You are such a strong and beautiful young woman and I am fortunate to know you.

We'll Call Him MR. ASS

It's around midnight, the house is quiet and I'm feeling quite fortunate. Yes fortunate, despite the fact that I'm totally pissed off by a rather incredible encounter I had this evening with a collector of World War II memorabilia.

Here's what happened:

Do you remember several posts ago, I told you about how sometimes people leave items behind when they sell me their houses and move on? Well, about 15 years ago, we bought a house with A LOT of stuff left in it. we sold most of that stuff in an estate/garage sale but kept some items that we felt might be worthy of further research to determine monetary and/or historical values. Included in that "further research" group were some historic documents, photographs and photographic negatives of specific goings-on in World War II Germany.

Fast forward to about a few weeks ago. I read somewhere that we should check our spare change jars because some old pennies with certain dates could be worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. This prompted me to sort through all my old, circulated wheat pennies to see if I was rich. I would like to be rich.

After sorting and cataloging pennies for about a week, I found that I had a few of those valuable coins! WOW! Now, condition issues mean that I'm not exactly rich, but WOW anyway!

So, I found this guy on Craig's List who asked for pictures and dates of the coins. Then he asked me if I had anything else I might be interested in selling, particularly World War II memorabilia.

Aha! "Why yes I do", I replied.

After explaining to him what I have, he says he knows a guy who happens to be a leading WWII expert and author who is currently writing a book on the very subject my documentation covers. Cool, I think, and tell him to give out my number.

Now, this guy, we'll call him Mr. Ass, calls me and after drilling me about exactly what I have, we make plans to meet at my house. He seems really interested. I'm excited (silly me).

Later this evening, Mr. Ass arrives (about 20 minutes late, no less) with his meek, "no-you-can't-take-my-coat, I'm-not-going-to-tell-you-my-name-unless-you-drag-it-out-of-me, no-I-don't-want-anything-to-drink" wife. She works at the zoo. Animals are her friends.

Anyway, I show him an item that is partially wrapped in very old cloth with very old handwriting on it. Of course this "expert" grabs the item by putting his entire, sweaty hand right around the cloth! OMG! I take a deep breath and, as politely as I can, ask him to move his hand from the cloth. He complies and we move on. WHEW!

Next, he rummages through the photographs and reads what's written on the envelopes holding the photographic negatives. He doesn't seem too interested in the first-hand documentation he originally said he was coming to see. Then Mr. Ass looks through a folder containing miscellaneous ephemera, like discharge documents, letters of commendation, Czech paper money, etc.

This is when everything got ugly. He did the UNTHINKABLE. He put a CREASE in my up-til-now uncreased, fresh from the flat folder Czech money!

While he still had the bill ever-so-slightly rolled between his thumb and first two fingers, I said, (or snapped, perhaps) "A lot of the value of this stuff is in the condition. If you don't mind, we need to handle this ephemera a little more carefully".

Well, you'd have thought I cut off his testicles!

He responded, as he put down the paper money, "Listen lady" (can you believe that?) "I handle thousands of pieces of this stuff everyday. I know what I'm doing". Yeah right, I think. So I show him the crease, for which he promptly denies any responsibility.

Now I ask you, is it too much to expect a person to handle my possessions with respect? Is is too much to ask someone to treat ME with respect? ESPECIALLY when he's sitting in MY house at MY dining room table?

And since I'm not one to let a demeaning comment like "listen lady" go by without notice, (and since I was feeling a tad bitchy right about then), I just had to add, "and my name is Mrs. X, incidentally!".

Things were somewhat awkward after that, but as Mr. Ass was gathering his wife and other belongings to leave (not soon enough, I might add), he gave me his business card (and again a sales pitch for his books) and said he would be glad to post my items for sale on his website. I politely (?) reminded him that, "with all due respect, you don't even know what items I have. There are 15 documents that you didn't even look at".

"They don't have what I'm looking for", he responds, like he's Superman or something and can read what's typed on paper folded up inside envelopes. Jerk.

After they leave, I go back into the dining room to put my things away. I notice a strangeness about the room, like these people left something behind. An odor, maybe? An aura?

No. It's COOTIES.

EEEEEEEWWWW!

So I have to go now and Fabreze the chairs, and Windex the glass tabletop, and vacuum the floor, and Lysol the air and whatever else I need to do to decootify my house.

But before I go, let me explain how, as I said at the beginning of this post, I can feel so fortunate despite being so disrespected in my own home by a total stranger. You see, I don't HAVE to sell any of the stuff this guy came to see. I don't NEED to deal with a sleazebag, an ass, a jerk, or anyone who thinks he's doing me a favor because he shows up at my house.

These historic items have been in my possession for over 15 years. I can keep them for another 15 years if I choose to.

What a fortunate position to be in, wouldn't you agree?

A GOOD DAY, INDEED

Today has been a good day so far. Full of more ups than downs.

It started with my usual household routine - nothing out of the ordinary (UP).

Then I called my friend. I got his answering machine, so I left him a message (UP/DOWN).

So I called another friend, who was in the middle of something and had to call me back (UP/DOWN).

One more call - this time to Macy's.com. - to follow up on a problem. Well, what do you think, UP or DOWN? Here's the story:

A few weeks ago, I heard the rumble of a UPS truck and then the rattle of our mailbox. OOOOH! Someone had sent us something, I thought. I rushed to the door to find a soft package addressed to me from Macy's. I love Macy's, so I opened the package and found a very nice blue bathing suit (UP). It was several sizes larger than I wear (Oh, WAY DOWN). So I investigated further.

The invoice showed that someone with my same name, but a different address (only about 20 miles away) ordered the merchandise and UPS shipped it to me by mistake.

I called Macy's at the number on the invoice. (Sigh).

After meandering my way through their telephone system and explaining my problem to the gentleman, he informed me that I should repackage the merchandise and he would schedule a UPS pickup. They should be here in 7 to 10 business days.

"You mean I have to wait around for 7 to 10 days to make sure this package is available for the UPS guy to pick up?", I asked in disbelief.

He replied, "No. If they come when you're not there, they'll leave you a notice with your options".

Now, many years ago, I remember there was a law or something that said if someone received something they didn't order, they could keep it. I don't know if that's true today, but I thought I'd try it. After all, I see tremendous merit to a law like that considering all the time I've spent (just up to this point) trying to deal with this error. I shouldn't have to do this, I kept thinking to myself.

The customer service guy said he never heard of such a law but would check with his supervisor. OMG! More time spent on hold. More time listening to hold music . I'm tethered. My life is on hold!

He comes back and says, "I spoke with my supervisor. We have to call for a UPS pickup. Whether you decide to have the merchandise available for the pick up is entirely up to you. We have no control over that".

Guilt.

Great.

"Fine", I said and hung up.

It's today, 12 business days later and still no UPS pickup. Since I'm really tired of seeing this package, I call Macy's again. It's quite frustrating trying to get through to a real person at their toll free number. But I finally do.

The young lady I reached in customer service was nice enough but had to put me on hold to figure out what had transpired with this order.

More hold. More hold music (yuck).

More hold. More hold music (yuck).

After 15 minutes, she finally came back and advised me that a shipping label was on its way to me and I would have to TAKE the package to a local UPS place - they would NOT be picking it up at my house.

Now I ask you, as I asked her, "Is that fair? It is right that I have spent over 45 minutes dealing with this when all I did was open my front door and take a package out of my mailbox"?

But alas, I just knew if I kept the swimsuit that instant karma stuff would kick in or something and I would forever regret it. Guilt is pretty powerful.

"Okay", I said, somewhat defeated. "I'll get it there".

Then, this wonderful young lady said something surprising. She said she was going to talk to her supervisor to see if there was something Macy's could do to make up for my inconvenience. AND, instead of putting me on hold again, she asked for my number so she could call me back.

Within 15 minutes - I swear, 15 MINUTES - she called back and offered to send me a gift card for my trouble. I gladly accepted that offer (with no guilt).

Yes, It's been a good day so far. I am fortunate.

IDIOT Part II

Although I'm feeling quite fortunate today, I thought I'd share another IDIOT story with you. I have the time and, well, why not, right?

My daughter creates very beautiful quilts and I wanted to get her something "quilty". This led me to JoAnn Fabric Store, where I was quickly overwhelmed by all of the notions that exist for each of the millions of different projects there are in the world. In other words, OMG!

The best solution for everybody, I determined, would be a gift card. Wonderful things, gift cards. So I approached the cute young lady at the register and asked for a gift card. She took one off of the rack and asked how much I wanted to put on it. After she rang up my sale, she handed me the card and the receipt.

That's it. The card and the receipt.

No envelope.

No decorative cover.

No place to show the value of the card.

No NOTHING. Just the CARD and the receipt.

I kindly asked the young lady if I may have an envelope. She replied that they don't give them out anymore.

In my amazement, I told her that giving someone a gift card, JUST THE CARD, was tacky, to say the least, and this might be something to bring up at the next employee meeting.

She said she had no control over what happens at the corporate level.

Now, since she was young, I thought I'd let her know that by being aware of what the customers want and relaying that to management, she may become noticed and reap the benefits of being a "stand out" in the company. After all, even if this isn't her dream job, she is getting paid to positively represent the company paying her.

She continued to argue that there was nothing she could do.

I was amazed (not in a good way). The people in line behind me agreed. But Cute Young Register Lady took no interest. Maybe she just didn't get it (which is soooooooooooooooo sad).

I think she just DIDN'T CARE, which is even worse.

That just makes her an IDIOT!

FORTUNATE POKER PLAYER

FORTUNATE WOMAN? You be the judge:

My husband informed me this evening that he thinks it would be a good idea if I play poker on the computer all day and get good enough to gain entry into (and ultimately win) the paid tournaments.

PLAY POKER ALL DAY!

Who couldn't get used to that?

Well, what do you think, FORTUNATE or what!?!

IDIOT Part I

It sometimes seems that there are a lot of idiots in the world. You know who I'm talking about. They have poor communications skills or they don't know how to effectively provide service to people or they're undereducated or worse yet, THEY JUST DON'T CARE!

I've run across more than my share of these people in the recent past and they frustrate the hell out of me! So, I thought I'd spend the next several posts telling you about some of the more memorable experiences I've had with idiots. You know, those memories that leave you furling your brow in disbelief and wondering when the "survival of the fittest" is going to come into play.

I start with the most recent encounter:

It's Monday morning.

Two weeks ago, my son had to rent a car for work. This was a fully reimbursed expense, but since he didn't have enough money for a 2 week rental up front, I put it on my credit card.

Just this past Friday (we were supposed to return the car first thing this morning), his schedule was extended by one week and so was the car rental. My son said that his place of employment had already made the arrangements with Enterprise Rental.

Well, since the car is rented in my name and charged against my credit, I thought it would be wise and responsible to call Enterprise myself this morning to make sure everything was in order. I wouldn't want the car reported stolen or anything.

Here's how that conversation went:

Enterprise: "Enterprise Rental, this is Michelle".

Me: "Good morning Michelle, this is Mrs. (X). My son told me that my rental car had been extended a week and I want to make sure that everything is okay with it".

Michelle: "There are 2 Michelle's here, maybe you want to talk to the other one".

Me: "Can't you look it up? It doesn't really matter which Michelle I talk to, does it?".

Michelle: "Well, no, but you sounded like you knew one of us".

Now, how am I supposed to respond to that? I just want to know if there's anything I have to do to extend the car rental. Does it really matter which Michelle I'm talking to? Does it really matter who helps me, as long as someone does?

Apparantly, because I called her by her first name at the beginning of our conversation, she thought I wanted to speak to the other Michelle. (Wow, it hurts my head just trying to understand that logic!).

So with an incredulous tone to my voice, I said "I called you by your first name because you introduced yourself to me as such. If you didn't want me to call you by your first name, then don't tell me your first name!".

With that, she verified that the rental had, in fact, been extended and we ended our conversation.

Sigh! It's 8:10 am. Do I really need this? Idiot!

SAVE MONEY

This just might be our year to save money.

I recently read an article about a couple who, in an attempt to save money, decided to spend money on nothing but necessities for an entire year. They took coffee in a thermos instead of stopping at the local bean shop; they checked out movies from the library instead of going to blockbuster or the theater; they read books; they entertained friends at home with Charades and other interactive games, and so on. As I recall, the results were pretty amazing.

"Hey honey", I said to John on New Year's Eve. "Let's do this save money challenge. For one whole year, we only spend money on the things that we really need - no extras".

He agreed! Just like that!! WOW!!!

Well, yesterday we went out to run some errands. I noticed a Taco Bell and suggested we stop so I could get a taco. John, saint that he is, reminded me of our save money pact.

"This is going to be hard, isn't it?", I said. But we made it through the afternoon and I fixed a delicious, wholesome, home-cooked dinner when we got home. Better than Taco Bell by far.

Then today, John and I were again out and about when he asked (as we were passing a McDonald's) "Would you like to stop and get something to drink?".

He said he wanted a soda.

I think he was just testing me. So I dutifully reminded him of our save money pact and we circled back to the house to get a soda from our refrigerator. I also grabbed some peanuts just in case. We were covered!

Over the past three days since we decided to embark on this lifestyle-changing adventure, we deposited $41 in rolled coins in the bank, returned a few, shall we call them, interesting Christmas gifts for $40+ credit, didn't spend a few bucks at Taco Bell and didn't spend a few bucks at McDonald's. How exciting is that?!?

I wonder what the end result of this challenge will be.

I wonder how long we can keep it up.

We only have 362 days to go. Yep, this just might be our year to save money.

I'll keep you posted.