Friday, February 27, 2009

Hey! Blogs are awesome!

Also, I am awesome. That is why I now have 3 columns on my blog. It made me want to learn Html. To me, Html is a mystery.

Also, I started a big, group blog for my Relief Society so we can all save so much sweet money. Nobody's going to start contributing until after this Sunday, so all the posts are mine but I have high hopes of it being really cool. Also, I feel like a pioneer bringing Enrichment onto the internet.
Here is the link so you can all see it and be so impressed. Uh, you might notice the layout for that blog is very similar to the layout of this one.That is just a coincidence.

Also, better than my blog is the blog it is copied from which is Frugal Chic Living.

Also, if you notice on the right of my blog there is a link to free samples from Walmart. I am signed up to get all the free samples and I am so excited. Okay, so actually not all of them, (Nicoderm? Really?) but a lot of them. I am so excited for all my free stuff!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Lonely Old Ladies

Now that's a catchy title.

I get a long well with old people. Especially old women. It started when I was 19 with Wilma the ninety-something Quaker turned Mormon. We watched the fourth of July fireworks together on her TV and she died about three months later.

The next year I worked at a nursing home and senior center. I met a Polish woman named Doris who moved like an arthritic bird and was the best trash talker I ever met. We would play Rummikub and she would compliment my moves, saying I played almost as well as her grandson...who was five.

In Provo, I met this lady who had written a book of poetry but couldn't see well enough to type it all up and compile it into a book. I said I'd help her out. I started typing and soon realized the verses sounded very familiar. I brought her poems back to her and asked her if she'd given me the right poems because all of these appeared to be from the same library that Thomas Monson got his poetry from. She told me that it didn't matter who wrote it. Poetry all says the same thing anyway. I was just to put her name on it. (She also told me she was sure that, "Tommy Monson will never be the prophet. He's just not the type." ha.)

My newest friend (we'll call her Louise) lives in the next apartment over from me. She collects alarmingly life-like stuffed Siamese cats (Ever since seeing Lady and the Tramp Siamese cats freak me out). Louise loves loves loves Soapy. She calls herself Sophie's extra grandmother and loves to give her kisses on the shoulder. She actually is trying to kiss Sophie's cheek, but she was recently diagnosed as legally blind. A shoulder is actually a pretty good shot.

I like Louise. We talk about her meetings with her vision impairment specialist who puts stickers on her microwave buttons so she knows what they are. We talk about her children who may or may not love her, depending on how often they call. She explains what it feels like to get divorced, have a stroke, give up smoking, and have a meaningless feud with your next door neighbor. I cut our phone number out of sand paper and pasted it to a card so she will be able to feel it and call us.

I like old ladies partly because they are interesting, partly because they have given up on small talk, and mostly because they are lonely. It makes me feel good to visit people who are lonely. I know that I am giving service, brightening someone's day--and that feels good.

Here's the problem though, it's hard to be friends with lonely old ladies. Because the truth is that you can't make them un-lonely. It's impossible. You come to visit: they are happy. You leave: they are sad. It's almost like giving

Every time I move away from my old lady friends (or they die, which happens just as often) I am a little relieved. Loneliness is a pretty terrible thing. And it is pretty mysterious. How many times a week would I have to visit someone to make them un-lonely? Or is it a question of the amount of people who would have to visit?

I am actually pretty sure, if I dedicated 80% of my time to it, that I could make Louise not lonely. But that's not my job, is it? I mean, I am responsible for my neighbor, but can anyone really be responsible for loneliness?

Anyway, we didn't visit Louise today, and I'm sure she's wishing we had.

Friday, February 6, 2009

New Hobby


Here's my new hobby: Saving money. I have always liked saving money, but I decided to bump it up from a good thing to do to an official hobby. I am bumping it up because I don't really have any other hobbies. I always say "reading" when someone asks me, but I think that is boring to say as a hobby. It seems like such a cop out.

So anyway. I am doing awesome at my hobby. Here is my triumph of the day: Chris needed a snack for poker night (I know, it's a whole blog post ago and I still can't get over it either---poker! What, is he wearing a wifebea---I mean tank top too?) so I busted out a coupon and bought a brownie mix (wait for it) for fifteen cents. FIFTEEN! WHOOP WHOOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, that is not a lot of savings BUT I have done some more longterm things to hopefully bring in the big savings. I will now list them until Chris comes home (also, I could be doing my online teaching training right now, but who wants to do that?).

1. Coated my windows with plastic to insulate them. This is really fun because you melt the plastic with a hairdryer to get it tight.

2. Changed all my regular light bulbs to energy efficient 60 watt bulbs.



3. Covered my water heater with a fiberglass insulation. (Actually, that's a lie. I haven't done that yet because I am a little afraid of fiberglass. However I did purchase the insulation and it is leaning against my wall.


4. Turned down the temperature on our water heater.

5. Shopping for groceries HARDCORE


Shopping for groceries HARDCORE is my favorite. It gives so much satisfaction. The trickiest part is not saving money though, the trickiest part is saving money and still buying healthy and varying foods. As I have been researching prices and comparing ads I have realized I have some food buying rules and price limits. I have been adding to them. I was talking to my mom last weekend and she told me some of her own. I would love to hear any of yours. Here are the ones I have:

FOOD BUYING PRICE LIMITS
I will not buy:

cake mix over a $1
milk over $3.00
yogurt over $0.33 a cup (actually, I broke down and bought some for $0.44 a cup last week)
boneless, skinless, chicken breasts EVER. (this is a new one. Here's why I decided to never buy them--an ok price for chicken breasts is 1.99 a pound but I just bought 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters for 49 cents a pound. It's not so hard eat around or take out the bones. A little annoying, but not hard.)

Hey Chris is back! See ya lollipops! Let me know if you have buying rules. Also, let me know if you have other ideas for for me to save money. Also keep reading because I wrote 2 posts tonight.

I like socks!

I really do. And not just because they keep my feet warm. I like how they look. I like that not many people see them so mostly I get to enjoy their awesomeness all myself. My own little foot secret. I especially like pretty socks*.

I have a lot of old, ugly socks, but this Christmas I got some pretty ones and I have been enjoying them quite a bit. When I wear them I think about them throughout the day. I would say at least five times a day. I think Soapy likes them too but she doesn't say.

Also, I like shoes. All my shoes are trashed or were trash to begin with EXCEPT the pair Becky just sent me that are pretty sweet. I have been walking around the apartment in them for the past ten minutes (Soapy is asleep and Chris is out playing poker {side note: When did Chris start playing poker? Also, when did Chris get guy friends? Who is this kid?} so I am pretty bored).

I will now submit some pictures to you so you can appreciate the awesomeness of my footwear. I feel we are good enough friends that you will appreciate them.

This is a pretty good pose for a shoe shot. I just did that instinctively. Natural talent, that's what I've got.


And now my post looks like a craigslist ad. Whatever.

My favorite socks are the two in the middle. The blue one with the black toe is probably my most favorite. It may not look so great on our carpet there,but trust me, it looks awesome on my foot.

Ummm. Chris isn't back yet so maybe I'll write another post.

* I think my love of socks is a delayed result of being roommates with Sarah. She had some great socks.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Snow globes

So I mentioned snow globes in an earlier post as an example of a bad gift. I take it back. Sometimes snow globes can be awesome. Like these for example.