So I am sitting here alternately working on my story for the week and chatting with a friend and suddenly what was just a totally clear laptop screen is a strobe light. I’m looking through a strobe light. Am, in fact, looking through a strobe light right now. So I’ll apologize ahead of time for any spelling or grammatical mistakes because I can’t really, you know, see what I’m typing. I’m going to try to get this typed as quickly as possible so that I get my writing in for the day, although I’m not at all sure I’ll be able to post it today with the whole I can’t really see thing going on.
My husband got his annual bonus today and I’m super excited. Although I can feel old habits tossing their grizzled heads in the background. Suddenly having money again makes me want to go out to dinner! Go see a movie! Go out with girlfriends! Go out on a date with my husband! Book a flight to just about anywhere! But it’s those kind of old habits, spend it if you’ve got it, that got us into this whole financial mess to begin with. So instead, we’re paying off my husband’s car. Thoroughly re-stocking our pantry. Maybe taking the family out to dinner to the kids’ favorite place – Red Robin. And socking the rest away into savings so that we aren’t caught another month having to choose between our bills and groceries. It’s the responsible thing to do. Boring as hell, but responsible. We’re hoping that if we get to keep some of our tax refund that we’ll be able to get out to Georgia to see my husband’s parents this spring or early summer (I will not be caught dead in Georgia in full summer ever again). And I thought I might try to eek out another girl’s weekend on the cheap this year as I could really, really use some good, dedicated girlfriend time. But I do have to admit that it feels pretty good to pay my husband’s car off. So maybe this whole responsibility thing isn’t all boring.
And now, I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow.
1 comment:
SO human to want to go spend and have fun right when we think we have a little extra--I think we can all fall into this trap. Tax return! Bonus! Gift! Even a refund on something we bought and decided to return (though silly & not logical at all)!
And isn't it fascinating how, when we actually put that "special" money into savings or to pay something off, it is a much more deeply satisfying feeling? Not fleeting but concrete, tangible.
I am continuously full of wonder, as well, when I try to recall just when it was that I became an adult who valued simple, even domestic pleasures as so great, e.g. asking for and receiving gifts like a new runner rug for my bathroom, an electric mixer, a coffee maker...and those are all practical gives that keep giving for years to come.
(I am enjoying your writing, so true to most people's lives!)
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