Shoes and St. Judes

I mentioned last week that although I might not necessarily need them, I've been searching for a new pair of cute black leather boots to wear with pants and/or skirts. I wore my last pair to death and haven't replaced them for the past two years...but I refused to pay a ridiculous amount for them.

I was on my way to my second job at the beebeedubs the other night when I saw that Nine West Outlet was having a huge boot sale right next door. So I went in and did a lap and immediately realized that the boots on sale for $20 right in the front of the store were the exact same boots I bought two years ago in camel leather (which I still have/wear btw). These boots are comfy, classy enough to wear with pants and cute enough to wear with skirts (although I probably haven't done so yet).

Huzzah!

As I'm trying on the two sizes I usually run in Nine West, I overhear a disturbing exchange going on not five feet from me at the cash register. It goes something like this, the sweet nice girl sales associate is completing the woman customer's transaction and her manager is standing there as well.

Would you like to donate $1 to the St. Jude's Fund?
No! In fact, what I'd like is for St. Jude to give me a dollar! You know?! She turns to the manager.
Right, he laughs it off uncomfortably.

The woman leaves and then the sales associate and the manager discuss.
How do you not know what St. Jude is?
Yeah, I wanted to be like, Actually, St. Jude is a Children's Hospital and they research cancer. So the money you'd be donating will help save children's lives all over the country.

By this point I'm done figuring out which size is right for me and I'm up at the cash wrap.
I can't believe she didn't know what St. Jude was, I can't help but continue the conversation.
Seriously, I mean it's okay if you don't want to make a donation. People say no all the time, but to put down a charity that helps children and say they should be paying you?! That's just wrong.
I agree.
Would you like to donate $1.
Of course I would.
She adds $1 onto my transaction and when she hands me my recipt she scans a coupon and gives it to me. It's for 20% off any purchases I make the entire month of January. Sweet!
Now if she had just shut up and donated a dollar, St. Jude would have given her something in return!
Yes, yes they would have.
I certainly hope that her chidren never need to rely on St. Jude for anything in the future.
We tell each other to have a nice night and a happy holiday and we all go on our merry way.

Seriously?! Seriously?!

Sometimes I honestly can't understand people. Yeah, it can get a little aggrivating when every other vendor/store is asking if you'd like to make a donation to some charity every other time you purchase something...but to say something so horrible? To want to take money away from children's cancer research? That's just wrong.

I don't care if you're ill informed, I don't care if you for some reason hate children, you just don't EVER go that far. But how could you be so ill informed/ignorant? In grammar school we did Math-a-thons to support St. Jude, there are commercials with people like Robin Williams, Jennifer Aniston, and Antonio Benderas sitting with a child who is obviously a cancer patient all over TV!

I agree that sometimes people can be pushy when it comes to donations, but they just don't know any better. Guilting people into a donation is not the way to do it, you should simply ask and then inform if they don't recognize the cause.

I certainly hope you consider donating to a cause you feel is worthy this holiday season. Even if it's donating a coat you no longer use, or mismatched socks to the homeless. Every little bit helps.

Manjoyment Monday: Once More With Feeling

Weird. You know how once in awhile multiple people you know who have no affiliation with each other start talking to you about the same thing and you wonder if the cosmos are trying to send you a message?

Well one of my friends was telling me how she recently started watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series on DVD and how she had never seen it before.

I was aghast.

I literally grew up on that...or rather...I spent my entire high school career watching it. And it was something we watched as a family, believe it or not.

So my sister is studying for finals and while she was compiling her notes and writing her flash cards this past week, she too had been watching the series as background noise.

AND THEN, yesterday I woke up and low and behold, my father is watching Once More With Feeling, the amazingly well done Buffy Musical episode.

What does all this mean to Manjoyment Monday? Simply that James Marsters is pretty damn hot! And obviously the universe wanted me to share that with you...

I have to admit I was a little sad when I found out he's not actually British. That accent was dead sexy. But apparently Anthony Stewart Head taught him everything he knows about it...and probably how to brew the perfect cup of Taster's Choice too.

Grr. Arg.

"Brilliant, beguilling, the smiling brigade..."

"...Princes on Parade!"


Yeah the Swan Princess Soundtrack is still in Lulu's CD player...

...DON'T JUDGE!

Dance Party Friday: 365

I barely made it through this week alive. I mean, I haven't hacked up a lung yet, but I've come pretty close. So it's time for a real celebration.

Dance Party Friday: Stormtrooper Style!


Ashley posted a link to an amazingly wonderfully fantastic Flickr set called Stormtrooper 365.

It.is.incredible.

I'm in awe of people's creativity. Don't you need a little Stormtrooper in your day?

Sometimes I hate NY

The New York Senate voted down more Gay Rights. This makes me angry.

However, this flow chart from ScienceBlogs.com makes me giggle.


Click to enlarge the idiocy of some people.
That is all.

101 and counting

So today actually marks 101 days on my quest to do 101 things in 1001 days. Plus we're closing in on the end of the year and I guess that just makes me think even more of what I've actually accomplished this year....even outside of that list.

Somehow, despite the fact that for three months this summer I was furloughed down to 4 day work-weeks, I managed to double the amount in one of my savings accounts. (We won't dwell on the fact my other savings account isn't as happy.) I've also managed to pay off 1/6 of my car loan, woohoo!

I've been trying desperately this year to curb my spending. There are a lot of big important things I'll have to pay for in the not-so-distant future...weddings...homes...not to mention I still have student loans and the rest of my car loan to pay off. So saving has become almost like a game to me. Every time I look at something I want to buy I really ask myself if I need it, or if I simply want it. In fact I did need a new winter coat so I bought one. I do want new black boots but I'll have to find a really good deal on a pair to feel as though I should actually spend to buy them, even though I've been with out black boots for the past three winters *sadness*.

I've made lemonade when life handed me lemons, and I think I've grown in that department. I can easily step back now and look at a situation with a level head and not get overly angry, upset, or disappointed when it's unnecessary.

Pretty much my greatest accomplishment this year was maintaining. I've struggled for a few years now to get control of my weight. Right now I'm a good 20lbs heavier than I was the summer of my junior/senior year of college. That means the past three years I've gained a whole lot and I'm not happy about that.

Since January I've been attempting to eat healthier and move more but I kept hitting walls. Over the summer I tried the Couch to 5k and wound up hurting my foot and having to do things that were lower impact. For the past five years or so I've had a pain in my back that no MRIs or x-rays could attribute to anything and that hindered my exercising as well.

But now (although my foot is still a bit bothersome) my back finally got the kink worked out of it and I'm feeling leaner and meaner already. I quite literally started last year at the weight I am currently at so at the very least that means I maintained my weight this year. Now to build some more muscle and loose a little jiggle. If I continue on the path I've set myself on (weight training, really watching my caloric intake, tracking weight fluctuations, hydrating correctly, doing low impact cardio) I'm fairly certain I will begin to see the results within the next few months.

The holidays will be tough, but I managed to get through Thanksgiving without any extra fluff and I'm determined to see changes in the scale slowly but surely throughout the month and into the new year.

Basically although I've made a few leaps and a few bounds in certain areas of my life, and maintained in others, I'm ready to make a few more changes and tweak my life in small ways that I think will add up throughout the next year.

Hooray determination! Hooray for an uneventful year!

Humbug

Ugh, I am terribly terribly sick. I came back from my adventures in Troy with a cold and I haven't been able to shake it.

So if anyone knows the cure for a cough and leaking from your nose, eyes and ears, please let me know what it is. I'd like to be rid of this!

I'd also like to be in bed...for the rest of the week...could we do that? Please?