Post-Party Halloween Update

So the office Halloween party was fun. I don't think I got more than 30 minutes worth of work done the entire day. But then again, I don't really think we were expected to. So, are you ready for it?



I got lots of great comments on my costume, but the cleavage had me self-conscious all day long. As you can see, I kept holding up the book I was supposed to be dressed as in front of the deepest portion of the plunge. There are probably better photos of it (the costume, not the cleavage) out there, but this was the best one on my camera at the end of the day.

I knew when I was making it that I wouldn't be able to sit at my desk with the tail feathers on. What I didn't anticipate was not being able to walk through doorways, or hallways, or in large rooms crowded with Halloween revelers. So this peacock was strutting sideways most of the day.
Oh, and don't even ask about the logistics involved with using the restroom stalls. As one person commented when I took off the tail feathers for a bathroom break, "You've been plucked!"

Secondhand Drama

So I got just about everything done today except the haircut. Well, and the laundry, but I can do that while I make dinner. We had a little thrift store drama this afternoon that I'm still more than a little peeved about.

So we get to the thrift store and we start looking around. Found this gorgeous shimmery peacock-teal floor length formal dress with a matching shawl. I'm thinking, "Bingo! Perfect." because the whole department costume is supposed to be staged like a pageant. (We'll be working on making sashes at our staff meeting Wednesday. And I think someone is even trying to source tiaras. Like I said, we're really getting into this.)

So Anyhow, I'm thinking I've found the perfect dress, but it's about 3 sizes too small. Well, drats. And we keep looking. Eventually I find this royal blue floor length sheath dress in my size for $7.98. So I try it on to be sure and oh yeah, we're set. When I take off the dress the price tag got stuck in my hair and came off. No biggie, right? So I pack around the detached price tag while we keep browsing. I love thrift store browsing. You never know what you'll find.

I ended up picking up a blouse and we're standing in line to check out. As we're waiting, I over hear a conversation between two women. One is pregnant and has two young girls with her, the other has two slightly older girls and is making a donation of outgrown girls' clothes to the thrift store. So the woman making the donation walks up to the other and asks if she would like to go through the clothes to see if she wants anything for her girls before the clothes are donated. I'm thinking, "that was really nice and thoughtful."

So I've got this warm fuzzy feeling for all humanity when I get to the cashier. And this is where I discover that they refuse to sell an item if the price tag is not attached to it. Well, I had accidentally dropped the price tag, but Sweetie roved the store until he found it. But no deal. I tried to explain that it was for a Halloween costume, and that I wasn't trying to cheat them. In fact, I'd pay double. Still nothing. So we left. Pissed. I actually think Sweetie was as pissed as me and it's not like he was going to be wearing the dress. (Unless he has Halloween plans I don't know about.)

Anyhow, the rest of our errands took us near a Marshall's and behold, they had a royal blue jersey knit dress for $20. In my size no less. And who knows, if an appropriate opportunity presents itself, I might even wear this one again. (Unless I lose a whole bunch of weight first. Hey, it could happen.)

It's a little low cut for my tastes, but I guess that fits the whole pageant thing.

A Rant, of the Economic Variety

Dudes, so that whole costume building thing didn't take nearly as long as I anticipated. I think I did it in about 3 hours. I'll post a picture once I get it all together, or from the office hoopla on Friday.

On the agenda today: swing by the craft store and pick up a couple more clumps of that grassy stuff, hit the thrift store for something blue to wear, get my hairs cut (way overdue), then hit Target and Trader Joe's. Oh, and laundry. Sunday is typically laundry day at the Wayward house.

So, like most Americans, I've been more than a bit preoccupied by this whole economic situation we have going on and I've been collecting links to share with you, dear reader, for a week or so.

So let's start with the bailout. While I hated the idea of throwing $700 billion at the banking industry, I also understood why something needed to be done. But I can't even articulate the revulsion I felt when I read that financial workers are continuing to receive $70 billion in pay deals. Keep in mind that most of this will be given out as bonuses.

Bonuses? Bonuses for what? For completely undermining the American economy to the point of collapse? Oh wait. No. You're getting the bonus for undermining the world economy. Please, allow me to wipe your a$$ with my paycheck.

Oh, and now the clamoring is beginning for a second bailout as a second round of stimulus checks. Read here, here, here, and here. I'm sorry, but I didn't want the first one, and do we even have any evidence that the first stimulus check helped bolster the economy? Mine went toward items I would have purchased with or without the extra money, so I guess you could say my first stimulus check is still sitting in the bank.

And dudes, it's not as if it's free money. We've paid this money in taxes, and if it's being given back to us instead of being used to shore up our infrastructure that money still has to come from somewhere. Issuing more checks just adds to the national debt, and that'll all need to be paid back, plus interest, at some point.

Add to this all the talk of the government buying up bad mortgages and I get even more steamed. So what, the government is going to help out those people who took on mortgages for more house than they could afford? Should the government be responsible for this? Hell no. Look, if you're in this boat, then I'm sorry. But it is simply not my responsibility to get you out of the mess you created.

You didn't crunch the numbers for yourself. You didn't read the fine print. You didn't do your due diligence. And yeah, I get it that there were predatory lenders out there, but no one put a gun to your head and made you sign on the dotted line. You did that all on your own. Oh, I'll feel the consequences of your poor decisions when my property value drops, but I do not want to finance your ability to live beyond your means while we've been making responsible decisions to live within ours.

Now I'll grant you that there are a small handful of homeowners caught up in this mess that justly deserve to get the help, but here's what's happening; a good friend of ours is trying to refinance so she can stay in he home she purchased a few years ago. At the time, she could afford the loans. Now, as property values plummet, she's upside down on her mortgage and being laid off. Her bank says, get this, her bank tells her they can't help her refinance until she misses at least two payments on her mortgage. And they counsel her to stop paying her mortgage! WTF?

I've seen the same sentiment expressed by Paul Michael here at Wise Bread, and I have to admit, the thought has crossed my mind. And like Paul, I just can't bring myself to do it. (Thanks mom, and mom, and dad, you did good.) But it pisses me off that the people who tried to do the right thing all along are the people most being left out of any recovery or let's-fix-it plan.

All this led to a rant in the car the other day about how our society rewards mediocrity and coddles under-achievers. I've got too much to do today to work up another head of steam for that rant here. So I'll stick to the one I'm currently on.

The other day I learned about another bill making its way through Congress here. It's a Credit Card Holder Bill of Rights, or House Resolution 5244. The only piece of this legislation I think I don't like is that part that requires statements be sent out 25 days before they're due. That probably means my last payment will not be posted on the statement, which I fear will allow the credit card companies wiggle room to add financing fees. We don't carry balances on our credit cards at the Wayward house, so this really won't mean much to us. But I'm betting that a lot of other people will benefit from it and that's a good thing.

I vaguely recall taking economics courses in college, and I remember being very frustrated with the whole macro and micro thing. While it was relatively easy for me to grasp the various theories, it's much easier to apply them at the micro level. I was always challenged at the macro level by the whole what should be ideal versus the reality of what is.

So back to focusing on the micro, because that's all I really have any control over, this post over at Get Rich Slowly about what it means to be rich made me feel better and I'm thankful for all that we do have.

So I'll wrap this up with a couple not-so-funny funnies. The modern bedtime story, and the Grapes of Wrath, 2008.

Halloween Preparations

As you've probably figured out, I'm still not getting up any earlier on weekdays because I'm still not posting in the mornings. Now that I've finished the book that was keeping me up at night, I'm hoping to change that.

We're wrapping up the bathroom painting project today. The actual painting was done by Tuesday and Sweetie recaulked the shower/tub on Wednesday. Today has been more about cleaning up the detritus left behind. So far today I've scrubbed the shower, scraped paint off the laminate flooring, Sweetie replaced the light fixture, I've cleared off the bathroom countertop, and we've hung a new shower curtain and liner and replaced the shower rod. I may actually get to shower in my bathroom again tonight. Woot!

I didn't think it would be as much of an inconvenience as it was to bathe in the second bathroom, but it has only a small shower stall as opposed to the shower/tub, and all of Sweetie's things are already in there so there was really no room for mine. At any rate, I'm looking forward to having my space back.

The rest of today, probably the rest of the weekend to be truthful (at least when I'm not blogging), will be dedicated to making my Halloween costume. Oh yeah. Dudes, we've got some crazy pro-Halloween get-your-scare-on folks in our office. Last December we moved into a new office space, which we share with a sister company (we're both owned by the same parent company). So anyhow, this is the first Halloween we've had together in the same office.

They started decorating last weekend, and I gotta say, the bloody hand prints on the glass front door gave me a start on Monday morning. Simulated gore before coffee was a little disorienting. So yeah, there are spiderwebs and spiders, pumpkins and dismembered body parts all around the office. There's a competition for the best decorated department and best costume. And let me tell you, the competition and trash-talking is getting fierce.

So the memo about the competitions wasn't edited, and being part of the editing department, we took the memo literally and hence created confusion. We thought that there was a competition for the best costume as a department. So the whole department is dressing to a theme. The idea is that we will each choose one of our books and dress as the cover image. We publish travel guides and I ended up choosing our San Diego book.

I am to be a peacock. It seemed like a brainstorm when I chose it and I started looking for feathers online. Yeah I can get 100 peacock tail feathers at a reasonable cost, but then it hit me. I only have one week to get the feathers and build this dang thing.

So what started as a spectacular, spectacular Broadway-type costume in my mind's eye has become increasingly scraggly each time I think of it. I'm now aiming for a childish imitation of a Brazilian carnival bustle.

I stopped at the craft store on my way home last night and completely bought out their supply of peacock feathers. I also bought a plastic mask and a cheap-o bag of blue-dyed feathers which I plan to glue to the mask, some fake grassy plant stuff to help fill in some of the gaps between feathers, and several sheets of colored felt. I have a loose plan. Executing it will be the problem.

Oh, and it's also occurred to me that I have nothing royal or bright blue in my closet. I used to have a gorgeous silk teal shirt that would have been perfect, but that's long gone now. So, I may need to squeeze in a shopping trip.

I'm actually getting into the Halloween spirit now. It's contagious. Let's just say I'm wishing I'd spoken up faster and taken dibs on the book cover with the leopard.

One Ringy Dingy

We're headed out to go pick up my engagement ring from the jeweler. The center stone had come loose last week and we took it in for repairs before it could fall out. (It's fallen out once before.)

Going to the jeweler isn't terribly convenient; it's about 30 miles out of our way every time we need to take it in or pick it up. This is the third repair in 5 months. So we've talked about getting a different ring.

It rained here this morning, so the world seems bright and fresh.Hopefully we'll find something fun to do while we're out. I'm angling for a trip to the library... oh, what an exciting life we lead.

So I've been receiving an unusual number of calls the last few days (like 3 times a day) from American General. They don't leave a message and they don't leave a number. I have no idea what my connection to them is or why they're calling. A Google search turns up several American General companies connected to loans, financial products, insurance and whatnot. I think I'll be reviewing my credit report this weekend. I'll need coffee for that task.

I love the smell of coffee, especially in the morning. Here's an article on how to roast your own coffee on the cheap at home. I'm fortunate that my commute takes me past two coffee roasters on the way to work each morning, Peet's and somebody else. I always breathe deeply when I pass through the cloud of coffee roasting goodness on the freeway. Of course, I then cough up a lung because I'm also sucking on the tailpipe in front of me. At any rate, I don't think I'll be trying this coffee roasting trick at home--my kitchen is just too small and, quite frankly, it seems like way too much bother. I'm happy to stick my face in a container of Folgers and call it good.

In other news, I caught up on the VP debate here. (Links to the video are embedded in the article about halfway down.)Gotta say, I'm pleased. Biden didn't run at the mouth and Palin held her own. I don't think the debate will really change anything, but all those Republicans calling for Palin to step aside may give her a little more breathing room after this performance. Granted, they both got some facts wrong, they both did their fair share of misrepresentation, and they both side-stepped some questions, but overall I think Biden seemed to answer a larger number of questions more directly. Thankfully the fact checkers have been hard at work.

When I think of politicians, I think of talking heads. And with Halloween approaching I think of pumpkins. And pumpkins as heads makes me think of the legend of Sleepy Hollow. Crikies! Can you imagine the headless horseman riding around with this monster?

On the subject of Halloween, I think I've found my costume for this year.