2008, the year without: July!

I would say the month without a credit card was a rousing success. It’s nice to know that I can survive, hell throw a HUGE ASS PARTY, using only cash. It just meant that I usually had large sums of money on my person, which tends to make me nervous. But sometimes I would keep different amounts in different wallets. I think in the future I’d like to use my credit card for large purchases, and maybe gas (which I guess IS a large purpose nowadays), and try to use cash more.

So July is going to be double duty. First off, I’m tackling something that I’ve become rather dependent on in the last few months: caffeine. I could easily blame the late-night boyfriend for this one, but the truth is, I’m a big girl and I can go to bed whenever I want. I just don’t. There’s also the whole enjoyment of coffee in the morning for me: I come to work, I get my coffee, I sit and read my email and news. This morning I tried it with herbal mint tea. This may work. The big test will be about three in the afternoon, when I usually have a soda when times are rough. It’s really too bad that most caffeine free sodas make me gag (except for root beer. Damn, now I want a root beer).

As for the second bit, it’s something I’ve lifted from kfan. I’ve had a long standing rule about televisions, phones and computers in bedrooms, but recently, they’ve snuck in. I think someone might call before I fall asleep, I leave my cell phone on my nightstand. I’ve taken to watching Venture Brothers tucked in, and my laptop is found on the floor next to the bed more nights that I can count. This is NOT helping me sleep. I stay up late, saying “Oh, I’ll just check this one more time” or “I’ll just play one more round of Scramble.*”

So, to sum up, July is the month without caffeine and the laptop in my bedroom.**
* This is nearing a serious addiction. I’m serious.
** There is an exception. I really mean this on school nights. Trevor and I have a long-standing tradition of watching Infomania in bed together on Friday nights. I’m not willing to sacrifice that. But not during weeknights!

2008, the year without. June!

I celebrated my triumphant return to booze with half a bottle of champagne with brunch, and then two glasses of wine when I got home. After a rather sudden nap, I awoke to find myself incredibly nauseated, which was only relieved by vomiting. Yay booze! I’ll have to reintroduce myself to moderation, obviously.

On the whole, though, not drinking is a good thing. It was easier to wake up in the morning (except for that last week, for some reason, but I suspect it was unrelated to this project), and I never had to worry whether or not I could drive. I remembered that dancing sober is just as fun as dancing drunk. I think the hardest part, really, was explaining the whole thing to my friends, who often looked at me like I had grown another head.

It’s been pointed out by several people that all these omissions so far have centered around food. One person even went so far to call it a diet, which was never the goal of this experiment. So it is time for a different kind of crutch. June is the month with no credit card.

I’ve noticed in the last few months that my usage has skyrocketed. I blame this mostly on finally having a card that gives cash back, and because I am terrible about having cash on me. Plus, I’m going out a lot more than I ever have. I’m pretty good about spending only what I have, but I’m curious: will I continue to keep enough money on me to get by?

I’ll still be using my ATM, of course. That’s money I know I have. And there are one or two bills that go directly to my card, and I’m not going to purposely make things difficult just for Netflix and KQED.

What material items can you not live without?

Dress Quest 08: Attempt 2.0

I’ve had a lot of revelatory moments lately (don’t worry, I’ll write about more of them soon). This latest one happened as I merrily skipped around the aisles of a store. Now, those that have known me for years know that I HATE to shop. It’s a combination of a lot of things: my amazing ability to talk myself out of anything, my spendthrift tendencies, the fact that trying on pants has reduced me to tears on more than one occasion. Plus, I get easily overwhelmed by racks and racks of clothing - I avoided Ross for a long time.

So what have I learned? That if I focus, and only allow myself to look at and try on a particular item (in this case, dresses and skirts), I am a lot happier shopping.  I don’t get as frustrated or angry, and I can actually relax a little in a store. But anyways, back to the quest.

On Erica’s recommendation, I headed over to the nearby Old Navy. Evidently they’re not pushing dresses in that store very hard this season, as there weren’t many there, and a good number of them had bizarre necklines. I’m not much for the cut down below the boob kind of dress, you know? Erica specifically pointed to this dress, which was very nice and flattering on the hips, but WAY too big on top. I did find an incredibly cute dress (evidently not available online), but was black and not very summery. They had it in grey polka dots on black, but not in my size. I may follow up on that one.

Leaving the parking lot, I espied a Marshall’s. I looked at my recently acquired iced coffee and thought “I don’t usually have luck in these kinds of places; I’m sure I’ll be back out before this gets warm.” Wrong. I made at least two trips to the fitting room, and liked more than half of what I tried on. There were slight problems with most, though. One was two short, one was strapless and wouldn’t actually stay up, things like that. And then I tried on the most unlikely of dresses for me: almost ankle length, pretty low neckline, in a large floral patter in orange and pink, of all colors.

I LOOKED FANTASTIC.

Success! I have bought a dress. This by no means I am ending the search, but even if the rest of my sojourns end up empty handed, I at least have this wonderful, comfortable, beautiful dress to show for it.

Sorry I don’t have a picture yet. I tried to take one by myself using my camera’s timer, but I couldn’t get the angle right and kept chopping off my head, giving the pictures a weird snuff-film feel. No.

Dress Quest 08: Attempt 0.5, 1.0

With the hot weather approaching (wait, here), I’ve been thinking a lot about dresses. I’m finally starting to get the swing of my style, but I only own two dresses, one of which is pretty formal, and the other is definitely winter wear. So I’m mostly at a loss when it comes to dresses.

I’ve noticed lately that some lovely ladies have found some cute things at Target, and since I do love the Target, I headed on over. Monday I went to the Foster City store, which is extremely lacking in the clothing department. There were maybe 10 dresses in the whole store, and they were ugly and not my size.

Today I headed over to the the Daly City store (of Twin Targets fame), which has a much larger selection. Sadly, though, it was not meant to be. I tried on a bunch of skirts that made me look house-like.
I tried on a dress that made me look like both an angry lesbian AND a bored housewife. And a lot of dresses that would be excellent if I were just a smidge smaller on the bottom or a smidge bigger on the top. This is reminding me why I don’t own any dresses.

The second time I walked into the dressing room, there was an odd smell that took me a while to place. I think it was some cheap weed! Plus, there were two women in the area who kept getting more giggly and loud. Nestled between them and a girl on the phone, arguing with her boyfriend about where to meet up in an hour, I was trying on dresses and laughing at both how ridiculous I looked, and how ridiculous the situation was.

So what is my style? Simple, nerdy, clean. I don’t wear a lot of patterns, I don’t wear a lot of clingy stuff. I’m hoping to spend less than $50. HELP!

Special hello to kfan! I’m amazed I’m an inspiration. Oddly enough, I am planning on making June lacking a material good instead of a food as well.

2008, the year without. May!

I suppose it was some sort of retribution. Or punishment. I fell off the wagon and ate three crispy chicken nuggets at a fundraising party yesterday, and I am suffering. My stomach is not happy, and the intestines are following suit. Or course, it’s a toss up: was it the forbidden fried food, or the three industrial-sized glasses of sangria*?

Either way, it helped point me in the right direction for the year without. May is the month with no alcoholic beverages. (I say beverages specifically, so that if I feel the need to make poached pears again, I’m scott free.)

I tried this last year, and found that I slept better, felt better, and could still have fun and drive home at the same time. I’m not a binge drinker, nor do I drink every night. I drink pretty regularly, but almost exclusively socially. I’m not worried about a potential problem. This just another thing I enjoy that I’m going to do without for awhile.

You’ll find me on June 1st with a big drink in the sun somewhere, to be sure.

*Sangria made with Gewürztraminer, strawberries and raspberries. Which was ridiculously good.

2008, the year without. April!

I cheated.

Bad, bad Mace. I had exactly TWO french fries during the month of March. I still consider that better than scarfing down an entire plate, like I can (and have) done. I could come up with some interesting excuse, like I was the acting food taster of some celebrity/royalty/clown, but really it was just that someone ordered some at a new place, and I wanted to try them. Feh.

I hadn’t started out on this project to keep building things off each other. The original plan was to give something up for a month, and then go back to my evil ways. But now, on month 3/4 (depending on how you look at it), I’m still not eating fast food, and I’ve barely touched the fries.  And now I’m going to build on this again.

April is the month without ANY fried foods.

This distressed my boyfriend, for some reason. “No fries?” No. “No chips?” No. “No fried eggs?” No. There will always be things that toe the line. Is French Toast technically fried? What about stir fry? I’ll address these concerns as they come up, I suppose.

Again, I’ve lost no weight and feel no healthier. It may actually be time to get off my chunky butt and do something.

Help me! (closet edition)

My closet is horrible right now. It’s a complete mess, and I hate looking in there right now. I need help!

My first plan of attack is to find some new storage containers. I currently have all my Flamenco costumes and rarely used accesories in bankers boxes, and they are UGLY. Does anyone out there in the interwebs know of a good storage solution? My closet shelf is 57 inches long and 11 inches deep. I’d prefer opaque boxes, as I don’t want to stare at the contents all the time - I know what’s in there.

HELP!

Operation Beside Lamp: Complete

I love lamp!, originally uploaded by maceelaine.

After months of searching and fretting over surprisingly high prices, I have finally found a bedside lamp. I found it on craigslist, as a rather cute man was moving out of the city and looking to lighten his load. It’s a very nice lamp, from a reputable maker, and about half of what he could have charged due to some scratches on the base when he removed the sticker (which you may notice are completely impossible to see unless you’re about 6 inches from it) (at which point I really have to ask why you’re in my bed).

I cannot express enough how happy I am to be able to stay in my warm nesty spot and simply reach up to turn off the bedroom light. I go to bed with a smile on my face.

Next bedroom project: a small table to go in the corner for pajama and plant purposes.

On Spring Goals

1. Better Oral Hygiene. Now that my life is pretty awesome (seriously, I say this to at least one person a day), I have no excuse to not take good care of myself. Teeth are important, and it’s not really that hard to keep them up. I usually change my electric toothbrush head at the start of each season, so it’s been on my mind. I am going to try and floss, damnit. Now I’m very bad at these kinds of things, so I think I might actually post a small calendar in my medicine cabinet and give myself a gold star every time I brush and floss. I know, it sounds like I’m in 3rd grade, but there’s definitely something to be said for visual confirmation of a job well done.
2. Use the phone for its intended purpose. Last week, I was standing, waiting for Bart, and texting someone. My dance teacher asked me how that was easier than just calling someone. I replied that the person then has time to reply at their convenience, to which she pointed out the purpose of answering machines. I have a limited amount of texts, and a gazillion phone hours (thanks, rollover!), so there’s no real reason NOT to call people. If they don’t want to talk to me, they don’t have to pick up. It’s also just a better way to communicate, since I have a tendency towards the sarcastic, and that doesn’t always work in text.
3. Check out the gym. Evidently there’s a gym here at work. They even have classes at said gym. I am, however, too shy to ask anyone which building the gym is in, and our company intranet is not helpful AT ALL w/r/t this. So, sometime this quarter, I will get my butt over to the gym and check it out. Possibly even take a class (they have yoga!).

So, gentle readers, I need your help. I have several ideas for what I’m going to give up next month, but I thought I’d open it to a poll, since I’m having a hard time deciding. Leave me a comment with your choice! The options:

• chocolate
• caffeine
• fried foods
• alcohol (I’ve done this one before, though)

2008, the year without. March!

Truffle Oil and Herbed Fries, originally uploaded by maceelaine.

February was quite a tumultuous month. Interviews, quitting, starting a new job. I managed to do it all with panache, and without the crutch I like to call Taco Bell. On the flip side, though, I felt so busy that I barely even noticed the lack of fast food, though I admit there were a lot of sandwiches in February. I just don’t feel very different. I don’t feel lighter, I don’t feel healthier, and I certainly don’t feel richer. So how do I stop this up?

I’m going to keep the ban on fast food. And March is the month without French Fries. It’s only a small step, but there are plenty of normal, nice restaurants that serve those perfect little morsels of comfort. And I really do turn to them for comfort. I’m a stress eater, and in times of great duress, sometimes fries are all I want for days on end. I have been fortunate that so far, with the new job, the craving hasn’t been so dire. I can actually stave it off to a certain extent with almonds. We’ll see if it lasts.