Recessionista? Or Cheap Cheap Cheap?

When I lived in DC, I was lucky enough to have a contract position at a company that booked all the students at the Redken and Matrix Academies in New York. I searched the database to find a colorist and spent close to 3 years going to a WONDERFUL woman in Elkton. With a huge discount my haircut and dyes cost $100, including tip. When I moved to Greer, I went to a high end salon twice to get my hair cut. I knew I had to cut costs, so I started dying my hair at home. I at least went to Sally Beauty Supply to get salon brands of hair dye, and I went to Hair Cuttery to get my hair cut. That was at least SOMETHING. Almost all stylists at Hair Cuttery go to one Redken event per year, right? And it's not a BAD haircut as long as I can curl it, right? Wal-Mart has cheaper haircuts. John suggested I go there, and my exact words about it were "I have SOME standards." Well, I have in fact gotten my hair cut at WalMart while I was getting my car's oil changed. Klassy with a K, my friends. I need to get my hair cut and I really am pinching pennies now. Cujo has been sick twice this month and his vet bills total over $300. With a new home purchase on the horizon, I can't spare a penny. So today I did something I thought I'd never do. I got a haircut with a coupon. At Great Clips. Because I cannot afford to get my hair cut at Wal-Mart. I paid $5.99 for my hair cut. Is it a bad hair cut? No. It took less than 10 minutes and the stylist didn't ask me what my name was, but that's OK. I don't have dead ends, my hair doesn't look like it's been styled with a hand mixer, and I have some money for things that are important.

re-post, but it counts as something!

I posted this on facebook today, and I'm really dedicated to blogging as much as possible. Here we go!
25 Random things
1) When I was little I used to think Dolly Parton was my Mom.
2) I wish I had a better relationship with my brother.
3) Getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me.
4) Not forwarding your email about Jesus to five people in five minutes does not make me a bad Christian.
5) I've never done my own taxes.
6) My wedding date has moved twice. Both times weren't my decision.
7) Obviously gay celebrities who don't come out of the closet irk me.
8) "Lost" is my obsession. It's one of the few things after college graduation that makes me feel like a smart person.
9) I'm uncomfortable around obese people.
10) I look at wedding pics on facebook and myspace for amusement. Looking at them makes me so happy that John and I are going to the courthouse.
11) I'm afraid that if I get my Master's I will get too late a start on biological motherhood, and that if I don't get my Master's that we won't be able to afford to give our children the lives we want to give them.
12) I can't wait to get rid of my last name.
13) I am afraid of the dark.
14) Michelle Duggar is my ideal wife and mother. When I have a choice to make or I feel myself getting frustrated, I ask myself, "What would Michelle Duggar do?"
15) Moving away from Kent County was a fantastic feeling.
16) I avoid honey at all costs because honey is the vomit of 2 bees and that's disgusting.
17) I have a pink handgun.
18) I think that I'm going to deeply regret not being with my Mom Mom in her last days, even if she is comfortable and happy.
19) People who refer to themselves as their pet's "parent" irritate me. I love my dog. I keep him healthy, exercise him, care for him, clean him, and train him to be a good canine citizen. However, he did not come out of my vagina and if you try to argue that I "adopted" him, I will think you have a very weak grasp of English.
20) I think that women who don't do their hair, wear make up and wear workout clothes/ pajamas out of the gym or house have no self respect or pride.
21) My adult life is so much better because of Al-Anon and Adderall.
22) I miss Mike.
23) I don't think there's any excuse for being an adult, living off of your parents' generosity, and not being honest about it or appreciative for it. This is one of my hugest fears about parenting.
24) I've dyed my hair the same color (basically) for close to 10 years.
25) I like to get up early during the week, but on the weekends I really like to sleep until 10 am or later.

So THAT'S where my stupidity tolerance ends...

I like my job. I've come to realize that I don't LOVE it, but the silver lining is that it has a built-in self destruct, since when the new building is over my job is over, and I don't have to worry about decades of monotony and not being challenged. What I do really, really like is solving problems and just eeking out an answer 10 seconds before a deadline. I hope to use these skills more at my next job, which will hopefully be more than "just" a secretary. What I don't like is doing the same mindless tasks over and over again, especially for other people. I know it's job security, but how come I'm the one who turns off the burner under the empty coffee pot several times a day? And really, the men I support are engineers. I know they are smart. Why do I have to install their printers and enter contacts into their phones? If your initial reaction is that it saves time, you're wrong. Every time except for one that I have been asked to do this, the person asking me has stood over me and watched me do it.
Anyhoo, today really took the cake. We have a BizHub in our office, which can copy, fax, print, and scan. We had a new guy come to site, so I added his email to the contact list on the BizHub so he could scan to himself. His first name is a nickname, and usually when someone goes by a nickname, their full name is in their email address. For example, Joe Smith would have an email address of joseph.smith@ mycompany.com. He entered his email address and couldn't scan to himself. We installed the printer driver again. No email. I hard keyed in his email address with him watching. No luck. Twice I stored the email address in the database for the machine. Still nothing. The problem wasn't with the machine because I could scan to myself A-Ok. I called our wonderful Konica Minolta service rep, who told me that it would be $150 for him to come out and visit, and that since other people were scanning fine, it was probably an internal problem. I start an email to my favorite IT guy at my company, and just for good measure I cc the man with scanning problems on the email. Before I hit send I see it: he has been telling me the wrong email address. He had been entering his email address as nickname . lastname @ mycompany.com. Oh, and his email address is formalname. lastname @ mycompany .com. WOW WOW WOW WOW. I have to admit, I was really on the verge of stabbing someone, but fortunately I could call the other site secretary and have a laugh about it. I'm still in awe. WOW.

Powerful women are HOTTTTT

In my tiny little world, today could have been better. BUT, in the whole big world, today was AWESOME!!! DO IT PRESIDENT OBAMA!!! I'm still on cloud nine and totally missing DC. And I'll get to spend the next 4 years staring at my girl crush. Who is this is sap-faux? (OH MAN I AM SMART). Here's a hint: Given the chance, I would leave John for 2 of the 3 people in this picture:

Oh yeah, H-Clin. She can Secretary my State anytime. What does that mean? I don't know. What I do know is that impoverished women worldwide need a vocal ally and my girlfriend's made it really clear that her foreign policy about human rights, and women's rights are human rights. Being an American rocks!

Blogging, part deux

My blogging has SUCKED, I know, I know! Yeah, 10 months is pretty inexcusable. BUT here I am, blogging away again! The big news for me is that I'm living alone now. That's also the main reason why I'm blogging again: I have time to kill! Mike is hanging out with Santa Claus in North Dakota and John is bringing sexy back to his parents' house. My goal, in addition to blogging, is to take the 3 kitties that were born in the sewer in front of our house with me when I move to Columbia. They have names (Sparkling Wiggles, Captain Johnson P. Bananahammock, and China) and I'm trying to get them to be OK with hanging out with me. I've been feeding them every night and watching them through the glass door so they get used to me. Cujo vibrates like crazy and is really interested in them when they eat. Today Sparkling Wiggles was OK with me opening the door while he was eating...YAY! They usually scram. Here are some pics, thanks to my iphone (and wonderful brother).